Making the news pays off

This article appeared in last week’s issue of the I-24 Examiner, a weekly tabloid newspaper in Cheatham County, Tennessee (the county seat is Ashland City):

Cheatham County
Public Library Hosts
Nashville Author
Chester Campbell
September 5

Years after a dangerous chemical is dumped behind a small plant outside Ashland City, its toxic effects ravage the small community below the hillside location. Placing the blame for what happens is the plot of The Surest Poison, a new mystery novel by Nashville author Chester Campbell.

The Cheatham County Public Library will host Campbell for a book signing on Saturday, September 5, from noon to 3 p.m.

The Surest Poison is the first book in the Sid Chance Mystery Series. Chance is a Nashville private investigator, formerly a Green Beret in Vietnam, a National Park ranger and a small town police chief. It was just voted best book and received the Falchion Award at the 2009 Killer Nashville Mystery Conference.

The state comes after the plant owner to pay the enormous cleanup cost, but the pollution occurred before he bought the property. Chance is hired to find who was responsible since the original company disappeared a dozen years ago. The guilty party doesn’t want to be found, however, and three murders occur, one of them an Ashland City man, as Chance pursues the investigation.

The book features many Ashland City locations. The main characters visit the newspaper office, and a news story leads to one of the main clues in solving the mystery.

The Surest Poison was published in April 2009 by Night Shadows Press. Campbell has also written four books in the Greg McKenzie Mystery Series, set mostly around Nashville. The books include The Marathon Murders, Deadly Illusions, Designed to Kill and Secret of the Scroll. They will also be available for purchase at the library signing.

Campbell is a former Nashville newspaper reporter, magazine editor, advertising and public relations writer. He retired as executive vice president of the Tennessee Association of Life Underwriters.

A portion of the day’s sales will be donated to the Friends of the Library. For further information, contact Library Director Brooke Mulligan.

End of story

The signing event turned out quite well. The newspaper story brought in several people, including one woman who had the clipping stuck in her pocket. The interesting part is that the newspaper printed the story word-for-word as I submitted it, right down to the headline (and the misspelling of the library director's name, which should have been Mullican). You may have heard this before and wondered, but here's living proof--small newspapers love to get ready-to-print copy. If you can write a decent news story, send it in. Note I began with the chemical pollution angle, a familiar subject these days.

If you're doing a small town signing, take advantage of the opportunity for a news story. It can pay off.

Library event stirs excitement

Don't you just love it when people get excited about a coming event? The toxic chemical spill that's the key plot point in The Surest Poison takes place behind a small plant just outside Ashland City, the seat of Cheatham County, just to the west of Nashville. I contacted the Cheatham County Library director a few weeks ago and asked if she would be interested in my doing a book signing there. She thought it was a great idea. We set it up for Saturday, September 5.

In the book, I had PI Sid Chance and his part-time associate, Jaz LeMieux, visit the newspaper in Ashland City to seek the editor's help. A story he runs in the paper provides one of the key clues to solving a murder. When I spoke to Brooke Mullican, the librarian, I asked if she had any contacts at the newspaper. She said the editor was a friend. I sent her a news story about the signing, mentioning the newspaper's appearance in the book.

I received an email today saying she had sent the story to both newspapers. Turns out there's another one in a nearby small town that has a larger county-wide circulation. She's also meeting with the Ashland City editor tomorrow. She asked me to send some bookmarks they can begin handing out to library patrons next week.

I don't do much public speaking any longer because of a vocal chord problem, but I enjoy talking with people about my books at signings. I haven't done many pure signings at libraries, but the few I've done have gone well. The Southwest Branch Library at Pensacola, FL is a favorite. I did signings there for each of my books until this year. We curtailed our travel because of the economy and gas prices. I'm looking forward to going there next year, however. The Friends of the Library leaders there are great.

One of the fun parts of being an author is visiting locations where they generate a lot of enthusiasm over your appearance. The trip to Ashland City should be a delight.

Research - interesting and nostalgic

Some readers have commented that I must do an awful lot of research for my books. It's true, but that's a part of the job I really enjoy. I like to to do on-scene research as much as possible, though I may not describe things exactly as they appear. Since I set my books mostly in the Nashville area, I can visit sites as needed.

With The Surest Poison, I made a couple of trips to Ashland City, the setting for the chemical dump and much of the story. We ate lunch at a small restaurant that looks like a diner out of the mid-fifties. I didn't use its name but described the decor in the book as a meeting place for Sid Chance and Jaz LeMieux.

One spot near Ashland City I mentioned a couple of times is the Narrows of the Harpeth River. There Montgomery Bell built an iron forge in the early 1800s using slave labor to cut a 290-foot tunnel through limestone to provide water power. The photo shows where the water gushes out. I first saw this striking scene as a Boy Scout at the old Camp Boxwell, which was located nearby in the 1930s.

The Ashland City Times was another spot I visited and described without using the actual name. I talked with a reporter and mentioned him in the Acknowledgments. A church member came up to me after reading the book and said her grandmother and grandfather had started the newspaper. She wanted another copy for the folks in Ashland City.

Another town I used a few times is Franklin in neighboring Williamson County, one of the wealthiest counties in the nation (at least it was before the recession hit). I've been there many times but made a couple of visits to refresh my memory on a few points. I took photos of the main square, which I described near the end of the book when Sid and Jaz visit the local DA. Its main feature is a soaring stone monolith topped by a Confederate soldier. The Battle of Franklin in 1864 was one of the South's worst disasters. Six generals were killed or mortally wounded.

My only reference to the Civil War involved that lonely Rebel atop the monument. Sid mused that the soldier's lost cause was long ended, and he knew the feeling.

A body is found on page 2 of the book. I plunked it down in a spot familiar since childhood pre-WWII. The murder takes place in Shelby Park, a Metro facility that runs along the Cumberland River in East Nashville. I grew up not far from there and made many a visit in my day. They had a popular swimming pool when I was a kid. There are still ball diamonds, picnic areas, a golf course, and plenty of trees, green grass and roadways. A good place to dump a body in a rainstorm.



The story begins with Sid in his rugged cabin on a wooded hillside 50 miles east of Nashville. This location came courtesy of my younger son, Mark. A former Army Green Beret (though not in Vietnam like Sid), he loves the outdoors. Several years ago, he bought an 80-acre piece of property in Smith County. The community is called Pleasant Shade, but I call his place Campbell Mountain. It's a real chore to get to the top. He built a cabin near the crest of the hill, though it's not as commodious as Sid's. With some help from his two sons, seen above, he hauled all the materials up the hill via shank's mare. It included 4' x 8' sheets of plywood, 4x4 poles, and 40-pound bags of Quikrete. He has no electricity or running water. He also built a shooting range downhill from the cabin.

I find research for my novels both interesting and nostalgic.