"Another [Great] one gone...."

I'm posting twice today (okay, this week) because I didn't get around to yesterday, and this is one that needs to be said.

I've never met Michael Crichton. And I'm really, really going to miss him.

I can still remember lying in bed in Avery Dorm at Lees-McRae College with this new book, AIRFRAME, thinking, "I'll read for an hour or so, then go to bed...early class tomorrow."

Noon the next day, I finished it and went, "WOW." I mean, the building of airplanes? Seriously, the man can make the politics behind the building of airplanes so entertaining that I physically can't put the book down???

Yep. And now he's gone.

I read over in the comments section of The Kill Zone that Mr. Joe Moore believed the things in JURASSIC PARK were possible after reading the book. I'm here to tell you, Mr. Crichton has me convinced, thoroughly, that Global Warming is never going to be the issue Gore makes it out to be, simply because of STATE OF FEAR.

Yes, he's that good a writer. Don't believe me? Fine.

Read it. You'll see. Farewell Mr. Crichton, Ms. Flinn, and Mr. Hillerman. The mystery community is hurting from the recent loss of you three, but we will miss you and all of your unrealized/gone-too-soon works most of all. God Bless.

"Where have you gone...?"

The mystery community has lost a great man. Tony Hillerman died yesterday at the age of 83. If you've never read a Hillerman novel, they are unlike any other in the wonderful depiction of modern New Mexico, Utah, and the colorful characters so easy to get to know and cherish.

I haven't read a lot of Hillerman, because like a fool I always figured, "Ah, I'll get around to it", just knowing there was always at least the chance there might be more. Now that can never be, and we are all the worse for it. A terrific mystery writer, gone.

God bless and God speed, Mr. Hillerman.