Good Heavens, can a blog really be this easy? My latest favorite author
Hey dear readers who don't exist yet, let me tell you about my FAVORITE new author, Willy Vlautin! I first heard about him at the marvelous GetLit! conference in Spokane Washington (Anyone else besides me grow up calling SpoCAN, SpoCANE?) It's usually in April and you must go! Spokane is a lovely city despite what Jess Walter and Willy Vlautin sometimes say in their books (They actually are big supporters of the town which I feel is an undiscovered treasure). So, anyway, one night Jess Walter (Spokane homeboy) and Willy Vlautin (ditto-ish) were "in conversation" at a wonderful theatre downtown, the Bing Crosby Theatre, and I'm already a huge fan of Walter who taught briefly in my MFA program at Pacific Lutheran in Tacoma (another under-appreciated city). It turns out one of Vlautin's books is going to be made into a Netflix series! I can't wait! Lean on Pete is a fabulous book and, for those of you who fear long books, you could read it in one sittin...