A Hitchhiker's Guide to Shooting Self for Publicity?

Ray Dolin, 39, decided to write a memoir called "Kindness in America" about how people are nice to him as he hitchhikes across the Grand Old USA.

Last week, he reported he'd been shot, unprovoked by a passerby somewhere in the wilds of Montana. Nice irony. I was going to blog about it last week, but something didn't smell right. It was too ironic. Too perfect.

No, Ray Dolin, you shot yourself. It wasn't a random assailant.

Sure enough, As the Missoulian reported in the past couple of days, Dolin shot himself in an apparent bid for publicity. I guess if you need to call attention to your work, your writing, you have to do something dramatic.

I guess that means I'll never gain success as a writer. I'm clearly bad at publicity.  I'm totally unwilling to shoot myself to let people know what a great writer I am. . And now, I'd have to outdo Dolin, by being even more ironic, and shooting myself somewhere on my body that's more dangerous. Or destructive. Maybe I'm expected to blow my hands off with a Glock 9 mm. then write my stories.

I don't have the stomach for that. Plus I don't want to shoot myself in the stomach.

Or maybe Dolin shot himself by accident and tried to cover up his stupidity.  Maybe he wasn't too confident in the kindness of strangers if he was carrying a gun for protection.

A poor schmuck, Lloyd Christopher Danielson III, was initially charged in the shooting, but apparently the local sheriff was able to figure out that Danielson's story held up but Dolin's story didn't, according to the Missoulan.

Worked out kind of like a Montana version of CSI, didn't it?

Details are still sparse on exactly how Dolin concocted his story, exactly what he expected to happen and what charges he might face, according to the Missoulin article.