'When I was six years old I became locked inside the home of Helen Keller.'So begins a series of magazine articles written by Strekfus Beltzenschmidt, a Southerner turned New Yorker in Jackson Tippett McCrae's novel, The Bark of the Dogwood. When that particular assignment leads Strekfus to examine such delicate topics as race, sexual orientation, family dysfunction, mid-life crisis, and a haunting remembrance of things in his not-so-distant past, the metamorphosis of the assignment into short stories brings us into the present where the line between fiction and reality becomes blurred. The end result is the revelation of a henious family secret and a tracing back through the generations to find out how things got so deranged in the first place.Author Jackson Tippett McCrae was born and raised in northern Alabama. After attending the University of Alabama, he moved to Texas where he received a degree in music. Mr. McCrae then relocated to New York City, where he worked for several magazines and publishing companies. The Bark of the Dogwood ? A Tour of Southern Homes and Gardens, is his first work of fiction. He has just finished a collection of short stories titled The Children's Corner, and is currently finishing his second novel.