Dancing Backward In Paradise: A Novel

Chapter 1
If you drive up there near the state line, on the border of Tennessee and Georgia, you just might
pass through my hometown, the Chattanooga suburb of Hixson. But you might not know you
passed it, not unless you take the time to read the sign hanging near the highway. Most people
only stop in Hixson for the cemeteries and the old Civil War battlefields around Chattanooga. I
grew up thinking a trip to Soddy Daisy was living the high life. But it was beautiful country, no
matter what Mama says. I remember the back roads mostly, and the trees. When I was small I’d
spread my arms out as far as I could and I’d try to reach as wide as a tree’s branches. I’d dance in
the wind, partner to the limbs of the old oak and the sugar maples. Trees seemed to be all the
poetry I’d ever need. Read more