In other words, I ignored that rule all to heck and back. Which means that I spend an extraordinary amount of time doing research. Some of it makes it into a book, but huge swaths of fascinating facts fall by the wayside. I feel like a butterfly collector looking for one precise creature while my net fills with hundreds of other exotic, yet utterly useless specimens.
So this afternoon I browsed my research files looking for those interesting tidbits I long to work into a story, but have yet to find a good home for. There were so many! So I decided to share some of my favorites with you, all of these in the category of Local Georgia Color.
1. Atlanta is home to the largest Hindu temple in North America, the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir. It is constructed of over 34,000 individual pieces that were carved in India of three types of stone—Turkish Limestone, Italian marble, and Indian pink sandstone—then shipped to the US and assembled like a giant 3-D puzzle. You can see photos of it at the temple's website.
2. Atlanta is also home to the Crimson Fist, a real-life caped "superhero" who assists metro Atlanta law enforcement with a variety of hot tips and even prevents a crime or two, usually of the bar fight or breaking-and-entering variety. His wife, Data Girl, assists.
3. Ambassador of Mirth and famous Peachtree Street majorette Baton Bob was arrested by Atlanta Police for walking through a mall while wearing a white wedding dress. There is no law against such on the books, but security guards in the mall objected to his attire and called the APD. Bob has filed a lawsuit. Go Bob. May your fringed boots ever march.
4. At the corner of 5th and Broad in Augusta, the Pillar of Prophecy stands. It is two feet in diameter and ten feet tall, composed of brick covered with concrete, and death awaits everyone who attempts to move it. Death by tornado, death by lightning, death by heart attack. Nobody messes with it anymore.
5. Georgia has had its fair share of Sasquatch reports over the years, but the town of Camilla is the home of one of the rarest sightings in cryptozoology—the albino Bigfoot.
6. At the intersection of Cobb Parkway and Roswell Road in Marietta, there is a fifty-six-foot-high red steel chicken with eyes that roll and a beak that opens and closes. If you ask for directions in Cobb County, more often than not, they will include "turn at the Big Chicken." You can see a picture of this creation (and learn about its history) at the City of Marietta website.
7. The Varsity—a famous Atlanta hamburger joint—serves more Coca-Cola by volume than anywhere else in the world. My protagonist ate one of their chili dogs in my first book, The Dangerous Edge of Things, but I have yet to stage a scene in the restaurant itself. Soon!
