Next week, I have the honor and privilege of being the keynote speaker at  an annual fund raising dinner for Catholic Social Services in Winston-Salem, N.C. The event is called Partners in Hope and it will be held Saturday, Feb. 19 at 7 p.m. at the Marriott Hotel downtown.

For information: click here,  or Call Tammy at 336-714-3228 or tmwatkins@charlottediocese.org

UNC-TV reporter and anchor Eszter Vadja contacted me at my newspaper today to invite me on her program Wednesday evening. It will be a panel discussion on the economy. Other panelists will include business profs from UNC, Duke and Wake Forest, an investment expert and a civic leader from Charlotte. Starts at 9 p.m. on your North Carolina public television channel. Should be a lively and illuminating discussion. Eszter said I could mention my book, but somehow I don’t think we’ll get around to it.

But — Tim Funk, religion writer for the Charlotte Observer, interviewed me today about My Cousin the Saint. His story will run Saturday, October 4. I have three appearances in Charlotte coming up. St. Matthew on Oct. 10, the Italian-American festival uptown on Oct. 11and St. Gabriel’s on Nov. 16.

Bookmarks, Winston-Salem’s highly popular festival of books, will be held Saturday at Historic Bethabara Park, which is north of downtown not far from Wake Forest University. The event is free and open to all. This year’s honorary chairman is D.G. Martin, host of UNC-TV’s Bookwatch program. Authors of fiction, non-fiction and children’s literature will be there through the day talking about their work, talking about writing and signing books. Things get started around 9 a.m. and run through the afternoon. Full details are here.

I will be talking about “My Cousin the Saint” at 10:30 a.m. at the Non-Fiction tent. My wife, singer-songwriter Laurelyn Dossett, will be perform with friends Scott Manring and Molly McGinn at 1 p.m. on the main stage.

Fine reporters and writers in Raleigh and Winston-Salem provide thoughtful coverage in today’s newspapers of My Cousin the Saint in the The News & Observer and the Winston-Salem Journal.