On her Facebook wall, former SR colleague Erica Curless (now an equine & canine massage therapist), posts: “Horses and words: two of my favorite things. Massaging horses and then going to the kick off for Jess Walter's new novel (“Beautiful Ruins”) tonight at Aunties.”

Question: What are two of your favorite things?

What do Jess Walter, Richard Miller and Dan Kolbet have in common? Hint: They are ex-Spokesman-Review staffers. And? They’ve all written books. Walter, of course, parlayed his reporting of the August 1992 Ruby Ridge siege into a book (“Every Knee Shall Bow”) and a TV miniseries. He’s now penned seven books, with the last one, “The Financial Lives of the Poets,” receiving national acclaim. Kolbet, an Avista spokesman, worked in the sports department. Now, he’s written “Off the Grid,” a futuristic thriller about a man who fights a power monopoly that decides which cities are blacked out and which aren’t. Miller, a former editor now handling Washington State University public relations, has just published an anti-vampire-genre novel about a 150-year-old vampire living in downtown Spokane, “All You Can Eat.” No Team Edward versus Team Jacob going on here/DFO, Huckleberries. More here.

Other SR weekend columns:

• Citizens ready to salute/Gary Crooks
• This tale has a familial feel to it/John Blanchette
• Idaho's dimmer economic outlook mirrors US/Betsy Russell
• A culinary odyssey to hot side of hell/Jim Kershner
• Teacher's compassion tempers girl's chaos/Shawn Vestal
• To those who disgraced law they swore to uphold/Doug Clark
• Why are ruffed grouse taking shine to North Idaho men/Rich Landers

Question: Have you read any of Jess Walter's books? Thoughts?

Remember how everything was going to be different? After 2,977 people died in coordinated suicide attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the crash of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania, Americans came together in a near-unanimous moment of unity and shared purpose. From now on, we would stop being the superficial, America-first consumerists we'd been before 9/11. (Or, depending on your outlook, we'd stop being godless, unpatriotic hedonists.) Either way, this was the call of a generation, the dawn of a new era — one of responsibility, civility and personal sacrifice. Blood donations and volunteerism spiked, church attendance and military service were expected to follow. Then-President George W. Bush called on every American to donate “4,000 hours, or two years” to charitable work. Senate Republicans and Democrats skipped out onto the Capitol steps to proclaim their bipartisanship, saying, “There is no opposition party.” But then something happened. We lost our way/Jess Walter, Seattle Times. More here. (AP photo/Medford Mail Tribune, Julia Moore: Firefighters honor the fallen on Sunday in Medford, Ore.)

Question: Is anyone proud of something that occurred in the last 10 years?

The latest book by Spokane author Jess Walter will hit the big screen — and, a major Hollywood actor has signed on to be part of the project! Ealing Metro International and Prescience will finance and sell worldwide rights on Bailout, based on Walter's book Financial Lives of the Poets. The movie will be directed by Michael Winterbottom and star Jack Black; shooting is scheduled to get underway in August. Financial Lives follows an out of work newspaper reporter, saddled with debt and career uncertainty as the market tumbles. He meets some characters at a late-night gas station and enters into a shady business venture as he tries to save his home and his family. Though never specified, if you read the book, you'll wonder if it's set right here in Spokane/Melissa Luck, KXLY. More here.

Question: Have you ever read a book by my old SR colleague Jess Walter?

All day long, the anticipation weighed on us. Would we be ready? Were we up to the challenge? Not the big game. That's tomorrow, when our beloved alma mater, Eastern Washington University plays the University of Delaware in the Football Championship Subdivision title game. No, what we were nervous about was the big burger. It's called El Jefe Grande, and it's the pride of Kenny's Burger Joint here in Frisco. It weighs in at a full seven pounds (roughly the size of EWU's superstar linebacker J.C. Sherritt.) The El Jefe is 7000 calories and features three pounds of beef, a half-pound of bacon, french fries, jalapenos, onions, and other fixings all slammed between two mattress-sized slabs of Texas toast/Jess & Ralph Walter, SR. More here.

DFO: Dunno if you've been following the musings of Jess (“The Financial Lives of Poets”) and Ralph Walter en route to Frisco, Texas, for tonight's national championship I-AA football game between EWU & Delaware. But you should if you want to laugh. Twitter feed here.

Question: Wes Aamodt of the old Shady Lady bar in Wardner once made a 10-pound burger for columnist Doug Clark and me. We ate about a pound of it between us. I once ate a 42-ounce steak at Wolf Lodge Inn, too. Can you top that for over-eating a burger or steak?