So I’m kinda sorta dedicating Mondays to a weekly plug for Barry’s Cherries. The idea is to tell a little story about the book, the writing, the trivia within it, whatever. Well, the idea is that I’ll tell that and you’ll go buy the book.

I figured I’d start with a doozy.

The novel takes place in Nashville in 2005. Part of my concept for writing the book was that I’d include as many real-life details as I could. It’s funny that the original idea was that these details would ground the story in reality but I think they ended up making things weirder.

One of the recurring jokes involves Barry driving down Belmont Boulevard and seeing a church sign whose letters have been rearranged into vulgar messages.

This is not a fiction. I used to live on Belmont across from the church and every so often some hooligans would have a go at the sign. The messages that appear in the novel all actually appeared on the church sign.

When I was writing, I imagined what Barry would think of the vandalism given his sense of humor. Instead of tut-tut-ing the vulgarity, he would love it. After all, he’s the man who brought us such cinematic masterpieces as Too Hot For Tube Tops and Tough Dick. A man like that would make a point to drive past the sign every weekend to see if the vandals had struck again. So he does. And they do!

Naturally, after we (my friends and neighbors on Bemont) witnessed or heard about several scramblings of the church sign, someone got smart and took a photo one night. I’d be interested in anyone’s guess what the sign originally said. Enjoy.

And read the novel to find more!