Fragments From Floyd

This is the kind of thing, perhaps, that I could sink my teeth into. It requires cafeful research, though not merely the accumulation of dry academic detail. It is the story of simpler times, hard times, times closer to the land and what it provided. Such a story would allow for some creative nonfictional embellishment in imagined dialogue and scene-setting. It would give the writer an excuse to interview some interesting sorts of folks and take field forays into beautiful places as part of the "work". And maybe it would add something to the body of understanding of our literal and figurative roots in these southern mountains.

As I feel my way into what kinds of things I might like to work on, should there be a book number two, "Ginseng: The Divine Root", is a type of writing that I might find challenging, interesting and satisfying for as long as it takes to complete the task. I've got my eyes and ears open.

His voyage in studying ginseng took him from the southern Appalachian Mountains through upstate New York, all the way to China.

"I've been interested in forestry all my life, but it wasn't until I went to a workshop in Virginia that I became intrigued by ginseng," Taylor said. "I had always thought of ginseng as a new age medicine, as an Asian plant, but I soon discovered that people in our own region had stories about growing up with grandparents who collected ginseng right in the woods of the Appalachians. And, that led me to really explore the history of the plant and the people who are connected to it."