First of all, it's important to understand that  the "Books 'n Blues" events are intended to raise funds by attracting people to music/author events, not as traditional fundraising activities where groups apply for grants and such.

I understand that the same limited number of people in Mississippi continually get asked to contribute to worthy causes and they continually do which is a testament to their good hearts. But while there may be no limits to their depth of good will, the reality is that there is a limit to the depth of people's pockets. Rather than competing for a slice of the existing charity pie, I am putting in the seed money to try and bake an entirely new pie.

How?

The "Books 'n Blues" events are based on my experience here in California's wine country that people will spend rather freely for entertainment that has a charitable beneficiary. In other words, for some people, entertainment is the first attraction and the charitable giving an added incentive. These sorts of events happen all the time here in the Sonoma area (population 6,000). For example, we raise between $80,000 and $90,000 every year for the school my son and daughter attend. We do this with a wine and food reception, silent and live auction, music and dinner. There are variations on the event themes with smaller ones opting to drop the live auction and dinner in order to simplify the organization expenses and time (which is what I have done with the Books 'n Blues events).

Virtually every other school in the extended Sonoma Valley area (population 17,000) does the same thing with variations on this theme. I mention the populations to emphasize that we have done this in a mostly rural area.

I believe the concept will work in Mississippi, especially in a simplified format and adapted to Mississippi tastes, culture and lifestyle. This is why the events feature blues and writers.

I am funding the start-up expenses for the events and -- depending upon what is needed in the future (and the depth of my own pockets) -- will fund other aspects of the events as well. I have done well in my writing and in the technology companies I have founded or helped found, and believe it is time to give back. Megan and I have been doing this locally, primarily with vineyard worker support services and organizations helping battered women.

But two factors have brought Mississippi back into focus: First is the fact that we may have taken the boy out of Mississippi, but we cannot take Mississippi out of the boy. My roots and my deep feelings for my native state run too deep to ignore. Second, my forthcoming novel, Perfect Killer, is set mostly in Mississippi. It is also a departure for my writing in that it is a "Southern novel" wrapped in a thriller. It is not only "in" Mississippi, it is "of" Mississippi and as such wrestles with the state's past and tries to make sense of how it can shape a future in which justice has real meaning for all its citizens.

I began the act of giving back by committing a "tithe" of 15% of my earnings from the book to be split equally among the Sunflower County Freedom Project (SCFP), the Mississippi Center for Justice (MCJ) and the National Military Family Association.

Having committed a substantial part of this novel's revenues, I then began looking for other ways to raise more money for SCFP. I first thought about having book signings where I'd donate 100% of my earnings of the books sold. Then I realized more money could be raised by having lots of other authors doing the same thing.

Then -- because blues music plays a prominent role in Perfect Killer -- I thought that having a lot of authors signing books and schmoozing with readers, we could attract even more people by adding the blues performers.

But if you have all those people, they'd probably pay a little ($20?) to have some wine and gourmet food.

Finally, I realized I was headed toward something like our local fundraisers and decided that a silent auction would be the icing on the cake.

Thus the Books 'n Blues concept emerged.