September 17, 2026
Not So Normal People: Great American Stories Preserved
NEW
RELEASE
A Historical Memoir of Human Connection and Tennessee's Place in America
They became historic figures: four-star generals, political leaders, billionaires, civil rights leaders, rock stars, leaders of national service, business icons, philanthropists, and prisoners of war.
Fred Cole illuminates how the fabled American dream was imagined and embraced by not so normal people. He takes readers from Colonial America through eras of Civil War, Reconstruction, Civil Rights, Vietnam, the 1960s, the War on Terror, and the War on Drugs.
Not So Normal People is an easy to read sweep of American history that tells numerous stories of iconic individuals whose lives crossed paths with the author. In narrating the extraordinary life stories of his acquaintances, neighbors, and friends, an East Tennessean recounts his own uniquely interesting tale.
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PRAISE
"Voice feels personal and authentic.
— Early Draft Reader
"The immediate sense is that a reader can trust the authenticity."
— Advance Reader Review
THE AUTHOR
Fred Cole
Fred Cole was born in Texas, but was raised in the Chattanooga suburbs of Ooltewah-Collegedale in southeast Tennessee. In recent years, he has lived on a small farm just outside of Knoxville, and as often as possible in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. For over 25-years he lived in northern East Tennessee on Norris Lake in Campbell County. He has three children, Emily, Tyler, and Lucy Cole, and four grandsons.
Throughout his life he has been engaged in the political process of our country, and was once himself a candidate for county mayor in the community where he landed after serving a five-year mandatory-minimum sentence in federal prison for violating marijuana prohibition laws.
For many years he was part-owner and operator of Indian River Marina on Norris Lake. He became a leader in National and Community Service, and America’s Promise in Tennessee. Fred Cole met many not so normal people throughout his own eventful life, and his book tells and preserves these unique and authentic American stories.
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