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An Interview with Author Rhenna St. Clair

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Rhenna St. Clair is an author, artist, and poet who practices Chinese medicine and acupuncture in northern New Mexico. She began writing her debut novel, Getting New Mexico, in 2016 and published it through Pace Press three years later. Anne Hillerman calls the book “part love story and part comedic hero’s journey…filled with quirky and diverse characters and unlikely situations right out of real life.” You’ll find Rhenna on her website at RhennaStClair.com and on Facebook.

What is your elevator pitch for Getting New Mexico?
Getting New Mexico is a universal story about bad life choices, poor judgment, mean deeds one later regrets, and the desperate hope that we are still lovable despite those times when we are a tarnished version of our higher self. I love what is ridiculous, odd, and unpredictable about life and the characters we encounter while living it.

What unique challenges did this work pose for you?
Blending my experience of life in New Mexico and what I knew of Pueblo people, with what I knew about East Indian culture and customs, was challenging but, at the same time, fun. I appreciate the mix of cultures in New Mexico and have never had more fun than when writing Getting New Mexico.

Who are your main characters, and why will readers connect with them?
The main character is a transplanted New Yorker, Aaron Schuyler. The love of his life, Anita Chatterjee, is a close second as a main character. I think readers will see something of themselves in those two (and the other characters) and will appreciate Schuyler’s interactions with all of them, as well as his moments of comic mistake or pathos.

Why did you choose New Mexico as the setting for the book?
I have lived mostly in New Mexico for twenty-eight years. I can’t imagine living anywhere else! The house Aaron Schuyler moves into in Getting New Mexico is the home I lived in north of Santa Fe, in Nambe. The old house has a unique feeling, and I tried to bring that out. I shop all the time at Sam’s Club, so that seemed the obvious place for Schuyler to land a job.

Tell us how the book came together.
Getting New Mexico began with a prompt in 2016 in an ongoing writers’ workshop here in Farmington. I thought about the prompt — Where’s the fun in a funeral? — and came up with a guy in New York City who is down on his luck through his own fault. To get a free meal and some booze, he crashes funerals. It was great fun, and the fun continued as Aaron Schuyler learned some lessons in life. I finished writing and editing around the end of 2017 (I should mention that I am a licensed acupuncturist and have limited writing time). I did several edits myself, not counting what I was asked to do by Pace Press. I signed my contract with them in summer 2018, and our published date was November 5, 2019.

When did you know you had taken the manuscript as far as it could go?
I knew we were done when Aaron Schuyler had learned the hardest lesson of his life: if you aren’t there for your kids, they won’t be there for you. It was time to bring his saga to a logical but sad conclusion, and the chapters following that episode were some of the most fun to write. It was time to “put it in the can” as they used to do with old movie reels.

What was your favorite part of putting this project together?
I had two favorite parts. The first one was writing the scene where Schuyler visits his deceased uncle’s bookstore. I enjoyed developing the bookstore atmosphere. Secondly, I very much enjoyed developing personalities for the secondary characters so that what they did in the story made sense and contributed to the main action.

Who are some of your favorite authors?
My list of favorite authors is endless, beginning with Charles Dickens—there is nothing funnier than The Pickwick Papers. Other authors include Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Teilhard de Chardin, Edward Abbey, Anne Hillerman, John Kennedy Toole, Louise Penney, Michael McGarrity, Daniel Tammet, and Dostoevsky. These are just the beginning!

Do you have a message or a theme that recurs in your writing?
I would like to think there is a theme of strong women dealing with the challenges of daily life. Many of my stories take place in my old Nambe home which is the setting for Getting New Mexico.

What are the hardest kinds of scenes for you to write?
Death scenes. The finality is hard enough to grasp in life, let alone on paper.

What writing projects are you working on now?
I have just finished a crime manuscript titled West Coast that is set in Portland, Oregon and San Francisco, and I am starting a manuscript about a librarian in Farmington, New Mexico.

Is there anything else you would like readers to know?
I love to cook. I do oil painting. I can’t get enough of the beauty of New Mexico.

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



Author Update: C. Joseph Greaves

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Chuck Greaves/C. Joseph Greaves won SouthWest Writers’ Storyteller Award in 2010 for his debut novel Hush Money (Minotaur, 2012), which became a finalist for the Shamus, Lefty, Audie, Reviewers’ Choice, and New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. Church of the Graveyard Saints (Torrey House Press, 2019) is his sixth novel. Chuck is also the book critic for the Four Corners Free Press newspaper in southwestern Colorado, where he lives and writes. You’ll find him at ChuckGreaves.com and on Facebook. Read his 2016 SWW interview to find out more about Chuck and his writing.

What would you like readers to know about the story you tell in Church of the Graveyard Saints?
That it’s a compelling read! I’ve likened it to a Shakespearean tragedy in which the Capulets of resource extraction and the Montagues of environmental conservation square off in the background while an intensely personal love story plays out in the foreground. It should appeal to readers who enjoy a little romance with their adventure, and a dash of real-world relevance in their otherwise escapist fiction.

Tell us about your main characters.
Addie Decker is a 23-year-old grad student at UCLA who, thanks to a difficult father and a bad breakup with her boyfriend, left her family’s ranch in the Four Corners vowing never to return. Only now, five years later, she does return in the company of her new beau (who’s also her faculty adviser) to combat the expansion of gas drilling in and around the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument which adjoins the family ranch, only to find that her father welcomes the gas rigs and her old boyfriend, newly divorced, works on one. The story is told from four points of view—those of Addie, her father, her new beau, and her old boyfriend. Each has a very different view on the subject of resource extraction, and that frisson, together with the incipient love triangle, propels the story forward.

How did you come up with the title?
I’ve been asked the question, “What does the title mean?” at virtually every book signing I’ve done, and my answer in each case has been, “When you get to the end, you’ll understand completely.”

How did the book come together?
At just over 70,000 words, this is the shortest of my six novels, and yet it took the longest—almost three years—to write. It’s also my first foray into purely commercial/literary fiction, which might explain the care I took to get everything right. I moved to the Four Corners from Santa Fe seven years ago, and I wanted to write a book that captured both the beauty of the region and the challenges facing those who live here, particularly the multi-generational farmers and ranchers struggling to eke a living out of this harsh high-desert environment. That setting—the red-rock canyon country of southwestern Colorado—is very much a fifth character in the novel.

What was your favorite part of putting this project together?
I love writing fiction, so the creative process is always a thrill. What’s been particularly gratifying about this novel is that, while still in galleys, it was selected by six public libraries in the Four Corners region—those of Cortez, Dolores, Mancos, Montrose, and Ignacio (Colorado) and Moab (Utah) —to launch their inaugural “Four Corners/One Book” community-wide reading program. It was a tremendous honor, and I’ve been busy with kickoff events and public readings, all of which will culminate in January with a series of group discussions of the novel and the issues it raises. My favorite moment so far came when Karen Sheek, the mayor of Cortez, pulled me aside to say she both laughed and cried while reading Church of the Graveyard Saints. That’s something every novelist longs to hear.

Was there anything surprising you discovered while doing research for Church of the Graveyard Saints?
Unlike my historical novels Hard Twisted (2012) and Tom & Lucky (2015), both from Bloomsbury, Church of the Graveyard Saints didn’t involve a whole lot of research other than a generalized understanding of, and interest in, the environmental challenges facing the desert Southwest. The book is chock full of interesting tidbits in that regard. For example, did you know that the world’s human population in the year 1800 was one billion, and that by 1960 it was still only three billion? Today it’s approaching eight billion, and growing exponentially at a current rate of approximately a quarter-million people per day. Issues like that—population growth, public lands cattle grazing, oil and gas extraction, methane emissions—all get a passing mention without (I hope) interfering with the story.

What does a typical writing session look like for you?
I agree with whoever it was that said, “I only write when I’m inspired, but I make it a point to be inspired every morning at nine o’clock.” So yes, I’m fairly regimented, and I believe in visiting the manuscript every day, even if only to polish what I wrote the day before. I think the worst mistake a writer can make—particularly a new writer—is to put the story aside and hope for inspiration to come. For me, inspiration comes from putting words on paper and seeing where they lead.

Is there something you’d like to develop from material you haven’t been able to use?
I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve finished every novel I’ve started and sold every novel I’ve finished. Next up for me is the fourth entry in my Jack MacTaggart series of legal mysteries, which I plan to complete this winter. I just turned my short story “The Weight of a Feather”— which appears in SWW’s The Storyteller’s Anthology—into a one-act stage play that I hope to see performed next year, and I have another short story, “The DQ Rules,” scheduled to appear in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Lastly, I’m collaborating with a TV director on a possible cable series set here in the Southwest. So I’m always developing something, even if it’s just carpal tunnel syndrome.

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



An Interview with Author Judith Liddell

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Judith Liddell and co-author Barbara Hussey bring a love of bird watching and years of experience trekking through the Land of Enchantment to their two well-researched birding guides published by Texas A&M University Press. Their first book, Birding Hot Spots of Central New Mexico (2011), covers the Rio Grande corridor, Sandia and Manzano Mountains, Petroglyph National Monument, and the preserved areas and wetlands south of Albuquerque. Birding Hot Spots of Santa Fe, Taos, and Northern New Mexico (2014) is their second guide which focuses on 32 sites not covered in the first book. You’ll find Judy on her websites at JudysJottings.com and WingAndSong.com.

What unique challenges did you face while writing Birding Hot Spots of Santa Fe, Taos, and Northern New Mexico?
It was extremely important that we assured the accuracy of all information about each birding site in the book. Our readers have appreciated our attention to detail and reviewers have commented on how well researched the guide is. Another challenge was finding local birders who could review what we had written to make sure it matched their experiences. The positive outcome was that in developing these relationships, many have become good friends.

You co-authored the book with Barbara Hussey. What was that experience like? How did you divide the duties of writing the book?
Before we started writing, we had a strong friendship that valued each other’s talents and strong points. As we discussed the division of labor, it was fairly easy to decide what each of us would do. I had been writing before we started, so it was natural for me to assume the task of writing the copy. Barbara is a detail person and an excellent proofreader. I would write a section, put it in DropBox for her to review, and she suggested changes in language or sentence structure. Barbara took on the responsibility for writing the directions to each site and making the rough draft drawings of the maps. In addition to having a wealth of information about bird species, Barbara has a strong interest in geology which enabled her to add relevant information about the habitat and natural history. We visited each site several times together which facilitated our decisions about what information to include. We used this formula successfully for both books and are still fast friends.

Tell us how the book came together. How did you know it was done and ready for the editor/publisher?
When we were writing Birding Hot Spots of Central New Mexico and deciding whether to include the area around Cochiti Lake, we laughed and said, “We’ll save that for the next book,” never dreaming there would be a second one. As soon as the first book was published at the end of October 2011, people began asking us when we were going to write another book. We sent a proposal to the publisher in December of that year to determine their interest. The editor gave us the green light early in 2012 and sent us a contract. It took two years to research, write and edit the manuscript. Since we used the same successful format as our first book, we knew it was finished when we had all the required information for each part of the book and were within the page limit of our contract.

What makes this birding guide different from similar books on the shelf?
Our birding guides are the only ones written by women—and the only ones that include information about restroom availability. In addition, our guides are useful to a wide variety of outdoor recreation enthusiasts. A friend who is a fisherman bought our guide because it provides him information about fishing sites, as well as lets him appreciate the bird life he observes while fishing. It was important to us to help birding enthusiasts understand the relationship between the birds they see and the habitat where they are found. This information in most guides is not tied together.

What did you learn from writing your first book, Birding Hot Spots of Central New Mexico, that you applied to the newest guide?
Based on the way we ended up organizing the information about each site for the first book, we were able to devise a template that we took with us when we visited the sites for the second book. This enabled us to make sure we gathered all relevant information. This was extremely important because if we had to return to a site when we were in the final process of editing to secure missing information, it would have required a lot of time and travel. We also realized we needed more maps than we had included in the first book.

I’m sure you discovered many interesting facts while doing research for your guidebooks. What one or two things stand out in your mind?
I was fascinated by the historical information I learned while researching each site. For instance, there is a branch of the Old Spanish Trail that runs along the south side of the Rio Chama downstream from Abiquiu Dam. We tried to include this type of information in the overall description of a site. Two of the sites are located on Pueblo lands. We met with staff from the Natural Resources Departments of both Cochiti and Ohkay Owingeh Pueblos to appreciate their perspectives and reflect their wishes about how visitors should visit.

Do you have your own favorite birding hotspots?
In Central New Mexico—Ojito de Padua Open Space and, of course, Bosque del Apache. In Northern New Mexico—Valles Caldera National Preserve and the Cochiti Lake area.

What is the best compliment you’ve received as an author?
“I feel like I am right there with you, when I read your writing.”

What encouragement or advice has helped you the most on your writing journey?
While I have written on and off my entire life, I knew I wanted to devote serious time to writing during my retirement. I stumbled on SouthWest Writers about three years before I retired and attended a meeting. When those at my table asked what kind of writing I did, I responded that at the time it was primarily technical writing related to my job, but I wanted to write more descriptively. Someone suggested I write every day. When I protested that I couldn’t do that while I was still working, the fellow writer suggested I write every week. I took the challenge and wrote about an interesting experience each week. To make sure I didn’t slack, I emailed my writing to a group of friends and family and asked them to provide feedback. My brother-in-law meticulously read each one and offered feedback, both positive and negative.

Any new writing projects you’d like to tell us about?
I am writing family history and memoir stories that will eventually be put into a book for my children, grandchildren, and nieces.

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



Author Update: Loretta Hall

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Space enthusiast, former math teacher, and award-winning nonfiction author Loretta Hall received the Communicator of Achievement Award from the National Federation of Press Women (NFPW) in 2016. Hew newest book, Miguel and Michelle Visit Spaceport America (Rio Grande Books), won the Young Reader’s category of the 2017 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. You’ll find Loretta at her websites SpaceBucketList.com, NMSpaceHistory.com, SpacePioneerWords.com, and AuthorHall.com. For a look at her books, visit her Amazon author page.

Tell us how Miguel and Michelle Visit Spaceport America, your first children’s picture book, came together.
My publisher actually suggested I write the book after a New Mexico Library Association conference where librarians were asking for such a book. It didn’t take long to write, partly because I had been following the spaceport’s development for several years. I did take my daughter on a tour to the spaceport just before we started working on the book so we would have the most current information and so she could see the spaceport and its environment first hand. The illustrations took longer than the writing did, but Jennifer and I had worked with the publisher early on to discuss the illustrations. It all went pretty smoothly.

What unique challenges did this work pose for you?
Since I’d never written a children’s picture book before, writing with the appropriate vocabulary, sentence structure, and style was challenging.

How did you decide who the characters would be?
I wanted a girl and a boy, one Hispanic and one Anglo, to appeal to the broadest audience. The names just seemed to fit and to complement each other. I also wanted to be sure to treat the male and female characters equally and avoid gender stereotypes.

What was the most rewarding aspect of writing the book?
Seeing the book published and available to my target audience was rewarding. Another exciting part was collaborating with my daughter, Jennifer Hall, who did the illustrations for the book. We hadn’t worked together on a project before, and seeing her artwork being praised has been rewarding for both of us.

Do you have a favorite image or page spread from the book?
I love the fanciful images that illustrate the characters’ imaginations. My favorite is the rocket-riding Batman on page 36.

Was there anything interesting you discovered while doing research for this project?
The tour I took to prepare for writing the book was the first one with access to the visitor center in the spaceport’s terminal/hanger building and its interactive exhibits. Jennifer and I had a ball riding the two-person G-shock trainer. It’s like being inside a gyroscope, spinning in three directions at once.

What do you hope readers will take away from Miguel and Michelle Visit Spaceport America?
My main goal was showing kids (and their parents) what is going on at our spaceport in New Mexico. Many people think it’s not in operation yet, and others don’t realize tours are available. And for children (and the adults in their lives) who live far from Spaceport America, the book allows them to see the facility in a limited way.

Of your eight published books, which one was the most challenging and which was the easiest to write?
Miguel & Michelle Visit Spaceport America was probably the most challenging because I hadn’t written for that age level before. The easiest was The Complete Space Buff’s Bucket List because it’s a small book with relatively little text. The research I had to do to find 100 interesting “space things to do before you die” was challenging, though, as was finding good photographs to illustrate them.

Do you prefer the creating, editing or researching aspect of a writing project?
I love the researching part, I like writing about it in a creative way, and I tolerate the editing aspect.

When you tackle a nonfiction project, do you think of it as storytelling?
Yes, I do. Storytelling is the best way to get people interested in the book’s content. In Out of this World: New Mexico’s Contributions to Space Travel and Space Pioneers: In Their Own Words, I really tried to write about people’s experiences with working on space programs, not just the programs themselves.

What are you working on now?
I’m starting to write the memoir of a very special woman who has had a groundbreaking career in aviation and is continuing a fifty-year quest to go into space.

Find out more about Loretta and her writing in her 2016 interview for SouthWest Writers.

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



An Interview with Author Ramona Gault

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Ramona Gault is the author of Artistry in Clay: A Buyer’s Guide to Southwestern Indian Pottery (1991) and the co-author of The Santa Fe & Taos Book: A Complete Guide (1994). After feeling compelled to write a story about a mother-daughter relationship set in New Mexico, it took five years to complete her debut novel The Dry Line (2014). Visit Ramona on LinkedIn and TheDryLine-aNovel.blogspot.

What is your elevator pitch for The Dry Line?
Anna Darby would do anything for her beloved daughter, Paris, except tell her about her soldier father who was killed in Vietnam. But when Paris gets into a scrape with the law and an old friend asks for a big favor, social worker Anna acts impetuously. They move from Albuquerque to a village where Anna meets Cisco, a combat vet who paints ghosts by day and rides the back roads by night. Will he be the love of her life, or the death of her? And can feisty Paris save Tonio, a strange, neglected boy who lives in a cave? The barely suppressed sorrows of the past erupt in a remote desert village, and Anna and Cisco must figure out whether, and how, they can heal.

When readers turn the last page of the book, what do you hope they take away from it?
I hope they enjoy a page-turning romance/thriller, as well as insight into how the Vietnam War affected ordinary New Mexicans.

What unique challenges did this work pose for you?
I hadn’t written fiction since I was a child. I didn’t have a clue how to write a novel, but I really, really wanted to do it. Figuring it out gave me untold satisfaction.

Who are your main characters?
Anna Darby is, in a sense, every single mother. Fiercely protective of her child, struggling to build them a better life, while dealing with family baggage and great loss in her past. Her own vitality and her desire for love empower her. Cisco is the night aspect to her day. He returned from the war with a pack of demons, but at heart, he’s real gold.

Why did you choose New Mexico as the setting for the book? Is the setting a character in the story?
Setting is definitely a major character! New Mexico works mojo on me. It would take me lifetimes to fully explore this land in my fiction.

Tell us how the book came together.
I wanted to write about the mother-daughter relationship and set it in a New Mexico village like those I’d spent time in. So I envisioned this idea, wrote scenes and an outline. Pages later, the characters and the village came to live in my imagination. My experience is that people in New Mexico’s traditional culture are open-hearted; it’s a more people-focused culture. For me it’s much more satisfying to write about those kinds of relationships. It took me five years of writing after work at my day job.

What books have had a strong influence on you or your writing?
For fiction, The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot by Charles Baxter and The Scene Book: A Primer for the Fiction Writer by Sandra Scofield.

Now that you’ve written both fiction and nonfiction, do you have a preference?
Fiction is a joy to write; nonfiction is pure work.

What are the hardest kinds of scenes for you to write?
I love writing scenes of all kinds! If I’m having a hard time with a scene, that generally means I need to take a fresh look at what the scene is trying to do.

What writing projects are you working on now?
I’m 55,000 words into a mystery novel set in a small town in the South where I grew up.

Do you have advice for writers working towards publication?
Get an editor. Get an editor. GET AN EDITOR! I can’t say it enough. Beta readers can be of help, but in the end, they’re not professionals. I was so eager to see my book in print that I rushed things. Don’t make my mistakes! Find an experienced fiction editor and work with that person to revise, revise, revise. I’m still in love with The Dry Line, but for my new mystery-in-progress, I’m hiring a professional fiction editor to do a developmental edit that will find the weaknesses in plot and character, the stupid gotchas, the parts that don’t work. And this editor will help me shape the manuscript into something marketable. It’s not cheap, but if you value yourself, the investment is worth it.

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



An Interview with Author Larada Horner-Miller

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Author and poet Larada Horner-Miller spent 27 years as a middle grade teacher before getting serious about writing. Whether through poems or prose (or three volumes of her grandmother’s recipes), she celebrates family and the small ranching community where she grew up. The historical novel When Will Papa Get Home? (2015) is her sixth published book. You can find Larada at LaradaBlog and Larada.wix, and on Facebook and Twitter.

What is your elevator pitch for When Will Papa Get Home?
Having come from Mexico to a homestead on the high plains of southeastern Colorado with her family, Maria is determined to rise above prejudice and other obstacles in this engaging historical novel.

When readers turn the last page, what do you hope they will take away from it?
I hope the reader takes away a respect for Maria’s struggle and how she worked through a horrible injustice to her family. I also want people to want more about Maria, her family, and what happened next.

What sparked the initial story idea for the book?
The spark for this story was a routine visit to my favorite homestead on our family ranch, the Philly Place. I had heard the tales about Philly my whole life from my Dad and Granddad. Philly was accused of being a cow thief and was in jail when my granddad bought his homestead. I found a blue marble between the front door and the outside step and wondered who the marble belonged to. This story came from that familiar tale and that blue marble.

Tell us about your main character in When Will Papa Get Home?
The story unfolds through the eyes of Maria, the daughter of Philadelphia Gonzales. We meet her initially as a grown, successful woman in Denver, Colorado. In a flashback, Maria tells the story of her family’s immigration from Mexico to southeastern Colorado and her life on the plains living in a homestead. The story focuses on her struggles and finally her maturation through the false accusation of her father being a thief, his imprisonment, and her life with her mother without Papa.

Explain the importance of the book’s setting.
The setting for most of the story is a homestead on our family ranch in southeastern Colorado, and then the move to Trinidad, Colorado. Maria loved the life on the open plains with its freedom and abundant wildlife. Her horse, the land, and working beside her Papa nurtured her soul. The abrupt thrust into the city life of Trinidad jolted her. She yearned for bygone days that were less stressful roaming the mesas she loved. The contrast between the two settings illuminates the two lives Maria lived as a child: from carefree and open on the plains to the confined regiment of city life with schoolwork consuming her. Her major goal in Trinidad was to learn English and better herself so she didn’t end up like her Papa—defenseless because he didn’t speak English. She also focused on becoming literate in Spanish, to be truly bilingual at a time when being bilingual had little merit.

How did the book come together?
I started the book in 1983 while attending Colorado State University as an English major. I revisited the story periodically and edited the 10,000-word manuscript several times over thirty years, but stalled out in the editing cycle. When I retired in 2013, I finally got serious about my writing. In 2014, I self-published This Tumbleweed Landed, a memoir collection of poetry and prose about the same ranching community in my novel. After that successful self-publishing experience, I worked for a year to beef up When Will Papa Get Home? I added references to historical figures, and the complete immigration from Mexico to Mora, New Mexico, and then to Branson, Colorado. I also added the details of building an adobe-and-rock homestead house and outhouse. I researched these keys points, made several road trips, and took photographs for historical accuracy. A photo album was included at the end of the book to provide visuals. Finally, When Will Papa Get Home? was released in November 2015.

Your publication Let Me Tell You a Story is a booklet written from your father’s perspective recounting the facts of how your grandfather put a family ranch together during the Great Depression. What was your goal in publishing this booklet?
My mother and I put Let Me Tell You a Story together for my Dad’s 75th birthday in 1993. My Mom wrote out the story as my Dad told it to her. Then I typed the manuscript on the computer, and Dad and I edited it. He selected the pictures included in the booklet, and initially we printed just enough copies for our family and close friends. After selling 25 extra copies, I republished it on CreateSpace. My Dad was so proud of his father’s accomplishment of putting together a ranch during the Depression when others were losing theirs. This booklet was a celebration of that success story.

What authors have had a strong influence on you or your writing?
Tony Hillerman’s celebration of the Southwest and the Native American world deeply touched me and encouraged me to write about an area of the Southwest I know and love. As an English major, I took extra classes to study Shakespeare and loved his playfulness with language. Mary Oliver focuses on nature in her poetry—growing up in southeastern Colorado gave me every opportunity to enjoy nature at its best, and I’ve enjoyed adding nature scenes to my books.

How has your work as a poet influenced your fiction writing?
I am a poet first and that influences my word selection. I have adopted the slogan, “Words matter” as my blog slogan and that says succinctly what counts in writing whether it is poetry or fiction. Also, I have been told the imagery in my historical fiction reminds the reader of poetry.

What advice do you have for discouraged writers?
I wrote two books and waited 30+ years to publish them. Don’t wait! I stashed those manuscripts away in a desk drawer for years, but they were not silent. They whispered to my spirit, but I ignored them. I married. I divorced. I walked away, turning my back on my creations. I sent out a query letter on This Tumbleweed Landed and received a request for the full manuscript. Then came the rejection—that put an end to my writing career for several years. I filled my life with other activities, but my books kept up their vigil. They haunted me, wanting to be released from that dark prison. Finally I couldn’t stand their noise anymore. Their endless clamor ended because I listened.

What writing project are you working on now?
My new book, I Grew Up to Be the Woman I Always Wanted to Be, will be released May 2017. It is a grief memoir of poetry and prose about the loss of my parents and how I handled it. It offers ideas on how to handle being an adult orphan and coming through to the other side.

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



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