Brave Ulysses

My tenth book – this one a collection of speeches and sermons delivered across the U.S. between 2010 and 2015. When I ran for Asheville City Council in 2009 a group of political opponents decided to tar me with accusations of atheism. No stranger has ever done me a bigger favor. With a little help from Rachel Maddow who aired a story about their efforts to prevent me from taking office I garnered my 15 minutes of fame and launched a modest career as a speaker for humanist, secular and atheist groups. The attack did wonders for my book sales as well.

Thanks folks! I needed that!

Whale Falls is an examination of how our beliefs shape our lives and a memoir of a difficult relationship, lessons learned and, finally, forgiveness.

A whale fall is the carcass of a dead whale sunk to the deepest depths of the ocean. They were only discovered in 1987 by a crew aboard the submersible Alvin.

Due to the very low oxygen content of deep ocean water, whale carcasses that sink to the deeps decay over decades, perhaps as long as a century, and wholly different organisms have evolved in the resulting mini-ecosystem. Related to the creatures which feed at volcanic vents in the ocean floor, the basis of the food chain is methane gas, the result of anaerobic decomposition.

Whales were the first major source of liquid fuel and at one point the world’s great cities were lit by whale oil street lamps. It’s arguable that the discovery of easily accessed petroleum in Pennsylvania saved the great whales from extinction, since drilling and pumping were far cheaper than the hazard and unpredictability of the hunt – particularly as cetacean numbers plummeted under the industrial onslaught.

Petroleum, added to the already enormous coal industry, has offered us great wealth at staggering cost. Climate change is driven by the accumulation of combustion by-products in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is the most prevalent. Methane is the most potent.

Now some scientist have speculated that if runaway heating of the planet seems unstoppable, it might be possible to inject the methane eating microbes found on whale falls into the upper atmosphere to consume methane. Hence my thematic metaphor for this book: looking at unexpected consequences of our beliefs and choices, and how solutions to our problems may be found in their origins.

In 2007 I published what was and is the only critical political biography of Rev. Billy Graham. Most of the books about Graham are the product of the Graham ministries, and all of the others focus on the putative “good” he has done in the world while glossing his political influence. Five years of research went into this book, with the help of three interns and a hired researcher working in the National Archives.

The untold story is that Billy Graham advocated war from 1948 forward, under every U.S. President, apparently in the belief that American armies would Christianize the world.

She Walks on Water: A novel, Brave Ulysses Books, 2013

A young woman in Haiti, a young man in Japan, a strange connection across species, across the ocean, around the world. It all began with an earthquake.

A story of immeasurable loss and profound love, the puzzle of linguistics, the testing of faith, and the lyrical resonance of pop culture.

In 2005 I published Finding Your Way in Asheville – a guide to my city. Though this is more than a guidebook, with stories about the cultural and natural history of this town.  Tales of the children of wealth who built this town (“Daddy’s Money”), the origins of NASCAR (“Trading Paint”), Black Asheville (“Afro History”), and, of course, The Giant Crystal Under the City.

Little did I suspect that it would become the best selling guide to the best town in America, or that I would be updating that book every couple of years for … ever? 2015 brought the 10th anniversary edition. How those years speed by! Now it seems most tourists travel cell phone in hand, and I think this will remain the final edition,

Update: 4/17/21— No longer available here. I suppose you still might find it online somewhere. Smart phones have definitely replaced City Guides … although the most useful part of Finding wasn’t for eateries and bars, but for Asheville’s history, natural history, Black history, NASCAR history and so forth.

My first couple of books were collections drawn from my weekly print and radio commentaries. Duck Soup: Essays on the Submerging Culture ran for 10 years in syndication, 3 years on WNCW 88.7 FM in Spindale.

The first collection was Gorillas in the Myth, 2000, reissued in 2008 with the snazzy new cover pictured. The second, The Icarus Glitch, was out in 2001.