Last night I had the opportunity to be part of a panel discussion hosted by the Nashville chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. The forum was hosted by Blake Farmer of WPLN (Nashville’s NPR station) and I answered questions along with fellow local authors Craig Havighurst, E. Thomas Wood, and Radley Balko on the topic of writing books. What made the event especially interesting for me was the location where it occurred. WPLN’s office in the Metro Center area of town is just a few blocks from the neighborhood where Perry Wallace grew up, including the thicket of rocks and trees where he meditated before making his decision to attend Vanderbilt. Capturing a sense of place was an important part of the book for me, and speaking about the book for the first time so close to the spot where Wallace decided to embark on his pioneering journey was a cool experience.
