Category: Book

When Skeeter Ellington doesn’t show up for happy hour one Friday afternoon, his drinking buddies fear something is wrong. Skeeter never misses Friday happy hour. Besides, there’s little else to do in Preston but drink beer, go fishing, grow pot, or play golf. His buddies Boot, Perch, and Mervin know they must do something. Across town, Hazel Owens struggles to keep a music studio above water, and now her significant other, Dr. Carol Baxley, isn’t responding to texts or calls. When a murdered woman is found early one morning in a car at the Urgent Care where Carol works, Hazel’s worry turns into dread. Sgt. Barbara Lowrie of the Preston police, a strong-willed Lumbee Indian who has overcome much to climb the ranks, throws herself into the case. She finds a tangled web of hatred, misogyny, and possible criminal collusion within the force. Is the murdered woman connected to Carol Baxley? Are the disappearances of Skeeter and Carol connected? And who is the threatening stranger in town she’s heard about?

In the spring of 1998, I began to feel a bit burned out on the job. It was affecting my writing. In short, I was uninspired and in a rut. I needed something to renew my enthusiasm and rekindle my creative fire. So I signed up to audit a course in creative writing at USC.… Continue reading Lonesome Pines

I was sitting at my desk in the newsroom one afternoon in 1997 when a phone call from a book publisher presented an interesting opportunity. Robin Asbury had started a local imprint called Summerhouse Press, and she wondered if I’d like to write a book about Hootie & the Blowfish. I’d been writing about various… Continue reading Hootie! How the Blowfish put pop back into Pop Rock