My friend Fred First is working on a new book. If you haven’t visited his blog, Fragments From Floyd, you should. Here is the announcement he has posted about the new book…Go check it out.

Fred’s New Book May 2009

I’m very pleased to tell you that a second book is joining Slow Road Home in May of 2009. What We Hold In Our Hands: a Slow Road Reader extends the hyperlocal folk-writing from the last part of the first book. The new book, also a “reader” consisting of almost 100 short pieces, moves from the local and personal to the regional and global and back again in ten “chapters.” The second book also has more than 20 black and white images.

via Fred’s New Book May 2009 – Slow Road Home Portal.

He has also posted an order form where you can advance order the new book…Or order the first book if you don’t already have a copy, or even a set of his notecards with images from Floyd County.

Here is the Press Release…

Floyd, Virginia. What We Hold In Our Hands: a Slow Road Reader by Fred First is published by Goose Creek Press, available for readers in May 2009. 230 page trade paperback $17.95 from goosecreekpress.com ISBN 978-0-9779395-2-7

In this bigger, faster, throw-away world, Fred First focuses his writer’s lens on the smaller, slower more permanent riches that are attainable and that we need reminding of in our days on the far side of the Hurry Decades.

From his vantage point in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia, the author elevates the simple and local in a way that will bring a smile, a raised eyebrow, or nod of affirmation. This unique view of the world will be appreciated by fellow biology watchers, grandparents, rural dwellers or wannabes and by those simply seeking a pleasant place to ponder a few minutes before bedtime.

This is a book of considerable variety, to be picked up often and digested in short bites. Organized into ten parts, each contains portions that range from the personal to the local to the global and back again, crafting a shape and flow to the almost one hundred personal revelations and stories, lyrical prose pieces and light-hearted homilies.

More info at: ABOUT WHAT WE HOLD IN OUR HANDS