bruset said:
Ugh, that was another fear of mine. Being compared to them. Unlike them, I've actually visited and photographed everywhere I've written about. They actually told me once to "open the south up for them".
I have nothing against the author of the Quirky book; I guess it was a territorial thing. That was back when I still wasn't sure if I wanted to go through with a book or not. I wanted to put Chuck in the book so I went back there, and that's where she was with some newspaper reporters. She was very nice and even told me about the Alloway rock. I think it was more of "lovely, someone else is writing about here too," so I stopped writing for a few months. I think I gave up 3 or 4 times overall.
It was very tough picking where I wanted to include. The original idea was to have things from the lower 8 counties in NJ which were in state parks or otherwise legal to visit; I'm so sick of reading about things I can't go to. Trouble was my original list was mostly Ocean & Burlington stuff. And again, I purposely avoided ghost towns and having too many Pines things because I didn't want to make yet another rehash of what's already out there. As far as I know, some things have never been written about yet. I did throw in a few 'staples', like Lucy, because while they're more well known, not everyone knows their histories. Most people I talk to are like "oh Lucy is a big elephant lol". They have no idea there were 2 other elephants or that she was towed a few blocks by a single pick-up.
Overall I think it's a pretty good mix of stuff, which was my intent. Something for everyone.
I might post the list when the release date nears. I'd probably get in trouble if I did it now.
One thing I will say - Union isn't in it. You can all sleep soundly now.
:cat:
