I have been on the road for a few weeks. On May 14th I gave a talk to a packed house at the Plaza Library in Kansas City, Missouri. It was my first visit to that part of the world. I was taken around the offices of the Kansas City Star; the same building, the same newspaper where the 18 year old Ernest Hemingway was a cub reporter -- his first newspaper job, which lasted seven months until he left for Italy to join an ambulance corps in World War I. Hemingway later acknowledged that his writing owed much to what he had learned when he worked for the Star. He cited their style sheet as an excellent writer's guideline. 
I spent three weeks in rainy England: London, Oxford, Yorkshire, visiting friends and family. Then, in mid-June I returned to Kansas City to attend the 13th Hemingway Society International Conference. The themes were journalism and World War I. It was titled "War + Ink." Some of the sessions were held at the Liberty Memorial War Museum, a splendid venue.
It is beautiful here in Bozeman. The summer visitors have begun to trickle through. This week friends from Italy and Portsmouth, R.I. appeared. The weather cooperated with beautiful sunshine and nothing but blue skies. As soon as they left, however, the heavens opened and there was an almighty downpour with thunder and lightening for good measure.
Till next time.
