New book coming soon

I have completed a sequel - of sorts - to The Buddy Wayne Chronicles. It is called My Ideal World, after this blog and Barefoot's TV show title.

In reference-book form, it shows many of the characters and ideas I introduced in my first book, and also on this blog, in an easy-to-read format. Over 50 ideas are presented in all.

The book will be available soon from Lulu.com. Once it is made available, go to this page to order.

Once again, thanks for your interest and future business.

Barefoot-McLamb Oscar ties - sort of

Some years ago, I stumbled upon a movie in which the last names of Barefoot and McLamb were in the same cast. And this is an actual film!

It was called Junebug and was released in 2005, ironically the same year my main character was "suspended" by NASCAR for portrayals in a fakeout movie I created called Rebel. (Oh, and Junebug is also Darrell Waltrip's nickname for Dale Earnhardt Jr., but that's another story entirely.)

The movie was about a Chicago art dealer who went to rural North Carolina to shop for rare artwork and found love instead. It stars David Kuhn as the dealer and Amy Adams as the love interest. Yes, the same Adams who has been nominated three times for an Academy Award, including this year for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her role in The Fighter. (Adams has yet to win.)

Dan McLamb and Amy Barefoot have small roles as, respectively, a "hollerin' man" and a woman in a shower. (Alongside Barefoot in that shower scene is Jill Wagner, currently field reporter on the ABC midseason novelty game show Wipeout.)

The full cast listing is here.

Good luck, Amy, and all the other nominees on February 27!

It's a girl!

What an exciting first post I have for 2011.

Brittany Lynnette Spears and Buddy Wayne Barefoot became parents on January 17! Their first child is a daughter named Blanton Elizabeth Spears Barefoot. She weighs 8 pounds and 9 ounces.

The time of birth was 4:42 a.m. and the place was Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC. The hospital is the same facility at which Barefoot had life-saving heart surgery in 2004.

"Just as this hospital gave me life all those years ago, I am happy that it was there that a new life began," Barefoot said in a fakeout statement.

In the same statement, Spears added, "The dream I have always had - to be a wife and mother and to live with the man of my dreams - continues to be realized. I once again thank our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for this opportunity."

In an interesting note, both sides of the family continue the tradition of personal names starting with the letter B:

• Brittany has four siblings, Bunch, Bradshaw, Brashears, and Blanton Jr. Blanton Sr. has brothers named Burton, Bowling, and Belcher. And finally, Breckinridge, the "Grandpa Breck" who founded the Spears Family Band, had a brother called Bodkin. To add to all this, Bunch and his wife Sarah gave birth to Brielle McKaylee Spears in July of 2010.
• Buddy Wayne's brother is named Bobby Ray, his mother is Brenda, and his biological father is Alfred a/k/a Buddy Wayne Sr. Bobby Ray's daughter is named Belinda, and Buddy's cousins Brandy and Bunky have a father named Bradford.

(Photo credit: Deb Holmes, Chesapeake, VA, from her Facebook page. Deb helped me find information about the real Alfred "Buddy" Barefoot that inspired my character's name. The picture is that of one of her nieces and should be a good picture of what Blanton would be like if she existed.)

Here's a question for you...

What does the only person in history to win both a major pro sports championship and a major entertainment award have in common with the only basketball player in NCAA history, male or female, to record 2,000 points and 1,000 assists in his or her career?

OK, stop the "think music" from Jeopardy! The answer is: they share the same last name.

While Buddy Wayne Barefoot is a fictional character, Karen Barefoot is a real person. Her career numbers came at Division III Christopher Newport College in the Hampton Roads of Virginia, where she played in the early 1990s.

Today, she is the head women's basketball coach at Elon University in North Carolina. The nearest city to the campus is Burlington, about five miles away.

At these sites, you can read her official biography and see an interview with her from last season.

Merry Christmas!

On behalf of Buddy Wayne Barefoot and his cast of characters, I wish all of you a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

I found a fascinating article about how Christmas was celebrated in the early years of the United States. You can find it here.

Country shocker: Spears wins top CMA award

Here is another fakeout news story.


Brittany L. Spears, the near-namesake of the famous singer and entertainer who had herself lived in obscurity, shocked the country music world by winning the biggest prize at the Country Music Association Awards Wednesday night - that of Entertainer of the Year.

Against a formidable field that included Kenny Chesney, Keith Urban, and Rascal Flatts, the 20-year-old bluegrass singer from Beattyville, Kentucky won the award in her first attempt.

At the moment she won, Spears dropped to her knees and cried. Her brother Blanton helped her up and she was able to walk to the stage to accept the award.

"I don't know what to say," Spears said on the live ABC telecast. "This is what happens when you are allowed to dream and make those dreams comes true."

"This is America's Susan Boyle right here," exclaimed Blanton later in one of a number of backstage interviews with the entertainment media. Boyle is the nearly-50-year-old woman who rose to become the most popular singer in Great Britain after appearing on the reality television show Britain's Got Talent.

Spears only became a solo artist in 2009 after years of being the lead singer of the Spears Family Band, whose albums are retellings of Appalachian folk tales through the medium of bluegrass music. The band consists of four generations of performers ranging in age from five to 62 years old. Because her name is a homophone of Britney Spears, she added her middle initial, which is different from Britney's.

In 2010, "When the Bough Breaks," a duet with Buddy Wayne Barefoot, gave Spears her first number-one song on both the U.S. pop and country charts.

Even with her increased popularity, no one figured that Spears would beat the Nashville establishment, with its slick production, professional songwriters, and marketing muscle, for one of its biggest honors.

"This is the greatest thing that ever could have happened to our music. It is on the map forever," said Alison Kraus, leader of the multiple Grammy-winning bluegrass band Union Station.

Spears married Barefoot in October 2009. The couple is expecting their first child in January 2011.

Don't blame me for a close election

The following is a fake-out news story.

Buddy Wayne Barefoot insisted today that the close margin in the race for the 2nd Congressional District seat in North Carolina should not be blamed on his decision not to endorse either candidate. The race, which was conducted in Barefoot's home area, is one of 11 still undecided, even three days after the election.

According to the latest returns, challenger Renee Ellmers, a Republican, trails incumbent Bob Etheridge, a Democrat, by about 1,600 votes, or about 1 percent. Etheridge has promised to seek a recount of all ballots if the margin dips below 1 percent when the state reveals its final certified tallies on November 11.

Barefoot insisted that a public endorsement would not have made a difference, but did admit to voting for Etheridge because "I had a feeling" that the GOP framed Etheridge in a video in which he gave an obscene gesture to a staffer who was posing as a reporter. Previously, he had endorsed Etheridge in every election; the two became friends over their shared backgrounds as basketball players at Campbell University.

"A lot of things are as work here," Barefoot explained to the media at Texas Motor Speedway. "First of all was that video that put doubt in a lot of people's minds, including my own and those in my family. Then there was the general trend of Democratic incumbents losing throughout the country. But what has made it close was that [officials in] Sampson County lost 3,000 ballots [on election night]. They counted them and Etheridge gained 443 votes."

He also acknowledged being spooked by a projection of Ellmers' victory by the Associated Press after Ellmers herself declared victory on election night. "I just hope those words don't come back to haunt her or the AP," he told the media.

Barefoot said that he reached out to both candidates and shared his hope that the battle be resolved as soon as possible.

(Photo courtesy of Politico)