Christmas stories from N.C. writers

New stories from seven of North Carolina's best fiction writers star in Our State magazine's December issue.

This is the first time Our State, the magazine of N.C. culture, food and travel, has produced a Christmas fiction issue. And it's an all-star author lineup -- Allan Gurganus, Jill McCorkle, Clyde Edgerton, Margaret Maron, Ron Rash, Elizabeth Spencer and Daniel Wallace.

If you've read these authors, you'll notice some familiar settings. Edgerton's story takes place in fictional Listre, North Carolina. In Rash's piece, a veterinarian heads out under a starry night sky in Madison County to attend to "a calf that ain't of a mind to get born."

McCorkle's story, "Holiday," unfolds at Pine Haven Estates, a retirement village and assisted living in the fictional N.C. town of Fulton. It's adapted from her forthcoming novel, "Life After Life," out in March.

Want to read more from these authors? Check out Our State's handy reading list.

Clyde Edgerton's "Night Train": We've got a winner

TMcB44, you've won Clyde Edgerton's new novel, "Night Train."
Why? Because you love Edgerton's work so much you read "The Bible Salesman" in your church book club.

"I served as moderator and emailed him to get some suggestions," TMcB44 told me. "He couldn't get over the fact a church book club was doing one of his books. Must have been a shock after his Campbell College (now University) days."

Please email me your name and address, and I'll get the book in the mail.

Book giveaway: Clyde Edgerton's new novel, "Night Train"

Like many readers, I fell in love with Clyde Edgerton's writing in 1986 when I read his first novel, "Raney," the warm, funny story of a small-town Baptist woman who marries -- gasp -- an Episcopalian from Atlanta. Edgerton, North Carolina born and raised, now teaches at UNC Wilmington.

I'm happy to report that his newest work, "Night Train," is out today. Set in 1963, it features Dwayne Hallston, a 17-year-old white kid in Starke, North Carolina who has recently discovered James Brown.

In a starred review, Publishers Weekly calls it "The work of a generous, restrained writer whose skill and craft allows small scenes to tell a larger, more profound story."

Want to win a copy? Leave a comment here and tell me why. Leave some way for me to identify you -- not just "anonymous." I'll post the winner on Wednesday, July 27.