This crappy picture, taken with my camera phone through a charter bus window, shows a large white cross at I-75 exit 142 in Jellico, Tennesse. You can’t see it in the picture, but the cross is next to an adult book store. I’ve seen that cross on the way to and from the Carolinas, and I always wondered who put it up. Did a church call a special meeting to come up with an idea to counter the evil of the porn store? Has it kept away any porn customers? That was part of the inspiration for The Savior of Turk, which takes place in a small Missouri town along an interstate. There’s a porn store involved. And a church. And an Indian kid, but the idea for that part came from somwhere else.

At Amazon and Barnes & Noble.