By Gary Lloyd The spine is tearing and the dog-eared pages are beginning to curl, but the words inside still hold together. Well, at least they do for me. It’s a book from my freshman year of college, titled Journalism: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How, by James Stovall, and its importance was lectured to … Continue reading That’s news to me
By Gary Lloyd I’ve spent quite a bit of time swimming deep in the words Henry David Thoreau penned about Walden Pond, the novella Ernest Hemingway authored about a man battling a marlin in the Gulf Stream, and the colorful descriptions Rick Bragg illustrated about Mobile Bay. I have not spent much time diving into … Continue reading Understanding a place like Mississippi
By Gary Lloyd I’m a sucker for the words of Henry David Thoreau. I consume them like they are Peanut M&Ms, and I love Peanut M&Ms. He wrote in Journal in 1851 about why men must get hundreds, even thousands, of miles away from home before they can say they began their travels. Why, Thoreau asks, can … Continue reading Beginning my travels at home
By Gary Lloyd I have never killed a deer. Heck, I’ve never stared at one through the scope of a Remington or from atop a deer stand strapped tight to a tall oak. No, for most of my life I’ve only seen deer from a heated seat of a Hyundai Tucson or Kia Sorento, through … Continue reading Deer in the floodlights
By Gary Lloyd In days as implausible as these, as much as I have tried to avoid the vitriol on social media and television, I still was compelled to write. It’s what writers do during, well, any times, whether they be wild Wednesdays or mundane Mondays. If happenings are not written down, people forget. But … Continue reading Praise for local leaders
One-of-a-kind home, property hits market in Alabama By Gary Lloyd SPRINGVILLE -- Before the state-of-the-art home can be properly described, it is important to go back to its foundation. Not the foundation in the home’s literal sense, but rather its idea, its genesis. And it started when its owner and hopeful seller, now 71 years … Continue reading ‘You Can’t Beat It’
‘Memory he’ll have for rest of his life’ for young Bama fan By Gary Lloyd Our paths did not cross in Tuscaloosa, but I met Cody Kirk in the last year. We converse regularly about sports on Twitter and Facebook. Nothing too serious. Until this week. A video was posted to social media after the … Continue reading Prank to Praise
As an author and longtime keeper of books I forgot I even owned, bookends are necessities in my house. And what’s crazy is I don’t even have real bookends. You know, the fancy ones from Pier 1 and Wayfair. I just use whatever I can find — thicker hardbacks, wide picture frames, Bear Bryant-themed Coca-Cola … Continue reading Bookends on 2020
TRUSSVILLE — If I had been any closer to Pinchgut Creek, the water that runs alongside the railroad tracks at the intersection of Railroad Avenue and South Chalkville Road in Trussville, my feet would have been wet. At 10:50 a.m. Tuesday, my wife and I were the last people in that line to vote in … Continue reading A Fine Line
I’ve heard Pulitzer Prize winner and renowned Alabama author Rick Bragg speak several times about “the muse,” that source of creativity a writer relies on to put words on a page. He has not spoken of “the muse” glowingly. Writing, like anything else, is a job, he says. It’s hard work. You write for creativity, … Continue reading Making sense of the muse
