Matt wins Unpublished Novel Competition!

Bookhabit.com is pleased to announce the winner of the inaugural Bookhabit Unpublished Competition is Matt Fullerty's The Pride and the Sorrow. Matt receives a US$5000 prize and is "thrilled" about winning the first Bookhabit competition. We will be posting an interview with Matt on Bookhabit.com shortly. Congratulations from Bookhabit!

You can see full details with an endorsement of the novel at http://bookhabit.com/competition/
The Pride and the Sorrow is the story of Paul Morphy (1837-1884), born in New Orleans as a chess prodigy, his famous journey through Europe and his ultimate downfall on and off the chessboard. He is celebrated in fashionable European society, honored by Napoleon III of France and Queen Victoria of England and returns to New Orleans a local celebrity, only to find Civil War looming, a storm brewing in his family and his own mind coming apart ...

The novel itself is available at http://www.bookhabit.com/competition

Kerouac House - I am Alternate!

I am pleased to say I am the alternate choice to live in Jack Kerouac's old house for 3 months! The Kerouac House in Orlando, Florida, is the house Kerouac lived in with his mother when On The Road was published, made him famous, and where he subsequently wrote The Dharma Bums!

If Brian Turner, the soldier-poet known for his 2005 poetry volume Here, Bullet decides not to live in the house (from June-August 2009), I am first alternate choice! Voila the house!

The Kerouac House is now run by the Kerouac Project of Orlando at http://www.kerouacproject.org/ Plus you can tour the Kerouac House here.

Voila the house!

Novel's first review - thanks Geoff!

Geoff Cush, a member of the judging panel, had this to say about THE PRIDE AND THE SORROW : "What made Matt Fullerty's writing stand out, from the very first sentence, was an unusually strong and individual way with words. Taking us into the vanished world of old America and Europe he uses a highly textured language to give an almost physical experience of being in that place and time. Drawing subtle lines between a society top-heavy with leisure and the profligate genius it produced in Morphy, he holds back the historical and personal reckoning while letting it gather and brood like the storm that finally washes away New Orleans. In my view this makes THE PRIDE AND THE SORROW a stand-out all rounder in the craft of literary fiction."

This smart-looking chap is Paul Morphy. You can follow this link to find out more about his New Orleans family. And to learn more about his formidable chess opponents with slideshows of the players click here!

Charlottsville Courthouse, temporary capital of the South!

Me in Charlottsville at the county courthouse, which boasts an impressive history here.

After Jefferson retired from the Presidency to Monticello in 1809, he visited this courthouse many times, as did his neighbors and presidential successors Madison and Monroe. As the only large public building in the village, it served not only for court b ut also for meetings of the University's first Board of Visitors, for associations such as the Albemarle Agricultural Society, and for religious services. Today's front was built just before the Civil War.

Charlotsville is home to the University of Virginia (founded by Thomas Jefferson) which boasts a good English department!

Charlie at Natural Bridge, TN (name of a town)

Voila Natural Bridge, Tennessee, a small town hosting a magnificant natural geological formation - an arch to you and me. The rock formation is 215 feet tall and 90 feet wide. As you continue on the trail, you'll pass through the small Monacan Indian Village, where they have reenactments and you can ask them questions. Farther along the trail you'll follow Cedar Creek and pass Saltpeter Cave, where they mined for nitrates to make gunpowder during the Civil War.

Charlie kicking back with Natural Bridge - much larger than it looks! - in the background.

There is also The Lost River, visible through a low arch in the side of the mountain, its sparkling waters flowing from an unseen cavern above to one below the creek.

And at the end of the hike is Lace Falls, with small cascades along the 50-foot drop.

Grand Ol' Opry, Nashville

Dear England, here's the original site of the famous Grand Ol' Opry, home of country music! Today the Opry is a weekly country music radio program and concert broadcast live on WSM radio in Nashville, Tennessee, every Friday and Saturday night

Memphis, Tennessee!

Me and the Mississippi in Memphis, Tennessee!Downtown Memphis, still with working streetcars! And out on Beale Street, with the Big Ass Beers bar - where outdoor blues music was unbeatable!

Clingman's Dome, Highest Point in the Smoky Mountains!

Clingman's Dome is the highest point in Tennessee along the Appalachian Trail!

Here's a fact for you, England. Reputedly known as "Kuwahi" (the mulberry place) by the Cherokee Indians, the mountain was originally dubbed "Smoky Dome" by local Scots-Irish inhabitants.

Me with the Danger, Falling Deaths sign - such a lovely warning to go climbing the mountain!

Elvis Has Left the Building

Here we are inside Graceland, the living room below kept as it was in the 1970s. Check out the stained-glass windows and baby grand piano! Elvis's grave is a pleasant memorial laid around water, but you also learn that he is buried alongside his parents, Vernon and Gladys Presley, and his maternal grandmother. I was surprised to learn they died in reverse natural order, with the older members living the longest! Elivs, of course, died young...

Here's the famous TV room where Elvis would watch 3 TVs at once!

The greatest extrvagance Elvis ever took part in was to fly his jet plane the "Lisa Marie" half way across the country for bacon and PB and J baguettes!

Appalachian Trail

Every year thousands of people walk the Appalachian trail through Tennessee and Virginia. The whole trail is about 2175 miles long and extends from Georgia to Maine!

After walking for a couple of hours along the trail ridges, Charlie sprang back from the path to tell me a bear was up ahead. I took theis news in stride, not even knowing there were bears on the trail, but on learning they can easily outrrun you, and will chase you, the scene changed a little. It was a baby bear that had scrambled across the path, but we certainly didn't want to get between the little guy and its mother!
Here's me with complete proof of the Appalachian Trial - not a sign I brought with me.

Thomas Wolfe's Angel - and I

Thomas Wolfe - not many people have heard of him in America let alone England. The more famous writer Tom Wolfe was actually named after him, but have no fear as to who is the great writer - the man with the full name! Thomas Wolfe was a contemporary of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway and actually shared the same editor, Maxwell Perkins, but has been forgotten unlike his fellow writers, mainly because Wolfe wrote sprawling prose that was hard to group into a novel structure. He essentially wrote one long novel of his life which Perkins had to struggle to make into material the publishing industy could call novels.

Above is me at a memorial to Wolfe's first and greatest novel, Look Homeward, Angel, the title taken from Milton Lycidas. I am in Wolfe's hometown of Ashville, North Carolina, the subject of his novel. The people in the novel were drawn from real life and the townfolk were very upset with Wolfe - except when he became famous and they were suddenly proud to be on the map!

Graduation, May 2008

My mum - Dr. Jennifer Fullerty - and Katie at my Ph.D. graduation.

I had recently completed a Ph.D. at the George Washington University, specializing in British and American twentieth century novels!

Katie trying on my gown!

In the Elephant and Castle pub!

Graduation Day!

Graceland

Dear England, Here's Elvis's home that he bought for $100,000 in 1957 when Elvis was just 20! It's a beautiful plot of land, and the house isn't too showy, but a place that gives off a genuine air when you visit it - not what most people would expect. The gravesite is particular with "If I Can Dream" playing in the background is a moving experience.

Today the rooms - the famous TV room and jungle room - are also preserved as they were in the 70s. Of course there's a toursity side to Graceland but somehow it doesn't overpower the genuine memorial to Elvis it is today (it might be the Memphis heat). But you can even get married at Graceland. Long live the King!