"I first came across Chadron, Nebraska, by accident in 1994." — Poe Ballantine

One evening, after my wife and son had gone out for a walk, I decided to have a talk with my neighbor, who I believe was murdered. I had gotten to know and admire him by listening to people talk about him. He seemed a wonderful person with much to give.

Chadron had a water tower, grain elevators, a tanning salon, a video rental store, a small liberal arts college, a Hardee's, a stoplight, and a curling yellow sign in the pet store window that read, 'Hamsters and Tarantulas Featured Today.'

'Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere' took me six years to write.

Most people would live in an outhouse in Bangladesh before they would voluntarily move to Nebraska.

I have learned that I am not built for conflict or controversy. I have also learned that, in all my life, I have never chosen a story. The story has always chosen me.

I'm compared to Kerouac, I suppose, because he traveled and rejected middle-class values, but the similarities end there.

All my life, I never realized you could have a conversation with a ghost.

Western Nebraska is the only place in all my travels where I have seen the dust blowing and the rain falling at the same time.

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I first came across Chadron, Nebraska, by accident in 1994.