Monthly Archives: March 2023

Author Update 2023: Sue Houser

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Sue Houser is an award-winning author who weaves New Mexico’s history and traditions into her children’s books, as well as her nonfiction and historical fiction releases. Her latest book, Amelia and the Magic Ponies (Irie Books, 2022), was inspired by a wooden carousel found abandoned in Peñasco, New Mexico. You’ll find Sue on her website at SueHouser.com and on Facebook. Read more about her writing in SWW’s 2017 and 2020 interviews, and visit Amazon for all of her books.

Amelia and the Magic Ponies is written for children ages 4–8 years old. What do you hope readers will learn from the story you tell in the book?
I want to remind readers of the innocence of children and that by believing in dreams and possibilities, amazing things can happen.

When did you first hear about Los Caballitos (The Little Ponies), and what compelled you to begin working on the story?
Several years ago, a column in the Albuquerque Journal caught my attention. I read that a carousel in Taos, New Mexico is over one hundred years old. The antique merry-go-round, owned and restored by the Lions Club of Taos, is in operation during Las Fiestas de Santiago y Santa Ana every July on the historic plaza. I have always loved carousels, and I was curious. So when July came, I went to the fiesta and observed the wonder and delight on the faces of the children as they rode on the wooden ponies.

Who are your main characters in the book? What challenges do you set before them?
Amelia is eager to ride Los Caballitos and runs ahead of her grandfather to get in line at the fiesta in Peñasco, New Mexico. Abuelo falls and injures his leg. They return home – before Amelia has a chance to ride. The next fiesta, the ponies are not there. Amelia learns they are in an old barn and finds them in a deplorable condition. She wants her grandfather to fix them, but he is somewhat crippled. Amelia often visits the ponies. One day, a thunderstorm rolls in. Unable to return home, Amelia spends the night in the barn with the broken ponies.

How did the book come together?
I actually started it about 15 years ago. First, I wrote the non-fiction version of Tio Vivo (the name given to the restored carousel) but felt it needed more magic. The carousel’s turning and the ponies’ swaying felt like poetry to me. I tried, but I’m not a poet. So, next, I wrote the story from the point of view of one of the wooden horses. I liked that version, but my publisher/editor Gerald Hausman (of Irie Books) thought children might not connect with a wooden horse. He was right. A child needed to be the main character.

If you had input into the cover and interior artwork (illustrated by Mariah Fox), what was that experience like?
The cover reflects something magical is going to happen. I like it. But in the illustration where Amelia spent the night with the ponies, Mariah showed the wooden ponies to be in good condition. We discussed the narrative about the ponies’ damaged and broken state. Mariah created distress in the scene by adding rain coming down and putting bandages on the ponies. That was rather clever! I especially love her illustration of live musicians serenading the carousel riders, which is historically accurate.

What topics or themes does your book touch on that would make it a perfect fit for the classroom?

  • Something old does have value and may have an exciting story to tell.
  • When an activity is shared, it can be more enjoyable.
  • Don’t give up on your hopes and dreams.

What was your favorite part of writing Amelia and the Magic Ponies?
I enjoyed the research and even visited the National Carousel Museum in Leavenworth, Kansa. A highlight was watching delighted children ride the simple, colorful wooden ponies as they rode around and around.

Are you working on any projects now?
I am querying two picture books: Benjamin, The Eager Beaver―about a beaver who doesn’t want to grow up and Juanita’s Heavenly Bizcochitos―about a young girl who saves the day for her grandmother by baking the Las Posadas cookies. Another book, Walter Steps Up to the Plate (Artemesia Publishing), is a middle-grade historical fiction with a release date set for October, 2023. I can’t wait!

What else would you like readers to know?
Amelia and the Magic Ponies won 1st place in the 2023 New Mexico Press Women Zia Children’s Book Award. I will be giving a talk and signing books at Treasure House Books on Sunday, April 16, 2023 from 1:00 to 3:00 pm.

KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. Kat has a speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.



An Interview with Author Evelyn Neil

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Evelyn Neil writes short stories inspired by “everyday events and the decisions made by ordinary people that are so important to all of us.” In March 2022, she released her memoir Dancing to the End of Our Rainbow which has been called “a loving and brave book…a love story about life, and yet courageously takes on death.” You’ll find Evelyn on her SWW Author Page and on RMKpublications.com. Look for Dancing to the End of Our Rainbow on Amazon.

When did you know you wanted to write a memoir about life with your husband Don?
This memoir began as a group of short stories in 2013 when Don’s health issues started to limit the social and travel events we’d enjoyed in the past. I wanted to leave a part of us for our children and grandchildren. But then after Don passed in 2015, writing our story helped me to cope with my profound grief.

What makes this book unique in the memoir market?
It’s a love story about life that takes on the conversation of death and the choices people make. It is a true depiction of a full life that bravely takes on these difficult choices that others consider unmentionable.

If you ever felt you were revealing too much about you or your family while writing Dancing to the End of Our Rainbow, how did you move forward?
The first few drafts were pretty tight-lipped about some of the more raw family happenings. With the help of my critique partners, I was able to sort out what revelations were integral to this story and write about those touchy events without hurting anyone’s feelings.

What was the most challenging part of putting this book together?
Getting into and ferreting out my true feelings and emotions so as to not have the story come off as a piece of journalistic reporting. I didn’t want Dancing to the End of Our Rainbow to be perceived as a “How To” for coping with grief. I hoped this very personal story would be a window into how one woman gained strength and wisdom from the process of sharing her story.

What are the essential elements of a well-written memoir?
A good memoir must have a message or a theme, even though the author is telling of a moment in time of their life. Because an author cannot write of each happening or detail of a certain period, they must relay only those events that are pertinent to the intended theme. A well-written memoir also incorporates the use of silence. What is left unsaid is as important as what is said.

Tell us how you chose the title.
Choosing the title was one of my most difficult decisions. My working title was Hanging On. But following several reiterations, this story evolved into something beyond what that title suggested. I needed a title that would give readers the desire to look into this couple’s golden years and to learn that the pot of gold is not necessarily at the end of the rainbow but in the journey.

What was the most rewarding aspect of writing the book?
My most rewarding aspect was getting in touch with my feelings about what had occurred. In mere moments, my life had irretrievably changed. First, I had to reconcile myself to the fact that certain events were beyond my control. Writing helped me to cope with the grieving process by turning my thoughts away from the horror of what had happened. I discovered that when I committed my thoughts to paper, I no longer had to carry the full burden of those terrible events.

When readers turn the last page of Dancing to the End of Our Rainbow, what do you hope they’ll take away from it?
To live each day to its fullest. To love and take care of one another. To never have regrets about a life well lived or judge a person’s decision to choose their time to depart. By holding the memories of that departed person close to your heart, they will be with you forever.

What inspired you to become a writer?
I’d always wanted to write, but for many years life got in the way—raising children and helping to operate a successful family business. I was finally able to start writing at age 75 following my retirement from Kachina Petroleum Equipment Company. I considered myself an author three years later in 2016 when my short story “Comrades: A Wife Recollects Her Late Husband’s Letters from Korea” was published in From the Front Lines to the Homefront.

What is the first piece of writing you can remember completing?
My first short story was written in response to a prompt in a UNM Continuing Ed creative writing class. It was entitled “Side of the Road” and was about the wonder of witnessing a prong-horn antelope give birth to twins in the tall Wyoming prairie grass. This story was later incorporated into the Wyoming reunion event depicted in Dancing to the End of Our Rainbow.

When you start a writing project, do you usually have a theme or message in mind or is that something that becomes obvious as you write?
When I begin a story, I don’t usually have an overt theme or message. The theme, like a big fish swimming in dark murky waters, will surface as the story gains momentum and moves forward. I’m a pantser and use neither outlines nor note cards. I start with a basic story idea, knowing both the beginning and the ending and work from there. I do write notes on scrapes of paper whenever and wherever an idea pops into my mind.

Do you have writing rituals or something you absolutely need in order to write?
I have a special writing area set up in a guest room in my home. This is where I hang out many afternoons and most evenings to spend a few hours writing. I have no special ritual, just my ticking Grandfather clock to remind me that I have so many stories to share and so little time left.

What genre do you enjoy reading the most, and who are your favorite authors?
I enjoy reading many genres. I admire Marie Benedict for her extensive research and writing style in historical fiction. She doesn’t just tell the story, she uses realistic dialogue and narrative to draw the reader into the events as they unfold. I also like the psychological mysteries of Ian McEwan and Ruth Ward. They pull me in by the throat and take me on a wondrous wild ride.

What writing projects are you working on now?
I am in the process of putting together two short-story anthologies for publication. The first, working title Bits and Pieces, is a collection of random short stories and poems based on true happenings but written as fiction. The second, Once Upon a Prairie, is a memoir of my growing-up years as a free-range kid on the Wyoming prairie. It will include stories of my high school-years and also my short courtship and early marriage to Don.

Is there anything else you’d like readers to know?
Don’t spend all your time taking classes and listening to others talk about writing. There is no better way to learn than to put your pants in the chair and start by writing as little as 50 words each day about whatever comes to mind. By writing about what you see around you, your experiences and even your wildest ideas and dreams, you will find yourself opening up to a wondrous world of storytelling.

Su Lierz writes dark fiction, short story fiction, and personal essays. Her short story “Twelve Days in April,” written under the pen name Laney Payne, appeared in the 2018 SouthWest Writers Sage Anthology. Su was a finalist in the 2017 and 2018 Albuquerque Museum Authors Festival Writing Contest. She lives in Corrales, New Mexico, with her husband Dennis.



An Interview with Author Kathy Louise Schuit

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Former journalist Kathy Louise Schuit is an author/illustrator of children’s books with characters who become heroes of their own stories. Dance Cat, published in October 2022, is her second picture book release. You’ll find Kathy on Facebook and on her website at OpenWithDesign.com. Look for Dance Cat on Amazon.

What would you like readers to know about the story you tell in Dance Cat?
Dance Cat is a story about the value of practice. The Dance Cat practices every day to dance his best in every way. The second part—about HIS best—is also essential. Practice to be the best YOU can be.

What unique challenges did this work pose for you?
When my last book for children, Where Does This Line Go?, was critiqued by judges from the NMPW Communications Contest one of the comments that really stuck with me was that some of the rhymes simply didn’t work. I went back and read through the book taking a very deliberate look at the quality of the rhymes and found the critique was absolutely correct. With this book, I spent many more hours working on the rhymes. I also consulted with a teacher whose PhD is in early childhood learning. She worked with me not only on the rhyming but on the rhythms used by adults when reading to children. It’s important, she said, to make sure that devices are used in the writing—punctuation, certainly, but also line divisions, bold words for emphasis, italics and artistic treatments of the word to create connotations—to guide the adult reader into the proper emphasis and/or discussion with the child of what is happening in the story. I learned so much from working through this process.

Did the spark for the book begin with an idea, a line of prose, an image?
This book was inspired decades ago by my sister—a choreographer and dance instructor—who had a cat in her studio that she called her dance cat. The idea of a cat dancing with the students stuck with me.

Tell us how the book came together.
I started collecting images of cats in different poses in 2017 and was sketching dancers shortly after that. But it was Covid isolation that really gave me the time and incentive to get serious. I have hundreds of illustrations of cats in my sketch libraries now—so sick of drawing cats! It wasn’t until 2021 (after a trip to a Laguna, California art show) that I decided the cat should be painted blue. After that, the illustrations got much easier. I also attended a conference hosted by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) in Albuquerque. The speaker was Molly Idle, author/illustrator of Tea Rex and Caldecott Honor-winning picture book Flora and the Flamingo. This was one of the BEST conferences I’ve ever attended, with Molly sharing an entire day’s worth of her trade secrets. One thing she said that really stuck with me is that she limits her color palettes. This helped me with my color selections for Dance Cat—I decided then and there to pretty much limit the colors to shades of pink and blue. That choice led to a lot of pictures that resembled baby shower gifts! The key was in increasing the intensity of the colors, and it all came together after that.

Who is your main character and why will your audience connect with him/her?
The dance cat is the main character and is only ever referred to as the dance cat. He is a he because I wanted to create a story that held interest for young boys as well as girls. Dance studios around the country are mostly populated with girls dancing in pink tutus. Even in today’s world of greater inclusiveness, boys can be easily discouraged from getting involved with dance. The dance cat will appeal to anyone who loves to dance (and a lot of people who like cats). Teachers of any kind should find Dance Cat a useful story for presenting the idea of the importance of practice to develop your skill.

Do you have a favorite image or page spread from Dance Cat?
I DO! While I’ve sold several prints of the coyotes signaling the start of the Dance Cat Show on page 15, my favorite is the cityscape on pages 11 and 12. I had so much fun drawing the buildings tilted around the dance school, getting the street to angle just right and adding the plants, park and lighting. It’s one of my favorite drawings ever.

What did you love about putting this project together?
So many things! Like I’ve already said, the education on the rhyming and reading of children’s books was priceless, as was the SCBWI conference. Once I got started, the creation of each image became its own labor of love. Getting the text to work better also helped me to “see” the illustrations more clearly before I even started to sketch them—I wanted the illustrations to tell the story just as well as the text. It was so satisfying when I could make illustrations that looked just like what I had imagined in my own thought bubbles.

What have you had to learn about creating a picture book’s narrative?
One of the most valuable things I learned about writing for young children is that, while they may have messages of their own, at their core picture books are about sparking interest in the child for learning to read. With that held in mindfulness, I take seriously the advice of seasoned writers about holding the entire book close to 350 words (the average attention span of children 4–5 years old) and have made it a rule for my children’s writing. If the child loses interest in the story, it’s not just one reading that suffers, children can easily connect one boring story to a mindset of ALL stories are boring. It’s a big responsibility writing for young children. Tight, exciting writing that moves quickly from event to event is essential. And get an editor, I can’t say that enough. A book with only 350 words deserves the attention it takes to make sure every one of those words is the exact right one to get a child to beg for more reading!

What kind of creative patterns, routines, or rituals do you have?
When I’m in the middle of a project, I have a truly hard time pulling myself away. I’ve always been one of those people who likes to work straight through to the end of most all activities without stopping. My brain understands this isn’t practical when working on lots of illustrations and page designs. And yet, I still find myself surprised at midnight after I’ve been drawing since 8 a.m. The muscle stiffness and shallow breathing those days cause has made me enforce more breaks and daily exercise on myself, but I’m not as successful as I need to be. Being able to create any form of art is a gift for me. Losing myself in it is something I never thought I’d experience in this lifetime.

Do you have a message or a theme that recurs in your writing?
I’ve always been a big fan of Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey storytelling style. I like my characters to overcome obstacles and to become the hero of their own story in the end. I did have concerns with Dance Cat that there were not enough challenges for the cat to really emerge as victorious in the end. That’s when the last couple pages were added, to show that he has dreams, and the way to make them reality comes from within himself and his decision to practice.

What writing/illustrating projects are you working on now?
In January, I started work on a 32-page illustrated marketing booklet for a Real Estate Company in Texas. It’s an exciting project. The text has been provided and the company wants the illustrations to have a feel similar to that of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. It’s already clear that it will afford me lots of room for further education and artistic growth—my favorite!

KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. Kat has a speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.



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