Archives

I’m going to try visiting a new place in Wallowa County every single day until I leave. Yesterday, I hit the Zumwalt. Today, I sought breathtaking views from an old ranch road called Rail Canyon. [...]

“You can’t get there from here” isn’t just a saying monopolized by Appalachia. It’s just as true in Wallowa County, where we have 9,000-foot peaks alongside the deepest gorge on the continent, [...]

[Apologies for no customary post yesterday—I am under the weather.] It’s Week 19 and I officially have 1 day of teaching left to conclude my nearly 6-month residency here in the Wallowas. If I [...]

I set aside May to tackle a query letter, book summary, marketing plan, agent search, and publicist search. Initially, one month seemed more than sufficient for this task. Of course, that month [...]

My favorite phone message from today: Eric, saying, “Is this the next great American novelist?” My favorite phone conversation from today: Wesley, saying, “Remember that you feel the way you do [...]

There are places here where no human foot has pressed into snow or onto rock face. Cliffs so steep, even nimble marmots and sturdy mountain goats slide to their deaths. Swaths of mountain-face [...]

Aldo Leopold writes: “When dandelions have set the mark of May on Wisconsin pastures, it is time to listen for the final proof of spring. Sit down on a tussock, cock your ears at the sky, dial [...]

Life on the road has produced numerous interesting side effects, one of which is the tendency to forget where I am. Walking into Safeway the other day, I saw a red Ford F150 with that special [...]

Nothing much to say today, except that I miss my mom and my brother, Gus the dog. It’s month 17. What can I expect? Here’s a picture my dad took (I miss him, too!):

Today I received two more rejection letters, one from a place that would have kept me in the South (sorry, Mom & Dad) and another from my #1 choice in independent publishing: Graywolf Press. [...]