Monthly Archives: July 2025

An Interview with Author Wendy Johnson

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Dr. Wendy Johnson is a clinician, public health expert, teacher, and mentor, as well as an activist and author. Her 2025 book release, Kinship Medicine: Cultivating Interdependence to Heal the Earth and Ourselves (North Atlantic Books), “maps a way forward to a sustainable, hopeful future with wise and compassionate directives, encouraging us to step into wild places, engage in community-building partnerships and endeavors, and be informed and inspiring activists in the creation of a better world.” You’ll find Dr. Johnson on WendyJohnsonMD.com, Facebook, Instagram, and Substack. Look for Kinship Medicine at North Atlantic Books and major retailers including Amazon.

Why did you write Kinship Medicine, and who did you write it for?
The impetus to start writing Kinship Medicine came out of a lifetime of frustration in my chosen field of medicine. I always felt that Western Medicine’s focus was too narrow and if we could know patients better and employ “treatments” that were broader than procedures or pills — interventions that were social as well as biological — we could have a much bigger and earlier impact in the course of their illnesses, and in many cases prevent them altogether. My hunch about this led me to discover the community health movement and the field of public health, but again, I felt frustrated because there was no way to apply all I learned about the effects of environment and social context on health within the confines of our profit-based healthcare system. I wrote the book for all those folks, health care workers and patients, who feel the same frustration with our healthcare system, or with commonly dispensed wellness advice, and think there’s something missing. I hope this is part of that missing piece.

Tell us about the journey from inspiration to completed book.
The idea for the book probably popped into my head over 10 years ago, and I may have even sketched out an early outline, but the book changed substantially over time. The first and most important spark that really got the book going was my friend Nassim Assefi. Nassim is a fellow global health physician and novelist, so I went to her with the beginnings of a book proposal and asked her advice. I had always been a writer on the side, and had majored in English as an undergrad, but mostly op-eds, academic papers and one book chapter, but a book was a whole other endeavor. This was around 2018 or so. Nassim loved the idea and she helped improve the proposal. With her encouragement, I got a couple of essays published in literary journals that eventually turned into chapters. Also, with her encouragement, I applied for a Hedgebrook residency and, miracle of miracles, I got it. That was really the turning point and made me feel like a “real writer.” Our cohort of six was the last group to complete a three-week residency before COVID shut things down in March of 2020. Five years later, the group still meets monthly on Zoom to workshop each other’s work.

I started writing the book in earnest during that residency, sitting at a desk where so many amazing writers sat before me. I did another important residency at Mesa Refuge in 2022. Being a part of those communities of writers has been critical for the development of the book. I sought out many other mentors and developmental edits along the way, including book coach extraordinaire Carolyn Flynn, Lesley Poling-Kempes and Robin McLean, David Martin of Middle Creek Publishing, The Writer’s Hotel (Shanna McNair and Scott Wolven), and Hugo Houses’ Book Lab taught by Sonora Jha. All helped improve the book immensely.

Finding my publisher was a funny serendipitous story. Rosh Joan Halifax had recommended me to her agent (Stephanie Tade) and she took me on and tried to place the book for about a year or so without luck. Almost a year after we parted ways, she sent me an email saying one of the publishers had asked to see my manuscript, but for some reason I didn’t see the message for another year. I had just finished Hugo House’s year-long Book Lab and was ready to start querying again, so I dug up all my old rejections to see what I could glean from them and lo and behold found the old email from Stephanie. I contacted Tim McKee at North Atlantic Books and he was still enthusiastic to look at the manuscript. In the end, I feel like it was fate. It was a much better book after the Book Lab. Tim loved it, felt it was ready to go, and so it was less than a year from signing my contract to pub date. I couldn’t be happier with my publisher — they are a non-profit social-justice-oriented publisher and no one there makes more than 2.6x the lowest paid employee. I feel that it’s the perfect fit.

How is the book structured and why did you choose to put it together that way?
I try to take the reader on a journey of discovery that mirrors my own and answer the questions — how did we get here and what might be the path forward? The chapters are building blocks to understanding and encompass public health, anthropology, sociology, ecology and many other fields. Woven through are examples from my own life and those of my patients.

The book starts off by grounding the reader a little in my life, my career, but also in New Mexico. I really began to understand the importance of the natural world and community to my own health over this past decade being a parciante in an acequia system and living in Chupadero. The introduction and first chapter are both set in New Mexico and use local examples to illustrate the principals I talk about throughout the book.

In the following chapters, I make the case that we seem to be stuck. After many decades of advances in health and well-being for humans, we seem to be backsliding as a species, and our healthcare system doesn’t seem to have the answers. At the same time, we’re harming the very environments we depend on for our well-being. I discuss the roots of our disconnection from each other and the natural world and how we began to think of ourselves as hierarchical beings ruling over nature. I explain that we are nature and show how even our bodies are ecosystems of symbiotic beings that must work together for all to flourish.

The last part of the book takes the reader through a process that I hope will shift their thinking from “human-centric” to “life-centric” and inspire them to take collective action through that new way of looking at the world.

Share a few surprising facts you discovered while doing research for Kinship Medicine.
I loved learning about Lynn Margulis’ contributions to how we understand evolution. Her thesis was that cooperation and “symbiosis” was a much more important contribution to evolution than competition. She was a woman scientist working in the 1960s and had these revolutionary ideas about how cells gained complexity by joining together symbiotically, not by “conquering” each other. She was unable to publish her first papers, getting rejected by more than 15 journals, but she kept at it. In the end, all her significant hypotheses were proved true using genetic evidence. It just turns our entire idea of who we are and how we came to be on its head when you let go of “survival of fittest’ as the myth that it is.

Another fun thing I discovered was about the first scientists who developed the germ theory of disease, including Louis Pasteur and Elie Metchnikoff. They both had far more nuanced ideas about germs than I was led to believe in my medical school classes. They understood that some were harmful and cause illness, but thought that others were helpful and necessary to our well-being. Their interpreters for the most part decided that if germs cause disease, then all germs must be bad, so our century of declaring war on all things microbial ensued. Of course, some of that was wildly beneficial, but the overuse of antibiotics and pesticides has also had a dark side.

What was the most rewarding aspect of putting this project together?
That’s easy. My friend Robin McLean says writing is a team sport and I have been blessed with a wonderful team. Getting to be a part of the community of writers, especially women writers, has enriched my whole life.

Do you have a favorite chapter in the book?
I am most fond of the chapters set in New Mexico that have a lot of my own stories in them. Which is surprising because the book started out devoid of much of that. I like the introduction, “Out of the Fire,” the first chapter, “The Wild Tithe,” chapter 11, “The Path Forward” and the epilogue, “The Coyote and the Cottonwood” best (that’s way more than one!)

Amazon lists Kinship Medicine in three categories: Sociological Study of Medicine, Nature Writing & Essays, and Sociology Reference. If you didn’t have the limitations of Amazon categories, how would you characterize the book?
I think it’s kind of sad we have such atomized categories. But if I did, I would say it’s a new genre – a “collective-help book” (rather than self-help, it’s anti-self-help).

Why did you choose this moment in time to write/publish Kinship Medicine?
The moment chose me, I think!

Do you have a favorite quote from the book that you’d like to share?
“We are at a crossroads. Will humankind continue down a path of separation from nature, of domination and destruction, or will we harness our intelligence toward finding new ways of achieving integration, reciprocity, and sustainability?”

When you tackle a nonfiction project, do you think of it as storytelling?
Yes, absolutely.

Which creative medium would you love to pursue but haven’t yet?
I have dabbled in photography. I think next is using photographs as a base for encaustic painting.

Do you have a message or a theme that recurs in your writing?
My parents instilled in me my sense of fairness and justice and that comes through in my writing, I hope.

What writing projects are you working on now?
Thinking about the next book — maybe more focused on the healthcare system and how we could reverse engineer it to address that 80% of our health is dependent on our social context and community connections and environment.

KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner loves creating worlds of fantasy and science fiction. Her current work in progress is The Last Bonekeeper fantasy trilogy and short stories in the same universe. A member of SouthWest Writers since 2006, Kat has worked as the organization’s secretary, newsletter editor, website manager, and author interview coordinator. Kat is also a veteran, a martial art student, and a grandmother. Visit her at klwagoner.com.



An Interview with Author Sequoia Rudolph

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Author Sequoia Rudolph is a retired special education teacher whose first book started out as an essay that stretched into a memoir but ended up as a novel. Her debut release, In Time Out (September 2024), brings readers “a fun, sexy mid-life adventure that blends humor, heartache, healing, and wisdom” with “a powerful reflection on the challenges of education, colonization, and life’s obstacles.” You’ll find Sequoia on Medium and Amazon.

When readers turn the last page in the book, what do you hope they will take away from it?
First, I want people to realize that teaching special education is a very difficult career and rarely is there a concrete resolution to the challenges both teachers and students face. Secondly, people have a view of what living and working in Paradise is like. It is very different from staying in a resort where the locals are paid to be nice to tourists. And third, women of a certain vintage often make changes to their lifestyles and it takes a lot of courage to leave a situation that does not work.

What challenges did this work pose for you?
This book started out as a nonfiction essay about the unfair treatment of special education students and teachers in the Department of Education in the state of Hawaii. Then it became a memoir, finally I decided to write a novel because making stuff up was a lot more fun than telling the absolute truth.

Who are your main characters and what do they have to overcome in the story? Will those who know you recognize you in any of your characters?
The main character is a clueless middle-aged runaway, Cynthia Ferguson, who had never been to Maui and decided to leave her husband. Yes, people would know this is my story. However, when I landed on Maui my life was totally different than hers in that I immediately made myself explore and connect with the island and the community. Cynthia was more afraid and cautious. Matthew, her young colleague, is a composite of various people who teach in every place I have ever worked. There is always an adorable young guy who gets away with not doing his job, and everyone loves him. No one ever calls him out because he is funny and makes people laugh.

All of the students in this novel are familiar to every special education teacher in the world. They are at a disadvantage and it is the teacher’s job to level the playing field. Not always possible or realistic. The evil principal, Ms. Yamamoto, is a combination of three of the worst administrators I encountered in my 25-year career. Maui is definitely one of the main characters. She adds beauty and adventure to the story.

Tell us how the book came together.
The story came from my teaching career, not just on Maui but in Kentucky and Arizona as well. In Time Out took 12 years to write and underwent many changes along the way. When I retired three years ago, I decided to finish the book and so I devoted a great deal of my time and resources to do so.

Hawaii is one of the main settings in the book. Why did you decide to use that particular setting as the place your story unfolds?
I have a love/hate relationship with Maui and could never really leave for good. I moved back three times and tried to make it work for me financially. In all, I lived there for over ten years and have gone back to house-sit or visit countless times. I still miss living there. It is a special place, but entirely unsustainable.

Is there a scene in your book that you’d love to see play out in a movie?
From the very beginning I pictured this book as a movie. It has humor, heart, romance and, of course, the island paradise of Maui.

What was your favorite part of putting this project together?
My favorite part of the project was the actual writing of the first draft. I would get up at 4:30 am and work on it until I had to go to work and live the story. Everything after writing the first draft has been difficult. And now that the book is completed, I feel stuck and need assistance in the next step.

How did you chose the title of the book?
The titles I wanted were already used in other books and movies. In Time Out surfaced at the last minute, and I really liked it. It describes Cynthia’s time on Maui and a reference to teaching as well.

You began your writing career later in life. What did your mature self bring to the writing table that your younger self never could have?
My younger self was busy raising children and working hard in other endeavors. Writing a novel requires motivation, focus and, most of all, time.

When did you consider yourself a writer?
Not until this book was published in September 2024.

What are the hardest kinds of scenes for you to write?
Without a doubt, the romance and sex scenes were not easy and I didn’t want to add them. I attempted to make it fun and lighthearted. Various beta readers and consultants convinced me that it was necessary and more realistic. As it turns out, they were right.

What writing projects are you working on now?
I’m a reporter for the Nob Hill News. I’m also published in Unbreaking the Circle: Stories of Service (the SWW 2025 military anthology), and I have a blog on Medium.

Is there anything else you’d like readers to know?
Everyone has a story to tell. I hoped to tell the story of special education in a fun and entertaining way.

KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner loves creating worlds of fantasy and science fiction. Her current work in progress is The Last Bonekeeper fantasy trilogy and short stories in the same universe. A member of SouthWest Writers since 2006, Kat has worked as the organization’s secretary, newsletter editor, website manager, and author interview coordinator. Kat is also a veteran, a martial art student, and a grandmother. Visit her at klwagoner.com.



An Interview with Author Daniel Pedrick

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Daniel Pedrick is a retired attorney and mental health judge who started his third career as an author with his 2017 debut Once, A Walking Shadow (Mercury HeartLink). Dan’s newest release, Liv’s Story: An Iowa Girl’s Rebellion (RMK Publications, June 2024), was inspired by the life of his stepmother Jo Ann Pedrick. Look for Liv’s Story on Amazon.

What would you like readers to know about the story you tell in Liv’s Story?
I have tried in this story to use important experiences that my stepmother had because she had a remarkable life. I also wanted to write a short novel with a female as the lead character.

Tell us about your stepmother. What was it about her that made you want to write a book inspired by her life?
Jo Ann Pedrick was like a second mother to me. She was a positive, resilient type who led such an interesting life. Her father passed away when she was an young teenager. Her mother had to be the provider which was very hard for women in the 1930s and 1940s. Jo Ann traveled extensively as an adult and never had children. We (me and my three siblings) were her children. She was taught by her mother to be self-reliant. She was a psychiatric social worker when she met my dad. She later ran for office in the Arizona legislature, and after that was appointed head of the Arizona Department of Aging, a cabinet position.

What was the most challenging aspect of writing/publishing Liv’s Story, and what was your favorite part of the process?
The most challenging aspect was capturing the voice of the heroine. My favorite part was capturing that voice in times of her stress, romance, and adventure.

When did you know you wanted to write the book and how did it come together after that?
The book was prompted by the reading of Jo Ann’s diaries up to her father’s death. It took me about four years to write the book, about two months to finish the editing due to the keen eye of my publisher Rose Marie Kern (RMK Publications), and a couple of weeks to procure the rights to the cover which is a watercolor painting done by Win Martinson, my son-in-law’s mother.

Why a fictionalized account instead of a nonfiction memoir?
A fictionalized account gave me more latitude with characters and timelines.

Did you discover anything surprising or interesting while doing research for the book?
I learned about the prowess of Japanese women pearl divers, college football dynamics in the 1940s, and the dangers of cave diving in Belize, to name a few.

How has your experience as an attorney and mental health judge benefited your writing life?
Working as an attorney for 20 years and as a mental health judge for 12 and a half years gave me good organizational skills which I desperately needed. It also helped with my vocabulary.

What first inspired you to become a writer? When did you actually consider yourself a writer?
I was inspired to be a writer after reading James Michener’s book Hawaii in the 8th grade. I considered myself a writer after completing my second novel which involved the fictionalizing of the life of my best friend growing up, as well as explaining difficult mental health issues.

Who are your favorite authors, and what do you admire most about their writing?
My favorite writers are T.C. Boyle and Abraham Verghese. I admire their ability to tell and weave together sometimes complicated plots. I also admire their extensive vocabularies.

What has writing taught you about yourself?
Writing has reaffirmed my tenacity as a person.

What writing projects are you working on now?
I am currently writing a memoir/eulogy of my late friend artist Ted Gibson, truly and undeniably a unique person.

Is there anything else you’d like readers to know?
I have been truly blessed in this life and appreciate the help of SouthWest Writers.

KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner loves creating worlds of fantasy and science fiction. Her current work in progress is The Last Bonekeeper fantasy trilogy and short stories in the same universe. A member of SouthWest Writers since 2006, Kat has worked as the organization’s secretary, newsletter editor, website manager, and author interview coordinator. Kat is also a veteran, a martial art student, and a grandmother. Visit her at klwagoner.com.



An Interview with Author Donna Pedace

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Since the publication of her second nonfiction book, Scandalous Women of the Old West (2020), author Donna Pedace has focused her research and writing on women who have achieved something deserving of public recognition. Her newest release, Women Warriors: The Hidden Spies of WWII (RMK Publications, July 2024), brings readers the stories of 50 female agents who went on dangerous missions behind German lines during World War II. You’ll find Donna on Facebook and her Amazon Author Page.

Women Warriors tells the stories of female spies who worked behind the scenes in Nazi-held France. When did you discover the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a secret British organization created in 1940? What was the kick in the pants that started you on the book?
While researching material for another book, I came across a small slip of paper with just a few sentences about the women who served in the SOE. I was familiar with the SOE, but I hadn’t realized that women had been among its field agents. I tucked the note away, only to rediscover it a year later. That rediscovery sparked my curiosity, and I began delving into their stories. I was captivated by what I found — these women had led extraordinary lives. I felt strongly that their contributions deserved far greater recognition.

What unique challenges did this work pose for you?
Researching women is always more difficult than researching men. Until just 15 or 20 years ago, most history was written by men — and they often overlooked, minimized, or entirely omitted the influence of women. In the case of the SOE, the challenge was even greater. The organization was disbanded almost immediately after World War II, and its records were scattered. A devastating fire at England’s National Archives later destroyed a significant number of documents. To make matters worse, all files on the SOE women agents were classified by the British government — some of them still were when I began my research. Fortunately, I was successful in having them lift those restrictions.

Tell us about one or two of the women from the book who you respect the most.
Nancy Wake was an extraordinary woman. She initially worked with the French Resistance, but after a Gestapo bounty was placed on her head, she was forced to flee France. Determined to continue the fight, she joined the Special Operations Executive and later returned to France as one of their agents. Unlike the other women, Nancy lived side by side with the Resistance fighters — sleeping in barns, hiding in forests, and operating out of abandoned houses and fields. She earned their deep respect and often led them on missions. Remarkably, she was the first woman reported to have killed a German soldier in hand-to-hand combat, using a karate chop technique she had learned during her SOE training.

Another remarkable woman was Noor Inayat Khan, a descendant of Indian royalty and a devout follower of the Sufi faith. Despite her belief in nonviolence, she volunteered as a radio operator for the SOE — one of the most dangerous roles in occupied France. After many of her fellow operators in Paris were captured or killed, Noor defied SOE orders to evacuate and chose to remain behind, maintaining the critical communication link between London and six different Resistance networks. Eventually, she was captured by the Gestapo, brutally tortured, and later executed. Yet, throughout her captivity — longer than that of any other female agent, German records tell us that she never revealed a single piece of classified information.

How did Women Warriors come together?
The serious research took just over a year, and during the final four months of that period, I began drafting the chapters. The actual writing process took about six months, during which I wrote for four to five hours each day. My editor began reviewing the manuscript after I had completed the first ten chapters and continued working on it intermittently for about four to five months. Since my editor was based on the East Coast, we relied heavily on both email and frequent phone calls to maintain close communication. This ongoing dialogue was essential to ensure he fully understood the details, my focus, and the intent behind each chapter.

How is the book structured, and why did you choose to put it together that way?
I chose to devote a separate chapter to each woman to clearly distinguish their individual stories and allow each one to stand on its own. The chapters are arranged in chronological order, following the timeline of the women’s work with the SOE.

Any “Oh, wow!” moments while doing research for this book?
Despite being fully aware of the dangers, their courage never ceased to amaze me. The average life expectancy for radio operators in the field was just six weeks — yet they volunteered to do what they could to fight the Germans. Eleven of the women were executed, two others died from illness in concentration camps, and several more were captured and brutally tortured. I was deeply moved to learn that, according to German records, not a single one of them ever revealed classified information.

What was your favorite part of putting this project together?
I truly enjoyed the research process — it was exciting to uncover so much I had never known before. Writing, on the other hand, has always been hard work for me. I don’t particularly enjoy it, but the thrill of discovery through research kept me motivated and made the effort worthwhile.

As a nonfiction writer, how do you choose your next writing project?
I focus exclusively on women from our history, guided by two criteria: whether the topic genuinely interests me, and whether I believe the women have achieved something deserving of greater public recognition.

What does a typical writing session look like for you? Do you have any writing rituals or something you absolutely need in order to write?
My research schedule tends to be quite erratic. Once I start learning about a woman, I often spend long, long hours diving down various rabbit holes to uncover every detail. I usually have to order research books, which means I’m often waiting for them to arrive. I prefer to buy these books so I can keep them on hand for frequent reference. While much information is now available online, I make a point to double- or even triple-check information to ensure as much accuracy as possible. Online research also allows me to connect directly with others who have studied the same women, and we compare notes to deepen our understanding.

When it’s time to write, I typically dedicate four to five hours each afternoon. After lunch, I close the door to create a quiet, uninterrupted space because I don’t handle distractions well — I need to maintain my train of thought. Fortunately, my husband is very understanding of my need to separate myself.

What writing projects are you working on now?
I have already conducted extensive research on early women pilots, and that may become the focus of my next book.

KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner loves creating worlds of fantasy and science fiction. Her current work in progress is The Last Bonekeeper fantasy trilogy and short stories in the same universe. A member of SouthWest Writers since 2006, Kat has worked as the organization’s secretary, newsletter editor, website manager, and author interview coordinator. Kat is also a veteran, a martial art student, and a grandmother. Visit her at klwagoner.com.



An Interview with Author Heidi Marshall

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Before coming to the United States, author Heidi Marshall wrote more than 50 radio scripts of children’s stories. After immigrating, she became an award-winning short story author published in several anthologies. In September 2024, she released The Town That Lost Its Colors, her debut children’s chapter book “written in the tradition of fine tales of courage and respect, with modern themes of inclusion, forgiveness, and kindness.” You’ll find Heidi on her Amazon Author Page.

What would you like readers to know about the story you tell in The Town That Lost Its Colors?
It began in Spanish, my native language, as a short radio script, with the title El Pueblo que Perdió sus Colores. The story had a few elements of the book as published many years later, but vastly different themes and characters.

What unique challenges did this work pose for you?
Finding the right ending, once I committed to re-write the book for a grandniece’s birthday, after it had been set aside, sometimes for years, because of life’s more demanding expectations. I tried several endings that only brought the book to a standstill — until that Eureka moment. After that, ideas flowed, and the sentences practically wrote themselves. I never did tell my grandniece which birthday I was talking about…just in case.

Who are your main characters and why will readers connect to them?
Princess Imogen, the main character, wants to help her people but has no notion how to go about it. She figures things out as she goes, improvises, and that makes the readers want to help her succeed. I hoped to draw enough empathy for the little unicorns’ plight for the reader to take part in their story. The monster, well, his broken horn broke my heart, and I was just making that up.

Who did you write the book for? What topics does The Town That Lost Its Colors touch on that would make it a perfect fit for the classroom? 
I feel that the topics of acceptance, forgiveness, inclusion, and respect for differences have become more important now than ever before.

As to the first part of the question, I could never have written this book for a specific age group. My respect for children’s wonderful ability to imagine is too much to box them within age brackets. I wanted my words to trigger the children’s own imagery of the story. I understand that a book “for all ages” seems to be a bad idea nowadays commercially, but I believe that if parents love a story, the more likely they are to read it to young children, or gift it to children beginning to read chapter books.

How did you feel the first time you held your book and saw your story come alive in the artwork of illustrator Adrienne Kinsella?
It was wonderful to hold a complete version, although it was only a proof.

Tell us how the book came together.
The story and I changed and grew old together. It took that long! The illustrator Adrienne, from a talented branch of the family, happened to be available at the right time. The editing process evolved from my SouthWest Writers Sage challenge submissions.

What was your favorite part of putting this project together?
Seeing the book become real. I learned so much! Illustrations coming to life by Adrienne’s hand. The book falling naturally into chapters, which made the illustrations also fall in place as introductions to each chapter — captions and all! Kathy Louise Schuit with her considerable talent and attention to detail making all the book elements come together seamlessly with her design and layout.

When did you know you wanted to be a writer? What is the first piece of writing you can remember finishing?
It was when I read in front of my elementary school fourth grade teacher and classmates an assignment about the first Hispanic woman ever to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral. The kids looked blank, but I saw my teacher surreptitiously wipe a tear from the corner of one eye. I wanted my written words to cause that reaction in people. I realize now that a lot of youthful, heartfelt purple prose could have caused that tear.

What is the best encouragement or advice you’ve received in your writing journey?
Learn the craft. Talent is only the beginning.

KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner loves creating worlds of fantasy and science fiction. Her current work in progress is The Last Bonekeeper fantasy trilogy and short stories in the same universe. A member of SouthWest Writers since 2006, Kat has worked as the organization’s secretary, newsletter editor, website manager, and author interview coordinator. Kat is also a veteran, a martial art student, and a grandmother. Visit her at klwagoner.com.



An Interview with Author Christie Palmer Lowrance

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Christie Palmer Lowrance has used her passion for writing in her many careers including as editor, biographer and historian, speaker and instructor, and journalist, as well as author of two non-fiction books. Her most recent release is The Last Heath Hen: An Extinction Story (May 2024), written for young readers to show them the complexity of conservation and the importance of valuing all wildlife. You’ll find Christie on ChristieLowrance.com, on Facebook and LinkedIn. Look for The Last Heath Hen on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

When readers turn the last page in the book, what do you hope they’ll take away from it?
I hope adult readers feel they have just had the great good fortune to discover a children’s book they MUST share with friends and colleagues running conservation programs or are Middle Grade classroom teachers — and I hope children feel the beginning of a call to stewardship of wildlife and nature.

What was the spark that got you started researching and writing about the plight of the Heath Hen?
The Heath Hen extinction story is well known to US conservationists. They strongly believe it is uniquely important because, as US Fish and Wildlife Service historian Mark Madison told me, the Heath Hen may be the only North American avian extinction of which the last individual in the wild was documented. I believed it was a worthy and valuable story for children.

In Nature’s Ambassador: The Legacy of Thornton W. Burgess (Schiffer, 2013), my biography of naturalist and children’s author Thornton Burgess, I devote seven pages to describing his role in the Heath Hen story. Burgess actually held briefly the last bird of its kind as it was being banded. My website site ChristieLowrance.com has video footage and more detail. My LinkedIn page has a link to my April 22, 2025 Earth Day presentation at US Fish and Wildlife center in West Virginia with actual film footage. It’s very exciting, knowing what you are watching, and it was exciting knowing what I was writing about.

What unique challenges did this work pose for you?
Working with an illustrator and a book designer were firsts for me as a writer. Never wanted to self-publish, also a first. However, 2024 was Thornton Burgess’ 150th birthday anniversary, so if I was going to publish the material as a book, it was necessary to get it done quickly.

The technical challenges of publishing would have been, for me as a researcher/writer, insurmountable without the incredibly talented book designer Rose Kern (who obviously needs no SWW introduction!). Ingram Spark has our book in hardcover, but they were impossible to work with for paperback. Amazon has it in hardcover, paperback and e-book.

It was a challenge to tell this extinction story for children without being grim or scary. I thought and thought and my ending finally came to me as a whole idea. Many people have said the ending is perfect. It soothes me and I hope it soothes readers young or old.

How did the book come together?
The text had been written shortly after my Burgess biography was published in 2013, figured I would use it sometime as a magazine article or maybe a book. Found the illustrator at a Sandwich Arts Alliance meet-and-greet of writers and illustrators, my very lucky day! Rose and I worked hard on all aspects of book layout and design. Couldn’t have done it, literally, without her expertise and ideas.

I knew the basic Heath Hen story well because as it was part of my research for the biography of Thornton Burgess. To flesh it out carefully and artistically, fact check, and create a narrative suitable for children took a year in all. The creation of the book with illustrations and design, in all maybe another year.

What was it like working with illustrator Michael Berndt? Do you have a favorite image or page spread from The Last Heath Hen?
Michael Berndt was a writer’s dream. I picked him because he could paint people, landscape and animals; he was effortless to work with: flexible, receptive, creative, supportive of the project. He knew nothing of Burgess or Heath Hens as he explained in his Illustrator Notes (which I asked him to write, to accompany my Author Notes, to explain our process). My PowerPoint presentations include many of his paintings, I admire them all but I so love the gorgeous cover illustration of the bird itself: so beautiful, so alone, expectant, alert, composed. A dessert plate with a painting of two game birds I bought on my 1968 honeymoon in Bermuda was a basis for the cover.

What was the most rewarding aspect of putting this project together?
I have been a professional writer for 50 years. My travel books, articles, etc. were to provide information. But this book has a bigger mission. It is intended to support the work of conservationists and teachers by giving them a teaching tool, a true, child-sized story of a small bird on a small island off Massachusetts, not dinosaurs millions of years ago. It is intended to help children understand extinction, a complex and increasingly common event in nature that we need to be fiercely attentive to. And as Burgess knew, children are the right and perfect audience to inspire.

What first inspired you to become a writer? When did you actually consider yourself a writer?
I simply love to write. Use of the written word has always made sense to me. It has always felt good. I wrote a story when I was 10, describing an old scary house up the street; seeing my thoughts down on a blank page felt so deeply satisfying. No one had required it of me, the idea and the words came from me, it was my child’s knowledge that had produced them. I think I was born feeling this way.

Being a Writer, however, that was a different matter. Even though I had literally hundreds and hundreds of bylines as a reporter for the Bath-Brunswick Times Record in Maine and the Cape Cod Times, I would never call myself “a Writer.” I wrote but that did not mean I was “a Writer.” I had to earn that title by some unknown internal standard. It was a matter of identity. After seeing my first major magazine article for Cape Cod Life magazine, probably 3,000 words, it started to change; as I wrote for regional and national magazines and publications, I became by my own standard a Writer. Over my career I’ve been an author, editor and marketing specialist, and taught writing at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and Cape Cod Community College. I love writing’s versatility.

Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently if you started your writing/publishing career today?
Nothing comes to mind. That said, it would be enormously helpful to be more tech savvy; when I started writing professionally, I used a manual typewriter and carbon paper and had a family and a household to care for.

Do I wish I had started writing books earlier? Sort of. But I was freelance writing, and every assignment was interesting, I was always learning. Also, I believe in the writing process. It’s a variation on “when the student is ready, the teacher appears.” With writers, it’s “When the writer is ready, the material appears.” So maybe I’m writing books when I’m ready to write books?

Do you prefer the creating or editing aspect of writing? How do you feel about research?
I love it all. I gave a talk a while ago for SouthWest Writers on “Finding the Story,” on the amazing and unexpected things a researcher comes across, deliberately and accidentally. Research is like free falling, you open up your mind, step forward and fall into it. Of course, I love the creating and the editing (who could stand being a writer if they didn’t). Editing is quite pleasant, creating is harder. I once edited two novels, 800 and 700 pages, for a non-native English-speaking writer gifted with narrative development but his use of idioms was constantly off, like a singer who is always flat. I wouldn’t have edited a third book.

What writing projects are you working on now?
I am writing a biography titled Ships and Shards: The Legacy of Dr. George F. Bass. It is tremendously important to me because it is a privilege and a massive challenge. Archaeologist George Bass, world renowned as “the Father of Underwater Archaeology” loved my Burgess biography and provided me with five years of interviews. I have amazing material to work with.

Is there anything else you’d like readers to know?
I don’t believe in writers block per se, but maybe it’s different with fiction and non-fiction? Don’t know. When things don’t come, I get up, go for a cup of coffee, a walk, anything to release my focus from the problem. Shifting my attention helps restore the clarity I need. That said, I do know what it feels like when your brain is tired and refuses to work. That happened with the Bass project I’m working on now, work started in 2015, and in 2019 I finally had to stop writing. I’d been working on biographies for 10 years. I took a break for two years (book not under contract) and when I returned, not only was I refreshed, but I had a stronger, seasoned, and more informed view of my subject. Lesson learned.

I’m working on Ships and Shards daily now and will be looking for an agent/publisher later this year.

…feel free to check out my website, which also soothes me.

KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner loves creating worlds of fantasy and science fiction. Her current work in progress is The Last Bonekeeper fantasy trilogy and short stories in the same universe. A member of SouthWest Writers since 2006, Kat has worked as the organization’s secretary, newsletter editor, website manager, and author interview coordinator. Kat is also a veteran, a martial art student, and a grandmother. Visit her at klwagoner.com.



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