By J.R. TIDWELL / Editor

Author T. Jensen Lacey of Fairhope came to Clanton earlier this month to promote her book “Amazing Alabama: The Bicentennial Edition.”

Lacey held the meet and greet and book signing as part of her tour across the state in support of the work.

The book covers amazing tales, historical oddities and entertaining facts from around the Yellowhammer state.

“I started almost five years ago when I realized the bicentennial was coming up,” she said. “My mother in law, one of her dying wishes was to ‘get that Alabama book done.’ I started clipping out things and researching things online. It took three years of research and 15 months of hard research, writing, re-writing and interviewing. I used hurricane days to write. I have a keyboard that runs off of batteries.”

This is the fourth book in what she calls “Lacey’s Amazing America Series.”

“I had done Tennessee, North Carolina and Texas,” she said. “I wanted this one to tie into the bicentennial for marketing. I follow the basic template as the others. I refer to this series as ‘tour-able’ history. Gov. Kay Ivey wrote the foreword. It took me three months to get that done.”

Lacey is a teacher at Robertsdale High School who grew up in north Alabama picking cotton.

She published the new book on Jan. 15 and said she would be going to book signings all over Alabama.

“Amazing Alabama” includes a digital section with links to attractions in Alabama.

Anyone interested in purchasing the book may find it on Amazon.com.