How it came to be:

My friend, the author and small publisher Michael Lister discussed with me in 2003 the idea of gathering my various newspaper columns for sale to locals. (I have worked for The News Herald in Panama City, Florida, for more than 10 years, and have written a weekly column for much of that time.) Because of corporate ownership of the material, however, we were not able to seal the deal.
So Michael asked if I had another book in me, and I responded something to the effect of, "I've got this idea to write a series of interconnected short stories set in a fictional version of my hometown, Century, Florida. The characters would show up in each other's stories, and the finished effect would be a short novel."
He asked how long it would take to complete, and I said something like "six months." That was more than a year ago.
It was a difficult birth, but the book is done now. I have spent the past few nights going through it to check details -- too many people have green eyes, for instance, and at least one person's hair color inexplicably changed during the course of the tales. I'm about to turn it over to Michael.
Future posts will discuss the evolution of the characters, their origins, stuff about Century, photos, steps the book will go through to final publication. Any questions?