Here’s a pic taken a few years back at a motorcycle race in Houston at the Astrodome. Pictured are Eric Wilder, friend John Callaway, and a gorgeous model (I believe she is a Denver Bronchos cheerleader).

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Other Inhabitants

My new pup Princess sees ghosts. I have no doubt that there are ghosts in the house. Marilyn and I have both seen the evidence. A few nights ago, Marilyn heard a loud crash. When she investigated she found nothing.

Neither Marilyn nor I are afraid. Ghosts are rarely, if ever, harmful beings. I think they just subsist, alongside of the people that are presently alive.

The house that we live in was built in 1975 and I am aware of only three spirits that might inhabit it – Anne, my wife that died of lung cancer; my mother that died of lymphoma, and Randy, the man that Anne and I bought the house from that killed himself three days later. There could be easily be others.

I admit that I don’t understand the afterlife. I barely understand the present life! Still, my pup sees spirits. When she does, she barks and carries on. She’s just a baby but even she isn’t really afraid of the other inhabitants of our house.

http://www.ericwilder.com

Heroes

I'm watching the LSU - Ohio State championship football game. As I watch, I think of two things: the game is in the Superdome of New Orleans. My thoughts return to 2005, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Geraldo Rivera is reporting from outside the Superdome. The building resembles a giant sarcophagus, the gray people in the background little more than eerie wraiths all but devoid of life.

My second thought goes further back, to the fifties. When I was a boy, my family and I would listen to the LSU games on the radio, enraptured by the running of Billy Cannon. He always somehow found a way to pull victory from the jaws of defeat. Listenting to our scratchy old radio, I always felt that Billy would break a tackle, put his shoulder down and run for a touchdown. I was never disappointed.

Seeing the two grand teams playing tonight in the Superdome, I get the same feeling about the people of New Orleans.

Go Louisiana!!
http://www.ericwilder.com

Shops on Chartre Street, New Orleans

Marilyn and I visited New Orleans six months after Hurricane Katrina and parts of the visit are chronicled in my book Murder Etouffee. I came across this picture today while looking at some of the photo files on my computer. It was taken on a street in the French Quarter, Chartre Street I believe, although I’m not sure.

http://www.ericwilder.com

Mint Julep

2 cups sugar
1 cup water
16 sprigs mint
4 pounds finely crushed ice
8 1 1/2 jiggers bourbon

Confectioners's sugar and mint for garnish

Mix sugar and water; bring to a boil, stirring. Cool. Place 2 sprigs of mint in each glass; crush to release mint flavor. Add 2 ounces of the sugar syrup, stirring gently. Fill glass with ice. Add 1 jigger of whiskey. Stir until glass frosts. Top with sprig of mint and sprinkling of powdered sugar. Recipe courtesy of Wilbert Martin in Louisiana Entertains - a complete menu cookbook

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Stratford Creek (Texas) Cypress Knees

Stratford Creek (Texas) Cypress Knees

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Judge's Comment Sheet for Big Easy

Writer~ Digest
15th Annual International Self-Published Book Awards

Commentary Sheet

Author: Eric Wilder
Title: Big Easy
Category: Genre Fiction
Judge: 98

On a scale of I to 5, with 1 meaning “poor” and 5 meaning “excellent,” please evaluate the following:

Plot: 5

Grammar: 5

Character development: 4

Cover design: 4



Judges commentary:

What did you like best about this book?

A noir thriller/honor/Southern Gothic. Quite enough to please anyone who likes crime stories with a bit of the supernatural thrown into the gumbo, and the New Orleans setting is enough to entertain in and of itself. The Louisiana cuisine descriptions are a delight in themselves. Hunger gnawed as I read.

This could be desribed as a “Vodounit. New Orleans voodoo and other devilment keeps us interested until the exciting end. Lots of action, fisticuffs, bar fights, and dust-ups. Lots of local color. This is a swell novel, and I wonder why it was not published by a mystery imprint.

How can the author improve this book? Nope, too good to pick nits. Sorry. Aside from cavils here and there, not a thing should be done.