Sharing the Shelf

Traveling friends sent this from their lodgings at Phantom Canyon Ranch near Livermore, Colorado. Long before I ever had a book deal I saved up and went to hear Tracy Kidder give a writing lecture in Maryland. I remember because the airline lost my backpack. And Louis L’Amour? When I was a farm kid reading his books in rural Wisconsin, they planted a hunger in me to see the far blue mountains…and beyond. And long before I thought of becoming a writer the bio at the end of his cowboy books subconsciously planted in me the idea that a roughneck midwestern kid could also become a writer. And I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve sat in a deer stand reading “Education of a Wandering Man” and marveled that I’ve been allowed a similar trip. Lately every day ain’t been all sunshine and spangles, but I’ll never become so jaded a photo like this doesn’t trigger a quiet gratitude. Safe travels, K & B.