Hill Billy Highway Book Cover Design

My buddy Chad Nance of Weird Load Nation fame has a book coming out soon called "Hill Billy Highway". It's a Thompsonesque (as in Hunter S.) take on the South and politics and wild living. Chad approached me a couple of months ago to come up with some cover designs for him. I was glad to give it a try, been a while since I have had a fun design project. This was not my first book cover having done one for my Uncle Gunnard a few years back for his mystery book "The North Shore". Lucky for Chad (and me), I had a wealth of great photos to work from provided by our mutual friend,  Casey Gwinn. Not only is Casey a great photographer, but he was Chad's sidekick and documented many of the adventures described in the tome. Casey also does a blog of his photos called COGfoto check it out. I believe there may also be photos from one or two other folks used in the final design you see pictured, so Casey or Chad, weigh-in with a comment and give credit where it is due. Now, I need to get back to work on my own book...

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UPDATE - Just confirmed, "Hill Billy Highway" will be released October 1, 2011!

Image for September 14, 2011 - Save the Turtles!

I've been having lots of wildlife encounters lately, maybe it's the time of year or maybe it's because I'm always on the lookout. In this case, I came across this tiny, baby snapping turtle in the middle of a sidewalk, nowhere near water or the woods. He was a sweet little guy, didn't move much. I couldn't tell if he was playing dead or was really not feeling well. I do know that I wasn't going to leave him on the sidewalk where he'd likely get stepped on, so I mounted a rescue effort and drove him to a nearby marsh and put him by the water. I tried to give him a fighting chance at life.

Now, let me tell you the story about the time I found a baby snake in my kitchen...

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Image for September 12, 2011 - Bigfoot's on the Loose!

Was out the other day and came across this suspicious footprint. Just for reference, that is my foot for comparison and I wear a size eleven. My god, whatever left that track must be HUGE!

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Image for September 6, 2011 - The Last Picture Show

Tonight I was out doing a little shopping and went by Pembroke Mall in Virginia Beach and saw a demolition crew working hard on the back corner of the complex taking down the former Regal Cinema Eight movie theaters. There is another Regal cinema right across the street that gets all the first run films and blockbusters. The old Pembroke theaters would get the big movies after they had been out for a month and the crap horror movies and "urban" comedies and weird stuff that might play one week before disappearing.  I have no sentimental attachment to that particular movie house, it was just another charmless, corporate box, but I did see a lot of movies there. The most memorable was probably "28 Days Later", not so much because of the film itself (though it is a great film), but because some moron in the audience took a cell phone call in the middle of the movie and answered in a normal, full voiced volume that instantly drew the ire of the crowd, myself included. The clueless person kept talking, now defiant and the crowd piled on, with yells of "SHUT UP!" and "TAKE IT OUTSIDE!". The lady (I use the term loosely) finally finished her call and shouted back, "Y'all need to be shutting up!", prompting one more round of verbal abuse from the mob, before everyone quieted down and we all settled back into Danny Boyle's savage zombie epoch.

Here's an incomplete list of movies I saw at the now gone Regal Pembroke Eight:

• 28 Days Later
• Solaris
• Predators
• Inglorious Basterds
• The Mist

There were many more, but that's all that comes to mind right now.

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Image for August 31, 2011 - Don't Tread on Me

While securing the yard before the hurricane, I found this snake coiled up underneath one of the clay pots. It was small, about as big around as my little finger. It was so still when I first noticed it, that I thought it might be dead. Then I noticed what I thought were eggs around it and considered that maybe it was a momma sitting in her nest. With Irene approaching, I decided I couldn't leave this serpent to the elements, so I put another clay pot back over her, making sure to leave a little escape tunnel. Now that I'm looking at the photo and can study this snake in more detail, I got to wonder, is this a rattler? The end of the tale is there was nothing under the pot when I checked later.  No snake, no eggs only new knowledge that I need to be careful where I poke around in my yard.

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Image for August 29, 2011 - The Aftermath

So the sun did come up Sunday morning as the last dregs of Irene drained from the sky to our north. We woke-up to no power (expected) and a yard carpeted in small branches and leaves. I set the grill up so we could make some coffee and breakfast, then we set to the task to return our life back to normal. The air was clean and bright like an Edward Hopper painting and my gal and I were glad to be alive. All things considered, we got damn lucky. We finished our chores and got out on the beach for a long walk. It was the perfect day to walk along the shore. Irene left the beach, packed, flat and wide and it seemed everyone was out enjoying the calm. Came across this pelican dead on the sand. Can only guess that the storm was too much for the old boy and the wind dropped him here. A sad reminder that lives were lost in this storm, five in our area alone. No one I knew took any serious hit, in fact most didn't even lose power (we are still without power as of this morning, but a minor hassle). I'm grateful to be done with last week, a week that brought us an earthquake and hurricane. Here's hoping that September is more peaceful.

zahdah!

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