About a week ago I got word that my full length script BLOODLETTING IN THESE HILLS had won the Appalachian Playwriting Festival at the Parkway Playhouse in the lovely mountain town of Burnsville, North Carolina. I would have loved to linger and breathe the clear, cool mountain air but jumped on my motorcycle to hurry back to my home in Central Florida.

There was a new hurricane threatening there and I needed to go through the familiar routine of battening down the hatches. Much to my shock and surprise, the storm raced off to Southern Appalachia and lingered there dumping tens of inches of rain and lashing it with high winds.

Cell towers were torn down and roads were ripped up and blocked. Communication was shattered and I heard nothing from Burnsville, even as I tried to reach out and scour what public media could broadcast, there was no word of how people there were doing and what images were available from nearby towns. Finally yesterday the Parkway Playhouse released a statement that the theater had survived the storm and the staff I had just met had been accounted for. What a relief. There is much suffering and damage in the town and the worst is yet to be known. But it was a great load off my mind to hear the news. The region has much healing to go, any support would be appreciated.