In Honor of Halloween, A Local Monster Story

The following piece was researched and written last summer for a local magazine (Gwinnett County, Georgia). I post it here in honor of the season. Sorry, no photos to post as yet. Those are currently trapped in storage in a malfuntioning remotedrive. I'll work on it.

The Wog (a true story)

Perhaps you are one of the many Gwinnettians who will be making the drive over to Athens this fall to attend UGA football games. Perhaps you are planning a late summer or early fall camping trip over at Fort Yargo State Park.

Perhaps, as you make the drive along Highways 78 or 316 one evening, you catch a glimpse of flashing red eyes from the side of the road. Perhaps, as you lay in your tent sleeping, you are awakened by a noise in the middle of the night. What of the flashing eyes by the side of the road? A deer, most likely. And what about the commotion in your campsite in the middle of the night? Probably a raccoon rummaging for food.

Probably. Maybe not.

Just three miles east of the City of Winder lies one of Georgia’s more unusual geographic oddities. Geologists refer to it as a peat bog, though there has been some discussion over the decades as to whether or not it might actually be a long-dead volcano.

Historical records indicate that the early white settlers to the area knew the place well. Numerous accounts are to be found which describe an area of some four to five acres of black muck that bubbled and boiled, and presented a hazard to man and beast alike.

The Creek Indians who inhabited this area referred to the spot as Nodoroc or, more precisely, Hell. The Creek believed Nodoroc a place inhabited by the Devil. Prisoners of war and criminals were sacrificed by tossing them into the muck. Occasionally, when no one else was available—and Nodoroc was particularly active spewing smoke—an innocent villager might be offered up as a sacrifice.

The Creek were concerned about appeasing the resident of Nodoroc. This fearsome creature, that the Creek believed to be the Devil, was called The Wog.

The Wog would go about at night, terrifying the local inhabitants, and devouring the bodies of their dead. When sacrifices were tossed into the bog, it was the Wog that would pull them under. Some of the victim’s ghosts are said to be heard screaming in the woods at night even to this day.

As white settlers moved into the area the story of Nodoroc and the Wog persisted, though in a somewhat less sinister form. Local histories recount settlers’ tales of the creature lurking about the countryside at night, sometimes frightening livestock to death.

Not unusual where myths and monsters are concerned, there was much agreement between the Native Americans and the white settlers as to what the Wog looked like. It was said to be the size of a small horse. It was covered in jet-black hair, and had a head that resembled a bear. Its legs were about the length of a deer’s, with the back legs slightly shorter than the front legs. It had huge, nasty teeth—so large that its ugly lips could not close over them. Not surprisingly, it had a long, forked tongue that darted in and out of its mouth, and red eyes.

Perhaps the Wog’s most distinguishing feature was its tail. It was said that its tail was long and had a wiry tuft of hair at the end. The creature continually swished its tail, creating a buzzing sound that could be heard at some distance. Settlers claimed to have heard the sound at night, and would occasionally see the forked tongue flicking in and out through the cracks in their cabin walls.

The Creek sold off the land of Nodoroc to white settlers (likely thinking that they were getting quite a deal). Over the decades, the bog was drained for agriculture. Still, it remained a hazard to livestock, though there are no records of the Wog having molested farm animals for some time.

On a recent visit to Nodoroc, my tour guides were Jimmy Hardegree, age 78 and a lifetime resident of the area, and his nephew, Andrew. Both are relatives of the man whose family has owned the property on which Nodoroc is located for generations.

Mr. Hardegree is a wealth of knowledge regarding local history. He even has his own “museum”, a recreated general store, behind his house and just down the road from Nodoroc.

A trail through the woods leads down to the bog. Our young guide, Andrew, points out a sign announcing Nodoroc. He says that the sign is a remnant of an Eagle Scout project conducted by his older brother years ago, when local schools would bring students over to see the site.

Today, Nodoroc is covered over by a growth of ferns. Still, there is no mistaking the dark, black muck. Even after two years of drought, the ground is spongy to walk upon. Andrew tells us that, when things (meaning “No drought”) are normal, it’s difficult to find a place on which to stand and not sink.

To illustrate, Andrew takes a large stick, maybe four feet in length, and easily pushes it down into the ground up to his palm. When he removes it just as easily, it is covered with a wet, black ooze, and makes a sucking sound as the stick is pulled out of the ground.

Mr. Hardegree talks about the area, how it was once covered in corn and how he farmed it himself years ago. He talks of mules and tractors having to be used to get cows unstuck from the bog. He speaks of other artifacts that have been found around the place and how, to his knowledge, no serious excavation has ever been conducted in the place once known as Nodoroc. Maybe people are too spooked?

Andrew laughs and tells about times when he has been down at Nodoroc and allowed his imagination to get the best of him. And how he was at a full run by the time that he got back to the house.

Neither Mr. Hardegree or Andrew have seen the Wog, though Andrew tells us that his brother and a friend did once see “something” off in the distance—something that was about the size of a deer, and was jet black.

That commotion in your campsite in the middle of the night—it’s just a raccoon going through your cooler.

But what’s that buzzing sound?

I'm thinking about going back to Nodoroc for a visit. I would like to see what the recent rains have done to revitalize the bog, and it seems like a Halloween thing to do.

RMR. And get spooked.

Georgia author Donny Seagraves-Gone From These Woods

An interview with Georgia author Donny Seagraves for her debut young adult novel Gone From These Woods, just out from Delacorte Press.

GBAW: Hunting and the outdoors were obviously part of your growing up, and part of the culture you live in. Did you have any concerns that your book would be seen as a direct assault on a part of that culture? Putting it bluntly, did you think that readers would come to identify you as having chosen sides in the often contentious national debate about guns?

DS: I did spend a lot of time outdoors like most kids who grew up before video games and computers, but hunting wasn’t part of my growing up. I didn’t come from a hunting family and actually knew very little about hunting and guns before I started writing the book that would become Gone From These Woods. I wasn’t trying to assault any part of our culture or anybody or choose sides in anything. I am telling a story. Since it’s a story about hunting and there is a gun in the story, and I’m not a hunter and have never owned a gun, I had to research those subjects and go out in the woods with the former police chief of the town where I live and learn how it feels to hold a gun in your hands and hear the sound when it fires and smell the smoke. I also consulted with a Georgia Department of Natural Resources Ranger to learn more about these subjects. The ranger told me there are more of these kinds of accidents in the woods than you might think. He also shared his own love of the outdoors and guns and hunting. I could almost feel his excitement about walking in the woods and the first day of hunting season. In my author’s note, I talk about hunting and guns and I don’t take sides.

GBAW: Clearly, the topic of suicide among young people is something that concerns you a great deal. You seem to feel just as strongly about the issue of gun violence. Was your intention with ‘Gone from these woods’ to write a work of advocacy fiction, if you will, or did you just want to tell a story that happened to achieve that end?

DS: I actually didn’t have an agenda when I started writing GFTW, other than to tell a story. The story happens to cover some tough and possibly controversial topics. I got the idea for this story from a real life gun accident I heard about when I was young. My second grade teacher’s nephew accidentally shot her husband (his uncle). That was all I knew about that tragic story. I used the idea of a boy accidentally shooting his uncle as a “story starter” or a “jumping off point” to construct my own story with characters who are not the “real boy” or his “real uncle.” They weren’t even hunting. The real boy was cleaning a gun. So, to get back to your question, of course the topic of suicide among young people concerns me. It should concern us all. Likewise, gun violence. But my intention when I wrote this book was to tell a story, not to write a book of advocacy fiction (not sure I’d even know how to do something like that). For me, the story is about the boy, Daniel. It’s a coming of age story and the fact that he goes through a horrible and tragic experience and survives is the point of the story. It’s not about the gun or the issue of suicide among young people. It’s about the boy. If readers feel they’d like to be more careful with guns after reading GFTW, I certainly applaud that. If they believe that suicide is not the solution to a problem, that’s good, too. But those weren’t the motivations for me to write this book.

GBAW: There has been an enormous amount of writing of late about the need to get kids back into the woods, to reconnect them with nature. There is even a term for it, now: Nature Deficit Disorder. Publications like ‘Field and Stream’ have taken up the issue. What are your thoughts on the subject, and do you recommend particular organizations, activities, or places?

DS: I’ve never heard of Nature Deficit Disorder until now, but I can definitely say that I’ve observed such behavior in young people all around me. I did some research into how many people hunt when I was writing my author’s note for GFTW and found that hunting is definitely on the decline. Families are more likely to live in urban areas now and there’s a lot of competition indoors for kids’ attention such as video games, computers, Internet, movies etc. I think this is something we should all be concerned about. Both of my children participated in scout troops when they were young and I would definitely recommend those. They also experienced outdoor activities in their church youth group and we visited state parks. I recommend that all parents keep outdoor activities on their to-do list. Seeing the outdoors on a computer screen or on TV isn’t the same as smelling pine and hearing a red-tailed hawk.

GBAW: You live and write in Athens, Georgia. Could you comment about your relationship to some of the other writers that live in this vibrant literary and writing community?

DS: Sure. My first editor was Phil Williams who later because the author Philip Lee Williams. Phil published my first adult writing in the Athens Observer, a great little alternative weekly newspaper. About a year later, I moved my column to the Athens Daily News, where my editor was Blake Giles, who later published several sports books. I was a columnist for the Daily News for about six years. One day I got a fan letter from a reader who worked at the Athens Regional Library. She introduced herself the next time I visited the library and we became friends. Eventually, she became the author Augusta Trobaugh (of course, I knew her under her real name, but I won’t share that here). I was an early student of Harriette Austin’s Creative Writing class at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education and got to know many writers there including Andrea Parnell, Beverly Connor, Judy and Takis Iakovou and others. I was in a writers group in the late 1980s at the Athens Regional Library with Lori Hammer, Gene Fehler, Mary Ann Coleman and many others. I’ve also been in or am still in writers groups with authors including Gail Karwoski and Susan Vizurraga. As a frequent writer for Athens Magazine since 1993, I’ve interviewed and reviewed the books of many authors including Judith Ortiz Cofer, Terry Kay and Mary Kay Andrews. My hometown of Athens, Georgia is known for music, but we also have a talented and active literary community.

GBAW: As a reader, I thought that the messages in your book concerning grief, loss, and having made a terrible mistake could have just as easily been delivered using an auto accident, or any number of “accident” scenarios. The hunting scenario could be just as likely to occur in the woods (and cultures) of New York state or Montana. Do you think that having it all take place in a Southern setting gave the story some unique perspectives that might not have occurred in a different geographic or cultural setting?

DS: Again, I was not trying to deliver a message or use a scenario to get a point across. It’s a fictional story inspired by a real life happening. This is the tenth book I’ve written but is the first to be published. In the other nine books I worked very hard to take out the “Southernness,” which was quite hard for me since I am a native of Athens, Georgia and have lived all of my life in this area. I did this because I was told early on as I submitted manuscripts to New York publishers that I would never be able to sell a book to a NY publisher if it was Southern. Well, this is the first book I’ve written where I just let the Southern hang out and it sold to the first editor who read it, Michelle Poploff, VP and Editorial Director of Random House in New York.I think one of the reasons this book sold is its Southern setting. It’s Georgia in 1992. I took this setting directly from the area where I live, about six miles from Athens. A few years ago, I began exercise walking early in the morning to reduce my cholesterol. For the first time as an adult, I actually “saw” the place where I lived. It sounds corny, but I smelled the pine trees, heard the birds, saw the fish jump from the lakes behind my house. Yes, you could set this story anywhere there are woods, and you could change the details of the accident, but in my mind it wouldn’t be Daniel’s story. One of the things you do when you write fiction is make decisions. Lots of decisions. I decided right from the start that Daniel was a boy of the South and this would be a Southern story, whether or not it ever sold to anyone. And so it is.

GBAW: Tell me a little more about Mr. Hooper. Is he based upon a real person? Southern fiction always seems to supply a regular guy, usually older and a little curmudgeonly, who always manages to come through for everybody in a pinch. Could you comment?

DS: I’ll answer the last part of the question first. I didn’t have an older, a little curmudgeonly regular guy in my earlier versions of GFTW. My editor asked me to add a helpful neighbor. “Old Man Hooper” is mentioned in the first chapter by Uncle Clay. So I decided to give him a role in the book other than just being a name. I borrowed the names “Mouse Creek Road” and “Hooper Gap Road” from Cleveland, Tennessee, where my mother and other family members live. So it seemed natural to make this neighbor a Hooper from Hooper Gap Road. As I thought about bringing him to life, I remembered George Langdale, a retired Soil Scientist who owned about 70 acres of undeveloped land behind our land (it bordered the area where I walked in the mornings). George used to ride up and down the road in his old pickup truck full of barking hunting dogs while I was exercise walking. So I put the truck and the dogs in my story. It was the editor’s idea to have this helpful character and I simply reached out and gathered someone who was in my memory (George passed away about three years ago) and seemed like someone who would have helped Daniel. I agree that there are many helpful characters in Southern fiction. But they’re in every kind of fiction and I’m glad they exist in the real world, too.

GBAW: What’s next?

DS: I’m in the process of rewriting the book I wrote right before GFTW (number nine to me). Random House has an option on it and hopefully my agent will sell it to someone when I’m done. I’m also actively promoting GFTW. I recently appeared on a panel about middle grade novels at the 4th Annual AJC Decatur Book Festival. Next week I’ll got to SIBA (Southern Independent Bookseller’s Alliance) where I’ll participate in a panel called, “Writing the South.” In October, I’ll be a featured author at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville. And of course, there’s always the next book. For me, it really is about the writing.

You can visit Donny at her website: http://www.donnyseagraves.com/ and her blog: http://www.wintervillewriter.com/ . Gone from these Woods is now available in bookstores, both real and virtual.

Gone From These Woods is a tremendous young adult/middle school read, and deals with some difficult subjects.

Recommended:

Blood Brothers by H. A. Harazin

RMR

Fall in Georgia--Look What's Coming

Thank goodness. Fall is around the corner. School starts back soon. College enrollments are way up and budgets are way down. Cooler weather. Fly fishing? And, of course, college football.

Fall is also prime book season. Here is a smattering of what's happening in Georgia. Note: this is the Cliffnotes version. If you want more details, please check the appropriate link at right.

Happy reading all.

From A Capella Books in Atlanta's Little Five Points District:

August 19 at 7 pm
Pat Conroy South of Broad
At the Carter Center

September 24 at 7 pm
Gary Pomerantz The Devil's Tickets: A Night of Bridge, a Fatal Hand, and a New American Age
At the Carter Center

From the Georgia Center for the Book:

August 6 at 6:30 pm
Judson Mitcham A Little Salvation
Cherokee Regional Library, LaFayette, GA

August 10 at 7 pm
James Cobb Georgia Odyssey
Hart County Library, Hartwell, GA

August 11 at 7:15 pm
Amanda Gable The Confederate General Rides North
Georgia Center for the Book, Decatur

August 25 at 7:15 pm
Jonathan Tropper This Is Where I Leave You
Georgia Center for the Book, Decatur

September 4 thru September 6
The Decatur Book Festival
150 Authors

September 14 at 7:15 pm
Tom Edwards Blue Jesus and Samg Pak Wait Until Twilight
Georgia Center for the Book, Decatur

September 15
Judy Shepard The Meaning of Matthew: My Son's Murder In Laramie and a World Transformed
Time and Location TBA

September 17 at 7:15 pm
Sal Cilella Upton's Regulars
Georgia Center for the Book, Decatur

September 17 at 7 pm
David Bottoms Waltzing Through the Endtime
Lake Blackshear Regional Library, Americus, GA

September 19 from 11 am to 3 pm
Celebrate Curious George and his creator H. A. Ray
Georgia Center for the Book

September 21
Philippa Gregory The White Queen
Time and Place TBA

September 28 at 7 pm
Garrison Keillor Pilgrims: A Wobegon Novel
Presser Hall, Agnes Scott College, Decatur

September 29 at 7:15 pm
Poetry Night Atlanta
Robin Kemp This Pagan Heaven and Karen Head Goizia Notebook
Georgia Center for the Book, Decatur

September 29 at 7 pm
Terry Kay collected works and stories
Catoosa County Library, Ringgold, GA

October 6 at 7:15 pm
Carmen Deedy 14 Cows in America
Georgia Center for the Book, Decatur

October 12 at 7:15 pm
Carol Berkins Civil War Wives
Georgia Center for the Book, Decatur

October 13
Byron Pitts Step Out on Nothing: How Faith and Family Helped Me Overcome Life's Obstacles
Time and Place TBA

October 17 from 9 am to 6 pm
The Georgia Literary Festival
Rome, GA

October 19 at 7:15 pm
R. A. Salvatore The Ghost King: Transitions, Book III
Georgia Center for the Book, Decatur

October 20 at 7 pm
Terry Kay Collected Works and Stories
Mountain Regional Library, Young Harris, GA

October 25 at 3 pm
Hank Klibanoff The Race Beat
Athens Regional Library, Athens

October 26 at 7:15 pm
Robert Hicks A Seperate Country
Georgia Center for the Book, Decatur

October 28 at 7:15 pm
Wil Haygood Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson
Georgia Center for the Book, Decatur

October 29 at 7 pm
Wil Haygood Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson
Ohoopee Regional Library, Vidalia, GA

November 10 at 7:15 pm
Jill McCorkle Going Away Shoes
Georgia Center for the Book, Decatur

November 14 from 10 am to 4 pm
Savannah Children's Book Festival
Savannah

November 17 at 7:15 pm
Mary Kay Andrews The Fixer Upper
Georgia Center for the Book, Decatur

November 19 at 7:15 pm
Debbie Macomber One Simple Act: Discovering the Power of Generosity
Georgia Center for the Book, Decatur

Presented by the Margarett Mitchell House:

August 8
George Dawes Green Ravens

August 20
Nancy Grace The Eleventh Victim

August 28
Jack Riggs The Fireman's Wife

September 16
Anita Diamant Day After Night

September 30
Richard Russo That Old Cape Magic

October 27
Rita Mae Brown Animal Magnetism: My Life with Creatures Great and Small

October 29
Richard Paul Evans The Christmas List

November 9
David Wroblewski The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

November 16
Jeff Shaara No Less Than Victory

November 18
Jennifer Burns Goddess of the Market

Other Events and Happenings:

August 16
Nancy Grace The Eleventh Victim
Borders at Peachtree Road, Atlanta

August 30 at 2 pm
Donny Seagraves Gone From These Woods
Borders Books, Athens, GA

September 2 at 7 pm
Rev Run Take Your Family Back
Barnes & Noble at Peachtree Road, Atlanta

September 19 at 7 pm
Jamie and Bobby Deen The Deen Boys Take it Easy
Barnes & Noble, Savannah

October 15 at 7:15 pm
Andy Williams Moon River and Me
Margaret Mitchell House, Atlanta

Upcoming Releases of Note:

September 1: Phillip Lee Williams The Campfire Boys

September 15: Marion Montgomery With Walker Percy at the Tupperware Party: in Company with Flannery O'Conner, T.S. Eliot, and Others

Events can change. Better check the websites. More to come. Happy Reading.

RMR

South of Broad by Pat Conroy

Author and native Atlanta, Georgian Pat Conroy has a new book, South of Broad. It is being published by Nan A. Talese, and arrives in bookstores on August 19. I managed to snag an advanced reader's copy some weeks ago, and read the book over a few days.


Pat Conroy's men are Southern to the core. They just don't wear it on their sleeve as a simple-minded caricature (unless intended to irritate someone who's predisposed to see those same caricatures). Conroy's protagonists are damaged, bruised and roughed up, but still full of dignity and grace. They are prone to be bookish, non-judgemental, empathetic, a bit too sensitive, and can even cook well. They also love football, can handle themselves on a basketball court, appreciate the discipline and tradition of military service, and can use a rod, reel, and firearm with ease. They are right at home in the library, in the woods, on the water, or on a ball field. Conroy's men are a little embarrassed about themselves, pretty quick to turn the other cheek, and wicked pranksters who recognize that even a thinking man will sometimes encounter some S.O.B. in life who is so sorry that only whipping his ass will get the message across.



Mr. Conroy's readers figured out a long time ago that he has a love (hate) relationship with the city of Charleston, South Carolina, the Carolina low country, and the South in general. Reviewers are already calling this book a love letter to Charleston. No doubt, Charleston is the star of this novel. But this book is also full of the character types that won Mr. Conroy millions of fans over the years. There are also guest appearances by Hollywood and Mother Nature. I remember being in Savannah that September night in 1989, on the telephone with a co-worker over in Charleston, and wondering what that must have been like for him. Now I have a pretty good picture. Mr. Conroy's language is just tremendous.



If this book is a love letter to Charleston, it is also a beautifully written tribute to friendship. Mr. Conroy writes of "essential men". He might well have referred to essential women, or essential people. That's the real story. That, and a gallant, bookish nerd who suffers the nickname, 'The Toad'.



Pat Conroy is the author of eight previous books. Though the folks of the Carolina Low Country claim him, he is a native of Atlanta, Georgia.



Pat Conroy will be discussing his new book at the Day Chapel of the Carter Center at Emory University in Atlanta on Wednesday, August 19th. The event is at 7 pm, and doors open at 6 pm. Admission to the event is $30 ($25 for Friends of the Carter Center) and will include an autographed 1st edition of South of Broad.

RMR

Georgia Authors Discuss Iran, Espionage and National Security Issues

Attention all espionage and national security aficionados:

On Thursday evening, beginning at 7 pm at the Buckhead (Atlanta) Barnes & Noble, Emory University professor of political science and history, Dr. Harvey Klehr will discuss his new co-authored book, Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America. The book examines the journals of former KGB officer Alexander Vassiliev, and details the heretofore unknown extent of the KGB's operations in the United States. The book, and the discussion, will likely prove far more interesting than even the best Cold War fiction.

What: Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America by Harvey Klehr

Where: Barnes & Noble Buckhead (Atlanta)

When: 7 pm, Thursday, June 25

Other Georgia authors you may wish to check out:

If you have an interest in intelligence and intelligence agencies, University of Georgia professor of political science Loch Johnson is one of the leading intelligence scholars in the country. In January of 2001, at a book signing for his then new book, Bombs, Bugs, Drugs and Thugs: Intelligence and America's Quest for Security, Dr. Johnson discussed his fear of a possible "non-conventional attack against the US by a terrorist group or other non-state actor" as one of the gravest threats facing America. Nine months later, Dr. Johnson was in great demand by media organizations seeking expert analysis concerning that very tragic reality.

Loch Johnson is the author or co-author of nearly a dozen books on intelligence and national security topics, including the Handbook for Intelligence Studies (June 09) and Fateful Decisions: Inside the National Security Council (with Ambassador Karl Inderfurth; Nov 03).

If you have been following events in Iran, you may wish to examine the books of Georgia author and Middle East expert Sandra Mackey. In particular, her book The Iranians: Persia, Islam, and the Soul of a Nation (Apl 98) is certainly relevant to current events. Her other books include Reckoning: Iraq and the Legacy of Saddam Hussein (first published in May 02, then revised in March 03) and Mirror of the Arab World: Lebanon in Conflict (Feb 08).

If you have been following the Swine Flu pandemic, Georgia author and former Atlanta Journal Constitution health reporter Maryn McKenna's 2004 book, Beating Back the Devil: On the Front Lines with the Disease Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service is a darkly fascinating and disturbing look at the work of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) headquartered in Atlanta. McKenna was given unprecedented access to the elite units of the CDC who serve as America's (and often, the world's) front-line warriors against Ebola, SARS, bio-terrorism and flu pandemics.

The recent and horrific shooting at the National Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. brings to mind Georgia author Daniel Levitas' 2002 (revised in 2004) book, The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia Movement and the Radical Right. Levitas regularly consults with law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, on issues relating to domestic terrorism.

For good, solid WWII-Cold War fiction, try University of Georgia faculty member, screen writer, and former CIA officer Howard Berk's novel, Nikolai's War (08). Some of Berk's other writing credits include many of the scripts for the original 'Mission Impossible' and 'Columbo' TV series.

On a related, though non-literary, side note, I was recently pleased to discover that the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education is continuing a program that I started there back in 2005. This year's Secret Agent Summer Camp (formerly, Spy Camp) sounds pretty cool. Below is a link to an Athens Banner Herald article about the program when we were first getting it off the ground.

http://onlineathens.com/stories/100305/fea_20051003007.shtml

RMR

The Immigrant Experience--Judy and Takis Iakovou Book Signing

After years of meticulous research, Judy and Takis Iakovou's historical mystery novel, Bitter Tide, finally hit the shelves this week. The Athens' area couple are perhaps best known for their previous Nick and Julia Lambros mystery series, which includes So Dear to Wicked Men and There Lies a Hidden Scorpion. They are also known for Taki's Greek cooking, and are the former owners of the Silver Screen restaurant in Crawford, Georgia.

A nice crowd turned out this past week for their reading and signing over in Athens, GA. The new novel revolves largely around Ellis Island, and early 1900s New York City. The Library Journal has already given the book a hearty thumbs up.

For a bit more detail about the book, see the article that appeared in this week's Athens Banner Herald at the link below:

http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/060909/liv_448892860.shtml

The photo is from this week's signing. That's author Terry Kay in the one shot. He is a tremendous supporter of Georgia authors and their work.

Congratulations Judy and Takis!

Also suggested, if you are interested in immigrant stories (& Georgia):

Outcasts United by Warren St. John. This new title features the story of a group of immigrant/refugee kids in metro Atlanta who form a very successful soccer team. The book has been receiving a great deal of press lately, and a movie deal is in the works.

RMR

The Siege by Ismail Kadare

First published in Albania in 1970, then in France in 1994, The Siege by Albanian author Ismail Kadare has finally made it to bookstores in the U.S. It is just out from Cannongate Press. It is extraordinary.

The book won the first Man Booker International Prize in 2005, and Kadare has repeatedly been seen as a candidate for a Nobel Prize in literature. And he is from Albania.

Set in medieval Albania during Ottoman rule, The Siege tells the story of an Ottoman army trying to take an Albanian citadel. If historical fiction, fine writing, epic battles, and universal themes interest you, this book is worth a look.

This book is brutal, sensual in places, and rich.

The photos at top are of Rozafa Citadel in Shkoder, Albania. They show the castle at a distance, then looking over the ramparts toward the city of Shkoder, then the interior of the fortress. The photos were shot back in 1994.

Recommended:

The General of the Dead Army and Broken April, both by Ismail Kadare.

Andersonville by McKinley Kantor

Broken April was the last book that I ever purchased from Oxford Bookstore in Atlanta. On my way to Albania to teach.

RMM