Go ahead and mark your calendar for the excellent Writing Today conference, scheduled to be held on the campus of Birmingham-Southern College on March 13-14. And don\’92t worry if that seems like a long ways off. The conference hosts a monthly Open Forum at Books-A-Million for reading writers, writing readers and anybody interested in the business of words. The Jan. 27 program will feature author Ruth Beaumont Cook giving an informal lecture titled \’93Interviews: A Vital Part of Writing Narrative Non-fiction\’94 Cook is the author of North Across the River, a story about cotton mill workers arrested by General Sherman during the Civil War, and\’a0Guests Behind the Barbed Wire, which tells the story of the German prisoner of war camp in Aliceville, Ala., during WWII. The free program starts at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 27. For more information, call (205) 226-4921 or visit www.writingtoday.org