What's Happening?
I spent a great weekend August 28th and 29th at the first Suwanee Festival of Books in
Suwanee Georgia. It was a wonderful event, with a good slate of Georgia and Southern authors. I hope it will become something that happens yearly. Here's a photo of several of us who attended. From right to left, Patti Callahan Henry, me, Ad Hudler and Lauretta Hannon.
Between Books: What I'm Working on Now...
With the "book tour" for The Mile High Club now over, I am working on my first non-fiction book, plus taking a break from so many speaking engagments and other obligations that go along with being an author in today's competative enviornment. As noted in an earlier posting, I'm writing a book-length account of the infamous 1925 Rawlings-Tarbutton murder. This will be an extension of the magazine article, "A Killing on Ring Jaw Bluff," which appeared last year in Georgia Backroads magazine. (Click here to read a copy.) While an absolutely fascinating story by itself, the book will also focus on the subtitle, "The Great Recession and The Death of Small Town Georgia."
The era between 1900 and 1930 was a pivotal one in the history of this state. The single-crop cotton economy boomed for the first two decades of the era, producing unseen riches that led to the growth of what we now refer to as "rural" Georgia. Although the state's population was more than 2.2 million people in 1900 for example, there were only 6 "cities" with a population greater than 10,000 people. Dotted along the byways of the state small towns grew and prospered, with mansions lining Main Street, and thriving downtowns, the malls of yesteryear.
And then it all collapsed. The system of tenant farming and sharecropping that sustained it imploded following the invasion of the boll weevil and the Great Recession of 1920-21 that presaged the Great Depression a decade later. Banks failed, businesses folded, and Georgia's rural counties suffered population losses in the 1920s that have never been regained. 
In the midst of this all was Charles G. Rawlings, one of the state's wealthier men, whose empire had been based on agriculture. The 1910 and 1920 US Censuses listed his occuption as "banker." The 1930 Census listed his occupation as "prisoner," serving a life term for the conspiracy-murder of his first cousin.
I've signed a book contract with Mercer University Press and plan to complete the book by the end of 2011, with release the following spring. I think it will be worth waiting for.
And in my spare time, if I can find any, I'm working on a suspense novel that takes place in Savannah. This features a new character, a disbarred attorney with a prison record who now is trying to rebuild his life as an art dealer. Savannah's a great setting for novels, and I hope this one picks up the real feel of the place. The lead character, John O'Toole, is approached by a very wealthy man asking him to find a missing painting. Turns out it's been stolen--by the man's granddaughter. He wants her back, not the painting. When her body is found, O'Toole is soon accused of her murder. It's a complex plot I think mystery and suspense fans will love.
Keep an eye out for details as I progress.
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