Updated
04-21-10
|
|
|
In September of 2001, Bill left the Tampa Tribune and started Chastain Communications, Inc., a public relations company. He also turned his attention to writing books about sports. He won an award for a novel, Toys and Games, at the 2002 International New Author Awards Competition, but it seems to have not been published. Since then, he has published The Streak, a novel he worked on for a number of years, The Steve Spurrier Story, Payne at Pinehurst, Steel Dynasty, and Purpose and Passion. Jackrabbit: The Story of Clint Castleberry and the Improbable 1942 Georgia Tech Football Season is due to hit the market in August of 2010.
Bill continues to write sports articles as well and maintains a Rays Blog and twitter updates. Almost daily, as website beat writer for MLB Online Services (MLB.com), he produces articles about the Tampa Bay Devil Rays baseball team, many of which are also run by sport news agencies across the country. See recent Bill Chastain articles and television commentaries.
Bill descends from the Thomas County Chastains, and his lineage from Pierre Chastain is 8. Ivy Norman; 7. Carlton Lee; 6. Renny Robert; 5. John Martin; 4. Renny; 3. Peter; 2. Rene; 1. Pierre. Bill's brother, Norman Carlee Chastain, is also a writer. Bill and his wife, Patty, have a daughter, Carly, and a son, Kel.
Due August, 2010, Jackrabbit: The Story of Clint Castleberry and the Improbable 1942 Georgia Tech Football Season, Hill Street Press. More at Jackrabbit.
October, 2005, Purpose and Passion: Bobby Pruett and the Marshall Years, Mid-Atlantic Highlands Publishing. The authorized biography of Marshall University head football coach Bobby Pruett. More at Amazon.com
September, 2005, Steel Dynasty: The Team That Changed The NFL, Triumph Books. Bill Chastain takes the reader back to the glorious days when Steelers football dominated the NFL. Combining interviews with Steelers players and their opponents with extensive research, Steel Dynasty is a compelling story about excellence and how it was achieved. More at Amazon.com
June, 2004, Payne at Pinehurst: The Greatest U.S. Open Ever, Thomas Dunne Books. 
One year after blowing a sizable, final-round lead to lose the U.S. Open by a single stroke, Payne Stewart made a remarkable comeback in 1999 and won the coveted tournament in memorable fashion on the No. 2 course at Pinehurst Country Club in North Carolina. More at Amazon.com
November, 2002, The Steve Spurrier Story: From Heisman to Head Ball Coach, Taylor Trade Publishing. The first comprehensive biography of one of football's most volatile personalities. Love him or hate him, opinions about the new coach of the Washington Redskins and former University of Florida gridiron commander rarely rate as ambivalent. More at Amazon.com
November, 2002, The Streak, PublishAmerica. The Streak isn’t just a baseball novel, but rather a study of one man’s struggle to regain a life that didn’t turn out as planned. More at Amazon.com
In February, 2005, a very controversial book about Jose Canseco, Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big, was released by Regan Books. This was a sports book Bill Chastain did not write. Bill did write 160 draft pages of a book with former Devil Rays designated hitter Jose Canseco before abandoning the project due to the direction Conseco wanted to go with it. The working title was The Ball Was Never Juiced, and the projected release was June 2003. After Bill Chastain left the project, Canseco continued with the book, which became a sensational tell-all, and he published it in 2005. It was widely known that Bill was working on the book, but not that he had stopped, so many people assumed that Canseco's book was written by Bill Chastain. More at Amazon.com