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Author Update: Sherri L. Burr

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Sherri L. Burr is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College, Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, and the Yale Law School. Following her retirement from a decades-long career as a full-time law professor, she became the Dickason Chair and Regents Professor of Law Emerita at the University of New Mexico. Sherri is the author or co-author of over thirty nonfiction books, one of which, Complicated Lives: Free Blacks in Virginia, 1619-1865 (Carolina Academic Press, 2019), was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in History. Her first memoir, Living with Nephew: How I Got Voted the Meanest Parent in the World (January 2026), is “a hilarious and weighty adventure” in which “Sherri and Nephew challenge and educate each other. And in the process, each becomes a better person.” Look for Sherri on SherriBurr.com, RMK Publications, and Facebook. You’ll find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookworks, and Collected Works. To learn about Sherri’s previous work, go to her 2019 interview for SouthWest Writers.

What would you like readers to know about the story you tell in Living with Nephew?
I want readers to know that they too have experiences that can be turned into literature. Life brings everyone unique experiences that are simultaneously universal. All individuals can transfer lived experiences into essays or a book with the appropriate training and enthusiasm.

What challenges did this work pose for you? Were you surprised by any aspect of the project as it unfolded or did it meet your expectations?
When I first started writing Living with Nephew in 2004 it was after Terrance had returned to California after living with me for two years in New Mexico. Simply put, I missed him. Drafting the book permitted me to relive the experience and decipher its meaning.

One challenge came from crafting events and scenes into a complete storyline. Moreover, the early draft was only 37,000 words and it needed to be at least 50,000. Different challenges came from potential publishers who wanted me to fictionalize parts of the story to make myself nicer. I decided to avoid turning what I believed to be a meaningful story into fiction. Instead, I changed the subtitle from “Humorous Parenting Tales” to “How I Got Voted the Meanest Parent in the World.” This way people picking up the book would not expect a different type of protagonist from the one I present in the narrative.

The project met my expectations, and I felt gratified by the positive responses and reviews the book received.

When did you know you wanted to write the memoir? What prompted the push to begin?
I began writing essays about my life when I was a teenager and still have my first rejection letter that I received as a 16 year old. I particularly like writing about relatives whom I consider interesting. My pistol-packing grandmother, who loved telling stories about the Old South to her grandchildren, shows up frequently in my writing and appears in Living with Nephew.

What prompted me to finish the book was my mother’s terminal diagnosis that immediately prompted Terrance to fly from California to help me take care of her during the last month of her life. We were once again living together and planned her services together. Living with Nephew was the book my mother most wanted to see published. She thought it would be turned into a film and win Academy Awards.

Tell us more about the book.
Living with Nephew is a double fish out-of-water story about a Yale Law School educated, globe-trotting aunt who takes on a 12-year-old Hip Hop generation kid who was failing sixth grade while remaining popular with girls. The aunt uses contracts to motivate her nephew to focus on learning.

The book turned out to be a 22-year project from crafting the first chapter to publication. I brought chapters to various critique groups for review. I workshopped the book during memoir classes at the Taos School of Writing and University of New Mexico Continuing Education. A frequent response from reviewers was to share my interior thoughts. That was hard for me, but I did it.

Early on, I secured blurbs from well-known authors and an agent who was unable to sell the book. I then submitted the book directly to university and small presses. After hearing SouthWest Writers members rave about RMK Publishers, I decided to work with Rose, the owner and a superb book designer. The cover was fashioned by the owner of Images by Rosa using pictures by Denise Tessier and myself, along with text that I supplied. It took over two dozen drafts before we approved the cover design.

Did you ever worry you were revealing too much about yourself or your family through your writing?
Absolutely. As a lawyer and historian, I write from a distance with very little of me in my over 30 published books. For Living with Nephew, the most challenging part was that I had to reveal what I was thinking and painful family events. To give the book more depth, I braided into chapters what happened to my family when I was 12 years old. In the end, I found the writing of my story to be healing.

If choosing the book title/subtitle was a long process, tell us about that journey.
Living with Nephew has always been the title, and that never changed. The subtitle migrated from “Humorous Parenting Tales” to “How I Got Voted the Meanest Parent in the World” after some publishers wanted me to fictionalize parts of the book to make myself nicer. One publisher suggested turning the book into Young Adult, but that would have made the title “Living with Auntie.” I rejected that idea because I would have had to re-write the book from my nephew’s perspective and turn it into a work of fiction. Also with the Young Adult genre, the parenting figures are incompetent or absent. My story did not fit squarely within the genre.

What was your favorite part of putting this project together?
The laughter. Reliving, writing, and reading the scenes with my nephew still makes me laugh out loud.

What did you learn from writing/publishing Living with Nephew that you can use in future projects?
The importance of pacing. Several people commented on how much they love the short chapters and that they kept them turning the pages to find out what happens next. This is a technique deployed by numerous successful novelists, such as Lee and Andrew Child, David Baldacci, and James Patterson. I loved Patterson’s book with Viola Davis, called Judge Stone. It was so well paced that I finished it in less than two days.

What genre do you enjoy reading the most?
I aim to read at least two books a week and over 104 books a year. I read across genres and do not have an absolute favorite. I read history, memoirs and biographies, thrillers, mysteries, and novels. All these genres can depict elements of the “fish-out-of-water” tale. Think Cinderella. There is no story when she is cleaning her stepmother’s attic. It’s only when Cinderella shows up at the palace ball that her life elevates to a realm that readers want to experience as she meets her prince.

One of my favorite examples of the “fish-out-of-water” tale is Diana Galbadon’s Outlander series. Her protagonist Claire Randall is a former English World War II army nurse on vacation in Scotland with her academic husband when she travels through the stones back two hundred years. Claire is out of her element in space and time. As a reader and viewer of the television series I enjoyed experiencing Claire navigating the environment of Scotland in 1743 and finding the love of her life whom she marries becoming a multi-century bigamist.

What are your strengths as a writer?
The ability to craft sentences that others like reading, and the gift of humor.

What writing projects are you working on now?
I am researching and writing a book with the working title Generational Impact: The Divergent Enslavement Legacies of George and Martha Washington. This project flows out of having been a 2024-2025 Fellow at the George Washington Presidential Library to examine what happened to Mount Vernon’s enslaved population after George and Martha died. He arranged to free his bondsmen in his will and most of the enslaved population attached to Martha remained enslaved until after the Civil War. My challenge is to humanize the enslaved people who were previously regarded as “this species of property” by George.

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 Wanda W. Jerome

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Award-winning poet and nonfiction author Wanda W. Jerome has been channeling spiritual messages in fixed and free poetry and prose since 2022. Her newest memoir in verse, After the Journey: Returning the Heart to Home (The Journey Book Series 2, September 2025), bids readers to “experience her heartful transition back from a spiritual journey to her home place.” Look for Wanda on her website Awakeful.life and on Youtube at @MagicalMorningMoments and @Awakeful. Her books are available on her Amazon author page.

Why did you write After the Journey, and what do you hope readers will take away from it?
After the Journey is the second memoir in verse of my Journey Book Series. I wrote this book to share with readers the continuation and final portion of my spiritual awakening journey. Coming back down to Earth after such a profound experience was more difficult than I’d imagined.

The beauty of our natural environment here in New Mexico provides the foundation for my experience across the series. The desert with its flora and fauna influence my soul’s expression in both poetry and prose. I hope readers will resonate with the natural world I call home. In this book, I eventually settle into manifesting my soul’s purpose for the remainder of my lifetime. I desire to leave readers with a strong sense of hope and faith in their capacity to choose a bountiful, beautiful lifetime while they’re here, and through my writing, I want to help readers build that capacity.

How is the book structured?
The book begins with my return to homeplace — to a normal life. The second section revisits the darkness and confusion associated with living partly in Heaven on Earth and partly in the darkness, struggling to cope with the chaos and destruction in our world. The third section brings me full circle — finding the light in the darkness, learning both are important and necessary for a fulfilling human life on Earth.

Is there one poem from the book that gets to the heart of the whole?
Yes. Here is a poem and piece of prose that touch the entire vision for the series:

WATER ON STONES (Haibun)

Moist desert air from last night’s storms floats,
hovers over steep mountain pathways. I see
distant highways to heavenly places, tucked
behind mists cascading into deepest green.

In their midst, I feel drops of liquid gold effervesce;
leave tiny sand patterns of water on stones. Ah, ah,
breathe deep. Take your deepest yet. Fill hungry
lungs with the rarest of these morning breezes.

Hear the birds sing for their pure joy. For your joy!
Revel in this moment. Before it disappears, escapes,
evaporates – back to where it started from, where it
was born – high in your desert mountains.

What a scene! Quick! Feel your each and every
sensation! Savor the tender nature of your life, your
tendermost dream – so timely, temporary, temporally.
Like water on desert stones.

let this place, this peace
rest in your happy heartspace
and never forget

 

WHAT I’VE LEARNED

I never knew, until it was time for me to know, the perfect
nature of God’s love.

I’d heard people talk about an all-knowing, all-forgiving,
all-encompassing love for years but had no vision of what
it was or what it could possibly truly feel like. Until it did.

Well, it shimmers.
It envelops your soul in shivers of joy and happiness.
You aren’t hungry or thirsty.
You have no needs.
You are totally perfect.
You are in bliss.

And, no – this isn’t alcohol. This isn’t mind-altering drugs.
This is real – Reality with a capital R.

So, how can a person live and walk in this work-a-day
world and know these feelings, think these thoughts, and
behave accordingly?

Try as I might, mere mortal words fail me here, but in a
sincere attempt to convey what it feels like to know God’s
love personally and deeply, I’ll try.

I’ve learned in my seventy plus years of living that
forgiveness is the only way to go home. Forgiveness
removes the veil that separates us from each other.

And, when we forgive ourselves, love touches our souls
and lets itself in. After that, it grows and grows.

I believe this is our work, our service to humanity:

… to forgive the unforgivable,
… to love the unlovable,
… to embrace the unembraceable,
… to hold the unholdable,
… to see the unseeable,
… to know the unknowable, and then,
… to let it all go.

So, let God move through you, give through you to heal
humanity as part of the Divine’s plan. It’s not that hard to
understand once you know.

That’s why I thought I’d help lift the veil for you a little, so
you could take a peek at what’s in store. All you’ve got to
do – is to want to – more than anything else in the whole wide
world. And there’s nothing more than that to where it’s at.

How many poems did you write specifically for After the Journey and how many were already written?
My journey from retirement through Covid-19 and sobriety has enabled my writings to flourish. Most of these poems were written after the first book, Journey Beyond the Veil, was published in 2024, though a few were kept out of the first book to keep the length in check. As my poems and prose are almost always channeled messages I receive during morning meditation, they kept coming as I was completing the first book’s publication. So six months after the first book was for sale online, I started compiling this second book, which was published in 2025. There are over 200 poems and prose pieces in this book.

Tell us how the book came together.
September 2025 was publication month for After the Journey. It took ten months to finish the content, organize, edit, design, and publish the book. My dear friend Jasmine Tritten once again gave me permission to use her image of the hand-painted mask for the cover, and my husband Ric Speed digitized various colorful masks based on that image for artwork throughout the book. Importantly, this book required more time for detailed formatting due to my increased use of visual poetry. I discovered that certain software I’d come to depend upon with my earlier books did not accommodate such formatting. Nevertheless, I was pleased with the result — eventually.

Did you ever worry you were revealing too much about yourself through your writing?
This is an interesting and important question. I did reveal quite a lot to help my readers see where I came from and where I ended up. Fortunately, I am not afraid or embarrassed about anything I have done in this lifetime, though I know there were many times I could have been a more loving person (including of myself) along the way. As a recovering, grateful alcoholic, I am used to sharing deeply personal information in my A.A. meeting groups with other women, and so I understood that I needed my readers to know who was sharing her story. Growing up and being alone a lot, plus traveling abroad during my adulthood as a flight attendant and singer-songwriter/musician on the road, made for quite the ride.

What was the most rewarding aspect of completing this project?
My soul’s purpose is to share these channeled poems and prose pieces in order to help others see that Heaven can be here on Earth if they choose. This is a hard place, this Earth School, and to learn that love is why we are here, what we are a part of, and to whom we will be returning — to share this with others is my mission. This is the most rewarding aspect of my work on the Journey Series project.

When you began the first book in the series, Journey Beyond the Veil: Awakening the Heart to Love, did you plan on writing After the Journey: Returning the Heart to Home?
Not at first. But it became clear that the messages were continuing, life was getting more challenging, and the poems and prose would want another book.

Looking back to the beginning of your writing/publishing career, what do you know now that you wish you’d known then?
I wish I’d understood that by self-publishing my work, I can submit few, if any, poems I’ve already published to traditional publishers, literary journals, and contests. This was news to me, and I imagine it may be news to other emerging author-publishers. Recently, I purchased a major literary magazine known for its multitude of contests and writing retreats and was shocked that the opportunities listed for submissions included the words “accepting unpublished work only.” In addition, many require fees for submission, though the fees are minimal.

The good news is it does seem that opportunities for small independent presses are expanding and this is extremely hopeful for emerging writers. Also, a number of organizations offer awards contests, recognition and reviews for independent publishers and author-publishers. More every day are reaching out to those of us who self-publish. After the Journey has received recognition recently from Literary Global and some lovely reviews from Reader Views. One caveat is that these organizations often require substantial fees along with submissions. From my experience, it’s best to be selective in your choosing. Do research before submitting your work, and consider these efforts as part of the marketing strategy for your work.

Do you remember what inspired you to write your first poem?
My first real poem was about the view I could see out the airplane windows at night when all the passengers were asleep. Back in the 1970s, there were usually empty seats in first class, and I could snuggle up by the windows and see the lights sparkle across a beautiful world. No fences, no state lines — just our beautiful planet. As a 19-year-old flight attendant for an international airline, I discovered many people, places, and things to write poems about. That’s when my writing really took off!

What do you consider the most essential elements of a well-written memoir? A well-written poem?
For me, I think the essential element of memoir and poetry is to speak from your heart directly to the heart of your reader. To share enough of yourself that your reader finds a commonality to attach onto with their own heart and mind. Let them find themselves in your words.

How important is accessibility of meaning? Should a reader have to work to understand a poem?
Great question! I’m not sure about most readers, but I am basically bored if I can’t find anything to relate to in a poem. Some poetry seems like the rambling of a mind to whom I cannot relate. So, I guess, yes — for me to enjoy a poem (whether haiku, tanka, fixed or free), I must find something to which I can relate. If I learn something about myself in the process, I am fulfilled.

Is there something that always inspires you or triggers your creativity?
Our nature in New Mexico. Our delicious sunrises. Majestic mountains. Owls, geese, cranes, hawks, crows and ravens, songbirds, quail, roadrunners, cottontail bunnies, coyotes, dragonflies, bees, butterflies — our spring winds, dry summer heat, golden fall colors, blustery winter snows. We live in this most beautiful place. Let’s share it as often as we can with others who for whatever reasons don’t or can’t live here.

What writing projects are you working on now?
I have a large library of poetry waiting for a three-book series (smaller books in scope, possibly 100 poems each) all about hope. Faith in ourselves, in others and the future figure prominently, too. The title I’m considering is something like “Hope for a Hopeless World” — but I would rather not self-publish this time. My goal is to find a great New Mexico INDIE publisher who wants to work with me to get these books out to readers who need the messages they share.

Is there anything else you’d like readers to know?
I believe poetry does not have to be stuffy, rigid, or scary. Poetry can be enticing, practical, expansive, purposeful, and meaningful in many different forms, including its formlessness. I am especially excited about visual poetry — using the white space on the page to inform how words are read and which ones to which the reader’s eyes are drawn. The year 2026 is a wonderful time for poets! So many rules and requirements are flexing. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for poetry.

To me, poetry is the language of the heart. My sense is we need more of that these days.

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.



2025 New Releases for SWW Authors #3

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Jasmine Tritten, Jim Tritten, O’Labumi Brown, Wanda W. Jerome, and E. Joe Brown represent the diverse membership of SouthWest Writers (SWW) with one or more books published in 2025. Their new releases couldn’t fit in this year’s interview schedule, but look for 2026 interviews or updates for some of these authors.

A list of interviewed SWW authors with 2025 releases is included at the end of this post.

Around the World in 80 Years (April 2025) by Jasmine Tritten and Jim Tritten.

This book contains selected stories inspired by Jasmine’s travels worldwide and some of the two hundred thirty trips she has taken with her husband, Jim, during the last thirty-five years. She developed an interest in other cultures and languages as a little girl growing up in Denmark. Geography and English were her favorite subjects. She traveled with her parents around Europe and learned to speak five languages, Danish, English, German, French, and Swedish, in school. Her thirst for travel and adventure escalated with age and continued throughout her life. Join Jasmine and Jim as they recount some of their travels and adventures during their journey Around the World in 80 Years.

Look for Jasmine on Facebook and Goodreads and on her SWW author page. Around the World in 80 Years is available on Amazon.

Hairalujah (June 2025) by O’Labumi Brown.

Hairalujah is an inspirational memoir about one woman’s fight for respect, love and recovery. Leaving her close-knit Caribbean-American family, Dee leaves home to explore lesbian life and meets Quinn. They fall into love and then addiction on the drug infested streets of New York City in the 80s. Amid these epic events, Dee embarks on a journey to find her authentic self. Hairalujah is the tale of how community unites to save us and affirms our worth.

You’ll find O’Labumi on her website olabumi.com and her Amazon author page.

Seasons of New Mexico: A Natural High (July 2025) by SWW members Wanda W. Jerome and Jasmine Tritten, with co-authors John J. Candelaria and Ric Speed.

A poetic picture of the many ways New Mexico calls people to love her land — the flora and fauna — the diverse cultures that make her The Land of Enchantment. This tapestry of poetry and photography captures both ancient and new places with words, colors and vistas — her glorious sunrises and blue skies — the TRUE essence of the homeplace known as New Mexico.

Visit Wanda on her website Awakeful.life and on Youtube at @MagicalMorningMoments and @Awakeful. Look for Jasmine on Facebook and Goodreads and on her SWW author page. Seasons of New Mexico: A Natural High is available on Amazon.

A Cowboy’s Dilemma (Kelly Can Saga Book 3, Artemesia Publishing, August 2025) by E. Joe Brown.

Building a business empire is bound to make enemies, but when your rivals brandish Tommy Guns it will take a cowboy’s grit to face them down as only KELLY CAN! A new day dawns for Charlie and Susan Kelly after Susan’s kidnapping as the young couple looks to grow the Kramer Group business empire. New opportunities in ranching give Charlie a chance to save the ranch that gave him his start. But among all the joys, a new threat raises its ugly head as vandalism strikes several of the Kramer Group businesses, each incident signed with, “Your friends from Chicago.” Charlie and Susan are not going to let any threats sideline their plans to grow their businesses. Even if those threats come from Chicago’s biggest mob boss. When the mobsters cross the line, Charlie takes matters into his own hands to make sure the mobster never threatens the Kellys again.

You’ll find Joe on his website EJoeBrown.com and on his Happy Trails blog, as well as on Facebook. Look for his books on his Amazon author page and at most online or local bookstores.

SWW Author Interviews: 2025 Releases

Tom Andes
Wait There Till You Hear From Me: A Charles Prentiss Novel

Irene Blea
Talking with Rudy: Platicando con Rudolfo Anaya

Marcia Butler
Dear Virginia, Wait for Me

Kira Córdova
Carma: How It Is

Dita Dow
Sins in Black

Patricia Gable
The Right Discovery

Peter Gooch
LIPS: Kiss The Lips That Lie

Holly Harrison
Death in the Land of Enchantment

A. Michael Hibner
The Gangs of Santa Fe

Wendy Johnson
Kinship Medicine: Cultivating Interdependence to Heal the Earth and Ourselves

Sharon Kayne
The Green Silk Gown

Ed Lehner
Sunset in Paris

Jack Woodville London
Dangerous Latitudes

Gary Lucero
The Unknown Race

David Menicucci
Two Centuries to Freedom, The True Story of One Family’s Two-Century Migration from Lucca, Italy, to New Mexico and Other American States

Lisa Page
Saving Cottonwood

Douglas W. Price
Livengoods Living Well

Lisa C. Taylor
The Shape of What Remains

Zachry Wheeler
Starship Eternity

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.



Author Update 2025: Irene I. Blea

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Dr. Irene I. Blea is the author of university text books and academic articles, as well as novels, poetry, and memoirs. Her 2025 release Talking with Rudy: Platicando con Rudolfo Anaya is a “magical realistic” memoir that reflects on four decades of conversations between herself and award-winning author Rudolfo “Rudy” Anaya, the godfather of Chicano literature. Look for Irene on Facebook and her Amazon author page. Read more about her work in her 2015, 2017, and 2024 interviews for SouthWest Writers.

At what point did you decide to write a memoir using conversations with your longtime friend Rudy Anaya? What prompted the push to begin?
Several months after Rudy died in 2020, I drove near where he lived. I heard a small bubble burst and looked to my right. Rudy sat in the passenger seat of my car. He said, “Take me to my house, Irene.” This was an astonishing experience, but I began a conversation with him. Later I reflected on the many conversations I had with him over a period of forty-plus years.

When you began writing the book, what did you hope to accomplish? By the end of the journey, do you feel you were successful in your goal?
When Rudy died during COVID many people did not get to say goodbye to him. By writing the book, I hoped to do two things: introduce readers to the Rudy I knew  — the man, my friend, my neighbor — and give readers an opportunity to say goodbye. I did not know at the time that we had unfinished business. Yes, I feel I accomplished my goal.

Talking with Rudy was published five years after his death. How do you think he would have reacted to the book if he’d been able to read it?
In my car, he asked me to write about him, and I think he would be very happy. He was a bit of a tease, and I visualize him smiling as I answer this question because I had no intention of writing about him. He was traveiso, a prankster.

What was your greatest challenge as this project unfolded?
I was surprised to learn much about me. My mother died in 2005, and I failed to recognize that I still mourned her passing. That gets resolved in the book. The greatest challenge to the writing of it was that my recollections of our conversations were not consecutive. I had to piece some of them together in order to offer the reader a more cohesive insight.

What would you like readers to know about Rudy Anaya? What fueled your friendship with him?
Until writing the book I failed to recognize that we shared a profound friendship and similarity. I guess I took it for granted. Readers knew Rudy’s work as an author. Some knew him as a university professor. We shared that, but Rudy was a very kind and generous person who watched his money carefully. He was a respectful, peaceful, spiritual person but he was more complex. He was not only highly intelligent, he was political, philosophical and a very private, self-contained person who enjoyed having fun. For example, it was only when you sat, shared a drink, and ate with Rudy or talked with him truthfully on a walk in the Bosque that he shared profound love for New Mexico and the spiritual component of that deep-rooted love. Rudy had sisters who he adored. He held a niece in very high esteem. He had a large family, and greatly loved Pat, his wife. Rudy was not highly demonstrative, and one would not know this, but he was romantic.

Did writing the book change you or your view of Rudy?
I knew Rudy for a very long time and had many conversations with him and many encounters. But I never thought of him as a friend; I thought of him as an acquaintance. And in writing the book and reflecting on the sometimes intimate or emotionally charged context in which our discussions took place I realized that we were intimate friends, very good friends based in mutual trust. As the years passed, neither of us trusted freely. I regretted not being totally cognizant of this. Things had happened to me, and I was closed off to such deep knowing and had to give myself permission to let go of my defenses. The book helped me do that.

What was your favorite part of putting this project together?
I like the ending. I didn’t know the ending. I had a few thoughts on it but the ending that I finally published was highly appropriate and I’m very happy that I concluded it this way.

Do you have a favorite quote from Talking with Rudy that you’d like to share?
Rudy frequently said, “It’s all fiction.” What he meant was we all have a story, and we see that story through our own life experiences. The story takes meaning from those experiences, and this does not mean that another person would see the incident the same way. We all have our own perspectives, it’s all fiction. We make up what it means to us.

What do many beginning writers misunderstand about telling a story?
Stories, of course, have a beginning, middle, and an end. In the beginning I introduce my characters, even if it’s just in a very brief reference to them. Later I expand on who they are and what they are and why they are that way. The middle is very difficult for some writers; it is not difficult for me. Except that in Talking with Rudy I did not know that grief sometimes lasts a long time; it is individual. We grieve the way that we need to grieve. I had not concluded the process. I repeat this because we learn from writing or telling a story.

What do you want to be known for as an author?
That as a scholar I told a good story. I love what bonded Rudy and I was that we both loved New Mexico in a spiritual way. He loved it as much as I love it. It is more than an intense or emotional attachment that we have to the land, the people, the cultures. We are New Mexico because we are of it; it made us what we are.  I want to be known as a scholar that learned to tell a story as a fundamental contribution to American Literature.

Is there something that always inspires you or triggers your creativity?
I am a very disciplined writer. I do not wait for inspiration; I get up every day, sit at my computer and although I may have very little inspiration to write, I will begin by going through my current writing projects; I generally have two or three at a time. Before I know it, I’ve spent three to five hours writing or editing something.

What writing projects are you working on now?
I wrote Daughters of the West Mesa, a very popular book. The book ends with one of the main characters sent to a drug rehabilitation facility. She was not the most lovable character and people love to hate her but frequently ask what happened to her. The next book will most likely be a sequel to Daughters of the West Mesa. I don’t have a title for it yet. Titles are difficult for me, and they are generally the last thing that is written.

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.



Author Update 2024: E.P. Rose

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Since immigrating to the United States in 1986, Elizabeth (E.P.) Rose has shared her heart and hard-earned wisdom in memoirs, poems, artwork, and children’s verse. In her fourth memoir, The Long, the Short and the Tall: Tales of a New American (August 2023), she reveals her life in fifty-two stories collected “over the forty years she has spent in America. Some shocking, some sad, some to set you laughing, and others purely fantastical, each story triggered by a true event or impression, will give you a topic to think or laugh about.” Look for Liz’s books on her Amazon author page. For more about her work, read her 2015, 2019, and 2023 SWW interviews.

How would you describe The Long, the Short and the Tall?
We all have them. Stories accumulated over our lives. As an English transplant to America over 45 years ago, these are some of the stories based on true events…well mostly, as a few are definitely tall.

Is there one piece in the collection that characterizes the whole?
Perhaps “Butterfly Messenger,” the true event that shaped my decision to take the plunge and emigrate. And thereafter taught me to trust whatever message I should hear.

How is the book structured and why did you choose to organize it that way?
The true events are on the left-hand page. The stories arising from each follow beginning on the right page.

Some of the stories in this collection are decades old. At what point did you consider putting these short works into a book? Tell us more about The Long, the Short and the Tall and how it came together.
I have written with one true and objective friend every Sunday for two hours since taking up the pen at the end of 2009. Hence the number of stories began to mount up. Hmmm so what to do with them? I questioned. A shame to toss fifteen years writing in the garbage. So, I began searching for a theme to collate them into a book. At first, I struggled. Animals?… People in my life? Emotional growth? No. No. No. Then one day I sat up. Why the theme is YOU, I told myself. All the things that have struck you as a new American. There I had it…a theme.

What topics or themes does your book touch on that make it a perfect fit for a book club selection?
That’s something I’ve not thought about. But perhaps the lessons are observation and trust. A club might ask its members to recall some insightful experience in their lives that has changed/guided their actions.

What was your favorite part of putting this project together?
Recording the many wonderful and meaningful adventures I’ve had as a new American that I could never have experienced if I had stayed with my conservative and safe English life.

LW Lindquist once wrote that “poems ask wonderful questions, sometimes without including a single question mark.” Does The Long, the Short and the Tall ask any unspoken questions?
Oh yes…truth is certainly stranger than fiction, I discovered. Which story is which…? Is it short? Is it long? Is it tall?

If choosing the title for The Long, the Short and the Tall was a long or complicated process, tell us about that journey.
Searching for a theme that linked the stories, the title came to me as the tune of the well-known song of that name, came in a flash overnight.

As you judge success, which of your books do you consider the most successful?
Each book satisfies me in different ways so it’s difficult to choose. The Perfect Servant because it honors the everyday struggles caregivers live with. When Cows Wore Shoes because it records more than a decade of happy and life-changing summers with my children in rural Spain. Poet Under a Soldier’s Hat, the book that my father hoped to write of one hundred years of our family history in India.

How did your years as a sculptor influence your writing?
Sculpture and Writing are each a form of language…verbal and non-verbal so when I switched each felt equally creative.

Looking back to the beginning of your writing/publishing career, what do you know now that you wish you’d known then?
I wish my education had included the Great Books.

Do you have any writing rituals or something you absolutely need in order to write?
Silence. No music, no telephone suits me best.

What writing projects are you working on now?
Right now, a book of Spanish photographs taken with my Brownie Box recording a rural and gentle way of life under Franco…photo, one page, a one/two-line poem/saying the other. At the same time, I’m working on a separate project collating my prose poems to book form.

Is there anything else you’d like readers to know?
Only how grateful I am to SouthWest Writers from whom I have learned a little of the craft of writing…Arc. POV. Protagonist, etc. Things I had never been aware of.

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 Tim Amsden

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Tim Amsden is a retired attorney whose poetry can be found in national and international publications, as well as several anthologies. His first memoir, Love Letter to Ramah: Living Beside New Mexico’s Trail of the Ancients (University of New Mexico Press, September 2024), was inspired by two decades of living in the Ramah Valley. The memoir has been called a book of “gentle wisdom and quiet inspiration” that “reveals a deep sense of the land and lore of that patch of paradise presently known as New Mexico.” You’ll find Tim on Amazon and his SWW author page.

What do you hope readers will take away from Love Letter to Ramah?
The book’s narrative follows my wife Lucia and me as we take a midlife “off the cliff” leap from Kansas City into the natural beauty, deep history, and strong sense of place that pervade northern New Mexico. There we deepened our heightened visceral understanding that to survive and prosper as a species, we must live in concert with each other and the needs of the living earth. It also gave us a belief that those things are possible.

My hope is that in the process of walking along with us through our experiences and discoveries, the reader will feel a similar shift. I also hope they are entertained and surprised as they encounter such things as singing toads, talking pots, vampire bugs, and the daughter of the sun god in a land where ravens soar above the rhythmic yelp and drone of Native music, and old Spanish missions hunker over the bones of ancient peoples.

Tell us about the journey from inspiration to push to begin and completion of your first memoir.
Love Letter began its conceptual life some fifteen years ago with the working title Folk Music, a reference to the eclectic and diverse community of loving, earth-rooted people we encountered in the Ramah area, then it grew and morphed over a number of years, somewhat like Topsy.

A few experiences and people in the book were described earlier in other publications, including New Mexico Magazine and the volume I edited about the medicine man Bear Heart Williams titled The Bear Is My Father. Other pieces were written along the way, and some were added during the process of editing with the University of New Mexico (UNM) Press.

Although I’m listed as author, Love Letter was shaped by several other people as well. My wife Lucia was part and parcel of the entire process. She is also a writer, and her memories, suggestions, and editorial expertise are present throughout. Credit also goes to the folks at the press, especially my editor, who masterfully edited and championed the book, and to friends and early readers who provided invaluable input. Finally, the community itself deserves credit for creating many of the experiences related in Love Letter. Particularly notable is Ramah photographer Nancy Dobbs, who contributed the exquisite photograph that graces the book’s cover, shot from her front door.

What challenges did this work pose for you?
I think the greatest challenge was having the patience to let the process unfold in its own time until all the pieces were there, the narrative complete, and the central thrust clear. And although the book took a long time to create, that was a good thing, because some key portions were added at the very end. In addition, it was important to know when the book was complete and the time had come to stop tweaking and tuning. I once heard a painter say that one of the most challenging things for her was knowing when to stop, and that is true of many creative processes, including writing.

How is the book structured and why did you choose to put it together that way?
To some extent the structure is inherent; it follows the timeline through our move from Kansas City to the Ramah Valley, our twenty years in Ramah, and our eventual relocation in Albuquerque. Other pieces, such as experiences and explorations, natural and human history, sense of place, the night sky, sun dances and ghosts, were arranged to help readers flow easily along and remain engaged. In some ways it was like assembling a music compilation.

What was the expected, or unexpected, result of writing/publishing Love Letter to Ramah?
I had just started what I thought would be a long and tedious process of searching for a publisher (I do not have an agent) by sending out query letters to three publishers. One of them was UNM Press. The publication of the book exceeded any expectations I might have had, because of all publishers, UNM Press was my first choice. They responded by requesting to see the manuscript. The process that followed of creating the book with them was rigorous, very productive, and highly supportive.

Do you have a favorite quote from the book?
One of my favorite qualities of New Mexico is its resplendent sky, especially in the Ramah area, where air and light pollution are at a minimum. Here’s a bit from the chapter titled “Starry Starry Night”:

Sometimes after returning home at night and pulling into our garage, we would step out under the sky and one of us would whisper, “Look at that!”  People where we lived tended to talk in hushed voices when they were out beneath the stars, nightly reminders of the vastness of which they are a part. Perhaps awe of the night sky is even embedded in our DNA, a connection to universal mystery that we have experienced throughout our long evolutionary path.

We are literally children of the stars; every atom in our bodies was created in the furnaces of stars that died long ago. As the astronomer Carl Sagan once put it, “We are a way for the universe to know itself. Some part of our being knows this is where we come from. We long to return. And we can, because the cosmos is also within us.” We are, however, in danger of losing that knowing, as our visibility of the night sky dims. To me, that is a very sad thing, perhaps even a subtle limitation of our ability to be a global tribe together. Gazing at the stars is an experience that gives us all common ground and connects us to the vastness of creation.

Any “Oh, wow!” moments while doing research for Love Letter?
There were so many. A few examples are the unlikely story of Esteban, the Moroccan slave owned by a Spanish conquistador, who was the first person to make contact between Spain and the Zuni people; the macabre method tarantula hawks use to feed their young; the existence of the groups of people called Penitentes and Genizaros; and the strange desert-adopted life of the singing spade-foot toads.

A definite wow was the fact that a Native American oral constitution — the Great Law of Peace of the Iroquois Confederacy — was an important model for the documents that defined the values and structure of our new country, including the U.S. Constitution.

The most personally interesting was a dawning awareness that unlike most of the rest of the country, many of the artifacts and indications of earlier people in New Mexico are readily visible, present, and sometimes still in use. Spain, for instance, introduced acequias (a type of irrigation canal) to New Mexico around 400 years ago, and they still carry water for crops. Among other places, they crisscross parts of Albuquerque, and we sometimes take walks along them where they run through parks and behind homes.

Also, there are areas still held by their owners under old Spanish land grants, and signs on highways let motorists know when they are entering and leaving them. Finally, Catholic Missions built when New Mexico was part of the Spanish empire are numerous, especially on Native reservations.

Native people have also left their artifacts in and on the land. It’s not unusual to spot sherds, grinding stones, arrow points, petroglyphs, and ruins that were created many hundreds or even thousands of years ago. Before we moved to New Mexico, Lucia and I visited Albuquerque and stayed in a Bed and Breakfast near the Rio Grande River. The first morning, the owners led us down a staircase to the basement, where there was a dirt wall marked with dates of native settlements going back hundreds of years.

How did your work as a poet influence your memoir?
Being a poet has given me a love of lyrical and unusual ways of saying things, a fascination with the ineffable, and the practice of editing closely and repeatedly. Hopefully there are whiffs of those things in this book. In a broader sense, poets are somewhat like monks. They know their work will mostly be read by other poets, so they tend to be less ego-driven and more engaged in their creativity for its own sake. As a result, writing poetry has given me the habit of finding satisfaction in the process itself. It helps me see this book as a gift to the world, a small gesture toward loving the earth and each other.

Did you ever feel as if you were revealing too much of yourself (or anyone else) in writing your story?
No. I tried hard to avoid including things about other people that might disturb or hurt them. In the case of myself and my wife Lucia, we both wanted to share anything, good or bad, that made this a better book.

What is the first piece of writing you can remember completing?
When I was in the seventh grade in Robinson Junior High School in Wichita, I wrote a humor column in our little school paper called “Off the Deep End with Tim.” After reading my first submission, my home room teacher, who was also the paper’s editor, contacted my parents and said that it was so well written that I must have plagiarized it. That backhanded compliment put me over the moon and, I think, lit my writerly fuse.

Do you prefer the creating or editing aspect of writing? How do you feel about research?
I love them all. I am by nature a scavenger, always looking for unusual bones and stones, bright lizards and flowers and birds. So a phrase that pops, a clarifying shift, or a fact that casts new or different light are all grist to my scavenging mill.

What do you consider the most essential elements of a well-written memoir?
To me, a memoir is especially memorable if it contains a theme that provides a takeaway for the reader. As I was working with UNM Press, someone there asked, “What is the book’s raison d’être?” I could answer the question, but it motivated me to amend the text, so it expressed the central message more directly.

Is there something you’d like to develop from material you haven’t been able to use?
In downtown Kansas City, Kansas, there is a small shady cemetery dating from the late 1800s that shelters the remains of many Wyandotte Indians, most in unmarked graves. Among the few headstones that do exist are ones for the three Conley sisters, Lyda, Helena, and Ida, who dedicated their lives to protecting the graveyard from attempts to replace it with new development. They lived at that time on the land, often sitting with shotguns in their laps in front of the shack they built there. Eventually, Lyda Conley became a lawyer, and she defended the cemetery before the Supreme Court of the United States, thereby becoming the first woman of Native Ancestry to be admitted to the U.S, Supreme Court Bar. Although her case failed, the sisters gained support for their cause and the cemetery was not sold. I came across this cemetery once while taking a walk from my office in the EPA building a couple of blocks away, and returned many times because the energy of the place is palpable. I would get shivers every time I read the message on Helena Conley’s stone: “Cursed be the Villains that molest their graves.” I think this story calls out for an author, and I’ve thought about it for years.

Is there anything else you’d like readers to know?
I wish you all good things, and thank you for spending this time with me.

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.



Author Update 2024: Larada Horner-Miller

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Retired teacher Larada Horner-Miller writes historical fiction, memoir and biography, and poetry. Her newest release, Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir (September 2023), is an uplifting collection of poetry and prose centered around family. You’ll find Larada on her website LaradasBooks, her Etsy shop LaradasReadingLoft, and her Amazon author page. Connect with her on Facebook and Twitter. Read more about her work in SWW’s 2017 and 2018 interviews.

Why did you write Hair on Fire? Who is the audience for the book?
I love Christmas! Originally some of the material in Hair on Fire I shared in my weekly blog, then it hit me that I could collect it, add to it and it would be a fun and heartfelt Christmas book. The audience of this book is for Christian families, women, and children who feel connected to Christmas and would enjoy a nostalgic look back.

What prompted the push to begin the project, and how did the book come together after that?
After writing several blog posts over the years for Christmas, I realized how much I loved sharing my Christmas experiences with my readers, and how much they enjoyed them—a perfect reason to collect them, add new ones and publish this book. So, I started working on it in the beginning of 2022, then I sent it off to my editor July 14, 2022. (I have such a wonderful editor who has edited my last four books!) Because I self-publish, when I received her final edit August 14, I set up the interior in Vellum. I released it September 6, 2023 while my husband and I were traveling in Germany. That was an amazing experience to keep track of the book launch long distance.

How did you organize this collection of prose and poetry?
There are thirty-one chapters with some being poetry, others prose. In some I invite the reader to go inside the Christmas story and experience with the main characters—Mary and Joseph—what happened so many years ago. Also, I sprinkled some of my favorite Scriptures throughout. I use a lot of graphics and pictures for the visual learner. (I’m a retired middle school literature, language arts, Spanish and computer teacher, so I still think about learning styles!) At the end of the book, I provide a couple of lists of my favorite Christmas readings and movies.

What unique challenges did this work pose for you?
I wanted to balance the poetry and prose and invite the reader into how I experienced Christmas during a time very different from today: in a small ranching community in southeastern Colorado where we cut our tree down off our ranch. Also, I had to include a sorrowful experience noting the last Christmas with my brother-in-law who showed us all the true meaning of Christmas. (I wrote that story for my sister and she cried.)

Do you have a favorite chapter, story, or poem in the book?
As an adult, I am an Episcopalian and I take the reader from Advent (liturgical season before Christmas) all the way to Epiphany (liturgical season after Christmas) in this book. January 6, 2021 was Epiphany—it was also the day insurrectionists stormed our nation’s Capital. I had to dedicate a chapter to that unbelievable day even though it made this a political statement. My favorite poem is “Christmas at the Horners’” where I share my childhood Christmas Eve experience with a multitude of cousins, and my paternal granddad takes center stage.

How did you choose the book’s title?
One of the humorous poems in the book, “My Hair on Fire,” is where the title of the book originated. It tells of my childhood memory of being in a Christmas pageant at our small community church, and the angel behind me got too close and caught my hair on fire. To this day, I chuckle at the matter-of-fact manner our Sunday School teacher handled it and the show went on!

What was your favorite part of putting this project together?
Vellum offered a new feature: adding a heading background and I jumped on it. It appears on the first page of every chapter, so I added a pine cone and branch and I loved how it dressed up the paperback copy.

Of the seven books you’ve published, which one was the most challenging and which was the easiest or most enjoyable to write?
The most challenging was Just Another Square Dance Caller: Authorized Biography of Marshall Flippo because I had to be sure of the accuracy of it. I had forty hours of recorded interviews I transcribed. So, I ended up with 258,000 words and had to cut it back to about 70,000. But what a privilege it was to tell this amazing man’s life story.

The easiest and most enjoyable book was the first one, This Tumbleweed Landed, because I didn’t know better—it was my introduction into the self-publishing world—and being the first made it a true delight! I have a masters in computers, so I not only enjoy the writing of the book, but the actual layout too.

What do you want to be known for as an author?
I tell authentic stories and write poetry about a life that exists no more. All of my books deal with a positivity in life even if there are trials and tribulations along the way.

What are your strengths as a writer?
I love to write and never have experienced writer’s block. In fact, I have about ten books in the queue. Being an English major, I have a strong background in the classics and I love to read. Also, I fell in love with Natalie Goldberg’s free writing and used that in my classroom and still use it today. Poetry has become my genre of choice and I feel my soul leaks out in my writing, and I discover new truths in every poem.

Why do you think people like reading memoirs and biographies?
Readers can put themselves into the stories easier than any other genres. They read about an experience, an emotion, and connect with the writer. Memoirs/biographies are truly an escape from this world into the real world of someone else who has conquered or mastered some trial or tribulation. That winning becomes the readers as they devour the page.

What is the best compliment you’ve received as an author?
“When I read your books, I feel like I’m sitting across the kitchen table from you, talking!” I love that!

Do you have writing projects you’re working on now?
I am working on book one of a three-book poetry series entitled Was It a Dream: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry. The first book of this series starts with a poem written in 1986, my first poem about a trek into the jungle of Mexico to the Mayan Indian ruin of Coba. That volume ends with a poem about 9/11/2001, a day we all will never forget.

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.



Author Update 2024: Neill McKee

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Neill McKee is a retired teacher, international filmmaker and multi-media producer, and an award-winning creative nonfiction author. He published his fourth memoir, My University of the World: Adventures of an International Film & Media Maker, in 2023. Look for Neill on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, as well as on NeillMckeeAuthor.com. To learn about his first three memoirs, read his 2019, 2021, and 2022 SWW interviews.

Neill, you’ve led a storied life. Please tell readers a little about your memoir My University of the World.
My University of the World (2023) is a stand-alone sequel to two of my other memoirs, Kid on the Go! Memoir of my Childhood and Youth (2021) and Finding Myself in Borneo: Sojourns in Sabah (2019). All three books can be enjoyed in any order you read them. This latest memoir is composed of 28 short chapters and an epilogue that takes readers on an entertaining journey through the developing world from 1970 to 2012. The book is filled with compelling dialog, humorous and poignant incidents, thoughts on world development, vivid descriptions of people and places I visited and worked in, and over 200 images.

The story starts when I became a “one-man film crew,” documenting the lives of Canadian CUSO volunteers working in Asia and Africa, and covers my marriage to Elizabeth, an American I met in Japan. Her life with me and her growth as an artist, as well as our children’s lives, are also covered in this new book.

Thirteen chapters document my time as a filmmaker for Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), when I roamed the developing world and made about 30 films on many research projects in education, rural development, agriculture, post-harvest technology, fisheries and aquaculture, health care, water and sanitation—the list goes on. I wrote these stories to allow the reader to get a sense of the challenges I encountered. I kept the chapters light on technical details and full of humorous and poignant incidents. In each chapter, I also included how IDRC projects made an impact, or not.

The book also covers my time as a multimedia producer, leading teams of people in UNICEF in Bangladesh and Eastern and Southern Africa, and how my family adapted to a very different and interesting life. I ended up working for Johns Hopkins University, and then took over a project in Moscow, Russia. In my final job, I was asked to save a large project in Washington, D.C. from 2009 to 2012. By then I had learned a lot about managing people and, I must admit, sometimes I missed my years as a “lone-wolf” filmmaker at the beginning of my career.

Was it a natural transition for you to go from filmmaker to author?
During my career, I wrote three books and many articles on the role of communication in behavior and social change. But when I retired in 2013, I decided to turn to creative nonfiction writing. I submitted my first manuscript to about a dozen publishers and finally received two offers from small firms, but when I saw the contract details, I could see they were mainly interested in acquiring new titles with little or no resources for promotion. Also, despite the fact I had engaged a professional editor, they wanted to start over with that process. So, I decided to hire a professional book designer and self-publish. Either way, it was evident I was going to have to do the promotion myself. Perhaps if I was younger, I would have tried harder to seek an agent and publisher, but at my age, I didn’t think it made sense to wait. I don’t regret my decision because I have since learned that almost all authors, even if they do find a publisher, have to do or pay for most of the promotion themselves. With about 1,000 new books released every day in North America, in all genres, there is a lot of competition for readers’ attention. Fortunately for me, making money has not been a necessary objective in my new “retirement career.”

What was the most rewarding aspect of writing My University of the World?
I entered this memoir in several contests and so far have won two awards: Distinguished Favorite, Independent Press Award (2024) for Career; and Finalist, Book Excellence Awards (2024) for Autobiography. It’s rewarding to get such feedback, as well as good reviews on Amazon and Goodreads—some from people who have had no experience in international development work or film and media production. They simply enjoyed riding along with me, and some wrote that they felt they were there. Another benefit of writing this memoir was helping me sharpen my long-term memory, revising connections with old friends and former colleagues in Canada, the US, and around the world.

Do you have one place of travel that has left an indelible mark on you?
I would have to say it is Sabah, Malaysia, on Borneo Island, and the small town of Kota Belud near the coast of the South China Sea. That’s where I “found myself,” learning Malay language and teaching beautiful students, visiting their kampongs (villages), roaming around on my motorcycle, climbing Mount Kinabalu (the highest in Southeast Asia), having a few love affairs, and making my first film. It is all in my memoir Finding Myself in Borneo. That book has won three awards.

Was there anything surprising you discovered about yourself while writing your memoir?
I found that I always had a knack for creative writing but never developed it until I retired. I never kept a diary but I had a lot of stories in my head for years. I wrote up some of these at the time they happened and kept a file. I found many more in old letters to and from my fiancé/wife and family, plus official trip reports that I always tried to make entertaining, including all the funny happenings along the way. Some of my colleagues might not have appreciated such embellishments, but I didn’t care. I had the feeling I would use these someday.

What was your favorite part of putting this project together?
Besides the creative writing, it was returning to IDRC in Ottawa, Canada, to look through a library of thousands of colored slides I had taken all over the developing world, many of which I used in the book. I also searched film archives and websites and managed to locate most of my film and media projects. This also helped to bring back my experiences over the years, and I decided to create a digital library, housing all I could find on https://www.neillmckeevideos.com.

The videos play on YouTube and I get great satisfaction from messages I receive every week from young adults who were influenced in their childhoods, especially from my most successful multi-media project, the Meena Communication Initiative for girls’ empowerment in South Asia.

Do you have a favorite quote from My University of the World you could share with us?
That’s a difficult thing for a writer to answer, but I think the opening paragraph of Chapter One gets the reader into the spirit of the memoir:

As I rolled across the plains of northern India in December 1970, on a rickety old train, rumbling between station stops and passing many smaller ones, I soon got into the stride of things by listening to Santana Abraxas through the earphones plugged into my compact reel-to-reel tape recorder. From that time on, the song Black Magic Woman became forever embedded in my mind as a part of India. The time was magic for me because I was on the road, filming and photographing Canadian volunteers in Asia. It was exactly what I wanted to do with my life—an answer to my prayers, or I should say to my meditation sessions. I was more in touch with Zen Buddhism than Christianity in those days, like other North American youth—many of whom were hippies, or what we then called “flower children,” who traveled to the East in search of answers to life’s mysteries and their future paths.

Does meditation play a role in your writing ritual today?
Well, I never got deeply into Zen Buddhism, but in my late twenties, I learned how to do Transcendental Meditation (TM) for practical, rather than spiritual reasons. My younger brother Philip had taken it up and even traveled to Spain to study at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s TM institute. In 1968, the Beatles had visited this Maharishi in India for spiritual replenishment, and by doing so, they helped spread TM worldwide. Philip taught me the basic method and gave me my secret mantra—a sound I repeated in my head for 20 minutes, two times a day, while breathing deeply, sometimes falling asleep, which was okay according to Philip. Eventually, I learned how to do this just about anywhere, even in noisy airports. Learning TM helped me survive the busy years of my career. I still use the technique for refreshing my brain cells while writing.

Is there anything else you’d like readers to know?
I chose to print and distribute through IngramSpark.com (IS), rather than going with Amazon alone. Through IS my books are available in North America and around the world on Amazon and many other platforms. Even independent bookstores and libraries can order copies. I publish in paperback and eBook formats, and two of my memoirs, Finding Myself in Borneo and Kid on the Go! were also produced as audiobooks by Lantern Audio, which distributes them very widely on many platforms as well. I promote through a growing email list, blog and review tours, and some social media channel posts, although I don’t put a lot of effort into the latter because it is evident to me that it doesn’t help much for sales, plus I am a bit allergic to simple messages, “likes,” and “congratulations,” etc., that have little substance or follow up. I find LinkedIn the most useful. I also put a lot of blog posts, interviews, links to reviews, places to buy, and awards on my author’s website: https://www.neillmckeeauthor.com/.

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.



2023 New Releases for SWW Authors #3

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Dale A. Garratt, Larada Horner-Miller, Neill McKee, and Victoria Murata are just a few examples of the genre-diverse membership of SouthWest Writers (SWW). Their releases couldn’t fit in the 2023 interview schedule, but look for new interviews or updates for these authors in 2024.

A list of interviewed SWW authors with 2023 releases is included at the end of this post.

The Peace Road: A high-stakes geopolitical thriller (August 2023) by Dale A. Garratt. North Korea launches a hypersonic missile that barely misses Los Angeles. The U.S. President tasks top physicist Ric O’Malley with completing a quantum computer (QC) project. Running 150 million times faster than any existing computer, this QC will bring Artificial Intelligence to a level that can stop any ICBM in the world. Ric races to East Asia to obtain breakthrough research data from South Korean and Japanese allies. China enters the conflict and attacks the U.S., while a ground-breaking plan to counter war quietly takes shape — a Peace Road. Can Ric and his team finish the QC in time to stop a nuclear war? Is building a peace road a viable option for a permanent end to war on the Korean Peninsula?

Visit Dale on his website DaleGarratt.com and his Amazon author page.

Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir (September 2023) by Larada Horner-Miller. Are you hoping to rediscover the magic of the winter holidays? Looking for traditional inspiration for your upcoming Xmas parties? Ever wondered what’s behind the twelve days of gift-giving? The daughter of a real cowboy, award-winning author Larada Horner-Miller grew up in a small rural community in southeastern Colorado. Now she uses her seventy years of festive experiences to share the true meaning of the season and how to rejoice in its miracles. Hair on Fire is a compilation of poems, prose, and helpful scripture references centered around family. Using vivid and humorous language, Horner-Miller presents tales that touch the heart and renew anticipation for the holidays.

Look for Larada on her website at LaradasBooks.com and her Amazon author page.

My University of the World: Adventures of an International Film & Media Maker (August 2023) by Neill McKee. The author takes us on an entertaining journey through the developing world from 1970 to 2012. His memoir is filled with compelling dialog, humorous and poignant incidents, thoughts on world development, vivid descriptions of people and places he visited and worked in, and over 200 images, all of which bring readers into his “University of the World.” The story takes us to Asia, Bangladesh, Africa, Baltimore (Maryland), Moscow, and finally Washington, D.C. This is a book for anyone interested in world affairs and development, film and multimedia production, the use of media for behavior and social change, exotic travel, and interesting career choices.

You’ll find My University of the World on Neill’s website, on Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

The Ranger: Magicians of the Beyond, Book Two (September 2023) by Victoria Murata. Rafe is a ranger, skilled in the ways of the forest and the creatures that live there. He’s been sent to another world along with Covert assassins. Their mission is to find the young heir to the kingdom who’s fled from the sister who once loved him. Rafe knows he will find the prince. He always finds what is hiding. But this foreign forest and its creatures don’t play by the rules. As he inches closer to finding what he’s searching for, he uncovers unexpected magical beings and a monster. This monster is an ancient creature that doesn’t behave like normal bloodthirsty beasts. This monster has been waiting for him for centuries. It wants his heart, yes, and it wants his soul.

Vicky’s books are available on her Amazon author page.

SWW Author Interviews: 2023 Releases

Marty Eberhardt
Bones in the Back Forty

William Fisher
The Price of the Sky: A Tale of Bandits, Bootleggers, and Barnstormers

Patricia Gable
The Right Choice

Cornelia Gamlem
The Decisive Manager: Get Results, Build Morale, and Be the Boss Your People Deserve

Joyce Hertzoff
Train to Nowhere Somewhere: Book 1 of the More Than Just Survival Series

Brian House
Reich Stop

T.E. MacArthur
The Skin Thief

Nick Pappas
Crosses of Iron: The Tragic Story of Dawson, New Mexico, and its Twin Mining Disasters

Marcia Rosen
Murder at the Zoo

Lynne Sebastian
One Last Cowboy Song

JR Seeger
The Enigma of Treason

Suzanne Stauffer
Fried Chicken Castañeda

Jodi Lea Stewart
The Gold Rose

Patricia Walkow
Life Lessons from the Color Yellow

R. Janet Walraven
LIAM: The Boy Who Saw the World Upside Down

Donald Willerton
Death in the Tallgrass

Linda Wilson
Waddles the Duck and
Cradle in the Wild: A Book for Nature Lovers Everywhere



An Interview with Author and Poet David L. Harrison

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David L. Harrison is a best-selling, award-winning author and poet who has also been a musician, a scientist, an editor, and a businessman. He is the former poet laureate of Drury University and the current poet laureate of Missouri (2023-2025). His 106 published books include poetry, fiction, and nonfiction for young readers and educational books for teachers. In 2022, he published This Life: An Autobiography (Ozarks Book Series) that “chronicles the fits and starts, professional rejections and redirections, the inevitable personal life conflicts and tragedies, as well as the breakthroughs and triumphs in a career that has spanned seven decades…and is still going.” You’ll find David on his website DavidLHarrison.com, his blog, and on Facebook. His autobiography is available through Missouri State University at Ozarks Book Series, but the rest of his books can be found on his Amazon Author Page.

David, you’re an award-winning author. You even have a school named after you: The David Harrison Elementary School in Springfield, Missouri. And now, you’ve written This Life, An Autobiography. Please tell us why you wrote this book and why you choose this time in your life to write it.
Thank you for offering me this chance to say hello to friends and colleagues in SouthWest Writers. I’m delighted to be a member of this group of talented writers.

I didn’t plan to write a memoir. I sat in a theater audience one night and was highly entertained by a gifted young musician who told about his journey from a child who was attracted to music to the professional musician he had become. I wondered if I should do something like that. I, too, had taken a long, sometimes difficult journey from the time I wrote my first poem to become a well-published author and poet. Forty pages into a play script, I knew that the effort was headed toward disaster. I don’t have a playwright’s instincts. But rather than throw out weeks of work, I decided to go forward with a book about my writer’s journey. Someone, I hoped, would like to know how one person managed to go about it. This Life, An Autobiography was the result.

Having successfully written so many books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction for young readers, as well as educational books for teachers, is there a genre you haven’t tackled but are eager to try?
Now and then I wish I could write a series of stories, but my brain isn’t wired that way. I exhaust my supply of energy, originality, and patience for a given subject in a single effort. After that, my mind moves on to something else.

Were there any unexpected moments for you when writing This Life? Did you ever feel vulnerable revealing so much about yourself?
The first challenge was setting the boundaries of what I would include in the narrative of my life. Once I decided that this was to be an effort to trace my development as a writer, I passed on many memories that were important to me but which didn’t seem to touch on the main theme. Had I written the story of my life, instead of the story of how I became a writer, the vulnerability issue would have been more of a problem. In other words, I left out some of the good stuff. (:>

Tell us about your experience as Missouri’s Poet Laureate and what this experience means to you.
The Missouri Poet Laureate program, which began in 2006, features a new state poet laureate appointed by the governor every two years. I’d been nominated four times previously and this time I made it. I’m the first who identifies as a children’s poet to be chosen, so I’m delighted with the honor and the opportunity to meet people across our state. My first official appearance in my new role took place on September 8, 2023 in David Harrison Elementary School, which was named after me. Coming up are events in Kansas City at the Heartland Book Festival on October 6–7 and in St. Louis on April 6 to give a 2-hour poetry workshop for the St. Louis Writers Guild and general public. I expect to do a lot of traveling but will also take advantage of Zoom and other technology to reach as many as I can to read and write poetry and talk about how it enriches our lives.

I read that you started writing poetry at the age of six. Do you remember what inspired you to write your first poem and what it was about?
I wrote my first poem in a snit. We lived in Ajo, Arizona, a town not far from the Mexican border. My dad had come home from a fishing trip in Mexico and my mother was frying his catch on a skillet in the kitchen. That fish smelled SO good and I was SO hungry and I am sure I was SO much in her way. I found myself banished to the living room until she called me for dinner. I made up a poem to show how I felt.

Sometimes I wish
I had a fish
Upon a little dish.

How did you feel the first time you saw an illustrator’s interpretation of a story you created?
The first time you see how someone else imagined what you’ve imagined is a highlight in a writer’s life. For some reason, when I write about human characters, they don’t always materialize in my mind as whole people. They are symbols, personalities, metaphors. It takes an artist to be practical and say, “Come on, they have to look like something. How about like this?” I almost always love the surprise of meeting my characters face to face. I’m more at home with animals. I know what they look like!

After a six-decade writing career, is there anything you’d do differently if you started your writing and publishing journey today?
The easy answer is to say I would have avoided becoming a scientist, head of a block manufacturing company, and co-owner of a gift store specializing in crystals, porcelains, and china, and gone straight into writing, but I might not have wound up here. If I hadn’t touched those other bases along the way, I might have ended somewhere else, and, since I have few regrets about anything that happened down that rather crooked path, I think I’ll say I would walk it again.

Can you tell us about a time when you didn’t know if you would make it as an author and how you persevered?
The low point for me was toward the end of six long years of rejections. Only one guy — a professor at Drury who taught a writing course — had told me he thought I could become a writer. No one else had said that. Ever. To the contrary, editor after editor had told me by their actions that I was definitely not a writer. On one rejection letter, an editor had scribbled, “Are you kidding?” I came to feel like an utter failure. I was wasting my time. I was not a writer, was never going to be one. I simply didn’t have the talent for it. In This Life, I hesitated to describe those dismal years, filled with self-doubt and a growing sense of futility and failure. My decision to include the experience was based on two considerations: 1) it was the truth; it happened; it was part of my journey, and 2) I thought there might be other struggling writers out there who would understand what I went through and take heart.

With such a varied writing background, who are your favorite authors and how have they influenced your writing?
Among my favorites are Annie Proulx, Barbara Kingsolver, Joan Didion, John Irving, E. B. White, and Kurt Vonnegut. They’re all masters of knowing what they’re talking about before they start talking, and when they do begin, their voices are so distinctive that they hold our attention from beginning to end. My favorite authors of literature for young people are too numerous to mention here but my choices all have one thing in common. They use words like a palette of endless colors and they paint images with them that remain with us long after the printed story or poem or narrative ends. They bring literature to life. I try not to compare my developing manuscript to the so-so writers in the world. I hold my work up to the very best, sigh, and try harder to come closer.

Can you give us an update on when This Life: An Autobiography will be available more widely online?
Although the book is available through the Missouri State University site in Springfield at OzarksStudies.MissouriState.edu, ongoing efforts to connect with a major distributor for wider distribution through Amazon and other traditional outlets look promising. By the time you read this, terms may have been agreed on and become operational by the end of the year.

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.



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