Please join me and more than 30 other writers with links to Northern Nevada for the Washoe County Library 2024 Local Author Fest on Saturday, November 9 from 10am to 4pm at the Downtown Reno Library. I’ll be selling copies of Reno’s Big Gamble: Image and Reputation in the Biggest Little City and reading in the auditorium at 1:40pm. Hope to see you there!
I can now announce an exciting secret I’ve had to keep for a few weeks, the absolute honor of being voted Best Local Author in the 2024 Reno News & Review Best of Northern Nevada Reader’s Poll! 7500 people voted in the final round, and I want to extend my deep and heartfelt thanks to those who nominated me, who clicked on my name, and most of all, who have found anything I’ve written over the past 20+ years to be enjoyable, educational, or illuminating.
Whether you discovered my writing from my historical articles, my book Reno’s Big Gamble, my e-newsletter The Barber Brief, my pieces for Reno Historical, or something else, your support has helped me to achieve my lifelong dream of researching and writing for a living. Please join me in congratulating all the other nominees and awardees (you can read the full list here), and please make an effort to support all of the authors who make our local literary landscape so rich & inspiring.
Lastly, thanks so much to the wonderful Reno News & Review, one of our community’s most treasured platforms for local writing and reporting. Words matter, but they can only take flight when they are valued, supported, and shared. I am so grateful to all of you for making me feel so loved and appreciated–it means the absolute world to me. And now, back to work!
I had a great time talking with writer Helena Guglielmino for her new Reno News & Review piece about Reno’s infamous migratory divorce trade, “Don’t Be My Valentine: Forget the hearts and flowers–it’s time to brush up on Reno’s divorce history.” During the six decades that Reno reigned as the “Divorce Capital of the World,” the industry was responsible for the construction and successful operation of countless lodging establishments from luxury hotels to rented rooms to resort-like “guest ranches”; the success of local businesses and services from restaurants, nightclubs, and boutiques to doctors, dentists, and laundries; the city’s first appearances in motion pictures and celebrity magazines; and so much more.
I’ve personally been approached to discuss and help others to research this part of Reno’s rich history more often in the past few years than ever before, from authors of popular fiction like Better Luck Next Time to the producer of the podcast 99% Invisible episode, “The Six Week Cure,” to Hollywood screenwriters (TBA). The Reno Divorce is having a moment, and it’s time for Reno to embrace it as a formative aspect of the city’s history and identity and give it a central role in placemaking and tourism development. Also be sure to check out the comprehensive award-winning website that I helped put together a few years ago, “Illuminating Reno’s Divorce Industry,” featuring brief explanations of all aspects of the divorce trade, an extensive research bibliography, a massive digital archive of thousands of relevant materials from photographs and postcards to magazine articles, books, letters and diaries, oral histories, and more.
