IN SEARCH OF CRAIG JOHNSON: I keep hoping I’ll run into writer Craig Johnson while I’m in his neck of the woods. I don’t mean that literally, as I hear that Craig is known to drive his beat-up old pick-up really fast down the same narrow roads I’m on while living in the outlying reaches of Sheridan County. I keep expecting him to show up in the police blotter of the Buffalo Bulletin – either him or his alter-ego, Sheriff Walt Longmire, who’s the protagonist in his novels The Cold Dish and Death without Company. But maybe he’s been in the paper anonymously. The most recent edition carried this ominous item: “Writer detained in downtown Buffalo for possession of action verbs. He was released when he showed the officer his poetic license.” Anyway, I’m leaving these parts soon so will have to track down Craig at one of these upcoming appearances: Wednesday, July 19, 6 p.m., Book Club discussion at High Crimes Bookstore, Boulder, Colo.; Saturday, July 22, 11 a.m., High Plains Book Festival, Billings, Mont.; Monday, July 24, 5 p.m., “Raising Readers” at Kendrick Park, Sheridan, Wyo.; and Saturday, August 19, 2 p.m., Red Lodge Books, Red Lodge, Mont. Remember that Craig, C.J. Box, Michael and Kathleen Gear, and Clinton McKinzie will all be on mystery writers panel and will sign copies of their books at the Equality State Book Festival Oct. 19-21 in Casper.
- posted by Michael Shay @ 4:28 PM