Good questions from audience at Buffalo Street Books

ITHACA, New York - It was a beautiful afternoon in Ithaca Thursday when I gave a short version of my talk, "Fracking Fiction: You Can't Make This Stuff Up."

It was beautiful enough that it was hard to leave my dock on Seneca Lake and drive over the hill to Buffalo Street Books.

But as has been the case everywhere I have been speaking lately, the audience was very receptive and had plenty of good questions, including some from a high school classmate, Ward Romer, who lives in Ithaca.

Among the group also was a couple from Germany who travel annually to Ithaca. They were appalled at some of the tales I related and we had a good discussion about how far along Germany is with its  renewable energy efforts compared to the U.S.

We talked at some length about the EPA-induced chemical release into the Animas River in Colorado, the subject of my column in the Friday Finger Lakes Times newspaper of Geneva, NY.

My next talk is scheduled for Flagstaff, Az. in late September, followed by the Green Festival in Los Angeles, Saturday Sept. 26 at noon.

East meets west: author C.J. Box in Cleveland

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio - The news that western mystery writer C.J. Box was going to be in Cleveland (actually south of Cleveland) at the Cuyahoga Public Library sent me catapulting in that direction on 24-hours notice with editor, promotions director (and wife) Sylvia Fox.

With C.J. Box - gotta love the hat

Box has been a favorite writer since I stumbled across his novel Endangered earlier this summer at the Watkins Glen Public Library.

Since then, I've studied his work more carefully and love the way he winds environmental themes in with police work all in tightly written novels.

His talk was great. It took him years to get his first book published, but then things took off fast.

His best story/anecdote was how he went to a writers' conference and was meeting with a book editor,  telling his tale of woe about not getting his first book published yet.

The book editor asked who the agent was. When Box told him, the book editor replied, "He died four months ago."

Although getting to have any real one-on-one time wasn't realistic, I did manage to slip Box copies of both The Fracking War and Fracking Justice, along with a brief note, asking if he could pass along word to his very much alive agent, Ann Rittenberg that I need literary representation.

And we did get a nice photo taken together.

Now it's back to the draft of Jack's Boat.

A close encounter with a book cover artist

CANANDAIGUA, New York - The weekend event was irresistible - a downtown renovation project called "Streetscape" was being unveiled by the Business Improvement District. Plus one of the major contributors to the whole Main Street makeover to be honored was Amy Colburn.

Yes, that Amy Colburn, the artist who did the cover art for Fracking Justice and who also did the design for the Fracking Justice T-shirts.

Amy and I had never met face-to-face. Until Saturday we had only an electronic professional relationship that started last fall. Meeting her was a real treat.

Also, the event featured the very mural that I had seen online in the first place that prompted me to contact Amy to see if she would consider doing my book cover. The photos barely do it justice.

Downtown Canandaigua has been transformed by the improvement project, by the way.

Real railroad tracks with the mural in the background

Amy Colburn and some novelist guy...