TRUST. YOUR. EDGE.

DAD AND DAUGHTER LACE UP AND LEARN A BIT MORE ABOUT EACH OTHER, AND THEMSELVES.

- SHEA PETAJA

Lunch was scheduled for noon at The Franklin in downtown Traverse City, with two well-known writers—Steve Hamilton and Bryan Gruley. The National Writers Series has a knack for bringing in the most fabulous writers to our Northern town, and my boss Dennis Prout and I were joining the series’ founders to welcome them. I did what any responsible adult who was about to meet two famous writers would do, I Googled them. Steve Hamilton, a highly acclaimed mystery writer is one of only two writers to receive the Edgars for both Best First Novel and Best Novel. Bryan Gruley is an American writer who shared the Pulitzer Prize for journalism and is currently a reporter for Bloomberg News. As an aspiring writer, I should know them, but I didn’t. An hour before lunch I read everything I could, memorized their backgrounds, and then I tried to back out. I begged Dennis, “Please! Take someone else with you. I am embarrassed, I never read their books. I don’t know enough about their stories. What will I talk about?” Dennis, the one who hired me because I’m fearless with people, said, “You of all people will figure it out.” He wasn’t going to let me escape this quandary. I Googled more, I took more notes and I decided that I’d have to be brave. Surely our lunch companions, Doug and Anne Stanton, each of them also well-known writers, would help me out, right?