On Snow & Pete Dexter's "Spooner," and War Zones

I’m glad to see that Pete Dexter’s new novel, Spooner, is getting much attention. He’s one of our best. Here’s an article in the NY Times that makes Dexter sound like a likable guy:
www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/books/14dexter.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=books
The elephant novel-in-progress sounds good, and maybe a companion for Deadwood. It’s heartening to hear of other fiction writers doing research. I would guess I’ve read 20-30 books researching my new novel, The Bird Savior, although little of it will actually appear in the pages. I was once fortunate to have a class with the playwright Edward Albee, and he said you should know an enormous amount of material about your characters that absolutely does not appear in the work. I think he’s right. What we see and know of a person is usually just an iceberg tip, and maybe that’s why we love and put up with our friends—we really know them, all their flaws and strengths, and somehow we like that.
It’s been snowing three days now here in central Pennsylvania. A record of some sort. All the trees still have their leaves, too, so there are many branches broken off and power lines down. I’d like to say “It’s like a war zone,” but I’m afraid the metaphor police would arrest me. Plus I think you can only say that while being filmed, shirtless and bearded, by a halfwit local TV news team on a tornado-damage street. And, really, what would I know about war zones?