Sarah from Urban Wanderlust has a touching tribute to late author John Hassler.

I don’t know that I would call Hassler my favorite author — mostly, because I don’t know that I’d pin down ONE author as a favorite. But here’s what I do know: Hassler’s genuine, masterful storytelling (all set in small-town Minnesota) helped me make peace with a high-school experience far away from Minneapolis, which always sort-of felt like where my heart belonged. As an aspiring writer, Hassler helped me understand how to write from my own life experience — and how that experience, regardless of how mundane it seemed, was beautiful in that it was mine, and it touched the lives of others, and that somehow, putting down my life experiences in words made me feel more connected to the greater world around me.