Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs: Why Sacajewea Deserves the Day Off and other Lessons from the Lewis and Clark Trail

This week on The Write Question, Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs talks about her book Why Sacagawea Deserves the Day Off and other Lessons from the Lewis and Clark Trail. She also reads from the title essay.

Listen to the program on Montana Public Radio this Thursday evening, October 29, at 8:30. Or click here to listen online.

Mark T. Sullivan

This week on The Write Question, Mark T. Sullivan talks about his latest thriller: Triple Cross.

Triple Cross takes place at the Jefferson Club, an exclusive resort for the super-rich in the mountains of Southwest Montana. On New Year's Eve, a militant group devoted to fighting corporate greed breaks through the club's high-tech security system and threatens to start executing hostages. There's mystery, action, drama, and, of course, romance. And right smack in the middle of it all, a set of headstrong teenage triplets.

Tune in Sunday morning at (approximately) 11:10 or next Thursday at 8:30 to hear Mark T. Sullivan on The Write Question.

Or, click here to listen online.

Craig Johnson, a "cowboy from Wyoming," goes to the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.

There was an important moment when the guy standing next to me at the Washington Post for the official photo for the National Book Festival in DC turned and said, “Hey Craig, how you doin’?” I thought he looked familiar as he told me about selling books out of the trunk of his car, but it was only as he was turning away that I got a look at his nametag and read John Grisham.

Another was when I saw an elderly gentleman at the adjacent table looking for a place to sit at the breakfast reception. I stood and took my chair over, placing it beside him. “There you go.” By that time I’d gotten pretty cagey about the whole nametag thing and caught a glimpse of his, Ben Bradley--the famed editor who had seen that two cub reporters by the names of Woodward and Bernstein got a crack at a little know story back in the seventies called Watergate.

I was starting to feel a little more than out of my depth.

The night before, Judy and I had attended the opening reception at the Library of Congress Reading Room. If you haven’t been there, you should go. I think it’s one of the most beautiful rooms I’ve ever been in and if you go during business hours and show them some ID they’ll give you a card so that you can request any of thirty-two million books.

I was tempted to request one of mine but it was, after all, beyond business hours.

The next day I got to speak in a tent that held about seven hundred people and set the pace by telling them about getting pulled over by HP Jim Thomas on the other side of the mountains. They started laughing, and I’ve got to admit that they laughed all the way through my presentation. I like to think they were laughing with me. The speech is up on the Library of Congress website, if you should choose to watch. http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/2009/authors/Johnson-Craig.html

Later, I got to chat with Mike Enzi and assist Wyoming State Librarian Lesley Boughton by placing stickers of Steamboat (the horse on our license plate) on the maps the hoards of kids brought to our table. Lesley was tough and made them guess where the home state was, “There are only two square states…”

Now with a guest list that included the afore mentioned John Grisham, Ken Burns, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Margaret Coel, John Irving, Sue Monk Kidd, Walter Mosely, James Patterson, and Lisa Scottoline just to name a few, you might be wondering how in the heck the cowboy from Ucross got invited? I mean, I had a good year but not that good.

Well, the secret lies in a nice fellow by the name of John Y. Cole, the Director of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress who has a wife who is the librarian at the little museum down the road—the Smithsonian.

Well, guess which square state she’s from.

All the best,

Craig

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Craig Johnson is the author of the Walt Longmire series. His fifth book, The Dark Horse, was published in June of 2009. Visit Craig Johnson's website.

Sheryl Noethe

This week on The Write Question, Sheryl Noethe, poet and founder of the Missoula Writing Collaborative, talks about the impact of "becoming an author" on her life. She also reads from her latest collection of poetry, As Is.


Click here to listen to Sheryl Noethe on The Write Question.

The Financial Lives of the Poets

"A laid-off newspaper reporter turns to dealing pot in Jess Walter's new novel."

Check out Jenny Shank's review of The Financial Lives of the Poets, at NewWest.net.

Jamie Ford: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Jamie Ford, author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, talks about his novel on The Write Question.

Listen to The Write Question Sunday morning during the eleven o'clock hour or Thursday evening at 8:30 on Montana Public Radio.

Or, click here to listen online.