I’m excited about the nearing release of Year of the Pig and there’s a profile page on Authors Around the South.

This is the very beginning.  My first blog entry at Sweetbill.com occurs approximately six weeks prior to the official book debut and publish date of September 1^st, 2011.  The debut party will take at the Auburn University, Solon Dixon Forestry Education Center http://sdfec.auburn.edu/ in Lower Alabama (LA).

I’ve worked out of the Dixon Center for a little over 16 years now.  My first introduction to the Dixon Center was as a Teaching Assistant (TA) for Forestry Summer Camp in the summer of 1992.  It was hot and wet that summer.  This summer (2011) started off hot and dry, but it’s getting wetter.

I didn’t know I was going to write a book in the summer of 1992.  I knew I was working my way towards a career in forestry.    Except for a few months when I toyed with the idea of become a commercial diver, and a few more years considering an island life as a SCUBA instructor, I’ve stuck with the idea that I’d be a forester.  I studied forestry for between 7 and 8 years.  I worked summers in a sawmill while I was getting my undergraduate degree.  And now I’ve worked full-time in the profession for 16+ years.

My first attempt at writing a book started about 10 years back.  It will probably take at least ten more years to bring that project to fruition.

I came up with the idea for Year of the Pig in early 2007.  I immediately put pen to paper, or fingers to the keyboard, and I didn’t stop until I handed in what I thought was a near finished manuscript in July, 2008. It wasn’t as polished or as finished as I thought it was.