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Local writer enjoys fast growing success |
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Thursday, 20 September 2007 |
by ASHLEY BENNERS
Lifestyles Reporter
When her youngest child was a senior in college, local author Nan Chase decided it was time to start something new.
It was then that she began her first book, “Asheville, A History,” which took three years to complete.
“It was like being pregnant for three years,” Chase said. “It is really the first comprehensive history of Asheville in 25 to 30 years. This book really shows the dark side of the city, for example, how during the depression some people were living in mud huts and eating robins and sparrows. It’s a great comeback story."
“Asheville, A History,” was released Monday.
Chase and her husband have an apartment in Asheville, which she said has become her second office.
“I could sit here in Boone with my notes in front of me and write about
Asheville, but there is something different about being able to look
out of the window at it while I write.”
However, Chase’s first visit to Asheville was not as dynamic as her current trips to the city she has grown to love.
“My grandparents had a summer house there and I went once during the 1970s. It was scary and gray,” she said.
Now that her first book has finally been released, Chase isn’t slowing down.
As an active member of the Blue Ridge Garden Club, Chase currently
serves as acting chair of the Board of Governors for the Daniel Boone
Native Gardens in Boone and has been involved in her hometown’s Tree
Board.
The manuscript for Chase’s second book, co-authored by Chris McCurry, is tentatively entitled “Bark House Design.”
The book focuses on a technique that originated with chestnut trees in
Linville using tree bark, which comes out green, to build a home.
“It’s really neat to write about something that is evolving,” Chase
said. “The building material lasts for 100 years. If the bark wasn’t
harvested, it would just be burned, rotted, or mulched.”
In addition to a new article assignment from “Hemispheres Magazine,”
Chase is organizing readings in Asheville this fall while
simultaneously working on her third book.
“I want my next book to really focus on sustainable and localized
agriculture,” she said. “From herbs to nut trees, the book will discuss
how to choose edible plants that also have landscape value; beautiful
shrubs that do something as opposed to beautiful shrubs that do
nothing.”
Formerly an investigative reporter for the Watauga Democrat, in recent
years she has written about garden travel, garden design, and plants
for such publications as The Washington Post, “Old House Journal,” “The
American Gardner,” “The Azalean,” and “Better Homes and Gardens Special
Publications.”
“As the mother of three children, writing worked out well for me
because it was totally flexible, the downside being a tremendous amount
of solitude. That gets a little old, so as a teacher I actually got to
see other human beings.”
At Appalachian State, Chase taught in the communication, English, and interdisciplinary studies departments.
Most recently she led two class sections in the IDS department for a unit called “Investigations.”
“I love college-aged students,” Chase said. “They have a sense of humor. ASU students are so hard working.”
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