Thursday With Fred
Sometimes things just work out. Like the time I finally met Fred First, he of Fragments From Floyd and author of "Slow Road Home" . It was back in 2002 I started reading Fragments after our first visit to Floyd, Va. A link on the towns website directed me to Fred who, even then, was giving a sense of place to this mountain community. As our plans to move to this area came closer to fulfilment Fred provided a connection to this part of the world we would soon call home. By the time we made the move a year ago I felt like Fred had become an old friend whose love of nature and this part of the world he readily shared.
Bent Mountain library is on the way to Roanoke where I was staying coming from Willis where I was working. Fortunately, the hotel had a computer in the lobby and when I saw Fred was giving his first public reading at the library on Thursday it was a "no brain-er". It was just a matter of timing to arrive at 7 PM.
Fred greeted me with that "I know you from somewhere look" and when I told him who this guy with the necktie (a rather unusual accoutrement for Bent Mountain) was it was like old friends meeting. His reading was as entertaining a hour as I've spent and was kept on track by wife-director, Ann. And I was the first person to purchase his book at his first public reading.
Book Review:
Fred's book is a delight. It is like an expanded blog which one can easily pick up and read at leisure. He covers a variety of subjects from wonderful sensory descriptions of nature to the odd occurrences which in one form or another happen to us all. Throughout the book is a sensitivity to the world around us, to people, animals and the wonders of the natural world. "Slow Road Home" is unique for these words from someone who is first a remarkable photographer are written with a cameras perspective. The vignettes focus on a subject and illuminate the subtleties not always realized. In "Slow Road Home" Fred not only lets us join him on his to quest find his sense of place but also points out the many wonders along that journey.
Bent Mountain library is on the way to Roanoke where I was staying coming from Willis where I was working. Fortunately, the hotel had a computer in the lobby and when I saw Fred was giving his first public reading at the library on Thursday it was a "no brain-er". It was just a matter of timing to arrive at 7 PM.
Fred greeted me with that "I know you from somewhere look" and when I told him who this guy with the necktie (a rather unusual accoutrement for Bent Mountain) was it was like old friends meeting. His reading was as entertaining a hour as I've spent and was kept on track by wife-director, Ann. And I was the first person to purchase his book at his first public reading.
Book Review:
Fred's book is a delight. It is like an expanded blog which one can easily pick up and read at leisure. He covers a variety of subjects from wonderful sensory descriptions of nature to the odd occurrences which in one form or another happen to us all. Throughout the book is a sensitivity to the world around us, to people, animals and the wonders of the natural world. "Slow Road Home" is unique for these words from someone who is first a remarkable photographer are written with a cameras perspective. The vignettes focus on a subject and illuminate the subtleties not always realized. In "Slow Road Home" Fred not only lets us join him on his to quest find his sense of place but also points out the many wonders along that journey.
posted by The MacBean Gene at 8:53 AM
3 Comments:
How fun to be able to meet in person! And to see the face expression when the recognizing hitted him.
I've been checking his site up once before and I agree with you, he seems to be a fantastic fellow.
Thanks for the point in his direction - looks interesting. ec
Yo Dave, it only takes me about a week to catch up...just saw this, and yep, it was a hoot--the whole evening, and having you stop by especially. We'll have to have a setting where my attention is not so divided and talk at length!
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