While in high school, I wrote a few poems, just playing with words. I never thought about writing a book. I read a lot of books while in school. One that stands out in my mind, even today is "Of Human Bondage" by W. Somerset Maugham. Recently, I wrote a small book about ginseng, then I started one day to write Life and Death on Troublesome Creek. I worked for several years on the novel, quitting for some time, then starting again.
I was born in Pinetop, Kentucky, on November the thirteenth, 1948, to Verlin and Azanna Slone. I was the tenth child to be born out of eleven. We grew up poor, to the world, but always seemed to make due.