Welcome to episode 49 of From the Front Porch, a collection of conversations on books, small business, and life in the South.

I'm Annie Jones, owner of the bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia.

And today, I'm chatting with Atlanta author, blogger, and comic Jim Hodgson.

Jim and I are going to chat about writing, truth-telling, and how to navigate the ever-changing

publishing industry.

But before we get started, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who came out and shopped

on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday and supported not only downtown Thomasville,

but specifically if you stopped in the bookshelf, thank you so much. Every purchase matters.

When you shop locally, every purchase really does matter. It helps pay my employees. It helps

support the business and it helps make sure the bookshelf can remain a Thomasville

staple for years to come.

So we had great days on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday.

I'm recording this on Monday and I'm still a little bit in recovery mode, but we are so grateful

to our customers and our readers and our listeners who choose to support

the bookshelf in whatever ways you can.

Just a reminder too that if you are a long distance listener of the podcast, you can always

shop with us online at www.w.w.com or you can always email me directly or navigate through our website and just

email me your special orders as well. We're happy to order for you and ship to you even if you are

long distance. All right. Let's go ahead and get started. Hi, Jim. Hello. Thank you so much for

joining me on the podcast today. I really appreciate it.

I'm happy to do it. Thanks for having me.

So we kind of have been emailing back and force, but since listeners don't know who you are,

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