One Austin author began to write after her 70th birthday. She is 81 now, and her stories enjoy a wide following.

As Jim Swift tells us Out On the Porch, they are also at the heart of a new play opening this weekend.

(The following is a transcript of Out On the Porch.)

Francis Nail says: "Why did he wear white flannel trousers to walk on the beach? and why did he wear the bottom of his trousers rolled?

When Francis Nail reads her plans on KUT Radios Eclectichost program, as often as not, host John Hailey, looses it.

Nail says: "John, you're funnier than the story is."

Frances Nail has that affect on folks.

Actress Karen Kuykendall says: "First off all, what is it that is so good about Frances' Books? It's a good story."

Nail reads: "My best friend that year was a little boy named JK."

Kuykendall reads: "I've only had two spankings in my life and I was been playing with JK both times. I was also playing with him the day we found the whiskey."

Actress Karen Kuykendall is a long time friend of Frances Nail. And she remembers well the first time she heard Nail read her stories on the radio on John Alieys Ecclectichost program

Kuykendall says: "By the time Frances finished reading on that program, a publisher had driven down to KUT and was standing outside the studio where Frances was reading and burst in when it was over and said, 'I'm your publisher.' They never laid eyes on one another."

Kuykendall reads: "Mrs. L took one wiff and gasped, 'Oh my gosh, that's whiskey.'"

Now Kuykendall is about to read from her good friends work in a one person show called "I'm Not the Woman I was"

Nail says: "I forgot they were mine and I wept as she was reading them so I knew the play was going to be good.

Swift says: "She reads it differently than you would."
Nail says: "She reads it differently but it affects me the same way as when I read it. And I can make myself cry when I read them."

Kuykendall read: "A friend with a farm would bring us a hogs head every year, a huge hog, it was laid out on the kitchen table."

The telling of a story about the telling of a story about the telling of a story about the living of a life.

The Pollyanna Theater Production of "I'm Not the Woman I Was" kicks off a two-week run at Arts On Real this weekend.