Hello and welcome to my official author's website - a place for you to encounter and hopefully enjoy the things I have written over the years about faith, family, and history.
I am a native and lifelong resident of Watauga County, North Carolina, nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Appalachia, where many of my ancestors settled by the 1790s, resulting in some of my family having been here for eight or more generations. This rich and lengthy heritage sparked my early interest in genealogy and local history and, at the age of eleven (quite a few moons ago!), I embarked on a quest to write books about each of my four grandparents' families. I published three of those over a period of decades and have one more to complete. Beyond these genealogical endeavors, I have also delved into other aspects of my county's history (including a well-known murder case), resulting in the publication of a few other books, ideally with more to follow. Additionally, I have composed quite a few personal reflections about Bible passages, my faith in Jesus Christ, and the Christian life.
I am a graduate of Appalachian State University in my hometown of Boone, North Carolina (BA in Political Science/MA in Education with a social studies concentration) and also worked at the university for nine years before being employed at Samaritan's Purse, a Christian international relief organization, where I have worked for nearly thirty years.
Perhaps because I'm blood kin to a number of craftsmen, musicians, and storytellers, I have always needed and enjoyed creative outlets. Aside from writing, I have dabbled through the years in art (pencil drawings in particuar), residential design/decor (enjoying my log home, which sits on part of my maternal grandparents' former farm and has an inspiring view of the mountains), collecting and refinishing antiques, amateur photography, and even a bit of cooking.
I have also had the privilege to travel quite extensively, visiting more than 60 countries through both personal and work-related trips, and I have appreciated the opportunity to expand my worldview in the process. In the words of Mark Twain, “Travel is fatal to prejuidce, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.... Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
Again, welcome! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out. I am glad you are here.
Hello and welcome to my official author's website - a place for you to encounter and hopefully enjoy the things I have written over the years about faith, family, and history.
I am a native and lifelong resident of Watauga County, North Carolina, nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Appalachia, where many of my ancestors settled by the 1790s, resulting in some of my family having been here for eight or more generations. This rich and lengthy...
On a cold and snowy night in 1972, three members of one family were murdered in their house on the outskirts of the small town of Boone, North Carolina. Strangled and placed headfirst into a water-filled bathtub, the victims were Bryce Durham, 51, owner of a local car dealership; his wife, Virginia Durham, 44, who provided clerical support for...
Prior to its formation in 1849, Watauga County was a hunting ground for the Cherokee and part of the trail blazed by frontiersman Daniel Boone, for whom the county seat was later named. Primarily settled by whites after the Revolutionary War, many of the county’s earliest families came to the Appalachians from the Piedmont region of North...
C. S. Lewis once stated that, when we are offered the infinite joy that accompanies the promises of God, we are “like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.”
This has made a lasting impression on me, and I think about it regularly.
Throughout my life, I have often had tightly held ideas of what my life should look like and consist of. I have frequently pursued goals without committing them to...
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
I can’t say for sure, but I do know that, when you get a group of Baptist men together for a few hours with a handful of chainsaws and axes and a couple of wood splitters, it’s enough to fill two small dump trucks. The old adage doesn’t lie: Many hands make light work.
That was what happened this morning, when nearly twenty men from our church gathered at our pastor’s place to cut up wood for the benefit of a fellow member....
This morning, I spoke to around a dozen kids at a summer reading camp. Although once upon a time, as a student teacher, I taught middle schoolers, kids are not my typical audience, particularly over the course of the past few years of being invited to speak about a true crime book I wrote. Still, I accepted the invitation with equal measures of curiosity and slight trepidation. Kids can be a tough audience in that they are super discerning and can see straight through you if you’re not on top...
