About
I am an author, freelance writer and website builder. I write about my two loves, the paranormal and the blues. The common ground between my loves is history. I love history. My latest book is The Irish Slaves, a non-fiction account of a little-known part of Irish history. The one before that was Haunted Marietta, written for the History Press about my town, Marietta, GA, which recently went into its second printing! I also wrote Ghost to Coast and Ghost to Coast Tours and Haunted Places. For the blues, I wrote T'ain't Nobody's Business If I Do, about women blues singers, and I write a column for examiner.com, Atlanta Blues Examiner. You can learn all about my websites, directories, and more about my books at the website listed above.
Learning to Breathe Fire: The Rise of CrossFit and the Primal Future of Fitness
Description
<p><b>The absorbing, definitive account of CrossFit's origins, its explosive grassroots growth, and its emergence as a global phenomenon.</b><br /> <br />One of the most illuminating books ever on a sports subculture, <i>Learning to Breathe Fire </i>combines vivid sports writing with a thoughtful meditation on what it means to be human. In the book, veteran journalist J.C. Herz explains the science of maximum effort, why the modern gym fails an obese society, and the psychic rewards of ending up on the floor feeling as though you're about to die. <br /> <br />The story traces CrossFit’s rise, from a single underground gym in Santa Cruz to its adoption as the workout of choice for elite special forces, firefighters and cops, to its popularity as the go-to fitness routine for regular Joes and Janes. Especially riveting is Herz’s description of The CrossFit Games, which begin as an informal throw-down on a California ranch and evolve into a televised global proving ground for the fittest men and women on Earth, as well as hundreds of thousands of lesser mortals. <br /> <br />In her portrayal of the sport's star athletes, its passionate coaches and its “chief armorer,” Rogue Fitness, Herz powerfully evokes the uniqueness of a fitness culture that cultivates primal fierceness in average people. And in the shared ordeal of an all-consuming workout, she unearths the ritual intensity that's been with us since humans invented sports, showing us how, on a deep level, we're all tribal hunters and first responders, waiting for the signal to go all-out. </p>
Story Behind The Book
Many people do not realize that the Irish were slaves for many years before African slavery became common. The British regularly sent Irish slaves to the West Indies, the Carribean, and the American Colonies. Later, these Irish were "indentured servants," another form of slavery. I minored in history in college, and never knew this until about 5 years ago. It seems wrong to me that this history is so unknown. It is my hope that my book will help change the view of slavery as purely a racial i ssue, and show that is is instead a human issue.
