buf·fa·lo hunt·ing
noun
1. the activity of hunting a humpbacked shaggy-haired wild ox native to North America, especially for food or sport.
2. the practice of attracting large firms to locate in a state or community, often with a variety of financial inducements. Sometimes derisively known as “smokestack chasing.”
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Buffalo Hunting in Alabama is a fictional work of entertainment and should be read as such. Names, characters, companies, organizations, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Economic development is about helping generate economic prosperity for people and communities. Certain types of economic development can be high drama.
Attracting mega-projects (buffalo hunting) is controversial, but cities and states go to extraordinary lengths to win these projects, and the wins can be transformational, bringing thousands of jobs and tens of millions of tax revenue.
In 1993, Alabama landed Mercedes-Benz’ first U.S. manufacturing facility. In 1997, Alabama produced its first automobile. Last year, Alabama produced more than one million autos, and the state’s auto industry directly employed more than forty thousand people. That’s transformational.
I worked as a professional economic developer for twelve years and would often read books while traveling. I particularly liked thriller novels. They come in many varieties—spy, legal, medical, technothrillers.
I wondered whether someone had written an economic development thriller. This was before one could easily search for books online. I resolved one day to write such a novel.
Life intervened, but five or six years ago, I searched Amazon.com and found economic development textbooks but still no novels. So, I started writing. And here it is.
This story could be set in many places across the U.S. The economic development players are mostly the same everywhere—the local communities; the state economic development agency; the utilities; the site consultants; companies looking to relocate, expand, and start-up; the politicians; and people wanting good jobs. I set the story in Alabama because I know Alabama, and creating a fictional state of “Dixie” didn’t seem appropriate.
I’ll surely be criticized for sensationalizing economic development, and for that I’m mildly guilty. In defense, most spies aren’t like James Bond.
If you decide to purchase the book, I hope you enjoy it!
A review at Amazon.com would be appreciated. You can write me at by clicking here.
Don Erwin
Birmingham, Alabama
September 2020