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SOME UPDATES:  Nearly everyone I see, it seems, wants to know what I'm writing now, and when the new book will be out.  So here are the answers..., and a few new photos for those who have asked.
 
Forthcoming Magazine Article
I am currently working on an article detailing the fascinating story of the Middle Georgia Gas & Oil Company, which drilled two oil wells in Georgia in 1920.  Now, before you say,  "There isn't any oil in Georgia," remember, no one knew that in 1919 when--according to the promotors of this company--"a vast pool of oil" was sure to exist under the soil of Washington County in east central Georgia. It's a great tale:  Convicts working on a road bed discovered oil seeping out of the ground.  A company was formed to promote it, and over the next two years sold thousands of "shares" in the well.  It was probably all a scam, but a big one that involved an interesting cast of characters coupled with the heady lure of greed and easy money.  Hope to have it out later this year.
 
New Book Update

 My new book, tentatively titled A Killing on Ring Jaw Bluff:  The Great Recession and the Death of Small Town Georgia, will be published early in 2013, according to Mercer University Press.  I had hoped to have it available sooner, but it takes a while for these things. 

 

I believe the wait  will be worthwhile.  The book is a both a work of history--detailing the crash of the cotton economy in rural Georgia in the early 1920s--and a bit of biography of the life of Charles Graves Rawlings, my great uncle.  Charlie was a larger-than-life figure who became very wealthy during the Golden Age of Georgia's small towns, only to spend his final years in prison convicted of the murder of his first cousin.  If the topic sounds a shade boring, it's not!  Read it and you will learn a lot (as I have) about how and why the rural South changed in the 1920s, about the Ku Klux Klan, about the Great Oil Discovery that didn't exist, about arson and murder and bought juries, and many other similar dark secrets that make life interesting.

 

The book tracks the rise of Charlie Rawlings from his younger days as a livery stable owner to his peak as bank president, railroad president, owner of tens of thousands of acres of land, planter, husband, father and philanderer to his later years serving a life sentence for the murder, a crime he likely didn't commit.

 

 

A New Suspense Novel

 For the last year and a half I have been diligently working on the Ring Jaw Bluff book.  It was a chore, to say the least, as non-fiction is far more demanding than fiction.  In the latter, you simply create your world and the characters that people it.  In the former, you must discover the truth and be quite accurate about it.  I had started on another "Southern suspense" novel set in Savannah, but had put it to one side to devote my energies to finishing the non-fiction book.  Now that that's done, I'm back working on the novel.

 

This work, which I tentative title "The Girl With Kaleidoscope Eyes," introduces a new character, John Wesley O'Toole.  He's a defrocked (or is disbarred?) attorney who has been released from prison following a charge of vehicular homicide and is struggling to rebuild his shattered life.  As the end of his parole draws near, he is approached by a wealthy man who wants O'Toole to help him locate his missing eighteen year-old granddaughter.  Soon, the girl is discovered dead, and O'Toole realizes someone is trying to set him up for a murder he didn't commit.  The book has a complex plot with many twists and turns set in the background of Savannah.  I think my fans will really like it.  (And don't worry, Matt Rutherford may return one day, but he needed a rest!)

 

 

New Travel Photos Posted

2011 was a busy year for travel. I have collected a small sample of some of the scenes I snapped in Greece, Paris and Guatmala.  Plus a whole album of the Doors of Antigua.  (Not a band, in case you were thinking that....)  Click on one of the links to connect.

 

*****

 To read more about my previous works of fiction, please click on the cover of the book below.  That will take you to a page on this site with more information.   


 

 


For information on how to navigate this website, on how to order books in quantity, or for FAQs, please click here.


 
Upcoming events for the next few months are listed below.  If you or your book or social club are looking for a speaker, please contact me.

   

3/24/12 7:00-10:30 PM

"A Mysterious Evening" to benefit

The DeKalb Library Foundation

Decatur Library

215 Sycamore Street

Decatur, Georgia

(Click Here for more info)

 

3/31/12  Time & Details TBA

Speaking Engagement

The Ashantilly Center

Darien, Georgia

 

 9/19/12  Time & Details TBA

Speaking Engagement

The Cobb Library Foundation's

Booked for Lunch Lecture Series

 

11/9-11/12 Time and Details TBA

Georgia Literary Festival

College of Coastal Georgia

Brunswick, Georgia

 


There is always something happening.  I'll try to list the most current thing of interest here with a link either to my "News and Notes" page, or elsewhere.  Most of this will be of interest to readers and/or writers, but occasionally I'll post something that I find unique or fascinatingly unusual.   


The Rotary Club of Rome--June 9, 2011

I was honored to be asked to speak to the Rotary Club of Rome, Georgia recently, and the local newspaper did a nice little write up and video.  If you'd like to read and/or see it, click here.

 

New Newspaper Article Posted

I have posted a link to a piece about the infamous "Jaybird Wray" episode of 1919.  Please click Here to go to the Magazine Articles, Etc. page.