Early in 2011, I quit my day-job in journalism. For years, I had used weekends, vacation time and — since the onset of the Great Recession — mandatory furlough weeks to conduct research on one big idea after another for nonfiction books. Now I’m finally making headway on two of those projects. The others are lined up on the runway, waiting for takeoff.

I’m currently at work on a history of for-profit healthcare, as pioneered in Nashville and elsewhere by hospital chains beginning in the 1960s. I hope a thorough and objective account of this controversial industry can be useful to parties on all sides of the so-called healthcare debate in the United States, which I regard as a rather unserious food-fight at the moment but must inevitably become more meaningful after the 2012 elections.

  • Status: Extensive archival research done, yielding many discoveries. Interviews underway with leading industry figures. Working full-time on this project throughout 2011.

My other pet projects:

The Suspect: A Memoir

For decades, Jeffrey Womack stood accused of the most notorious crime in Nashville history: the 1975 murder of his childhood neighbor, nine-year-old Marcia Trimble. In 2009, indisputable DNA evidence led to the conviction of someone else for the killing — a serial rapist police had failed to consider even though he had been arrested for assaults committed less than two weeks before and two weeks after the young girl’s disappearance. After police and prosecutors had targeted, investigated and harassed Womack throughout his adult life, he was finally exonerated. Now he tells his story for the first time.

  • Status: I am interviewing Womack and others involved with the case as I help him construct his memoir, with the help of his longtime, pro bono attorney, John J. Hollins, Sr.

Angle of Climb: Frank M. Andrews and the Dawn of the American Century

The American president’s personal airport carries this airman’s name. General George C. Marshall found him “the only one” among World War II Allied commanders fully prepared to lead the invasion of continental Europe. And yet Lieutenant General Frank Maxwell Andrews is now all but unknown. This first full biography will document the dramatic career trajectory of a leader widely acclaimed in his time but mostly forgotten since his death in a 1943 air crash.

  • Status: Archival research, begun in 2004, is largely complete. Ample comments about Andrews available in 1950s-60s oral histories of senior wartime leaders such as Generals Marshall, Spaatz, Eaker, LeMay and Doolittle. Interviews conducted with Andrews’ surviving daughter and other parties. Introductory chapter completed.

Pirates of the Confederacy: Adventurers, Mercenaries and Con Men in Covert Service to the Rebel Cause

This series of historical profiles will tell the all-but-unknown story of a few Confederate sympathizers who waged irregular warfare against the Union, attacking its ships in American waters and at sea. Eccentric to a man and universally dishonest, they had among them a future war correspondent of global renown, swindlers who would go on to commit brazen crimes in decades to come, and perhaps the first American ever put to death as a domestic terrorist.

  • Status: Almost enough research in hand to produce eleven profiles. Some international archival research needed to investigate mercenary activities including service with Garibaldi before the Civil War and participation in South American revolutions after it. Book outline completed.

Needless Grief: Pearl Harbor’s Erroneous Death-Notice Fiasco

Amid the chaos following Japan’s surprise attack of December 7, 1941, bungling Navy and Army bureaucrats caused moments that would live in infamy for some 200 American families. The military sent telegrams to next of kin reporting the deaths of soldiers and sailors who were alive and, for the most part, well. In many cases, funerals had been held and life insurance proceeds paid out before the families learned of the mistakes.

  • Status: I have identified 80 instances of erroneous death reports to date. At least three of the veterans are still alive. Further archival and other research needed.