atrick Dobson, author of Seldom Seen, which is new this fall from the University of Nebraska Press, was interviewed in the Kansas City Star earlier this week. The book, for blog readers who are unfamiliar, recounts a trip that Dobson took 15 years ago, on foot, across the Great Plains. The article, a Q&A with the author, deals with how (and why) Dobson came to quit his job at a Kansas City hotel, say goodbye to his beloved young daughter, pack a backpack and set out for Helena, Montana. That trip changed Dobson, and he said he views the Patrick Dobson who walked across the Great Plains more as a character in a book than a version of himself. Another nice detail: Since the trip, Dobson has taken his daughter, now 18, on several vacations to the parts of the country he became acquainted with as he walked from Kansas City to Montana. The full interview is on the Kansas City Star Web site.