The gentleman in the photo is my friend Sam Hazelrig. Sam figures in Miami literary history in several ways. One, as one of the co-heroes in Ron Oliver's book, Mock Two. Mock Two is a novel written about fighter pilots like Sam and Ron and the wild life they led during the VietNam war and back here as bachelors in 1960's era Coconut Grove. The Grove at that time, just imagine. That's where 
Fred Neil and friends played music, where Spanky MacFarlane met them and got together a group called Spanky and Our Gang. Sam continued his legendary life, and figured as a central character in my story, "Ladies Man" in the collection Believable Lies. His life story lives on in the hearts of friends and family from California to Florida, Tampa and Miami, Alabama to Washington, and we share this with his lovely widow, Gabrielle Ayala, a modern-day Delta Lady if there ever was one.

This post is to show that Miami Writers and Books has a far reach, and will include folks near and far, like James Jones, who taught briefly at Florida International University, Barry Jenkins, the director of Moonlight, Peter Matthiessen, whose Killing Mister Watson tells the history of the Ten Thousand Islands, Ted Smallwood's store, and how Alligator Alley got built. More to follow.