Southern Rock

The Allman Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd helped usher in a new kind of southern music from Jacksonville, Florida. Together, they and fellow bands like Blackfoot, 38 Special, and Molly Hatchet would reset the course of '70s rock. Yet Jacksonville seemed an unlikely hotbed for a new musical movement. Michael FitzGerald blends eyewitness detail with in-depth history to tell the story of how the River City bred this generation of legendary musicians.

In the summer of 1964 Jacksonville, Florida teenager Ronnie Van Zant and some of his friends hatched the idea of forming a band to play covers of the Rolling Stones, Beatles, Yardbirds, and the country and blues-rock music they had grown to love. Naming their band after Leonard Skinner, the gym teacher at Robert E. Lee Senior High School who constantly badgered the long-haired aspiring musicians to get haircuts, they were soon playing gigs at parties, and bars throughout the South.

I love watching chemicals bond, but I avoid the practice myself. When I'm not teaching, I'm hanging out with my cat and putting together puzzles. I shy away from romantic entanglements because I know firsthand the collateral damage they cause. Until I bump into Anton and Sebastian: best friends, business partners, and former wrestling superstars at South Rock High who could barely pass my class. Catching up turns into drinking, which turns into dancing, which turns into them practicing wrestling moves on me, sans clothing.

I should be a glitter bomb of excitement about my college friends getting married. But all I can think about is running into my uber-successful ex and his new boyfriend at the wedding . . . while I'm flying painfully solo. I need a plus one, stat. Enter Raleigh Marshall. As luck (or misfortune) would have it, a picture of me and South Rock High's too-blessed-to-be-stressed football coach accidentally finds its way on social media, making people believe we're an item. Raleigh is hot, charming, and one of South Rock's most popular teachers. The problem is that he knows it.

When bestselling author Megan Pressfield retreats to Morgan’s Rock to pen the sequel to her hit novel and rebuild her life after a devastating divorce, she expects peace and inspiration. Instead, she finds a mansion steeped in secrets—and a doorway to another time. In an old armoire, Megan discovers an exquisite 1930s gown. Slipping it on, she’s transported to 1932, where the jazz-age glamour of Hollywood collides with something far darker. Morgan’s Rock is haunted by restless spirits and the shadow of a disastrous party that left lives shattered and secrets buried. As Megan delves ...

The last person in the world Gracie Jackson thought she’d ever marry was Garth Graham, the annoying, arrogant editor of the local newspaper. But that was before she got to know the real Garth - the sweet, compassionate man she fell head-over-heels in love with.A much anticipated wedding takes place while Garth is waiting to be deported to St. Lo, France, during WWII. Gracie opens the orphanage at Nine Gables, taking in five young foundlings, only a few days after the wedding. Garth has three weeks to become acquainted with the children before his deportment. Life is good. For a season. ...

A long time ago, in a suburban high school not so far away, a closeted nerd (me) and a closeted soccer star (Hutch) fell in love and planned to make their public debut at prom. Until Hutch bailed at the last minute, leaving me with a broken heart and unworn tuxedo. Tale as old as time, right? I spent the past ten years working to forget Hutch, returning to our old high school to teach and make new memories that could erase ones of him. I thought Hutch was ancient history, off living his professional athlete life.

In one month, I turn thirty-five with my virginity still intact. Is there anything more embarrassing than knowing most of my French students have gotten more action than me? Je suis triste. When I accidentally reveal this secret to my close friend and co-worker Seamus, South Rock's baseball coach, he offers to help me round the bases. It has to be a joke, because Seamus is one million percent straight. There's no way he'd want to fool around with a chubby language nerd like me, even though I've harbored a secret crush on him since the day he first walked into the teachers' lounge.