A writer from West Virginia who claimed last week that he’d bee shot in a random act of violence has admitted that he shot himself to promote his book, police told The Associated Press on Friday.

The writer, 39-year-old Ray Dolan, originally claimed he was working on a book called “The Kindness of America,” and had suffered his injury at the hands of a motorist while he was hitchhiking in Montana.

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52-year-old Lloyd Christopher Danielson III was arrested and charged with the crime, but that charge has since been dropped. He remains in jail on an unrelated charge.

Dolin’s gunshot wound was located in the upper arm, and is expected to make a full recovery.

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Photo: Flickr user mattlemmon, creative commons licensed.