New Books for 2023

If you have noticed, I've been a bit silent over the last few months, and for good reason. I've been wrapping up the writing and editing of three new books that will be hitting bookstore shelves before you know it. Two of them will be released in just a few weeks, the other Fall 2023. 

The first book will be out March 1st. Getting back to my hiking roots, my twelfth outdoor recreation guide, Best Easy Day Hikes Birmingham is a handy pocket guide to some of the - as you guessed - best easy day hikes in the Birmingham, Alabama area. The city has a wealth of incredible hiking trails and this guide, as with all of my other Falcon Guides, has detailed maps, mile-by-mile directions, and write ups to bring each hike to life and guide you to some of the area's amazing scenery.

Next up is my latest non-fiction history book, A History Lover's Guide to Mobile and the Alabama Gulf Coast. This was a really fun book to write. I combined the 320+ year history of Alabama's oldest city with a travel guide that will take you to places where you can actually see and experience its history like the last slave ship to arrive in the U.S., the Clotilda and the town created by the descendants of the slaves brought to its shores - Africatown; ancient Indian mounds deep in a rainforest like delta right on the city's doorstep; and much, much more.

Lastly, the book I am most proud of to date - Everyone's Gone to the Moon: Life on Earth and the Epic Voyage of Apollo 11 which is set for release by Prometheus Books September 2023. The publisher summed up the gist of Everyone's Gone to the Moon quite nicely:

"Everyone's Gone to the Moon is a week-by-week journey through July 1969, one of the most pivotal months in human history — in space and here on Earth. This unique book follows the crew of Apollo 11 and NASA as they prepare for the historic first lunar landing alongside the major global events buried beneath headlines covering the historic space mission. Interwoven with the story of Apollo 11 are the events on our home planet that made an equally important impact on who we were then and who we are today: the Life of Prince Charles was threatened by a terrorist attack in Wales; the storm dubbed the Ohio Fireworks Derecho ripped through the Midwest, killing dozens; the assassination of Kenyan Economic Minister Tom Myoba (of which Barack Obama Sr. was a key witness) undercut a nation just learning to stand on its own; Senator Ted Kennedy was involved in a mysterious accident in Chappaquiddick, Massachusetts; ARPANET, the first real "Internet" was unveiled; Monty Python was born; John Lennon and Paul McCartney released "Give Peace a Chance" during escalated Vietnam War tensions; Midnight Cowboy stunned the Academy Awards; and much more.

Meanwhile, NASA was still scrambling. Everyone's Gone to the Moon features little known behind-the-scenes stories of the moon landing like how NASA had to grapple with media, the technical issues that still plagued the lunar module, and how the prior crew of Apollo 10 suffered incredible itching from their spacesuits that needed correcting before Apollo 11 could even be launched.

This deep dive into the Apollo 11 mission's most crucial weeks and the little-known and rarely remembered events occurring simultaneously back on Earth gives a vivid new perspective to the month that launched humanity into the future."

So there you have it. A busy year on the way with book releases plus I am starting work on two new titles, but that's a story for another day.