RUNAWAY

I have always wanted to do a series of books about Florida. It is much more than a place to me; it is home. In my own lifetime, I have watched drastic changes come to the state. No matter what those changes, it has always been a land of contrast, from the quiet peace of moss-draped oaks to the violence of gator-riddled swampland. Some people love it, some people hate it. Some swelter in the heat, and others dream of it during long winters in more northern cli- mates. But to tile, home is something like a close rela- tive. 1 love it for all of the good and the bad--that it entails, and I am delighted now to be embarking upon a series of books that will bring Florida through decades of change to our present day, the Florida that I know best. Working on such a series seemed an easy prospect; 1 had heard so much about the state s history all of my life. The problem there, of course, is half of what we hear is legend, a quarter is truth, another quarter downright lie, and it is amazing to realize that "knowing" about some- thing can also make the research ten times harder. There was no difficulty finding the research books the difficulty was in deciding which of the various historians versions about events from a different century were ac- curate. Also, just as any current movie is different to the