Thoughts from the Abnormaly Everyday

Hey y’all, greetings from Hot On Us, Texas. That’s my own ingenious little anagram for Houston, city of infamous humidity and home to my firstborn, her husband, and the Baby Beau Czar of All Things Southern, AKA, my grandson Grant Thomas. Let the record show that I love my son-in-law very much, even if he did move my daughter half-way across the country. (Okay, so it’s just one state over and six and a half hours up the road but still.)


I couldn’t seem to remember the word anagram when I first twisted the city’s letters so I did what everyone else on planet Earth does now, I googled. The official definition for anagram is “A word or phrase formed by scrambling the letters of another word or phrase.” Somehow that seems a fitting way to re-introduce myself to y’all. Writing almost always does that for me. A story, a character, a question, an idea, sometimes they drop in my head as gracious individuals, other times they storm me en masse but it’s always squatters’ rights until I take the notion to a notebook or a keyboard and force it out the tips of my fingers. But here's the good part-- nine times out of ten, the end product is barely recognizable from the original idea, somewhere along the way I learned something surprising about myself, something new about the world around me, or both.

My friend, Kathy Patrick, Pulpwood Queen/marketer extraordinaire, tells me reintroducing ourselves is the theme this go around. (Kathy, thank you for continuing this marvelous blog; you are a force. And Karin, thank you for birthing this baby and encouraging community in a field that lends itself far too easily to isolation.)

By way of introduction, I’m Shellie. They call me the Belle of All Things Southern. I regularly opine on my beloved region and the wonderfully strange, uniquely common, abnormally everyday people who live here. I also wonder aloud on current events, faith as I experience it, belching frogs in the Bahamas, and whatever else has caught my fancy. And for some blessed reason for which I am continually amazed and eternally grateful, people read this! You can see more and read more of All Things Southern on my website but for now I’ll close with three little known pieces of autobiographical trivia.

1. I have never given up the childhood practice of seeing things in the clouds and I don’t intend to anytime soon. Today I saw an elephant and the Grinch that stole Christmas while driving to Hot On Us, Texas. I don’t think there is any spiritual significance between the two but I will let you know if something comes to me.

2. I have written a novel that is unlike anything else of mine in print. I would love to see Sierra get a chance to tell y’all the story she told me.

3. I cry, a lot, and I'm okay with that.

Hugs,
Shellie

Shellie Rushing Tomlinson lives in Lake Providence, Louisiana with her husband, Phil. Their daughter, Jessica, and her husband, Patrick, live in Houston, TX. They have a baby boy named Grant Thomas, (A.K.A, The Baby Beau Czar of All Things Southern.) Their son, Phillip, and his wife, Carey, live in Lake Providence, LA. They have a little girl named Emerson Ann, (A.K.A, The Bellerina Czar of All Things Southern) and are expecting again! Shellie is the author of "Lessons Learned on Bull Run Road", "'Twas the Night before the Very First Christmas" and "Southern Comfort with Shellie Rushing Tomlinson" and the 2008 Penguin Group USA release, "Suck Your Stomach In and Put Some Color On". Look for it's sequel Spring 2011, "Sue Ellen's Girl Ain't Fat, She Just Weighs Heavy!" Shellie is owner and publisher of All Things Southern and the host of a daily radio show and weekly TV segment by the same name. A list of the twenty-eight radio stations that carry Shellie's southern features can be found here. You can see Shellie's weekly videos on her website and listen to Shellie's All Things Southern LIVE Talk Show each Friday morning from 8:00 to 9:00 CST on FOX 92.7 FM. The show streams LIVE and podcasts are available so everyone can join Shellie's southern celebration!