![\"Our](\"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/DSC_8269_Edited-1.jpg\")
<\/a>Our family, which includes our sons, Ben & David. their wives, Laurie & Aca, six grandchildren–Matthew, Sarah, Caleb, Isaac, Samuel, and Jacob–and our two recently adopted Boxer mix dogs, Rosie and Beck.<\/p><\/div>\n
HERE IS AN ANNOUNCEMENT MADE BY NEWSOUTH BOOKS CONCERNING AN HONOR FOR HALLEY:<\/p>\n
NewSouth Books
\nFebruary 5 at 10:39am \u00b7<\/p>\n
Faye Gibbons never dreamed growing up in Carter’s Quarter, Georgia, that she’d be nominated for a fiction award named after one of Georgia’s most celebrated authors. Gibbons’s young adult novel, Halley, has been selected as a finalist for the Frank Yerby Awards. Best known for The Foxes of Harrow, Yerby was an African American novelist from Augusta specializing in historical fiction. Like Yerby, Faye Gibbons focuses on historical fiction, but her novels are semi-autobiographical in nature, recalling the difficulties of rural Georgia life during and following the Great Depression. The Yerby awards are given annually by the Augusta Literary Festival – ALF. Winners will be announced on Friday, March 4.<\/p>\n
My Grandmother Junkins was a strict believer in a straight and narrow path to heaven.\u00a0 Immodest clothing–and that included pants, shorts, sunback dresses, swimsuits, and anything that drew attention–was sinful.\u00a0 So were high heels and make-up.\u00a0 \u201cPowder and paint make you what you ain\u2019t,\u201d she frequently told me and my sister and all our girl cousins.\u00a0 \u201cMakes a woman look like a floozy,\u201d she would sometimes elaborate.<\/strong><\/p>\n She didn\u2019t get to do much of that preaching to me.\u00a0 Lipstick was the only make-up I ever wore then.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t think cosmetics would help someone as ordinary as me, and I knew that I could never hold a candle to my beautiful sister or my mother.\u00a0 Besides, if I did improve my looks, I might start dating and even get married. After seeing my parents\u2019 unhappy marriage close up my entire life, I had decided not to ever marry.<\/strong><\/p>\n I pretty much kept this attitude all the way through college.\u00a0 Even though a couple of guys showed some interest, I stuck to my guns.\u00a0 After college, I decided I would date, though marriage still wasn\u2019t in my plans.\u00a0 I lost a few pounds, began getting good haircuts and permanents, and bought the first flattering clothes I\u2019d ever owned.\u00a0 Then I began wearing make-up and was surprised every time I saw a photo of myself how much better I looked.\u00a0 From that point on, Maw Junkins had plenty of opportunities to tell me \u201cPower and paint make you what you ain\u2019t.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Then I fell in love with Benjamin Gibbons and had to wear cosmetics.\u00a0 After all, he was five years younger than me, and. at twenty-six, I\u2019d soon be over the hill,\u00a0 sliding into old age.\u00a0 I had to look as good as I could.\u00a0 As it turned out, it was wasted effort–Benjamin thought I was beautiful with or without make-up.\u00a0 Of course, it took me a while to believe that.\u00a0 In my engagement photo, which I come across every now and then, every hair is in place.\u00a0 My skin looks flawless\u00a0 My eyes look full-lashed and large.\u00a0 I look good.\u00a0 However, that photo was the only one of perhaps 25 the photographer took that made me look so perfect.\u00a0 In the rest,\u00a0 I looked pretty much ordinary, which is why I didn\u2019t buy those photos.<\/strong><\/p>\n The years passed, and I got older.\u00a0 With the help of make-up, I continued looking pretty good.\u00a0 That is, I looked pretty good until fairly recently.\u00a0 I am now in my seventies, and make-up has become a potential problem.\u00a0 Lay it on too thick and you begin to look like a woman who used to work behind the cosmetic counter at Gayfers Department Store.\u00a0 From the back you saw a trim figure, nice clothes and then she turned and you gasped at the overly made-up face of a mummified woman at least a century old.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong–I still wear powder and paint–but I wear less and I\u2019ve thrown all my mascara into the trash.\u00a0 The most important items are powder to even out my skin tones, a little color for my cheeks, and lipstick.\u00a0 I hope, if Maw could see me, she wouldn\u2019t even notice I was wearing any \u201cpaint\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n When Maw died in the late sixties, I looked at her in her casket and realized for the first time that she was a beautiful woman.\u00a0 The morticians had arranged her hair beautifully, and they had applied just enough cosmetics to give her a little color.\u00a0 I suppose one of her daughters chose the dress she wore, and it was the most elegant thing I\u2019d ever seen her wear.\u00a0 It was pink and flattered her oval face.<\/strong><\/p>\n Maybe Maw was wrong.\u00a0 Perhaps, sometimes powder and paint make you what you really are.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" HERE IS AN ANNOUNCEMENT MADE BY NEWSOUTH BOOKS CONCERNING AN HONOR FOR HALLEY: NewSouth Books February 5 at 10:39am \u00b7 Faye Gibbons never dreamed growing up in Carter’s Quarter, Georgia, that she’d be nominated for a fiction award named … Continue reading