Jody Ewing

Iowa Author

Jody Ewing

Nothing good about this “Good Old Country Boy”

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Though one church member referred to him as a “wonderful, good old country boy,” I see nothing good about a church pastor who ousts his own congregational members for their democratic political beliefs. (CNN.com – Pastor tries to calm waters over political oustings – May 8, 2005)

The Rev. Chan Chandler from the East Waynesville (N.C.) Baptist Church may have issued a statement (through his attorney, no less) saying the “church” doesn’t care about its members’ political affiliations, but that doesn’t say much for this reverand’s “personal” beliefs.

One has to wonder what kinds of “sermons” this man has been preaching over the course of the years. He says he’s invited all church members to attend a “business” meeting on Tuesday, and expects it all to be “cleared up” by the end of the week. Is he kidding? And does that mean that only church members will be allowed to attend? I have a feeling this is one meeting that certainly won’t be business as usual.

Another First for Iowa Writer’s Workshop

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Frank Conroy would have been pleased. The former University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop director taught Lan Samantha Chang to take the teaching of writing very seriously, and she has. Chang now succeeds Conroy — who died earlier this month from cancer at age 69 — as director of the famed workshop.

Chang, a Harvard University professor and award-winning fiction author, is the first female and the first Asian-American to head up the program, whose alumni include Flannery O’Connor and John Irving and whose current instructors include Pulitzer prize-winners Marilynne Robinson and James Alan McPherson.

Congratulations to Ms. Chang!

McMurtry’s ‘Booked Up’ Comes to Close

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Though I try to stay on top all things McMurtry, I discovered just today that my all-time favorite novelist – Larry McMurtry – will close his last Booked Up bookstore (in Archer City, Texas) at this year’s end. According to a March 8 article in the Albuquerque Journal, McMurtry first announced the closing Feb. 1 by posting a letter on his store windows. He says he wants to travel and work on other books, and, of course, there’s nothing I’d love more than to have him write more books.

Still, in all honesty, I am devastated. You know how we all have our list of “things to do” — eventually? Visiting Booked Up in Archer City has been on my list for quite some time, and I’ve suddenly realized I’ve got to move it up — and fast. No more putting off getting new tires for the Durango. You see, like McMurtry, I like to drive, and it won’t be the first time I took a long trip that had McMurtry waiting at the other end.

On Sept. 29, 1994, my daughter and I made a 7-hour trip from my Iowa hometown to Minnetonka, Minnesota. Larry and his longtime companion, Diana Ossana, were signing copies there of the just-released “Pretty Boy Floyd,” which they had co-written. In addition to dragging my daughter along, I hauled two large book bags full of all my McMurtry books (no duplicate copies) that I hoped he’d sign. (Which he graciously did.)

I’ll never forget sitting in the front row, directly facing my favorite Pulitzer prize-winning author, and asking him questions about his very first book signing and his rancher uncles. He had a much softer voice than I anticipated, and an easy smile as he recalled that first signing and an uncle’s unexpected appearance.

I still have the photos I took at the signing, including one of me with Larry that hangs on my wall above my writing desk. Over the years, I’ve interviewed many authors, some of whom have become good friends. Yet nothing has quite ever compared to the day I met Larry McMurtry. Augustus McCrae and Woodrow F. Call remain my two favorite characters from fiction, though Emma Horton and Aurora Greenway run a close second.

If you haven’t yet had the pleasure of reading a McMurtry novel, it’s time to get started. Lonesome Dove, Terms of Endearment, Somebody’s Darling, and All My Friends are Going to Be Strangers are just to name a few. Then, book on up or down to Archer City’s Booked Up before it’s too late. I hope to see you there.

Goodbye, Johnny

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I join the rest of the world today in mourning the loss of the beloved Johnny Carson. And yes, I was one of those 50 million who watched his last episode and hated to say goodbye, even then. There never will be another Johnny Carson. That look. Those eyes. That stare that said it all. He made us laugh for decades, but today he makes us cry.

I always felt proud to consider Johnny a “neighbor.” In Iowa one can get away with that sort of reasoning. After all, he was born just southeast of me, only a two-hour drive from my Onawa birthplace to his in Corning. And he grew up even closer, just across the river in Norfolk, Nebraska. I couldn’t attend a Norfolk trapshoot without thinking of Johnny.

When he established the Carson Regional Cancer Center there in 1988, I’d just begun working as a correspondent for the Sioux City Journal. Though he dedicated the treatment center in memory of his parents, Siouxlander’s in this tri-state region also were reminded how much he loved his native boyhood home. The facility – the first of its kind in the surrounding area – made it possible for patients to get treatment close to home at a time when it most mattered.

But, that was Johnny. It was the neighborly thing to do.

We’ll miss you here, Johnny. Some will thank you for all the laughs. Others will thank you for their careers. And many will thank you for their lives. You were the best kind of neighbor.

Jody

Doing Our Part

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I feel really guilty admitting this, but up until today, the last time I donated money to the American Red Cross was after 9/11. I was working as a full-time staffer for the Weekender then, and my editor, Thomas Ritchie, suggested we all pitch in and (to my knowledge) all of us gladly helped out.

As anyone who’s ever donated knows, after that you’ll occasionally get some literature from the Red Cross asking for further donations. They don’t send them very often, though after looking at what’s happened with the tsunamis it’s a shame they don’t. I got those requests, yet they always seemed to arrive at a time when there was something or another that needed my financial attention. I did donate blood, but looking back now I know I could have done more.

It’s so easy for us to think if we can’t donate $50 or $100 or something halfway substantial, it won’t really make a difference anyway. It will. The Red Cross’s online website allows donors to give as little as $5. Think about how fast that can add up. Or how fast $10 adds up.

In addition to the Red Cross, CNN has an online list of relief organizations dedicated to helping the victims of Sunday’s tragedy. There’s Doctors Without Borders, CARE and UNICEF just to name a few. We’re all in this together.

I know what one of my New Year’s Resolutions will be.

Jody