Did the FBI abscond with nine tons of stolen gold?

Fiction starts where real life ends.

If you have read my novel, Treasure of the Diary, you know that I wrote about Dents Run, Pennsylvania’s legendary buried Civil War Gold. Is it real, or did I make it up out of whole cloth?

Kris Maher in the Wall Street Journal writes about the allegation that the Federal Bureau of Investigation dug up nine tons of the gold, worth more than $500 million, and made off with it in the middle of the night.

According to the article, Warren Getler, co-author of Rebel Gold and a former Wall Street Journal reporter said he believed Confederate sympathizers allied with a secretive society known as the Knights of the Golden Circle, likely stole and hid the gold.

Treasure hunters were sure that they had found the spot where the gold was hidden, and believed they had a finder’s fee deal. There is no question about the dig by the FBI. They brought more than 50 agents to the location and dug down 12 feet, but “Nothing was found,” the FBI says. The treasure hunters who led the FBI to the spot have gone to court. They aim to prove the loot was in the ground, and the government took it!

To readers of Treasure of the Diary, it sounds familiar. You can read Maher’s full article titled, Three Men Battle the FBI Over Buried Civil War Gold. Stuff Just Doesn’t Add Up. in the August 5, 2023, issue of the Wall Street Journal.

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Collins’s books are available from neighborhood bookstores and online sources. E-book editions are available on Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks,  Smashwords, and other online bookstores. Audio editions are available on Amazon, iTunes,and directly from Audible.com.

Silver Falchion Award

I returned home from another visit to the hospital to discover that my latest book, Treasure of the Diary, is a finalist for the coveted Silver Falchion Award in Literary Fiction. The novel, #7 in the Mark Rollins Adventure Series, was also honored as the Independent Press Award’s 2023 pick for Distinguished Favorite in Literary Fiction.

The Silver Falchion Award honors the best books of the year that incorporate elements of mystery, thriller, and suspense across numerous genres. It is administered by Killer Nashville, which is considered the premier forum for mystery writers. The awards are presented at the annual Killer Nashville Writers’ Conference. The event marks the 18th year of the forum's international writers’ conference. The four-day event is scheduled to begin on August 17th in Nashville, Tennessee.

As for the rest of the story — my four-day hospital experience — I developed an MRSA Staph infection in my left arm, requiring intravenous treatment. MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterium resistant to many antibiotics, including penicillin. Although I am now home, I am still undergoing treatment. Doctors say that eliminating the bacteria takes an unusually long time. And, of course, where did I contract MRSA to begin with? You guessed it — during one of my previous visits to the hospital.

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Collins’s books are available from neighborhood bookstores and online sources. E-book editions are available on Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks,  Smashwords, and other online bookstores. Audio editions are available on Amazon, iTunes,and directly from Audible.com.

Civil War Gold Unearthed!

Is there really lost Civil War Gold as depicted in my novel Treasure of the Diary—Gold Treasure just waiting for someone to stumble upon it or the clue to its hiding place? As Oscar Wilde noted, Literature always anticipates real life. Validating the legends of buried Civil War gold, a Kentucky farmer just unearthed a 150-year-old fortune dubbed the Great Kentucky Hoard. This unearthed bounty is a testament to the time-honored legends of the lost Civil War Gold. It is likely that whoever hid the gold left clues behind as is the case in the novel Treasure of the Diary.

The Great Kentucky Hoard is a historic treasury of seven hundred United States gold coins minted during the tumultuous years of 1862 and 1863. The treasure's denominations range from $1 to a staggering $20. To truly grasp the magnitude of this discovery, consider the value of each 1863 gold Liberty double eagle coin. Depending on its condition, a single coin is likely to sell anywhere from $100,000 to a jaw-dropping $400,000 at auction.

Kentucky, the heartland of several intense Civil War skirmishes between the Union Army and the Confederate cavalries led by Nathan Bedford Forrest and Kentuckian John Hunt Morgan, has always been shrouded in intriguing tales of buried treasures. The theory goes that this gold was buried as a safeguard against advancing enemies. With the discovery, the legends of lost Civil War gold, whispered rumors of riches concealed by those claimed by war or disease, suddenly seem much less mythical. The Great Kentucky Hoard underscores that truth can be as strange - and as captivating - as fiction.

And so it is with Treasure of the Diary—another unearthing of Civil War gold. The story is set in two contrasting timelines that connect the distant past and the present, tracing the quest for a cache of buried gold weighing an astounding half-ton. It weaves Civil War miseries and the lure of hidden gold into an intriguing and educational mystery that is available in print, digital and audio formats.

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Collins’s books are available from neighborhood bookstores and online sources. E-book editions are available on Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks,  Smashwords, and other online bookstores. Audio editions are available on Amazon, iTunes,and directly from Audible.com.

Keeper of the List

I have been intrigued by the notion of the “Keeper of the List.” Who or what is pulling the strings? It seems like there is always something reshaping our culture and society—some are in pursuit of a more perfect union, and some seem to be taking us down a rabbit hole. If you live long enough, you understand that the process is unending. As soon as we have accepted one cultural shift, another one is waiting in the wings. After a while, you wonder who is driving the unending stream of changes. Who or what has the list we seem to be following? Somewhere in that mystery is a novel.

I have created a list starting with the United Nations of transforming movements and events that led to or contributed to cultural shifts. I would welcome additions that I may have overlooked. Here is my list:

1.  UN (United Nations) - 1945

2. Book - "Silent Spring" - 1962

3. School Prayer Banned - 1962

4. Desegregation - Mainly 1954-1968 (Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 through the Civil Rights Act of 1968)

5. Civil Rights Act - 1964

6. Voting Rights Act - 1965

7. Immigration and Nationality Act - 1965

8. Interracial Marriage Legalized in all states - 1967 (Loving v. Virginia)

9. 1966—1979 emergence of postmodernism philosophy Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jean-François Lyotard

10. Move to Fiat Money - 1971 (President Nixon took the U.S. off the gold standard)

11. World Population Control - 1970s (Though concerns have been raised since the 18th century, the modern "population control" movement became significant in the 1970s.)

12. Planned Parenthood - It has been around since 1916, but it became particularly prominent after the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.

13. PETA, Save the Whales, and Animal Rights Movement - 1970s-1980s.

14. Deinstitutionalize Mental Patients - began in the 1960s but had the most significant effects in the 1970s and 1980s.

15. Affirmative Action - 1970s (although its roots can be traced to the Civil Rights Act of 1964)

16. Non-Smoking Policies - Became prominent in the late 1980s and 1990s.

17. Transhumanism

18. Americans with Disabilities Act - 1990

19. War Against Coal / Climate Change Movements - Late 1980s-present

20. Genetic Modified Food Products - 1990s

21. Gay Pride - Gained momentum in the 1970s post-Stonewall, but significant advancements in the 1990s and 2000s. Bill Clinton established June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month in 1999.

22. Community Relations Service - Established in 1964 but increased in importance during the 1990s.

23. Push for Universal Health Care - Periodically throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, but significant momentum in the 1990s and 2000s, culminating in the Affordable Care Act in 2010

24. Bioconservatism [Francis Fukuyama's critique of transhumanism in his 2002 book "Our Posthuman Future" is one marker of this.]

25. Renaming Movement / State and Region Flag Banning and Redesign - Most prominently from the 2000s onward

26. Same-Sex Marriage - Became prominent in the 2000s and culminated in the Supreme Court decision in 2015.

27. Globalization and Move for New World Order - Notably from the 1990s and 2000s

28. Cryptocurrency - 2009 with the introduction of Bitcoin

29. Rise of Big Tech - 2000s onwards

30. Black Lives Matter Movement - 2013

31. War on Fossil Fuels - Ongoing, but most significant since the mid-2010s

32. Zero-Waste Campaign - Became more prominent from the mid-2010s onwards.

33. Gun Control Debates - Have been ongoing for decades but have become particularly prominent in the 2010s.

34. Legalization of Marijuana - Became more widespread from the mid-2010s onwards.

35. Pronoun Choice / Trans Movement - Gained significant prominence in the 2010s.

36. Monument Removal - Became a significant issue particularly in the 2010s.

37. Cancelling Movement / Book Cancelling - Most significant in the 2010s and 2020s

38. Males in Women's Sports - Became a topic of significant discussion in the 2010s and 2020s.

39. Abolish Police Movement - Notably from 2020s (Post George Floyd)

40. Covid and Government Expansion of Control - 2020s

41. Cashless Bail - Has been a topic of discussion since the 2010s but gained significant attention during the protests in 2020.

42. Facial Recognition - Became a significant topic in the late 2010s and 2020s.

43. Editing Previous Works of Literature - Has been done for centuries but became a particular controversy in the 2020s.

44. Universal Basic Income Movement - Has gained traction in the 2010s and 2020s.

45. Reparations Movement - Has been discussed for many years but became a major topic of political discourse in the 2020s.

46. Move to AI - Has been ongoing, but most significantly in the 2020s.

47. Move for Digital Money - Became more prominent in the 2020s, following the rise of cryptocurrencies.

48. Critical Race Theory - Dates back to the 1980s, but it has become a significant topic of political and cultural discourse in the 2020s.

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All my books are available from your favorite neighborhood bookstore or online source. Ebook and print editions are also available on Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks,  Smashwords, and other online bookstores. Audio editions are available on Amazon, iTunes and directly from Audible.com. For signed copies go to my website, tomcollinsauthor.com. Exploring Asheville was the 2022 winner of the Independent Press Award and the NYC Big Book Award for its literary category. My novel, Beyond Visual Range, was NYC Big Book 2022 Award’s Distinguished Favorite in Military Fiction.

Free Audio Books

To encourage listener reviews, Audible provides me with a limited number of coupons for free copies of the audio editions of my books including the newest, Treasure of the Diary. If you would like one of the FREE copies go to COUPONSor click on the picture of my books.

The audio editions of my books are produced by Audible and are distributed by Audible, Amazon and iTunes.

If you are not already a fan of audio, you are in for a real treat. You will discover that narrators breathe life into the characters and amplify their emotions. And activities like driving or exercising become reading (listening) time. So, the number of books you can check off your wish list every year will explode. You will be able to enjoy all those books you just didn’t have time to get to before switching to audio versions.

If you do take one of the free copies, please consider posting a review on Audible or Amazon.

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All my books are available from your favorite neighborhood bookstore or online source. Ebook and print editions are also available on Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks,  Smashwords, and other online bookstores. Audio editions are available on Amazon, iTunes and directly from Audible.com. For signed copies go to my website, tomcollinsauthor.com. Exploring Asheville was the 2022 winner of the Independent Press Award and the NYC Big Book Award for its literary category. My novel, Beyond Visual Range, was NYC Big Book 2022 Award’s Distinguished Favorite in Military Fiction.

A lazy New York Weekend

One of my readers sent me this photo. She lives in New York City. It was an overcast and dreary weekend day, but it was also a free weekend, one with no more holiday parties or events to attend, no visitors to the big city to entertain, and no more incomplete work projects to be dealt with.

It was a perfect day to just relax and read a book. And that is exactly what this reader did. She sat in front of her apartment window looking down on a New York City street, propped her feet up and read Treasure of the Diary. Later in the day, she texted me:

Just finished —it was great!! Loved reading about Applewood Manor and Asheville. I also did not realize Asheville was involved much in the Civil War. Are there actually tunnels?

If you are wondering, I did reply to her question about the tunnels noting that a little truth is the nexus of good fiction. There are rumors of tunnels—from beer halls and hotels to brothels and also to transport and store moonshine and illegal liquor, so why wouldn’t there “actually be tunnels” during the war?

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All my books are available from your favorite neighborhood bookstore or online source. Ebook and print editions are also available on Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks,  Smashwords, and other online bookstores. Audio editions are available on Amazon, iTunes and directly from Audible.com. For signed copies go to my website, tomcollinsauthor.com. Exploring Asheville was the 2022 winner of the Independent Press Award and the NYC Big Book Award for its literary category. My novel, Beyond Visual Range, was NYC Big Book 2022 Award’s Distinguished Favorite in Military Fiction.

Law Firm Mysteries

While my last three books are doing very well, I was disappointed to see that my earlier law firm mysteries are no longer  getting the reader activity I think they should—especially among practicing attorneys and law firm administrative staff. The novels are a three book series dealing with dysfunctional law firms within the Mark Rollins Adventure series. In Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker, someone wants to kill the law firm’s public face—its rainmaker. In the Puppeteer, a lawyer considered a rising political star dies from a gunshot wound in Nashville’s notorious Printer’s Alley. The final law firm mystery in the three book series, The Claret Murders, occurs during a devastating Nashville flood.

All three novels are available in digital, print and audio formats. They are available through your favorite bookstore and from all the popular online sources including Amazon—the digital edition is only $2.99, and the audio versions shorten any car trip.

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All my books are available from your favorite neighborhood bookstore or online source. Ebook and print editions are also available on Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks,  Smashwords, and other online bookstores. Audio editions are available on Amazon, iTunes and directly from Audible.com. For signed copies go to my website, tomcollinsauthor.com. Exploring Asheville was the 2022 winner of the Independent Press Award and the NYC Big Book Award for its literary category. My novel, Beyond Visual Range, was NYC Big Book 2022 Award’s Distinguished Favorite in Military Fiction.

Give a guidebook for success this Christmas

In addition to by new book, Treasure of the Diary, I can’t think of a better Christmas gift for the aspiring young entrepreneur or the busy corporate executive than my guidebook for achieving long-term success.

The Language of Excellence has been hailed as one of the best five books you can buy on the subject of leadership and management and would make a valuable Christmas addition to any library.

Andy Warhol noted that anyone can have their fifteen minutes of fame. They can accidently achieve short term success, but while that is true, it isn’t likely, and it will not last. Enduring success is a purposeful endeavor with proven guidepost and warning signs. Take for example, the concept of “Two Certainties.”

For enduring long-term success, the enterprise must be solidly rooted by a belief in the “Two Certainties”—we are always judged by others and change is constant. What we are is determined through the eyes of those who judge us, and we must constantly innovate and change, or natural forces will erode us for the worse.

As for the natural forces at work to erode us, Peter Drucker identified five common behavioral traits among established organizations that over time render the organization competitively weaker. Left unchecked they will give the alert company the opportunity to achieve increased market share through “Management Judo”—leveraging off the competitor's weaknesses. Drucker’s weaknesses include:

1.       A "Not Invented Here" (NIH) attitude that will make the company slow to take advantage of new technology, processes, or materials, etc.

2.       The "Creamer" will concentrate too long on the higher profit, upper end of the market leaving the door open for others to enter the market through the lower end.

3.       “Wrong Quality” will result from a failure to stay in touch with clients. That will result in the company emphasizing its idea of best quality or features leaving the customer's real wants unsatisfied or the price too high.

4.       The "Premium Pricer" is the high price alternative and continues to maintain or even increase price in the face of equal or superior competitive alternatives.

5.       The "Maximizer" keeps adding features to satisfy marginal market elements, leaving the door open for the niche company that will provide a simpler, lower cost product or service that only addresses the needs of a particular market segment.

The seeds of these five weaknesses already exist in any organization or endeavor. Long term purposeful success requires constant effort to prevent their growth. For the excellent organization, their existence in other enterprises will provide an opportunity to gain market share by capitalizing on their weaknesses.

A Book for Christmas

My new book, Treasure of the Diary, seventh in the Mark Rollins Adventure series, has arrived just in time for Christmas

In the tradition of a rags-to-riches story, three Belmont college students find a one hundred and fifty year old diary written during the Civil War. Using their wit and modern technology, they discover the diary’s secret and their find sends them to Asheville and the western North Carolina mountains in search of buried treasure.

I think you will find Treasure of the Diary an enjoyable family friendly mystery. It is both educational and entertaining, weaving historical fiction and familiar places into a seemingly realistic adventure mystery.

And it would be a good choice for this year’s Christmas gifts!

And I ask a favor. After reading Treasure of the Diary , please post a review on the website where you made your purchase or on https://www.goodreads.com/.

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All my books are available from your favorite neighborhood bookstore or online source. Ebook and print editions are also available on Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks,  Smashwords, and other online bookstores. Audio editions are available on Amazon, iTunes and directly from Audible.com. For signed copies go to my website, tomcollinsauthor.com. Exploring Asheville was the 2022 winner of the Independent Press Award and the NYC Big Book Award for its literary category. My novel, Beyond Visual Range, was NYC Big Book 2022 Award’s Distinguished Favorite in Military Fiction.

New Book Arrives in Time for Christmas!

Books make a great Christmas gift. My new novel, Treasure of the Diary, goes on sale December fifth just in time for your Christmas gift shopping. And please consider buying a copy for yourself as well.

The new book is a rags-to-riches story for three college students who find an old diary written during the Civil War. More than one hundred and fifty years later, the Nashville college students discover the diary’s secret, and their find sends them to Asheville and the Western North Carolina mountains in search of buried gold.

While you will be able to purchase the book from your favorite neighborhood bookstore or online source, it will appear first on Amazon.com. You can also purchase signed copies from my website, www.tomcollinsauthor.com

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All my books are available from your favorite neighborhood bookstore. Ebook and print editions are also available on Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks,  Smashwords, and other online bookstores. Audio editions are available on Amazon, iTunes and directly from Audible.com. For signed copies go to my website, tomcollinsauthor.com.  The latest book, Exploring Asheville, was the 2022 winner of the Independent Press Award and the NYC Big Book Award for its literary category. My novel, Beyond  Visual Range, was NYC Big Book 2022 Award’s Distinguished Favorite in Military Fiction.

What would you do if you found an old Civil War diary?

In my new book, Treasure of the Diary, three college students do just that. The old diary was written by a Confederate soldier while a prisoner of war. He secretly recorded the plight of prisoners, their mistreatment, bad food and water, disease, general miseries, and the occasional fleeting moments of happiness in an otherwise hopeless place. When he fears he will not reach freedom alive, he writes a secret in his journal.

More than a hundred a fifty years later, the college students discover the diary’s secret. Their find sends them to the Western North Carolina mountains in search of a stash of stolen Civil War gold.

The new book, number seven in the Mark Rollins Adventures series of mysteries, is scheduled for release in December and will be available in print, digital and audio formats. Pre-release orders for signed copies of print editions are being accepted now on www.tomcollinsauthor.com.

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    All my books are available from your favorite neighborhood bookstore. Ebook and print editions are also available on Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks,  Smashwords, and other online bookstores. Audio editions are available on Amazon, iTunes and directly from Audible.com. For signed copies go to my website, tomcollinsauthor.com.  The latest book, Exploring Asheville, was the 2022 winner of the Independent Press Award and the NYC Big Book Award for its literary category. My novel, Beyond  Visual Range, was NYC Big Book 2022 Award’s Distinguished Favorite in Military Fiction.

2022 Book Awards

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 23, 2022
Media Contact:
M. Thomas (Tom) Collins
(615) 948-1544
Tom.collins@i65n.com

Books by Local Author Tom Collins Earn Top Awards

Tom Collins’s book, Exploring Asheville—Its History Attractions, Mysteries, Ghosts, and Tall Tales earned the top spot as the 2022 winner in the regional category at both the Independent Press Awards and the NYC Big Books Awards. Also winning in the NYC Big Book Awards was his novel, Beyond Visual Range, as a 2022 Distinguished Favorite in Military Fiction.

M. Thomas (Tom) Collins writes from his home in Franklin, Tennessee, where his characters come to life and frequent familiar places in the bucolic middle Tennessee landscape and the majestic mountains of Western North Carolina. A pioneer entrepreneur of the information technology industry, Tom is now retired from the commercial world and devotes his time to creating his mystery series, Mark Rollins Adventures, and writing about Asheville and Western North Carolina.

Regarding his two award winning books, Collins explained:

As an author, the awards are even more meaningful because the books are so different from each other. “Exploring Asheville” is not your typical travel book. It addresses the Western North Carolina destination as a whole to make the reader ‘Asheville Smart’—to understand why it’s called “The weirdest, happiest, quirkiest, most haunted place in America.” As for “Beyond Visual Range”, it is the fictional story of a paraplegic former female fighter pilot turned drone pilot who exposes the reader to the moral injury suffered by drone pilots deployed on kill missions.”

Books by Tom Collins are available from your favorite neighborhood bookstore. Print and eBook editions are also available on Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks, Smashwords, and other online bookstores. Audio editions are available on Amazon, iTunes and directly from Audible.com.

To inquire about a review copy or an interview, call (615) 948-1544 or email tom.collins@i65n.com.

Treasure of The Diary Moves to Editing

Book #7 in the Mark Rollins Adventures series has moved to editing. The story is a short one, a little over 30,000 words compared to 55,000 for the typical murder mystery. However, this is not a murder mystery and that was the number of words needed to tell the story of buried stollen gold and a two hundred year old diary that contains the direction to the treasure—if you are smart enough to figure it out.

The unique cover is the idea and design of Tom Trebing who has designed all prior covers. Thomas King Lusty, Trebing’s Great, Great Grandfather, was born at Near Stroud, King Stanley, Gloucestershire UK on February 2, 1799 and died in the US on August 2, 1884 at age 85. He was a ships carpenter and, except for a short role in the Civil War building fortifications around Chattanooga, he traveled the world. Throughout his seafaring life, Thomas Lusty kept a diary. It is that two hundred year old diary that served as the model for the cover of Treasure of the Diary.

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All of my books are available from Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million as well as your favorite neighborhood bookstore. Ebook and print editions are also available on Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks, Smashwords, and other online bookstores. Audio editions are available on Amazon, iTunes and directly from Audible.com. The latest book, Exploring Asheville, was the winner of the Independent Press Award for its literary category.

Treasure of the Diary

Book #7 in the Mark Rollins Adventure series is in process. The first draft was completed last week and now I am in the process of rereading the draft and tweaking it before giving the editors a crack at it. In the interim, I thought I would give you a preview of the cover. Prior to publication, it too will be tweaked. The cover, designed by Tom Trebing who also designed covers for all my prior books, is modeled after an antebellum diary. I will tell you more about that diary and who it belonged to later. Keep in mind, this like the book itself is a work in process. Suggestions are welcome.

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All of my books are available from Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million as well as your favorite neighborhood bookstore. Ebook and print editions are also available on Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks, Smashwords, and other online bookstores. Audio editions are available on Amazon, iTunes and directly from Audible.com. The latest book, Exploring Asheville, was the winner of the Independent Press Award for its literary category.

X-37B Mystery Space Plane

The X-37B is in the news again as the US military's mysterious space plane zooms toward a new record—exceeding its prior record of 780 days continuously orbiting Earth. For details read Leonard Davis in Space.com.

While controversy has surrounded the vehicle due to its top secret mission, you will never be able to think of the X-37B spy plane the same way after reading my book Beyond Visual Range—a Mark Rollins Adventure. The mysterious plane plays a villainous role in the mystery adventure.

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All of my books are available from Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million as well as your favorite neighborhood bookstore. Ebook and print editions are also available on Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks, Smashwords, and other online bookstores. Audio editions are available on Amazon, iTunes and directly from Audible.com. The latest book, Exploring Asheville, was the winner of the Independent Press Award for its literary category.

Road Trip

Thinking of taking a road trip this summer? Why not to Western North Carolina and the city they call the weirdest, happiest, quirkiest place in America, Asheville. If you are lucky, you might be able to get a room at the historic Applewood Manor and if not, there are other great bed and breakfast Inns as well as hotels ready to welcome you. To get ready for your trip, visit your favorite bookstore, Amazon, or other online source for a copy of my award winning book, Exploring Asheville—Its History, Attractions, Mysteries, Ghosts, and Tall Tales. It is available in print and digital formats.

Despite the price of gas, traveling by car beats flying given their current record of cancelations and delays. And you can make the traveling time to your destination go a lot faster by listening to an audio book—all my mysteries are available in audio. I suggest my most recent Mark Rollins Adventure, Beyond Visual Range.

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All of my books are available from Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million as well as your favorite neighborhood bookstore. Ebook and print editions are also available on Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks,  Smashwords, and other online bookstores. Audio editions are available on Amazon, iTunes and directly from Audible.com. The latest book, Exploring Asheville, was the winner of the Independent Press Award for its literary category.

The Man Who Saved the World

The man who saved the world, is how some people have described Gary Slaughter. Gary is a fellow author and during the Cuban Missile Crisis he was serving as a naval officer on the destroyer, USS Cony facing off a nuclear armed Soviet submarine. The events that had the world teetering on the brink of nuclear war are told in Slaughter’s book, Sea Stories: A Memoir of a Naval Officer. Under tremendous pressure, with time running out, horror was avoided—but only because of the decisions made by those on the front lines.

Slaughter is a participant along with Svetlana Savranskaya, and Modupe Akinola in a Choiceology podcast titled Under Pressure-- How can we make important decisions when time is scarce, and the stakes are high? Click on Choiceology to access the podcast.

Works by Slaughter include:

• Sea Stories: A Memoir of a Naval Office

• WW II POWs in America and Abroad: Astounding Facts about the Imprisonment of Military and Civilians During the War

• The Journey of an Inquiring Mind: From Scholar, Naval Officer, and Entrepreneur to Novelist

• The four book Series Cottonwood— Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall

• And the 1979 work— Data processing training handbook: Cost justification, measurement, and evaluation (PBI series for the computer and data processing)

Gary also wrote a review of my book, The Language of Excellence for the literary magazine, 2nd & Church, In commenting on the book, he said:

“In my judgment, The Language of Excellence by Tom Collins is among the best five books I have ever read on this subject.

Tom Collins’ The Language of Excellence just may be the only guidebook to personal and business excellence you will ever need to read. Borrowing from a lifetime of achievement, Collins lays out clear guidelines that can help you find your own success while enabling you to offer others the same excellence that has marked both his life and career. A must-read for achievers.”

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 All of my books are available from Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million as well as your favorite neighborhood bookstore. Ebook and print editions are also available on Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks,  Smashwords, and other online bookstores. Audio editions are available on Amazon, iTunes and directly from Audible.com. The latest book, Exploring Asheville, was the winner of the Independent Press Award for its literary category.

My Eighty-first Birthday—May 23, 2022

Hard to believe it has been eighty-one years or that Martha and I have been married for sixty years. However, the proof is in the mirror, and I keep wondering what happened to the guy in the 1958 and 1962 photographs. The extraordinary thing is that time accelerates as you get older. It moved so slowly in the beginning. We were in a hurry to grow up, but it took so damn long. It was amazing how much we could accomplish or get done in an hour, a day, a week, or a month.

But with age, time speeds up and we accomplish less and less in each day, each week, or each month—of course, there is less that needs to be accomplished. At eighty-one—the children are grown as are their children, the house is full, the closets are full, the drawers are full, the trees are full grown, the landscapers keep the lawn, etc. etc.

It is time to enjoy the fruits of those earlier years when time moved slower, and I moved faster! Now I finally have time to write. That is something I really enjoy. And since retiring from business life, I have published nine books. I just wish it didn’t take me so damn long to write them. I keep wondering if I’m getting slower—then I remember. It isn’t me; time has just gotten faster!

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 All of my books are available from Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million as well as your favorite neighborhood bookstore. Ebook and print editions are also available on Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks,  Smashwords, and other online bookstores. Audio editions are available on Amazon, iTunes and directly from Audible.com. The latest book, Exploring Asheville, was the winner of the Independent Press Award for its literary category.

Friday 13th

This Friday is the 13th. A very dreaded and unlucky day! As for the origin of this strongly embedded superstition concerning Friday the 13th and for the general desired to avoid anything numbered thirteen, people will point to the story of the Last Supper and subsequent crucifixion. Jesus Christ and his disciples met for that Last Supper on Thursday. The last and 13th guest to arrive was Judas who betrays Jesus, leading to his crucifixion the following day—Friday!

60th Anniversary

Tomorrow is a big day. As of May 5, 2022, Martha and I have been married for sixty years. I have to say they have gone by very fast. Like a lot of folks we meet in college—Middle Tennessee State University. You will note that we have changed very little over the years :).

60 Years Later!