The Rural South

Finally back from a trip back to my roots. Had a wonderful time in my hometown Huntsville, AL. The crime writers workshops, book launch party, and library fund raiser went well and I saw many old friends and made some new ones. Even got an invite from NASA to come back early next year and speak at a forensic/CSI event they are planning. Can’t wait. Love those folks at NASA.

Afterward, we headed off on a book research trip across the back roads of the rural south. The third book in my Dub Walker series, which I’m currently working on, will have scenes in Georgia and North Carolina. We traveled only two-lane blacktops, no freeways, through North Alabama and Georgia, and Southwestern North Carolina, ending in Asheville at the Biltmore Inn. Saw some incredible and not exactly unfamiliar sites. Reminded me of my childhood.

Great valleys such as:

The Paint Rock Valley, between Huntsville and Scottsboro, where I hunted and fished with my Dad on many occasions and where Curley Putman wrote the famous song, The Green Green Grass of Home.

And this beautiful valley near Crabtree, NC.

Lakes like Guntersville Lake where I learned to waterski:

And Lake Burton in Georgia:

Cool small towns like Dahlonega, GA:

And Black Mountain, NC:

Interesting people such as an Amish man and his son in Georgia:

Small general stores like this one in Fines Creek, NC:

And those roadside signs that are such a Southern tradition. Some jabbed into the ground and others painted on trucks: