Dan Harper

November 16, 2005

My friend Logan introduced me to your books some years ago, and to their characters, who spend time in funky older city neighborhoods where artists and other talkative eccentric folk live, and although I like the stories and the characters it is much to my surprise that I find myself living in a kind of slightly twisted version of just such a neighborhood, with monks who stand upon a rooftop to ring bells and a guy who makes wooden whales and chickens in his backyard and people who all have known each other for years and even charming clusters of lawyers in charcoal-gray suits Monday through Friday (yes such places do exist outside fiction, if you avoid the dreaded suburbs). Which brings me to a question. What’s up with all the references to Chicago? True it is the great city in the United States, but. I mean. Chicago. You don’t get book contracts writing about Chicago or about any other midwestern city or indeed about any city that even vaguely resembles Chicago or the midwest, although heaven knows I’m not requesting a book set in Manhattan or L.A. or Denver or Cheyenne or even Baltimore. Just curious, is all….

New Bedford is a cool place. I have been there more than once. There is even a pretty good section of a pretty good book set in New Bedford. What makes you think one doesn't get book contracts writing about Chicago, Studs?