Monday, March 26, 2007

People We Like: Tulsa Writer Michael Wallis

Michael Wallis is a big man with a big voice and a big personality. All of which is a way of saying that he's a talented and colorful Tulsa writer, someone all Oklahomans can be proud of.

Why? Because he's written a string of entertaining and informative books about Oklahoma and the West, including one that's just been published, Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride (W.W. Norton, $25.95). This comes after his book, Route 66: The Mother Road, which led to his work on the movie Cars, where Wallis was an advisor and the voice of an animated character. And this is on top of many other books on such people as the outlaw Pretty Boy Floyd and former Cherokee Chief Wilma Mankiller.

With this resume, Wallis must be doing something right. A couple of weeks back, the new book landed Wallis a full-page story in the Tulsa World, and a few days after that, a national radio interview on NPR's Diane Rehm Show. (Free downloads of the show are available on Diane Rehm's site at npr.org.)

Not bad for a Tulsa writer. Not bad at all.

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