Im a Southerner - I never take satisfaction in touching a nerve.

I started writing it the day after Sept. 11. I was living in New York City. We didnt have any phone service and we didnt have any mail. Like a lot of writers do, I started to write in a voice that I missed.

I always order the banned books from a black market dealer in California, figuring if the State of Mississippi banned them, they must be good.

And you call yourself a Christian,' were Hilly's words to me and I thought, God. When did I ever do that?

You is kind. You is smart. You is important.

Here's to new beginnings," Stuart says and raises his bourbon. I nod, sort of wanting to tell him that all beginnings are new.

And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.