I don't know if it's still in existance, but "Defender of the Faith," as I said in my last voice card (when I wrote it, I hadn't seen yours, Holly, in which you ask these questions), took place in Camp Crowder, Missouri, not to be confused with clam chowder, or calm crawdads, or. . . .

Now to Tillie Olson. You ask me to tell you about what she's like "in person." First, she's old, and she's not. In years she's about 82. In spirit, about 20. She's the type of person who hugs you on the first meeting and holds your hand alot. She loves to give advice to people.

For example, for a writer of her huge stature, her reputation really rests on only a few stories (mainly collected in the book called TELL ME A RIDDLE - the title story, a novella, is truly great). That's because she was busy having a family and such for a number of years. So she loves to talk to your woman writers about writing and having children.

Overall, she's really quite a warm, loving person. Not at all stuck-up (though she is well aware of her reputation) the way some writers are. I think you'd like her, Holly. She has a bit of the povarvian and the archipelogoan about her. Think of John Cartan - with all his aplomb, his vigor, his intelligence, his good heart, etc. - as a short (not frail), thin old woman without freckles and who doesn't know math very well and you're close to getting a sense of Tillie Olson.

Hmm. John Cartan. Tillie Olson. Maybe it's God's version of The Patty Duke Show.