Author Alert

Kevin Kilbane interviews former Fort Wayne resident Michael Martone.

When author Michael Martone tells people he generally writes about Indiana, they usually ask one question: Why?

The land of flat Midwestern fields and white bread may seem dull to outsiders.

But Martone delights in finding – or inventing – the extraordinary from what seems to be the ordinary.

“I see that as a challenge,” said Martone, who will stop here to sign copies of his latest book, “Michael Martone,” Monday night at Borders Books, Music and Café.

The book (FC2, $15.95) is a fictionalized autobiography written as a series of 44 “contributors’ notes.”

[...]His favorite involves one in which his very-much-alive mother, Patty Martone, is lying on her deathbed. He has morphed into a giant bug, and he consoles and caresses her with his many legs.

The idea for that story came from the experience of his father, Tony. During 1999 and early 2000, Tony Martone wore a millipede costume while serving as Millie the Millipede, the mascot for Fort Wayne’s millennium celebrations.

Martone is director of creative writing at the University of Alabama.

NOTE: Yesterday, Patty supplied the N-S guest column.