I'm one of E. B. White's third New Yorkers: not a native of the city, not a commuter by day, but someone who came from somewhere else in search of something. That somewhere else, in my case, was the South. I was born in North Carolina, raised in Florida, and worked for years in Georgia. But when I got here, half a lifetime ago now, I gradually realized I was home amid a large and vibrant community of writers.
I've written books about bass fishing tournaments (Bass Wars), a Mafia family in witness protection (Sins of the Father), life in a small church (Ordinary Miracles), the invention of the laser (Laser), and myself and my parents in their final years (A Necessary End). I collaborated with astronaut and Senator John Glenn on his autobiography. And I wrote the only history of the Works Progress Administration, the New Deal program that saved American workers from the Great Depression of the 1930s and solidified the country's infrastructure for years to come (American-Made).
The writing I've done -- it's all nonfiction -- has been a gift to my curiosity.