When I was a child, growing up in Athens, Georgia, my uncle, Terry Joe Bailey, was like my older brother. Like Uncle Clay in my debut children's middle grade novel, GONE FROM THESE WOODS, Terry died young. I still miss my uncle today and he was the main inspiration for my book, but not the only one.
I got the idea for the fictional story of a boy accidentally shooting his beloved uncle from a real story I heard about my second grade teacher, Mrs. Dycie Campbell. When she was still a young woman, her nephew, David Hancock, accidentally shot her first husband, William Campbell. This tragic accident happened in rural Clarke County, near Athens, Georgia. That's as far as the similarities go between the fictional story in GONE FROM THESE WOODS and the real story of the tragedy in my second grade teacher's family. But hearing the real story was enough to spark an idea which stayed with me for many years before I actually sat down at my computer and wrote what was to become my first published book.
I also found inspiration for my first published book during morning exercise walks around my rural Winterville, Georgia neighborhood. The beautiful, wooded area with its row of lakes and abundant wildlife, including birds and rabbits, helped me to spin stories in my head as I fast-walked the two to three miles each morning that helped me lose almost 40 pounds and lower my blood pressure and cholesterol.
One morning, I actually stumbled upon a dead rabbit that looked as if it had died in mid run. One of my neighbors later told me it probably died of a heart attack while being chased by a fox that had taken up residence underneath a tall stack of trees and other vegetation piled in an open area in the woods nearby. This fox, or one of its relatives had actually crossed my path on a recent exercise walk. It was the first time I had seen such a creature outside of a zoo. Getting back to the rabbit, I spent a few minutes looking at the dead bunny, wondering if it had felt any pain when it died and also wondering why it had to die like that. It wasn't much of a "leap" for me to imagine how hard it would be for someone like me to shoot a rabbit. Later, while writing, I gave my GONE FROM THESE WOODS narrator, eleven-year-old Daniel Sartain, those same thoughts and feelings when he's looking at a dead rabbit in the woods and then later when he tries to shoot a live rabbit.
I found the model for my GONE FROM THESE WOODS character, Frank Hooper, on my morning exercise walks, too. To read about George Langdale, click here.
To read more about Uncle Terry and see more pictures, click here.
If you'd like to learn more about my second grade teacher and even see a picture of my school and my second grade report card, click here.
You can read an excerpt from GONE FROM THESE WOODS here.
Order a copy of my debut novel here.
