Hot Damn! Alligators in the Casino, Nude Women in the Grass, How Seashells Changed the Course of History, and Other Dispatches from Paradise

Thirty years ago, James W. Hall wandered out of the Kentucky hills and into a world he'd never imagined: a place of crushed seashell footpaths, drunken golf cart parades, and untamed swamp-land sweltering under an endless sky. Welcome to Florida. In Hot Damn!, Hall chronicles the stunning natural beauty, unique institutions and habits, and bizarre subculture that make Florida such an exotic trip. Hot Damn! isn't just about Florida. Hall tackles sensitive issues, pertinent issues, and just plain weird issues. From the relationship between fathers and sons and the war in Vietnam to the miracles of the epidermis and the Hardy Boys, Hot Damn! illuminates the far-flung corners of one writer's imagination.

A native of Kentucky, James W. Hall has made Florida his home, as well as the setting for his popular suspense thrillers. He obtained his B.A. in Literature from Florida Presbyterian College (now Eckerd College) in 1969, an M.A. in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins University in 1970, and a Ph.D. in Literature from the University of Utah in 1973.

For the last 29 years, he has taught literature and creative writing at Florida International University, where his students have included Dennis Lehane, Barbara Parker, and Vicki Hendricks. After publishing four books of poetry-three with the Carnegie-Mellon University Press-and several works of short fiction in such magazines as the Georgia Review and Kenyon Review, Hall began writing crime novels in 1986 with Under Cover of Daylight.

His published thrillers include Under Cover of Daylight (1987), Tropical Freeze (1990), Bones of Coral (1992), Hard Aground (1993), Mean High Tide (1994), Gone Wild (1995), Buzz Cut (1996), Red Sky at Night (1997), Body Language (1998), and Rough Draft (2000).

He lives on the edge of Blackwater Sound in Key Largo, Florida, with his wife, Evelyn, and his dogs, Travis and Sofie.