Drapes

Forgive me for not being in awe of Joe Drape. Yes, he is wildly successful and completely more involved in the global scene than I, and probably the next 10 generations of Muilenburgs, ever will be, but he just didn't give me the aweshuckses that some celebs of his ilk do/did/will. The fact is, I might have met Drape at the wrong time. I was fresh of my trip to Denver where, like I mentioned in earlier postings, I met several of my literary heros, the men and women who are at the forefront of the current literary surge. This may mean nothing to you, but I had a face-to-face, personal conversation with George Saunders. I mean, the guy practically shoved me into fiction writing just by assembling some of the best short stories I'd ever read into several collections.

I'm guessing there's a better chance that most of you had heard of Drape and not Saunders. And that's fair. Drape is a bigwig in our sports fan market. Saunders is merely someone that probably five percent of the population has ever even heard of.

That's kind of a shame.

Even Drape admitted such when he alluded to the fact that his book has outsold Let the Great World Spin -- a National Book Award winner by Colum McCann -- several times over. Granted, I enjoyed Our Boys, but to say it's anything but a feel good piece of gee-golly-goshes would be a stretch.

As a person, Drape seemed genuine and midwestern, a guy you could probably have a beer with as long as it wasn't a Philly-Dallas game.

He kept my attention the entire time and his anecdotes were engaging.

I just wish I was a little more starstruck.