"Best Tent Camping Alabama" Set for Release

(Pre-order your copy today)

It was a long hard road but "Best Tent Camping Alabama" is due to hit bookshelves on April 9th! I can't thank the staff at Menasha Ridge Press enough for the hard work in putting this together especially the work of Amber Henderson who was a joy to work with and made the editing process a breeze.

It was a long haul. I truly believed in this book and sent my first proposal to Menasha Ridge two years ago. Acquisition Editor Susan Haynes also believed in the book and went to bat for me. It's rare that an AE believes in something so much that they would keep pressing until the proposal was accepted. I can't thank her enough for her determination.

Then, in the middle of my research, I had surgery on my leg so traveling to all of the campsites had to be delayed. But Menasha was a great company to work for and they worked with me by extending deadlines so that I could recover. I finally got back on my feet, finished the manuscript, and here we are.

The book highlights 50 of the best tent camping sites in the state. I hope you will use it to explore the many wonders and beautiful campgrounds Alabamahas to offer then be inspired to go out and find the hundreds of other campgrounds waiting for you.

"Hiking Alabama" 4th Edition Underway

Finally, research for the fourth edition of "Hiking Alabama" Falcon Books) is underway and I'm really excited. The first edition was released in 2001 by a small publisher out of Virginia, Beachway Press. Back then there were some established trails in the state but many more were simply bushwhacking through the woods. Today, thanks to Alabama’s Forever Wild, ADECA, the Nature Conservancy, and the MANY non-profit conservation and trail building groups throughout the state, Alabama has become a major hiking destination with hundreds and hundreds of miles of trails leading you to some of the most beautiful landscapes you can find anywhere in the country.

Editions two and three of the book were simple updates. I was asked to only update existing trails and maybe add one or two. But now, a full-fledged re-write is underway and let me tell you, this time around it's difficult, not because the trails are difficult to hike but because there are so many. Hundreds and hundreds of miles of established hiking trails traverse the state leading us to waterfalls, canyons, beaches, black water rivers, swamps, rock shelters, and more.

I originally planned out a schedule of the trips I would take, planning every weekend that I would be on the trail between the day I signed the contract and my deadline, grouping trips together as much as possible. That schedule was quickly thrown out the window. Every weekend I find somewhere new and more interesting to visit.  

I'll keep you posted on my whereabouts and the writing process as I wing my way to the July deadline.

By the way, for those of you who have been asking, this new edition will be in color - color photos and maps.

"Living in a Banana Dream" Going Through a Makeover

Some of you have been asking how my collection of short stories, "Living in a Banana Dream" is doing. Good question. First, a little history. 

This is a collection of stories about growing up in a time when the toughest part of the day was making sure you had enough kids for a pickup game of baseball or the anguish of going out on your first date. It's told in what humorist Jean Shepherd called, "the universal 'I'". These are stories that could be about you, or you, or me. 

Well, after shopping it around and getting a lot of positive feedback from publishers and agents, but no takers, I sat down and took a look at the manuscript and agreed with the pros who had reviewed it - it needed a little tightening up.  

So, the manuscript is currently undergoing a little makeover and will be hitting the streets again by this fall. We'll see what happens then. It will definitely be hitting the e-book market by then. I'll keep you updated.