In Case You Missed Him...

Halloween is just around the corner, and that means we might begin to think about turning the heat on in the house. Every year we try to go until November, and sometimes we're close...sometimes not so much. We actually have turned it on already, but set at 55 degrees really doesn't count. I mean, when the garage is warmer than the inside of the house...well, you get the idea. Anyway, once it gets dark at five and stays dark until March, it's time to get out the blanket, afghan (the knitted kind, not the living kind)and cozy up to the fireplace with a good book. For me, it's been human development texts lately, or things called The Long Emergency and Plan B: 3.0 both of which predict the end of the environmentla world as we know it in as little as 37 years (not exactly designed to boost one's spirits).
At any rate, I actually checked out a book to read for pleasure the other day, a fiction tome by one of my favorite writers Randy Wayne White. I think I like him because I can't say his name three times fast. Really, I was looking to see if one of my all-time favorite writers Tony Hillerman had written anything recently. I have read all 18 of his novels and eagerly await the next...but it is not to be. Hillerman died on Sunday at the age of 83 in Albuquerque, where he had lived for many years.
Hillerman introduced me to the real world of Native American culture, spiritual beliefs and customs...at least the Navaho version (noted by Hillerman as the lowest in the Indian pecking order). I've been fascinated by the Indians of the Southwest ever since I heard the rumor about a tribe who simply disappeared, some say through a time portal. Hillerman's novels feature two police officers and their attempt to maintain order among the vast areas of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. This is especially hard on Chee who is attempting to become a medicine man in a traditional sense while straddling the world of crime and punishment. The Blessing Way was the first novel featuring these two, and in 2006, Hillerman published The Shape Shifter, his last novel. He was really a cult favorite until the late 80's when Skinwalkers was published, and one movie was adapted from a book: The Dark Wind.
The sad part of all of it is that I really haven't even had the chance to get too far into RWW's book yet, let alone try to say his name three times fast. This winter, though, I will reread all of Tony Hillerman's work...I may even start collecting the novels and placing them right next to Doc Savage and Christopher Moore on the bric-a-brac shelves (known to me as a bookcase, at least on the six shelves I get to use!)