Author Michael Spiller is a carpenter, a photographer, and a retired home builder. He published three books of photography before releasing William and Jean Herrick, Pioneering New Mexicans (Sunstone Press, 2025), a book about the lives of his great-grandparents on the New Mexico frontier. Look for William and Jean Herrick, Pioneering New Mexicans on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
When readers turn the last page in the book, what do you hope they will take away from it?
Life at the start of the 19th Century was nothing like life in the 21st Century. Time took on a different pace.
Tell us about the journey from inspiration to completed book.
Photography has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I have a photo, by me, of my 2- to 3-year-old brother holding a model car I had just built. When I was a photography/art student at the University of New Mexico in the early 1970s, my great-aunt died in Socorro, and I found all of the negatives, photos and letters, and many other valuable items in the old family home. I managed to keep safe many boxes of what would become my book.
Fifty-plus years later, I finally had time and energy to start looking at, scanning, and reading all the items. By 2015 or so, I had the material ready. I had self-published two books of my own photographic work, so I worked on and then self-published a coffee table book of the photos from my great-grandfather’s work and a list of the letters. Once I had the self-published copy, I submitted it to UNM Press. I received a rejection letter suggesting I should make a narrative story out of the catalog of images and letters. By 2019–2020 I had completed what I thought was a story. I am not a writer; I am a photographer and artist. I submitted my rough draft to The Museum of New Mexico Press and they sent me to Jim and Carl at Sunstone Press in 2021. The paperback was published in 2022 and the hardcover in 2025. The rest is History! Many thanks to Jim, as my editor.
How is the book organized?
The book is based on an outline that was developed from the dates of the letters and dates of family arriving in the timeline.
As you were going through your great-grandparent’s letters and photographs, what struck you most about them or their lives? Do you have a favorite photo or photo spread in the book?
As I read the many letters, I noticed that their handwriting deteriorated as time went on, it got harder and harder to read, by both of them. They both started off with beautiful handwriting that they used in their professional lives.
The photographs that had me excited as a photographer were the series of my great-grandmother serving tea to herself. Each glass negative had to have the photo emulsion put on one half of the glass, the photo taken, the image developed, the set reset, then the other half of the glass negative was emulsified and the next image taken. My great-grandfather would develop that half of the negative. When he finished, he would have an image that he could contact print on one photographic piece of paper. This is a statement of my great-grandfather’s photographic skills and imagination. There are five complete sets of double-image negatives of my great-grandmother entertaining herself.
Any “Oh, wow!” moments while doing research for this book?
The one “Oh, wow” moment I had was in one letter from my grandmother to her parents, and the bigotry she has about blacks being in their own place. I never saw this in her. We grew up as the minority in New Mexico.
What was the most difficult aspect of putting this project together and what was the most satisfying?
The most difficult aspect was not really being a writer by any stretch of the imagination, and if it were not for the computer, writing much more than a short letter to my mother would have been impossible. When I finished the book, it was very satisfying to complete something so complex and somewhat readable.
Why do you think people like reading memoirs and biographies?
Possibly, people who enjoy local, personalized history could be attracted to this type of genre.
What writing projects are you working on now?
I have thoughts of a continuation of my family’s story. I have had an interesting and wonderful life with many interesting turns and twists. I am a carpenter, photographer, house designer and builder, and adventurer, much like my great-grandfather.
KL 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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