Pen Name:
None
Genres:
Flash Fiction, Short Stories, Hispanic Historical Fiction, Historical Women’s Fiction
Website:
Social Media:
Other Contact Information:
read@robertleger.com
Bio
Robert Leger is a storyteller, musician, award-winning opinion writer, and former national president of the Society of Professional Journalists. After a 37-year journalism career that culminated as opinions editor of the Arizona Republic, he has turned to fiction. His debut novel will publish in late 2026 or early 2027. In his youth he assisted E.B. White by penciling in an “improved” ending in his copy of “Stuart Little.” Fortunately, the book was lost long ago. Robert lives in Fountain Hills, Arizona, with his wife, Cindy. The couple perform as Duo Ocotillo, she on cello, he on guitar and mandolin.
Work in Progress
Title: Where I Does Not Exist
Status: Finished — Seeking Publisher
I look forward to releasing my debut novel, set in northern New Mexico from the 1920s to the 1970s. The back cover blurb:
As a snowstorm sweeps across northern New Mexico in 1939, Luisa Tenouil races toward the remote ranch where her father has spoken his last words:
“And the rest, Luisa knows what to do.”
But does she?
Sixteen years earlier, nineteen-year-old Luisa traveled two hundred miles to a state boarding school. Books opened a world beyond imagination. Basketball transformed the shy girl into a leader. A secret affair with teacher Felipe Lucero awakened love and dreams of a Christmas wedding.
But sometimes the love that saves us is not the love we expected.
As the storm rages, Luisa finds her father dead, her mother and six youngest siblings teetering on collapse, and her father’s cryptic words haunting her. Can she honor his memory and keep the family whole? Can she overcome the upheavals of World War II, racist red lines, and societal norms that insist a woman is incomplete without a man?
How much can she give to the people she loves before sacrifice becomes surrender?
Inspired by family stories and New Mexico’s haunting beauty, the novel pulses with Hispanic folk music and customs, the pithy wisdom of dichos, and prophetic dreams inhabited by owls, coyotes, and the soul-gathering Comadre Sebastiana.
A sweeping story of love, loss, and resilience. Of the lies we tell ourselves, the vows we keep, and Luisa’s discovery that losing the life she imagined was the beginning of finding her own.
Short Stories
“Ghosts” ♦ Micro Fiction ♦ BlinkerLit online journal
“Last Chance Bar & Grill” ♦ Flash Fiction ♦ ShortBeasts Flash Fiction Literary Magazine, January 27, 2026