Celeste King Conner tries to count her blessings-even when she forgets. 

Told through essays and excerpts from her former newspaper column, Facebook posts, and other musings on daily life, Don't Let This Get Out in Pinckard is rooted in the stories Celeste King Conner grew up hearing and learned how to tell. She spent many a long afternoon listening to relatives talk, gossip, and remember, absorbing the rhythms of storytelling and an understanding that the trivial and the tremendous are often the same things. Conner lingers on small moments-conversations, routines, family rituals-while also addressing loss, faith, aging, and responsibility. Using humor to temper grief and sharpen affection, she reflects on her life as a daughter, granddaughter, mother, and caretaker, moving between the distant past and the present to reveal the complexity of ordinary lives, the importance of honoring what is passed down, and most importantly, finding joy, even when it doesn't want to be found.

Celeste King Conner has never successfully answered the question, "What do you do?" In the past millennium, she was educated at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, to be an English and history teacher. Instead, she spent many years-by her own design-as a homemaker and annoyingly cheerful volunteer. Before and after raising her children, she held several jobs, but through it all, she never stopped writing. In 2019, she was invited to pen an occasional column for the local newspaper, Dothan Eagle, pondering whatever was on her heart at the moment. She enjoys leading journaling classes and encouraging others to not be afraid to write something down. Married to Chuck for thirty-something years, Celeste wants to be remembered for loving folks and finding just the right word.