Life led Chris down a crooked and varied path, law enforcement, real estate, private investigations, legislative advocacy, county planning, and at every turn, he carried with him the singular gift of language. Words became his anchor, his tool, his defense. They smoothed his edges, fortified his frailties, and gave him the confidence to present a sharper, more luminous version of himself to the world.

For more than a decade now, Chris has been blogging, coaxing truths and anecdotes from the raw material of his life. The stories are as varied as the man himself, yet they never lose the restless energy that keeps his mind pacing from one idea to the next. His first manuscript, Now That Mama’s Gone, a raucous journey through a childhood of mischief and the mishaps of adulthood, has already emerged into the light, soon to hit the shelves. His second, a Southern Gothic novel, simmers in the shadows, gathering the weight of its themes and characters like storm clouds on the horizon.

Chris’s writing is unmistakably Southern, inflected with the rhythm and warmth of his upbringing but honed to avoid the pitfalls of cliché. He trims away the rougher, “uglier” words of his daily speech, leaving behind a prose that hums with clarity and grace, though with the intent, never so much polish as to obscure its soul.

For seventeen years, Chris has been married to Emily Cartwright, a partnership he regards with the kind of quiet reverence reserved for the best things in life. His son, Jon, lives close by in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, where the small-town cadence of life echoes through the stories Chris weaves, like a thread stitching past and present into something whole.

This blog began with two simple ambitions: first, to cleanse his style of the bureaucratic tarnish left by years of drafting policies, ordinances, and resolutions, what he calls the “dry toast” of writing. Second, to leave behind a kind of map for his son, not of the father he’s always known, but of the man behind the title.

Chris wields sarcasm as deftly as a painter handles a brush, sometimes bold, sometimes fine, but always deliberate. He uses it to chisel humor from the mundane or to vent a little steam when the kettle’s on the verge of boiling over. His hope is simple: that you’ll find some joy in his stories, even if the subject doesn’t immediately catch your interest.

What you’ll find in Chris’s body of work is a patchwork of opinions, historical musings, personal anecdotes, and travelogues. Each piece, in its own way, tells the larger story of a man who has wandered the world far and wide, both in body and in mind. If there’s a subject he hasn’t yet touched, or one you’d like to see him wrestle with, you need only ask. Be warned, though: once his thoughts are set loose, they tend to run until they’re good and tired.

Thank you for visiting this corner of Chris’s world. If his words strike a chord, pass them along, leave a comment, or ask a question. The stories may twist and turn, but they’ll always circle back to the heart of the man who penned them.