Sharyn McCrumb - St. Dale

Monday morning at 9 A.M. I walked into the high school class to give my talk on Appalachian Literature to twenty-six bright and eager students-and to five Outlaws. Over in the corner sat five big tough-looking guys in black T-shirts and work boots, clearly not happy about having to listen to a lady author talk about books on a Monday morning.

I was so glad to see them!

I said to the class, “Before I start to tell you about frontier justice in Appalachia, I have a question, Who won yesterday at Darlington?”

The twenty-six eager students looked bewildered, and the Outlaws’ jaws dropped. Was I really asking what they thought I was asking? Finally the biggest, toughest one said, “Jimmie Johnson.”

I said, “Really? I thought Matt Kenseth might have pulled this one off. He qualified badly, but then he always does.”

“Naw. He got penalized for passing during a caution. Lost a lap.”

“How about Kasey Kahne?”

“Spun out. Finished thirteenth.”

After the Outlaws and I did three minutes of the racing report, I gave my lecture about The Ballad of Frankie Silver to twenty-six bright and eager students and five “disciples.” One of the Outlaws has written to me once a month ever since, and he always ends his letter with “I want to read your St. Dale book.” He’s getting the first copy.

8. What would you like to accomplish with ST. DALE?

I always want to change the world. This time I would like to rescue a wonderful sport from the casual bigotry of people who see the whole country as a theme park, and who assume that any pastime with Southern roots must be a bastion of ignorant rednecks. The drivers are smarter than you think-two of my favorites are Ryan Newman, who has a degree in engineering from Purdue, and Ward Burton, who funded a Wildlife Foundation. NASCAR fans are so numerous and geographically diverse as to defy stereotyping.

9. Will your next novel be in the vein of ST. DALE?

When the book first came out, I’d have said no, but NASCAR is very hard to get out of your system. I tried writing an historical novel and felt like I was doing a term paper on dairy products. Fortunately, just after Daytona I got a wonderful NASCAR-related idea about a pit crew, and by now I have made so many friends within the sport that I have a great deal of help in getting the details right in an insider’s look at racing.