The middle leaders are the people who make the trains run on time.

That is a constant theme for local writer and columnist Tim Allston.

Allston is playing a key role in Huntsville and Madison County’s kickoff of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s national holiday weekend celebration. He’ll be participating in a book signing at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Bob Harrison Senior Wellness & Advocacy Center. The signing is hosted by the center’s “Same Book Different Pages” club. Among his works includes the book “U.S. Politics, The Rise of Silver Mettle Leaders.”

An Amazon best-selling author whose latest book is the “U.S. Covid-19 Crisis,” he recently participated in a question-and-answer session with the Lede.

Can you talk a little about your background and what led you to become an author and columnist?

I’m the son of an elementary school principal who later became a college administrator. That’s my mother. And my father has always been a voracious reader. I can remember every morning when he came home from working the graveyard shift, we were living at that time in the greater Boston area … He would come home in the mornings and always bring two newspapers with him, the Boston Globe and the Herald Traveler. We would go through his papers while he ate breakfast after having worship.