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Navigating A Life-Long Love Affair

If Not For This, a novel by Pete Fromm

Pete Fromm talks about and reads from his latest novel, If Not For This

About the book:

After meeting at a boatman’s bash on the Snake River, river runners Maddy and Dalt embark on a lifelong love affair. They marry on the banks of the Buffalo Fork, sure they’ll live there the rest of their days. Forced by the economics of tourism to leave Wyoming, they start a new adventure, opening their own river business in Ashland, Oregon: Halfmoon Whitewater. They prosper there, leading rafting trips and guiding fishermen into the wilds of Mongolia and Russia. But when Maddy, laid low by dizzy spells, with a mono that isn’t quite mono, both discovers she is pregnant and is diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, they realize their adventure is just beginning. Navigating hazards that dwarf any of the rapids they’ve faced together, Maddy narrates her life with Dalt the way she lives it: undaunted, courageous, in the present tense.

The music in this program was written and performed by John Floridis.

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Pete Fromm, author of The Names of the Stars and Indian Creek Chronicles
Pete Fromm

Pete Fromm is a four time winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Literary Award for his novels AS COOL AS I AM and HOW ALL THIS STARTED, a story collection, DRY RAIN, and the memoir, INDIAN CREEK CHRONICLES.

AS COOL AS I AM is also a feature film starring Claire Danes, James Marsden, and Sarah Bolger, and DRY RAIN is a short film starring James LeGros and Nathan Gamble.

Pete is the author of four other short story collections and has published over two hundred stories in magazines. He is on the faculty of Pacific University’s low-residency MFA writing program, and speaks regularly at writer’s conferences around the country and in Europe. He lives in Montana with his wife and two sons.

Chérie Newman is a former arts and humanities producer and on-air host for Montana Public Radio, and a freelance writer. She founded and previously hosted a weekly literary program, The Write Question, which continues to air on several public radio stations; it is also available online at PRX.org and MTPR.org.
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