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Author Matt Bondurant, a Fairfax County native and Mount Vernon High School graduate, has published three novels, one of which has been made into the major motion picture "Lawless." Photographed at one of his favorite sandwich shops, the Taco Grande on Route 1 and Cooper Road. (Tom Jackman - The Washington Post) You may not have heard of author Matt Bondurant, the Northern Virginia native and Mount Vernon High School grad whose third novel, ”The Night Swimmer,” was recently published. But you will soon, thanks to his riveting second novel, “The Wettest County in the World,” based on his family’s exploits in the bootlegging business in southwestern Virginia in the 1920s and ‘30s.

Jason Clarke (standing), Tom Hardy (left) and Shia LaBeouf as the Bondurant brothers of Franklin County, Va., in “Lawless,” which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday. (Richard Foreman, Jr. - SMPSP) “The Wettest County” was optioned for a movie even before the book hit the shelves. It now has been made into a major independent film renamed “Lawless,” which debuted Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival and will hit American screens in August. It stars Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf, Guy Pearce, Jessica Chastain and Gary Oldman; the screenplay was written by rock musician Nick Cave, and the soundtrack features songs by Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson and Ralph Stanley, who does a bluegrass version of the Velvet Underground’s “White Light/White Heat.” That alone might be worth the price of admission.

Bondurant wrote “The Wettest County” while he was teaching English at George Mason University in Fairfax between 2003 and 2007, and it was published in 2008 to glowing reviews. While living in Del Ray in Alexandria, Bondurant would trek down to his grandfather’s stomping grounds in the hills south of Roanoke to compile the remarkable detail that infuses the scenes and characters, when they aren’t punching or shooting each other or driving crazily through the back roads to avoid the law.

Here’s the trailer for “Lawless,” which will make you want to go get the book immediately, and the story of Bondurant’s journey from Route 1 to the big screen is after the jump.

Roland T. Smith II, 32, of Spotsylvania, charged with stabbing his girlfriend on May 11, 2012. (Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office)

What Roland T. Smith II allegedly did to his girlfriend in a Spotsylvania County motel room is not funny. Stabbing someone is a serious crime, and it’s being treated as such. But this mug shot is out of the ordinary.

You see this mug shot and the questions just start flowing in your brain. Why Latin? Who will understand the Latin? If you think, wherefore do you stab?

Smith, 32, is from Spotsylvania, that “Rest of Virginia” land [“RoVa”] outside the State of NoVa, where perhaps some folks are dedicated to keeping Latin alive. Unfortunately, Smith was not dedicated to keeping other people healthy, according to the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office. Smith was at the Econolodge Hotel on Route 1 in Spotsylvania one recent Friday night with a young woman, not his girlfriend. His girlfriend arrived, according to Spotsylvania Capt. Mike Harvey, and amidst the ensuing discourse about fidelity and truth, the girlfriend was stabbed in the stomach.

A hotel security guard was on scene in moments and was able to point out a suspect to responding county deputies, Harvey said. Smith was charged with aggravated malicious wounding and held with no bond. Harvey said the victim, 36, did not suffer life-threatening injuries but the knife wound lacerated her liver.

The time in confinement should provide Smith with the perfect opportunity to augment his literary noggin (or consider a visit to the business in the blog post below this one). He’s already got the famed ”Cogito ergo sum” [“I think therefore I am”] and “Alis grave nil” [“Nothing is heavy to those who have wings”]. He’s also got “Articulate,” which you can just hear some Latin teacher bellowing in class, and he has two tattooed tear drops, which either means he has lost loved ones or killed two people.

What belongs on the top and back of his cranial canvas? “Sic semper moronis”? “Semper dumb”? Leave your suggestions in the comments. Keep it clean. Translations welcome.

Life is good in Arlington County, residents say, and you don’t have to be at the fair to enjoy it. (Melina Mara/TWP - The Washington Post) Residents of the greater Washington D.C. area have a lot of complain about when they look at their local governments: corruption in the District, budget cuts in Fairfax County, anger over redevelopment in Alexandria... we could go on.

But not in Arlington County, where a whopping 89 percent of residents surveyed said they were satisfied with local government services and 92 percent said they were happy with the quality of life in the close-in suburb that acts like a city.

This was a real survey, not one of those “click here if you like this” Internet knockoffs. The ETC Institute of Olathe, Kansas does this kind of community research in 48 states and the results are statistically valid, with a 2.7 percent margin of error. Some 3,600 random households were contacted and 1,306 responses were received, which ETC VP Chris Tatham called an astounding level of response.

The results are also pretty amazing, even when you drill down into the details, where consultants tend to hide the exceptions. The happiness (er... “satisfaction” in professional pollster lingo) exceeds the national averages by double digits.

Chris Slavin, owner of the Zapatat tattoo removal parlor in Arlington, now with four-times faster removal of your biggest ink-on-skin regrets. (Tom Jackman - The Washington Post) The tattoo removal parlor Zapatat, which just launched on Wilson Boulevard in Arlington last fall, is now boldly pushing the envelope for removal of your deepest ink-on-skin regrets: Removal in as little as one-quarter of the time it once took, which was a year to a year-and-a-half for a well-done or decent-sized tattoo.

Chris Slavin, the entrepreneur who opened the sleek salon, said Zapatat is one of the first places in the country, and the first in this area, to speed up the removal of that ex-girlfriend’s name or that colorful tramp stamp. This happens through the “R20 Protocol,” which was first reported in Europe last year, and has been tested on volunteers at Zapatat. Basically, instead of one laser treatment to zap color ink particles, followed by a waiting period of six to eight weeks, three or four laser treatments can be done in one visit. This can shorten the total removal process down to six months, or less with an amateur, one-color or prison tattoo. (Editors, take note.)

Slavin said Zapatat has already signed up 1,500 clients for its standard tattoo removal process, advertising aggressively through social media. (Slavin removed the hyphens from Zapatat’s name because it was too hard to type in to a mobile device.) But the new, faster method is “a very important development because we do get people looking to get into law enforcement or the military, who have started removal for that purpose, so we can help them go a lot faster.” Many law and military outfits now frown on visible tattoos.

Here is an excellent video The Post’s Alexandra Garcia did on tattoo removal for this article by Emily Wax published a few months back.

Candace Leyton was known as a tough, creative and funny teacher who connected with kids across the academic spectrum. She taught in Fairfax County for 30 years before she died of breast cancer in 2003. A technology lab at Wolftrap Elementary School is being dedicated in her name. (Peter Leyton) Wall Street financier Chris Shumway never forgot his old school in Vienna, Wolftrap Elementary. And he never forgot his favorite teacher, Candace Leyton, who taught him in third grade.

So Shumway decided to make a little gesture in Leyton’s memory. A separate technology lab building at a cost of $800,000. Read more about this memorable teacher, and how she will continue to have an impact, in this great story by The Post’s Emma Brown on her Virginia Schools Insider blog.