Sharyn McCrumb wona 2006 Library of Virginia Award and AWA Book of the Year for her novelSt. Dale, which was featured at the National Festival of the Book. Named as a“Virginia Women of History” for 2008, she is known for her Appalachian Ballad novels, including the New-York Times best-sellers She Walks These Hills and The Ballad of Frankie Silver.
Her novels, studied in universities throughout the world, have been translatedinto ten languages. She haslectured on her work at OxfordUniversity, at a writers workshop in Paris,at the University of Bonn-Germany, and at the SmithsonianInstitution. She has presented programs in 40 states, and four foreign countries. film of her novel The Rosewood Casket is currently in production.
McCrumb’s other honors include: AWA Outstanding Contribution to Appalachian Literature Award; the Chaffin Award for Southern Literature; the Plattner Award for Short Story; and AWA’s Best Appalachian Novel.A graduate of UNC- Chapel Hill, with an M.A. in English from Virginia Tech, McCrumb was the first writer-in-residence at Tennessee’s King College.. In 2005 she honored as the Writer of the Year at Emory & Henry College.
Best known for her series of Ballad Novels, McCrumb took a detour in 2005 with her first NASCAR novel, St.Dale. This novel followed the plot arc of The Canterbury Tales with Dale Earnhardt as the secular saint. While she was on tour with that book, she met Adam, a fellow alumnus of Virginia Tech, and the two of them began a correspondence about racing that led to McCrumb's novel Once Around the Track, in which Adam Edwards served as the model for the character Tony Lafon.
Out of this collaboration came the idea for them to write a novel together, pairing Adam's experience and knowledge of racing with Sharyn McCrumb's award-winning gifts for plot and characterization. The result was a lively Southern novel about faith, small town values, and the miracle of friendship. Filled with humor, affectionate portraits of Southern characters, and the breakneck suspense of stock car racing, Faster Pastor is a blessing to readers of Southern literature.
Race car driver Adam Edwards has driven in the ARCA/REMAX national racing series, managed and spotted for a NASCAR Nationwide Series race team, and worked as a race car driving instructor at the Fast Track School of Racing. In 2006 Adam was a contestant on Jeff Hammond’s Ultimate Pit Warrior reality TV show. A member of the Screen Actors Guild, Adam has appeared regularly in national television commercials with NASCAR Cup drivers, such as Tony Stewart, and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. A native of Falls Church City, VA, Adam was always interested in racing and auto mechanics. As a Virginia Tech student, he founded E Squared Racing, assembling a crew of college friends to form a team in the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series Pure Stock Division. After graduation, Adam continued racing, winning Rookie of the Year, and finishing second in championship points at a local speedway. Adam worked for the DeWALT division of the Black and Decker Corporation, running show car and fan events at NASCAR Cup races. He raced his own NASCAR Late Model Truck in a 22-race season, finishing fifth in Championship points, the top owner-driver team.
Moving to Mooresville NC in 2003, Adam began training with Nextel Cup drivers and crews at Lowes Motor Speedway, learning and drafting with world class drivers. He spent evenings at a state-of-the-art pit crew training facility, honing his skills as a tire changer and carrier and fueler—essential skills later, when he worked on pit crews in the ARCA, Craftsman Trucks, and Busch racing series. In 2004, as general manager of the Busch 16 team of Wayne Day in Goodlettsville, TN, Adam spotted at most of the tracks on the Busch Series Schedule from Bristol to Talladega, while furthering his driving career by competing in the Top Late model division at west Tennessee’s Highland Rim Speedway.
As a 2005 spokesperson for the Nation Pit Crew Championship sponsored by Tyson Food, Inc., Adam crisscrossed the country promoting the event, appearing on TV, radio, and in person with NASCAR personalities Larry McReynolds and Jeff Hammond.
In December 2005 Adam tested an ARCA car at Daytona International Speedway for former NASCAR Cup driver and ARCA champion Andy Hillenburg, who hired Adam as an instructor at his Fast Track High Performance Driving School. Adam completed thousands of laps in Cup, Busch, and ARCA style race cars at super speedways and at local short tracks, working both with novice professional drivers and fan-experience customers. In 2007 he raced in the ARCA/REMAX Series for the team of Andy Belmont Racing. Adam received his MBA from Virginia Tech in 2007. He currently works as Administrator of a Long Term Care and Rehabilitation Center in Virginia.
In the spring of 2006 Adam advised New York Times best-selling author Sharyn McCrumb on her NASCAR novel Once Around the Track. The author and the aspiring race car driver presented programs at area cultural centers, combining their expertise on stock car racing. The partnership worked so well that they collaborated on Faster Pastor.
