Spring and Early Summer Events

It has been quite a while since I blogged.  Two events have occupied my time since then.  

An event on March 24, 2012 changed my life and my families forever.  We have a new addition to the family, my grandson, Colton.  It was an exciting day for us.  He was born around 5:30 am.  

 Colton at 4 weeks

At this point he is 12 weeks old, holding his head up, cooing, ahhing, and just in general becoming more lively.  He never stops moving.  The photo below is of him Sunday with his cousin Sherri at our family cookout for Father's Day.

 Colton at 12 weeks with Cousin Sherri

The second event was the release of my newest nonfiction title, "Once and Forever: The Story of Mount Airy Granite."  So far it has done well and I have met lots of folks interested in the history of the granite quarry.  They are so interesting that it is leading to my next book the history of the granite stone cutters and employees of the quarry, as well as, possibly a children's book.  

 My booth at the Mount Airy Book Festival on June 16th

Here is a photo of my booth at the First Annual Book Festival of Mount Airy, North Carolina.  We had around 20 authors inside and outside the library.  With this book I have attended several festivals, almost one every weekend, taking one weekend off to rest. 

 This flower planter was designed and carved by a master stone cutter, Vincenzo "Big Jim" Alfano.  He migrated to America from Italy back in the 1920s.  Trained since the age of 11, he came to America with the skills to carve wonderful granite pieces such as this and the Wright Brother's Memorial and the Mount Airy Post Office.  

 The Italian Stone Cutters (Big Jim in the center)

Interestingly, Big Jim's best friend here in America was a stone cutter from Czechoslovakia.  I imagine they had a lot in common with the language barrier, distance from their homeland, and the level of expertise they possessed of stone cutting.  No doubt it was not appreciated as it should have been.  Across the street from Big Jim's was the Thompson Boarding house.  Today, it is still standing and is forsale.  The Thompson Boarding House was home to the Scottish stone cutters.  You can read more about Big Jim in my new book. 

As this research unfolds, I have discovered more granite in the city of Mount Airy like the large out croppings along the Ararat River.  

Weathering of the rock has created a mushroom like structure found in the next photo. This type of granite is not high enough quality to make it worth mining.  It is fragile and crumbles pretty easy.  

Quartz is also in abundance in Mount Airy.  The river bed is full of quartz boulders that are used in the rock stacking found in river. Most folks call this river rock in the area and sometimes you will find one millions of years old that is smooth, round, shaped like an egg from where water has run over it for many years or tumbled it in the river bed.  

This coming weekend I will be in Wytheville, Virginia at the Chautauqua Festival promoting my new book and my first one, Wythe County, Viriginia, in the Images of America Series.  This was my first book that was released in 2004.  As Kojack would say, "I've come a long ways Babe'!"  That is my grandfather sitting barefooted on the hood of that old Model T.