Welcome to the "Whistling at Snakes" page.

A cheerful chronicler of life’s “good things” for most of his life, Sims’ writings appeared in many newspapers and magazines, including The Baptist Courier. We are pleased to republish here the best of Sims’ stories and essays from his “At Large” column, which ran in the Courier from 1996 until his death in 1999.

“We want to introduce Horace Sims to a new generation of readers, many of them young pastors,” said Courier editor Don Kirkland. “As a pastor himself, Horace touched hundreds of lives during his ministry. As a writer and storyteller, he connected with thousands more.

“New readers will learn to appreciate Horace’s easy and unaffected writing style. Longtime readers will enjoy revisiting such memorable stories as ‘Swatty Wasp,’ ‘Faulty Zipper,’ and, of course, ‘Whistling at Snakes.’”

“Whistling at Snakes,” Sims’ account of his attempt to keep (imagined and real) snakes at bay while preaching at a Lowcountry revival, later became a book by the same title. Originally published by The Baptist Courier in 1999 after Sims’ death, “Whistling at Snakes” — which contains all of Sims’ "At Large" columns previously published in The Baptist Courier, along with stories, essays and poems published elsewhere — went through two subsequent printings and sold more than 8,000 copies. Proceeds from book sales went to Sims’ wife, Jane, who still lives in Greenwood.

Some of the stories include drawings by Thomas Addison, an Upstate artist who illustrated the “Whistling at Snakes” book and “Sand Dollar Cove,” a children’s page featuring the adventures of Seamore Seahorse and his friends, published in The Baptist Courier.