Provides an overview of Florida history, from pre-history to the present.
--This text refers to the
Library Binding
edition.
Author's Biography
* Plays -- including a commissioned play about teen suicide.
* Books -- including 24 books of both fiction and non-fiction.
* New Media -- including more than 600 blogs since 2005.
* Poetry -- including "September 11, 2001," selected for a nationally recognized
9/11 sculpture.
* Journalism -- including several years as contributing editor for Newsweek's travel magazine.
* Music -- including writing and performing dozens of short scores for the Internet.
* Personal Information also is included at the bottom of this page.
Plays
Since 2000, Knotts has written five dramas and numerous poems, many exploring the psychological origins of social problems. These dramas include a one-act play about teen suicide, "Never Nothin' Again No More," commissioned and produced by Miami's famed Coconut Grove Playhouse in 2001. More recently, he completed the full-length play "In Mordant Whispers," which had its first public reading at South Florida's award-winning GableStage in March 2006 and "Empath 52 Equals You," acknowledged as the first fully interactive narrative drama written for the Internet. In 2006, his new short comedy, "This (Bleeping) World," received its first staged reading at the Studio Theatre of Wellington in Wellington, Florida.
Books
He also has written 24 fiction and non-fiction books, including one novel for adults and 23 books for young readers. The non-fiction works largely have centered around science, history and sports. His publishers include Children's Press, Heinemann Library, Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, Domhan Books and Sports Illustrated for Kids. These books appeared under the name Bob Knotts or the pseudonym, M.D. Spenser.
New Media
Since 2005, Knotts has written more than 600 blogs and created/hosted more than 70 podcasts professionally. These include a broad-ranging blog twice a week for the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau about his personal life in South Florida. He also writes a fictional weekly kids blog for the GFLCVB each summer and has created blogs for corporations and other organizations. In addition, Knotts writes regular blogs and hosts monthly podcasts for his nonprofit, The Humanity Project, and maintains the group's presence on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.
Poetry
His poem entitled, "September 11, 2001," has been chosen for the massive 9/11 sculpture under creation in Greensboro, North Carolina, a nationally recognized project built with girders from the World Trade Center. It is included in the Artists Registry at the National September 11 Memorial Museum in New York City. This poem has received praise from Nobel Peace Prize laureate and author, Elie Wiesel. Knotts also has published and performed his poetry.
Journalism
For the past 15 years, Knotts has written often for top national publications that have included Sports Illustrated, USA Weekend, Cigar Aficionado, Travel & Leisure, the New York Times, the Humanist and Reader's Digest. And he served from 1999 to 2004 as contributing editor at Newsweek's travel magazine, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel.
Formerly, Knotts was one of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's main writers and reporters. His extensive investigative reporting at the paper included a year-long expose of air bag injuries written five years before the federal government acknowledged the problem. Knotts' reports appeared in newspapers and on TV news programs across the country. His consumer investigations also shut down dozens of fraudulent South Florida businesses and directly resulted in the arrest and successful prosecution of a British national known in England as "King Con," a notorious con artist who provided unsafe treatments to AIDS and cancer patients from around the world. This case became the basis for his novel, "Hard News."
Broadcast and Freelance Journalism
Before this, Knotts was for several years a prominent on-air TV and radio reporter/anchor in Burlington, Vermont for CBS affiliates, where he broke many major stories about politics, development, airline safety and other issues. He also has covered classical music and the arts as a freelance correspondent for Vermont's largest newspapers and hosted his own weekly classical music radio program.
Earlier, Knotts published fiction and poetry in national literary magazines such as The Poet and had a radio play produced in the San Francisco Bay area.
Music
Knotts writes and performs a wide variety of original music for his monthly podcasts on The Humanity Project website at www.thehumanityproject.com. And he composed and performed music for The Humanity Project's school-approved anti-bullying programs. He also was commissioned in 2007 by the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau to compose and perform the original jazz piece used as a theme for the bureau's podcast.
In addition, he composed and performed a variety of original music for his 2001 stage play, "Never Nothin' Again No More." Knotts is a lifelong drummer and percussionist and has played frequently as leader, member or guest artist in blues, rock and jazz bands. Along with drums, he has often performed publicly on chromatic and blues harmonicas, keyboards and Dobro slide guitar. Knotts also has written and copyrighted numerous songs and instrumental tunes.
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Personal
Knotts was born on December 9 in Detroit, Michigan. In addition to the Detroit area, he has lived in Philadelphia, New Jersey, Switzerland (briefly), Cleveland, San Francisco and, for many years, Vermont.
He is a licensed race car driver and avid traveler who has visited dozens of countries on five continents. Knotts is divorced, with no children, and now lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
