Bio: Jim Hamilton is Watauga County's Director of Cooperative Extension. For the last ten years, he's been huntin', plantin', transplanting, consuming, and teaching workshops about ginseng. He holds a PhD in Forestry from NC State and is an adjunct professor at Appalachian State University. Before settling in the mountains of North Carolina, Jim was a Peace Corps Volunteer, an environmental consultant, an A.M. country music DJ, and a volunteer fireman. While he's written the requisite number of academic articles published in unreadable journals to warrant his credentials, his first fiction novel, an homage to the ginseng trade, was published in late 2019.
Blurbs about the book: The Last Entry is painted in the woodland tones of the Blue Ridge Mountains--a cultural crossroads of post-modern Appalachia where old time traditions clash with a rapidly changing world. Jim Hamilton weaves his expertise in natural history and the underground world of the ginseng trade into a story and characters that reflect the region's struggles with poverty, and a black market economy still tied to its land and forests.
Tucker Trivette is in a bind. He joined the Navy straight out of high school. Without many options, it seemed like the right thing to do. Now he's heading home...to what, he's not sure, but he's hoping things are better. They're not. Set upon by hard times and a nemesis from his youth, Tucker seeks redemption and reward hidden deep in the forest, to reclaim a legacy hinted at within the last entry of his grandfather's cryptic journal. Tucker understands the value of friendship and family--and paying his debts. Determined to play the hand he's been dealt to start over and succeed, he'll have to bend the rules to get there.
Foreword: Every school kid here in the mountains learns about Daniel Boone—the woodsman, the trapper, the frontier hero. Where I’m from, old-timers still tell lots of stories about him, different stories than the ones in the history books. Daniel Boone didn’t just trade in furs. He was a forager, too; knew every plant and herb in the forest. What can heal you, what can kill you … and what can earn you a dollar. Ginseng, or ‘seng as they call it here, is a special plant. Only grows in certain places … old, deep hollers where it can hide from man. Some years it’s there, some years it’s not. The Cherokee say you won’t see it if it doesn’t want you to—if you don’t respect its hills and trees. The most valuable roots are just like the old-timers who still hunt them. Wise and wrinkled … with their own stories. This one’s mine.
Purchase the book at Foggy Pine: https://www.foggypinebooks.com/store/p2446/9781940595719.html#/
The book is also available at BRAHM's gift shop.