Today at Postcards from Purgatory, our thoughts are with this guy, who announced to his social media contacts this morning that he has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He says that he plans to fight it and I have no doubt he will do so. If you’ve been reading our blog for a while, you know that PAT CONROY has played an important role in our reading lives and in our friendship. I was reading his books when Jill and I first met at the beginning of our sophomore year in high school, and I soon passed the books along with the giddiness that one feels when one makes a new friend and then finds out that she likes to read. For me personally, PAT CONROY was inextricably connected to my own desire to write fiction. I’ve since divorced myself from his style, but his books are like little time capsules that propel me back to the excitement and discovery of recognizing what I wanted my life’s work to be. And yes, I also ran like hell from that life’s work for a while, Jonah-style, – but PAT CONROY was waiting for me when I came back. Jill and I are sending thoughts of strength and healing in PAT CONROY’s direction, and will continue to do so for the duration of his treatment.

And finally, when I texted Jill this morning to break this news, I learned that my iPhone auto-corrects “Pat Conroy” to “PAT CONROY.” Which I love.