An update on Little Kids, Big Adventures

2023/03/16

My wife Katie and I are working on a hiking book in our abundant free time. It’s tentatively titled: Little Kids, Big Adventures Around Knoxville, Tennessee: Learning About and Experiencing the Tennessee Valley, Cumberland Plateau, and the Great Smoky Mountains. I’ve blogged about it before here. I love working with Katie on it — my best collaborator!

Here’s an example chapter on one of our favorite places close to Knoxville, Seven Islands State Birding Park.

The book will be published by UT Press, which is a great fit given the focus of the book. I was happy to see UT Press took out an ad in the latest issue of the Great Smoky Mountains Association’s magazine on the Smokies - that’s part of the audience for the book, along with parents and guardians of kids in and around Knoxville and - more widely - East Tennessee.

Anywho, we’ve made some progress over spring break, and a part of what we’ve worked on is a simplified structure for each chapter (of which there will be around 20 in total, including hikes near to Knoxville like Seven Islands as well as hikes on the Cumberland Plateau and in and around the Smokies).

The simplified structure for each chapter is below. What can we do better? Any and all feedback is welcome. In addition to Seven Islands, we also drafted and shared a chapter on Abrams Creek, though we plan to revise both extensively.

Name of hike

highlight photo

Highlights

Basic information

Getting there and parking

Brief description of getting there, with a focus on getting there from Knoxville. Details on parking at the trailhead and address to navigate there.

Hike Overview

One paragraph overview of the hike (with a trail map)

Detailed Hike Description

Two-four paragraph detailed description of the hike (with one-two photos)

Doing More Nearby

Other hikes or activities to do nearby (occasionally with one photo).

We hope to finish writing the book by August, but know that’s ambitious.