Many of us at The Smoky Mountain News have written novels, are in the process of writing a novel or plan to write one in the future, so novel writing is often a topic of conversation among the staff and we like to share resources.

My name is Raymond D. Large III, Esq., known to most as Rady [Ray-Dee]. I am an Appalachian-American, an attorney in good standing with the North Carolina State Bar, a former assistant district attorney for the 43rd Prosecutorial District of North Carolina, a participating adjunct professor of business law at Western Carolina University concentrating in individual rights and liberties, and most importantly, an ardent and sworn defender of the Constitution of the United States and the North Carolina State Constitution. 

We hoped he’d die in his sleep, that we’d find him curled up in the bed in that old, familiar way, having slipped as comfortably and naturally from this dimension to the next as a river flows into the sea. 

Several months ago, I was having lunch with a friend and the topic of politics came up, specifically how bitterly polarized and angry the country has become in the last ten years.