Sailor and novelist Roddy Blackburn turned his love for the seven seas into a passion for storytelling, which then turned into a mission to create a connective, productive community of Louisiana artists.

Authors, Artists and Books of the Bayous (AABB) is a start-up organization with the hope of promoting and encouraging creatives throughout Louisiana.

It’s a digital place for artists to mindfully share their art with a like-minded community that is ready to  appreciate and critique their creations, and for those that are nervous to do so, anonymous posting is welcomed.

“Our goal is to provide a platform  and ability for all Louisiana artists, authors, chefs, creative and interesting people to promote their art and creative expression through books… a common ground for all people to express, learn, promote and touch the spirit.”

In AABB, the definition of artist is all-encompassing. “We consider anyone creative as an artist,” he said. “It could be as simple as their personality and ability to make someone laugh.”

With their Facebook page currently sitting at about 160 members, the community continues to grow.

“We’ve got really good plans that are coming together lightning fast on the promotion of artists and authors.”

To continue their mission of uniting Louisiana artists, AABB is in the process of developing “Book Em!”

This is an interview series conducted by artists for artists. Rodney Hennigan, author of “My Father’s Gift” and local artist Candice Alexander are among some of the recent interviewees.

AABB and “Book em!” are recently formed, so there is a bit of a learning curve. The website and Youtube channel are still in development, but are nearly complete.

Anyone creative (younger and older, professional and hobbyist) are invited to reach out for an interview, in an effort to express a range of artistic perspectives and experiences. Blackburn said they are also planning to expand “Book Em!” with educational videos on the artistic process, and any ideas are welcome.

“It’s a baby to us, and we’re trying to feed it well,” he said. “We’re open to anything at all, as long as it’s creative, as long as it’s respectful.”

He said the only caveat is “if you don’t want your 13-year old daughter to see it, if you don’t want your grandma to see it, then don’t show it to us.”

Growing AABB will take a village, he said. “We are currently a fairly new organization with a low to no budget, but with volunteers and the talented creative Louisiana artists that are so willing to give their time and endorsement, we are making great strides to show the world what they are starving for.”

This global hunger is for Louisiana art and history.

As a boat captain for large offshore boats and a generational sailor, Blackburn has a unique perspective on the global understanding of Louisiana. He talks to people from all over the world, and he says they always know three things: Tom Brady, New York City and Louisiana.

“If you talk to anyone, from anywhere in the world, they all know a few things about Louisiana.”

He said that because of the modern accessibility of information and frequent shifts in society, Louisiana’s steadfast culture has brought attention to the state.

“Louisiana, for so long, was seen as behind the times and not catching up. I don’t think it was ever behind the times. I think that it was more that the people were clutching and hanging on to the old ways and traditions and the values and the church… I think the rest of the world is starting to realize what Louisiana is, and what we have, and I’m proud.”

The rest of the world is well represented in Louisiana, especially with its historical ties to Europe, Africa, Central America and Nova Scotia, and this contributes to the focus on Louisiana as well.

“We have the ultimate melting pot, and for the most part, everybody gets along just fine… we’re a small team in Louisiana, and it’s something that excites you from the inside so it makes you passionate.”

Louisiana culture is inherently rich with art, and Blackburn and his peers want to elevate those voices, especially with Lake Charles coming to the forefront with Downtown artistic endeavors and emerging artists, authors, chefs and painters, he said.

“Growing up in it, being passionate in it and living in it, I feel like it makes every one of us an expert, to a degree, on something everyone wants to know about. So, it’s our responsibility to show the world what it is they are wanting to see.”

The pride that Blackburn feels for Louisiana, and his love of everything nautical, are what informs his own writing.

He recently published “Mud Road: Gift of the Stolen Child, a novel spanning Louisiana’s history (and informed by his own experiences) told through the eyes of the Mudeaux family. He has two more on the way, “Gulf Coast Tales: The Flip Flop Mafia” and “Vis-a-vis, Sea’s Life.”

Despite his current passions, literature and writing were not his strong suits in school.

“All of my English teachers would agree that this is probably the most unlikely scenario imaginable,” he said.

This changed in his early adulthood after he was introduced to writers John Grisham and Clive Cussler. The novels, which have historical and scientific basings, invigorated him. These are the subject areas that he excelled in, and the intersections of literature, history and science opened Blackburn up to a whole new world.

“Somewhere along the way, I started finding authors that wrote novels about those things… and I felt like I wanted to do that too.”

He wasn’t a stranger to artistic pursuits – he said he has been known for his drawings and paintings – and the transition from visual to written expression wasn’t as rocky as he had assumed.

“It’s still art, I’m just using words instead, and I can express so much more through writing than I can through drawing and painting.”

The shift in mediums, as well as Blackburn’s personal experiences with self-publishing – has led to five complete novels and the creation of Odd Sky Press, his publishing assistance company.

He came up with the idea for Odd Sky Press in 2021, and began the LLC process in December of 2022.

His five books were written over a three-year period, and during that time he read hundreds of books on self-publishing. He quickly learned how difficult the world of self-publishing was to navigate. All the books that he read  agreed that it was a difficult endeavor.

“The actual process of writing the book over years, in my opinion, is easy compared to everything that comes after it…I started seeing problems with self-publishing… When it came time for me to do it myself, I started to see some of the downfalls on the backside of it.”

In addition to the expensive and time-consuming nature of self-publishing, authors that choose that route for their novels are not eligible for awards.

One of the methods to bypass this disadvantage for self-publishing authors is to create their own publishing company, and this is the path that Blackburn chose.

He said this makes it easier for authors to gain access to certain book awards, which in turn helps to promote their books.

“We want to open it up to a whole lot of people that end up not publishing, or just have a stack of unfinished projects because it’s too hard, it costs too much, it’s too time consuming. There’s a lot of talented people out there that can’t get their stuff out there. A lot of people aren’t willing to go through the steps or take the time to create their own publishing company, so what I aim to do with Odd Sky is to open up some of those bottlenecks.”

Through Odd Sky, authors get the independence of self-publishing with the benefits of traditional publishing. However, unlike these traditional publishing companies, Odd Sky offers authors three routes of support. They can choose to fully publish their works through Odd Sky, self-publish with support from Odd Sky or create their own publishing company with Odd Sky’s assistance.

Currently, the Odd Sky team is made up of four volunteers that edit, network, advise and market, and despite still being in the process of developing Odd Sky’s business plan, they receive hundreds of messages a day from authors interested in working with them.

They currently have three to four active projects, and are in their process of writing their own book on innovative self-publishing methods.