Poe Ballantine books are now on Kindle!
I am very happy about this! I was going to order hard copies of his books, but now that he’s put some of them on Kindle, I can skip the wait on those.
One of the books that Poe, who lives in Chadron Nebraska, wrote is Love & Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere. The book is now on Kindle. It focuses on the 2006 death of Chadron State College math professor Steven Haataja, whose body was found 95 days after his disappearance bound to a tree out in the boonies and burned. A documentary based on the book is set for release in the spring. (Documentary Introduction video: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/175630062/love-and-terror-the-documentary )
Right now on Kindle I’m reading Poe’s Things I Like About America. It’s stunning. I’ve never before been so drawn into a book that I forgot to swallow till it dawned on me I was drooling.
What a gutsy, magnificent writer!
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and tried to calm him down, but the guy left, still fuming. Poe mentioned it to the sheriff, who made note of it but seemed to pretty much shrug it off. I told Poe (I’m sure others of his friends did too) that at least the incident was now documented. Chadron is a college town, so the atmosphere is liberal for the most part, and we even have some Democrats, but in every town, including Chadron, there are some people who insist on being a-holes. Poe continues to watch his back, and his friends watch it too.
The first two photos are aerial shots of Chadron. The tall building is on the college campus. At the top of the photos you can see the rugged area south of town where Steven Haataja’s body was found, although the ranch and the particular ravine aren’t visible.
The two photos below are of Chadron State Park, which is about six miles south of Chadron. The photos were taken before the devastating wildfires of 2006, but some areas are still beautiful.
The photo below shows how close to Chadron, and to the college, one of the 2006 wildfires came:
does come across in the book, and I know what you mean about wanting to remember some of the things he wrote. He certainly has a way with words!
When I was in high school and living about an hour's drive from Chadron, in Alliance, I attended a year at Chadron Prep, which was the high school associated with the college. Our teachers were CSC professors. I hung out with Prep kids, Chadron High kids, and also kids from Chadron Assumption Academy, the Catholic school.
One of my Assumption friends was Steve Lecher - "Hazel Devine," the armless car salesman in the book. Sometimes a bunch of us would ride around and drink beer, and it was usually in Steve's car, with Steve driving. He was always barefoot, and he accelerated with one foot and steered with the other. When he talked, he gestured with his feet, the way most people do with their hands. Besides being amazing, he was a lot of fun, and also quite a character. I loved reading about him the book. Poe portrayed him perfectly, just as he did everyone else. 
and Poe depicted them accurately. At their request, about half were given fake names. El Cocodrilo wasn't. His name really is Loren Zimmerman. He's now married to "Telenova," Poe's wife Cristina's one-time friend, and they run Feik's 120 Bar & Restaurant in Chadron. I read Mr. Z's teabagger rants on his Facebook page sometimes, which is always fun. 
For anyone interested, here’s a page with a link to a podcast of his excellent Big Ideas interview in which he talks about the book and also about the Steven Haataja case:
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bigideas/life2c-death-and-love-in-the-mid-west-of-the-usa/5640778
Dave Jannetta’s film documentary based on Poe’s book Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere, and by the same title, has been showing at various film festivals the past several months. In the spring it was a big hit at Hot Docs in Toronto, Canada, and this past weekend it was a sellout at Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival.
Dave Jannetta with Michael Moore:
The doc will be shown here in Chadron sometime in the fall. Looking forward to it!
EDITED to add that films shown at Michael Moore's festival are there through invitation only.
Dave wrote on his L&T Facebook page:
"Incredibly excited to announce that Love and Terror was selected for the 2014 Traverse City Film Festival! This festival, started by Michael Moore 10 years ago is committed to showing 'Just Great Movies' and it's an honor to be selected!"