Knight Agency Center of Gravity Shifts Westward--Temporarily

For a few days, more than half of The Knight Agency is going to be located west of the Mississippi River, but except for Nepehele, who lives in L.A., that condition is only temporary. Deidre, Pamela, their spouses, and their kids will be traveling to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which happens to be the setting for much of Deidre's Parallel series--and a darn good vacation spot as well.

Deidre and I first visited there last year, when she was doing research for the series--books that, at that time, had not yet even been sold. Now, a year later, with the first volume slated for April publication and Deidre hard at work on her second book, it's nice to go back to Wyoming and glimpse the world in which most of the series' events take place. When I went there last year, I had never seen so much snow in my life--not by a long shot--nor had I ever walked on a frozen lake or glimpsed buffalo, elk, and other majestic creatures at close range. Visiting a place like America's least populous state, a land of beauty so dramatic it almost makes you ache, is an experience that greatly expands one's perspective on nature and the role of the human being within it.

I have jokingly called this a retreat for The Knight Agency board of directors--Deidre, me, and Pamela--and in a sense, it is. There's nothing like "touching the dream," in this case experiencing not only the wonder outdoors, but the pleasures of the Snake River Lodge & Spa, one of the finest (and least pretentious) resorts in the world. (That's it in the picture above.) We'll be going snowmobiling, skiing, and sleigh-riding, but most important is the fact that we'll be doing all this in the company of the people we love most. (All except for three-year-old "Pink Bear," who, if she went with us, would likely think she'd been set down in a giant snowy playground--without any idea of just how dangerous that beautiful land can be. In any case, she's thrilled about staying with her grandparents, and thinks she's getting a better deal than her older sister.)

Because of our trip, which starts very early Thursday, I'll have to wait to post the thing I promised last time around, the "official Knight Agency CD" song list with annotations. Also, I changed my mind: rather than post that item on the Agency blog, where it would use up far too much space, I'll ask Julie to mention it on the blog and link to the actual post, which I'll put up on my own blog. I'm sure that no one who reads this will even be able to fathom how they'll while away the desperate hours waiting for me to return and post, but as the protagonist in Camus's The Stranger said regarding hell, "one can get used to anything after a long enough time."

Oh, and one other piece of news. One of these days soon, I'm going to change out my picture, which Deidre hates. She says it makes me look like a mean old man, with my scowl and my wash of gray hair--someone who would pride himself on being nobody's fool, and on extinguishing the slightest trace of sentimentality on the part of his listeners. Not me, as anyone who's read this blog knows, so I'm going to follow my wife's advice (almost always a good move for a husband!) and post a new pic.