Celebrating One Year of Hillbilly Highways

It is hard to believe that it has been (now over) one year since I launched Hillbilly Highways.  It has been a richly rewarding year.

I am quite happy with the balance I have struck.  My rough rule of thumb is to strive toward two parts country noir, one part nonfiction, one part TV/film, and one part “oddments,” balanced against a Music Monday post each week.

A number of the posts are deeply personal.  They take a lot out of me.  The nonfiction posts are a great time suck.  But they are both immensely rewarding.  I am gratified to see that none of the interests I have chosen have entirely escaped your interest.

Read on past the jump to learn the most popular posts here at Hillbilly Highways over the past year.

Oddments: Announcing the Gravel and Guts: Grit Lit and Country Noir Books Facebook Group

Announcing the Gravel and Guts: Grit Lit and Country Noir Book Facebook group:

Hillbilly Highways already has a Facebook page.  You can find it here.  But Facebook pages are, frankly, a crude tool. Groups in particular are much better for conversation.  So I have started a Facebook group focusing on the same sort of gritty stories I talk about here.  You can find it here.

Check out the relevant passage from the description:

Home for all things grit lit, hick lit, rough South, country noir, Appalachian noir, Ozark noir, hillbilly noir, rez noir, neo western…even Southern Gothic.

Think Ron Rash, Daniel Woodrell, Cormac McCarthy, William Faulkner, Charles Frazier, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Flannery O’Connor, David Joy, Brian Panowich, Robert Parker, Joe Lansdale, Tom Franklin, Frank Bill, Smith Henderson, Taylor Brown…

Why I Will Be Tagging Authors in my Reviews

I have been writing reviews for a long time and this has been percolating for a while. I changed my policy on tagging writers in Tweets promoting my reviews. Bottom line: at this blog and my other blog, I write for the benefit of readers, not writers.

Every Day Should Be Tuesday

A frequent admonition is circulated around Twitter: Don’t tag authors in Tweets linking to negative reviews.  I have boosted the signal for that message myself, and on more than one occasion.  But you know what?  That’s bullshit.  I’m through giving writers a vote whether I tag them in a “negative” review.

Why?  Read on.

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