Crowdancing Book Tour Dates and Stops So Far

By Dr. K. Mark Hilliard

Book Tour Dates and Book Stops Along the Way

To Ireland and Beyond!

As I have gained in age (I started writing at age 40 and am now 65), I have come to appreciate placing a week, or perhaps even two, between each stop in my book tour, rather than moving so swiftly from place to place, day after day. This slowed pace is giving me the time to sit with each of my groups of attendees at each book signing and talk. To talk with the groups as a whole and to talk with any and all who wish to come early or stay late, and chat. This book is, after all, a book about storytelling, and storytelling takes time and patience. 

The initial phase of this book-tour began in August 2022 and will continue through February 2023. Phase two will talk place in the summer of 2023, with an intent to return to Ireland at that time. This is where the book held its pre-release Tea and a Talk launch at the Power of Words Literary Festival in Abbeyleix, Ireland, August 19th through the 21st..

This pre-release was then followed by a tour throughout the major divisions of my home state of Tennessee (We are a very horizontally expansive state.) with tour stops planned for West Tennessee, Middle Tennessee, East Tennessee, and just over the state border into Cherokee, North Carolina. With each of these divisional-launches, I invite you, whether in person or in spirit, to come alone for the journey, as I share this "Memoir of my Expanded-Imagination."  

Tennessee Book Tour Stops So Far

Jellico, Tennessee: East Tennessee

The Crowdancing and the Cherokee Storyteller’s Bag Ireland-American Book Tour 2022-23 had its first stop in Tennessee on Wednesday, October 26, 2022, at the Jellico Public Library. This small village is where I lived from age ten to fourteen, and it was the inspiration for a one of this books’ largest chapters—”Beyond the Days of Fun and Folly” which includes “The Call of the White-Crow” and “The-Girl-in-the-Blue-Dress.”

Crowdancing and the Cherokee Storyteller’s Bag is Book One in a carefully planned trilogy, with each book representing a specific portion of my life as examined through my expanded-imagination. I see it as my effort to uncover the past, via actual history and places and myths, as they are each processed through my imagination. 

For this group I shared a reading from one section of my book that was full of fantasy and enchantment, and then I read a section about the mysterious Village of Angelica in the Valley of Elk—all based on stories from my life in Jellico. 

This East Tennessee book launch experienced excellent attendance, far beyond my expectations, with every attendee taking home a signed copy of the book.

Special thanks go to the Jellico Librarian, Mark Tidwell, and the Assistant Librarian, Sheyanne Taylor. You opened your space, not only for the my talk about the Cherokee and my new book, but for multiple hours before and after the event to individually chat with all the attendees—some of whom I had not seen for fifty years. I will make sure it is not another fifty years before I return.

In fact, already in the planning, is a Son of the Preacher Man—A Good News Revival Tour, to each of the places my father use to preach. 

Milan, Tennessee:  West Tennessee

On Thursday, November 10, 2022, I made a book tour stop in West Tennessee at the Mildred G. Fields Memorial Library in Milan, Tennessee. This is where I attended high school and where I lived from age 15-18. A few aspects of my life in Milan are noted near the end of Book One—Crowdancing and the Cherokee Storyteller’s Bag and will continue into Book Two—Crowdancing and the Cherokee Little People. 

With this group I shared details of Cherokee life in the 1600s and about an ancient and unique Cherokee storytelling style that has been all but lost. One of my goals was to reveal stories and information that the audience have never heard before. At the end of my talk, the entire audience concurred that I did indeed fulfill this goal.

I also read a chapter from my book about mystery, enchantment, and the expanded-imagination—all pulled from the sto-ried memory held within an old Cherokee crow feather that I pulled from deep within my storyteller’s bag.

Thanks go to Katie Hollandsworth, Director of the Library—thank you for taking care of me and my audience with a beautiful space and a sundry of cookies and snacks. It was a grand day.