IT WAS JUST AN EMPTY GLASS BOTTLE stinking of liquor, tossed into some bushes under the base of an electric transmission tower.

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The kids living in the growing subdivision would huddle inside the base of the tower and it served as a kind of de facto "fort." The night before some of them must have had a party. They left their evidence behind.

 

The next morning, 10-year-old Chris Colston and his bicycle-riding buddies stopped for a break inside the tower, and they took turns putting their noses up to the bottle to catch a whiff of the alcohol. It was horrible, rot-gut stuff, but it sparked an idea in Colston's mind. That afternoon he wrote about all sorts of assorted stenches he encountered: the liquor bottle, a neighborhood friend's breath, a local skunk terrorizing the neighborhood, and the poop left in yards from the local dogs. So, you could say Mr. Colston's first book stunk. 

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The books about his neighborhood pals eventually gave way to sports. He went on to become an award-winning USA Today and USA Today Sports Weekly sportswriter, covering the NFL, NBA, and Major League Baseball. He now writes thrillers and young adult action-adventure novels. He shares his life experiences and his love of writing with high school English Honors students in Northern Virginia.