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Author Update: Jack Woodville London

Jack Woodville London is a historian, writing instructor, and speaker who has authored articles and short stories, a non-fiction book on the craft of writing, and five novels including the award-winning French Letters trilogy. Espionage, survival, and the fight for Texas independence come into play in his newest historical fiction release, Dangerous Latitudes (Stoney Creek Publishing Group, February 2025). Look for Jack on his website JWLBooks.com, on Facebook, and his Amazon author page. For more about his writing, see his 2019 interview with SouthWest Writers.


At its heart, what is Dangerous Latitudes about?
It is the question all of us face: “When do I take a stand?” It is a coming-of-age novel set in the cloak of a historical fiction story about a young man who is forced to become a spy — for both sides.

What do you find most interesting about the time period you set your book in?
It is set in 1841–1843, a period of extraordinary violence and danger in the American Southwest and about which very little is taught, known, or written, particularly in fiction.

Who is your main character and what do you like most about him? Who is your favorite historical character in the book?
My main character may not be a him. The story centers on two people, Alexandre, a naïve young man from Louisiana who comes to the Republic of Texas to make his fame and fortune and Noeme, a young Black woman who is revealed by degrees to be …. Well, that would be giving the story away. Suffice it to say, they meet early when she rescues him and he mistakes her for a runaway slave.

My favorite historical character is a toss-up between two. One is Sam Houston, not the honorable gentleman who gallantly led Texians to victory over Mexico so much as the drunken short-tempered Sam Houston who manipulated people in a never-ending struggle to keep Mexico at bay. The other historical character is his opposite, Mexican General Antonio Canales, a scoundrel in the mold of Santa Anna who was a bit of a preening George Custer type soldier.

Tell us how Dangerous Latitudes came together.
In some ways it took longer to write than it took to earn my bachelor’s degree. I do a lot of research not only of events but of the actual historical figures who will appear. As a rule, I only invent a few fictitious characters, whose lives are tossed about by the things the actual historical figures do.

My personal editing cycle is to write a chapter, revise it, write a following chapter and revise it, write a third chapter, then revise all three together, then continue in three-chapter cycles to assure that the story has continuity. This helps me to see where I go astray in telling a story or sub-plot or have written off into the desert with something that is not essential, the nasty challenge of editing out the things that no one reads. It helps me keep track of whether a story is losing its way, or where characters are not fleshed out, or where subplots need work. By the time I finish a novel, each chapter has been edited on the order of twenty-five to thirty times and the entire manuscript at least ten times.

I am blessed to have a fine literary agent and a great relationship with a publicist from my earlier work. They arranged and negotiated with the eventual publisher, Stoney Creek Publishing.

What makes this novel unique in the historical fiction market?
It is set in a time and place where, to the best of my knowledge, only one other work of historical fiction has been written. I’m confident that there are more, but they sure don’t seem to surface when you look for them. So, it is a story that involves historic cross-border clashes (and violence) about which almost nothing is written, larger than life figures such as Sam Houston but with their warts and all on full display, race relations and challenging gender assumptions, all in the middle of events that actually happened. It mirrors a lot of what is happening today but set almost two hundred years ago.

Any “Oh, wow!” moments while doing research for the book?
The discovery on original maps of things that I knew little or nothing about. For example, while Texas claimed its boundary to be the Rio Grande River all the way into present-day Colorado, official Texas maps of the period show the boundary to be the Nueces River about halfway between San Antonio and the Rio Grande. There was nothing in Texas, nothing, between Austin-San Antonio and present-day El Paso (which did not exist) except large bold letters that said, “Range of the Comanche.”

What was your favorite part of putting this project together?
Devising a story that would bring together people, both from 1840s Mexico and Texas, to a land that was so desolate that neither side could control it, and place them into events that actually happened. It forces the question that all novelists must ask and answer repeatedly: “Why would they do that?”

Why did you choose Dangerous Latitudes as the book’s title?
It connotes several things. The main man character is a surveyor who is deceived to come to Texas to map a boundary that Texas doesn’t control — the Rio Grande. His map-quest, if you will, leads him into more and more dangerous geographical latitudes. But the word ‘latitudes’ also may apply to the circumstances in which the characters are forced to choose whether to do the safe thing or to go well outside anyone’s comfort zone to do something that they do not want to do or even believe they can do. I like titles that are plays on words.

What sort of decisions did you make about portraying historical figures or events in order for your book to work?
None. I wrote them as best I could as history (not Disney or Wikipedia) reveals them to have been. That made the choices easy, because in almost every case what made them historical figures at all was that in every good person there is a little bit of evil and in every bad person there is some good. I just looked for it and applied it.

What do you consider the most essential elements of a well-written historical novel?
I think every reader decides whether to read a book (or buy it) based on her/his assessment of 1) what it’s about, 2) who is in it, and 3) where the reader comes in.

So, as a writer, be honest about writing in a way that makes readers see themselves as one of the characters or, at the least, makes them feel they’re in the room where it happened. Give one or more main character an experience of undeserved misfortune, especially if it can be experienced at the hands of the antagonist who causes it or who tries to take advantage of it. Another essential element is an opening sentence or paragraph that, to say what I learned from Joe Badal, grabs the reader by the throat. My way to say that is write an opening sentence or paragraph that is so good it lives up to the book that follows it. Write the book first.

Who are your favorite authors, and what do you admire most about their writing?
Evelyn Waugh: His prose is very efficient and makes me generate my own images from his words of the people, the places, the situations he writes about. Hilary Mantel: Her historical fiction is the gold standard for translating research into the creation of characters who act as they do, who make the decisions they make. Rick Atkinson, in non-fiction: His trilogy of the Second World War in Europe is a master class in threading the needle between developing the characters of individuals, most of them ordinary soldiers or sailors who were caught up in a war over which they had little control, and yet threading them into the stories of the major events of the war, such as the American invasion of North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. He somehow succeeds in making units into characters rather than a numbing series of unit numbers. I could go on but won’t.

What advice do you have for beginning or discouraged writers?
Ask yourself, and remind yourself, how many times did the Beatles play in Hamburg and in the Cavern Club before they were discovered and got a recording deal? Be a Beatle.

What writing projects are you working on now?
Editing a non-fiction academic work I have written that has been bought by the University of Oklahoma Press. It addresses a very great deal of the history of the Rio Grande River through New Mexico and Colorado between 1599 and 1846.


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 Lisa C. Taylor

Lisa C. Taylor is an award-winning author of long and short fiction, as well as poetry. She is also a teacher and speaker, an editor and mentor, and co-director of the Mesa Verde Writers Conference and Literary Festival. Her debut novel, The Shape of What Remains (Liminal Books, February 2025), has been called “thoughtful, funny at times, with a richly realized and sympathetic main character” that reveals “the transformation of grief and the subtle strength required to redefine yourself and your purpose.” Look for Lisa on her website LisaCTaylor.com, on Facebook and Instagram, and her Amazon author page.


What do you hope readers will take away from The Shape of What Remains?
I hope they’ll agree that grief is not linear. People grieve in their own way and there is no fixed timetable. Even many years later, there are triggers that bring back the loss. It is one reason why it’s important to stick by your friends and family when they are grieving. Teresa’s journey is, in a sense, the journey of anyone who is grieving. Loss is part of life and even though her loss is shocking and wholly unexpected, it resonates for anyone who has had a sudden death in their family or friend circle.

What unique challenges did this work pose for you?
I did a fair amount of research for this book and I learned along the way. For example, her “assignments” with her therapist are based on my research and my own experience from my counseling career many years ago. Because this was my first novel, it posed some unique challenges in keeping track of the passage of time and the characters. I kept a lot of notes nearby when I was writing. I also read about and researched Compassionate Friends, the group that provides support to parents who have lost children.

Who are your main characters and why will readers connect to them? Will those who know you recognize you in any of your characters?
I do not believe my characters are ever based on me. Teresa has her own unique voice and she’s snarky, self-deprecating, and also sharply intelligent. I have never taken a Chaucer class though I certainly studied Shakespeare. She’s a millennial and I think millennial readers will connect with the pressures she’s under with her grief as well as trying to figure out whether her previous career as a professor will ever be viable again. Teresa’s voice came to me and I hope I was true to that voice in telling the story.

How did you go about getting into the mind of your character who is dealing with grief after the tragic loss of her young daughter? Was this an emotional journey for you as well?
The short answer is yes. I hear the voices of my characters and that is my writing process. Because she was so paralyzed in the beginning of the novel, I felt her despondence. I also knew she had the intelligence and resilience to eventually come back to life. All of my writing is an emotional journey for me. I immerse myself in the life of my characters. I also do this when I read a book that transports me.

Tell us how the book came together.
This book was originally a short story called Monuments. It was published in my short story collection, Growing a New Tail (Arlen House, 2016). I knew when I wrote it that Teresa’s story was not complete. I just didn’t have the time to write a novel at that point. When I went back to it, I worked on it sporadically. I had a book of poetry published in 2022 so I was also working on that plus I teach online and co-direct a writers conference. It took me eight years to get a good draft. I had four early readers plus my two writing groups and I edited it for over a year. I sent out 25 queries to both agents and publishers and got two offers. It was edited again with the editor from the press.

When did you know you had taken the manuscript as far as it could go, that it was ready for publishing?
I knew in summer of 2023 that it was mostly done. I’d taken in the comments from my readers and gone over it many times. The ending finally came together for me after many misses. Endings are really important and both my writing groups felt I finally hit the right note. I have two online writing groups that have been meeting for years.

What was the most rewarding aspect of putting this project together?
I always wanted to write and publish a novel since I’m such an avid novel reader. I read about a book a week. Getting a publisher and working with a professional editor was rewarding. The best part was seeing it in print and reading from it. The amazing stories I am getting from readers all over the country makes me realize that this was an important book to write. It has touched a lot of readers, many of whom have suffered the loss of a child or the unexpected loss of someone dear. Not all grief is about the loss of a loved one and I am hearing those stories as well. I look forward to my national book tour because I’m sure I’ll hear even more stories from my readers. I treasure these stories.

Amazon categorizes your novel as Death, Grief & Spirituality and as Inspirational Spiritual Fiction. If you didn’t have the limitations of Amazon categories, how would you characterize the book?
I agree with Death and Grief and I do think it is inspirational, or at least that is what many readers have told me. It does not mention anything religious so I don’t understand the spiritual, though it’s possible that just goes along with inspirational according to Amazon. Death is universal. We all need stories to help us cope with life’s most difficult moments. It is my hope that The Shape of What Remains is such a book and it will continue to inspire and bring comfort to my readers.

What writing projects are you working on now?
I have another completed novel. It is told in two voices (male and female) and it is an entirely different type of story. I am currently in the early stages of looking for a publisher. I have a third novel started and that one is unlike anything I’ve previously written. I like the challenge! Although I write literary fiction, the third novel I started begins with a crime so that is a new kind of writing for me. I still think it will be a character-driven story but I’m early in the process.

Is there anything else you’d like readers to know?
Persistence is probably the most important quality for a writer. I know many excellent writers who give up on publishing because it is so competitive and all of us receive rejections along the way. Just because your work isn’t a good fit for one publisher does not mean you won’t find a publisher who loves it. Keep trying!


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 Roberta Summers

Award-winning author Roberta Summers is a published novelist, short story writer, and poet. She served as an editor of San Juan College’s Perspective(s) Magazine and is the former co-owner of Silverjack Publishing. Her newest release, Pele’s Children (September 2024), is her second crime adventure novel set on the Big Island of Hawaii. You’ll find Roberta on her website RobertaSummers.com and on Amazon.


What would you like readers to know about the story you tell in Pele’s Children?
Pele’s Children is the sequel to my first novel Pele’s Realm. It is based on the murder of an acquaintance of mine. She was murdered by the Hawaiian Mafia. I didn’t know she was a Mafia wife. In fact, I wasn’t aware there was a Hawaiian Mafia until she was killed. In the books, Maggie, the main character, becomes a person of interest to the Mafia and is frequently targeted by them, mostly to keep her living in fear. In the sequel she is taken into witness protection by U.S. Marshals. Both books are steeped in the mystic of Hawaii and its myths and legends, with Pele’s Children having more mystical realism. Madam Pele, The Fire Goddess of the volcanoes, has a larger presence in the second book. For anyone who loves Hawaii or would like to go, it is like taking a trip there, feeling the caress of balmy air, the fragrance of flowers, and the Aloha spirit.

What unique challenges did this work pose for you?
Since I lived in Hawaii for 25 years and on the Big Island for five of those years, I knew my subject well. I was an avid volcano watcher and familiar with the Pele legends. I also have the benefit of a step-son who was born and raised on Oahu, a hapa haole (half white), not leaving until he was in his mid-30s. He was a valuable resource and technical advisor on some of the underworld activities, such as Cheeken Derbies (Chicken Fights) and the disposal of unwanted fishes (dead bodies) in the Molokai Channel and other things known to the local population, but not necessarily to haoles (white folks). There is an underlying story about gang wars between the Hawaiian and Japanese (Yakuza) Mafias which exposes the dark underbelly of paradise. That part of the story is set on Oahu.

What inspired you to write the first book in the series? Had you always planned a sequel?
My sister April inspired Pele’s Realm. During a conversation with her, she said, “Since that murder still bothers you, why don’t you write a book about it?” I had no plan to become an author, but I went to San Juan College and got a creative writing degree. I took every creative writing class, both required and elective. I joined two writers’ groups and wrote the book. I may have considered the possibility of a sequel since I left an epilogue hinting there may be more. I also have left a hint at the end of Pele’s Children.

Who are your main characters in Pele’s Children? What will readers like most about them?
The main characters are Maggie and John Kovac, loosely based on myself and my husband during the five years we lived in Hilo. John is fiercely protective of Maggie and deeply in love with her, but because he is an epileptic, he can’t always fulfill his desire to protect her. They are both fragile, Maggie because she suffers from episodes of depression, John because he’s an epileptic. At the beginning of Pele’s Children, John has amnesia. Readers will wonder if he’ll ever remember Maggie.

How did the Pele books come together?
It took years to come up with published books. The first one because I had to learn how to write, edit and publish a book. The second one because I wrote Fatal Winds (see below) in between the Pele books. I bought the cover photo for Pele’s Realm for $300 from G. Brad Lewis, a volcano photographer. When I saw it on the internet, I had to have it. At that time, I was co-owner of Silverjack Publishing. I did all the layout and cover design. The printing was done locally in Farmington by Accent printers, the binding was done in Albuquerque. I was truly self-published. The cover for Pele’s Children came off the internet. Since I was no longer involved in the publishing house, it was published through Amazon’s KDP publishing arm. I lack the patience for dealing with agents, etc.

What was your favorite part of putting this project together?
My favorite part of writing Pele’s Children was the vicarious trips to the islands—revisiting my favorite waterfall and the volcano. I can still recall my awe when viewing my first eruption. I loved the feel of the air, the easy charm of the people, solo papayas, swimming in the ocean, ethnic foods and the aloha spirit. When I wrote the Pele books, I remembered all of this with great fondness.

Fatal Winds became your passion project after writing the first Pele book. Tell us about this “in between” novel.
Fatal Winds is a story about Downwinders (victims of radioactive fallout during the era of atomic bomb testing in the Nevada desert after winds carried the fallout hundreds of miles from the test site). I’m a Downwinder. That book became my passion and took 12 years to write because of extensive research, but mostly because of becoming so emotional, I had to take long breaks. Fatal Winds just won an International Impact Book Award.

What first inspired you to be a writer, and when did you actually consider yourself a writer?
I had no plans to become an author until my sister suggested I write a book about Leilani Kim’s murder by the Hawaiian Mafia. Nobody was ever arrested for her murder. So, I changed the names to protect the innocent, namely me, and got busy. It is only after publishing Pele’s Children and winning several awards for books and short stories that I’ve started considering myself an author/writer. I notice people around town are beginning to acknowledge me as an author.

What are the challenges of writing a series?
The challenges of writing a sequel are providing enough information from the first book that the reader knows the backstory, without telling so much that people who’ve read the first book wonder why I’m including all that information.

Which do you prefer: the creating, editing or researching aspect of a writing project?
The creative process is pure joy. I don’t mind editing and researching, but beyond that, I’m not a fan of publishing and selling,

Describe your writing process.
I’m a “seat of the pants” writer. I don’t outline, plan or plot. All I need is a chair and a computer. I think best in front of my laptop. I never write longhand first. I once did NaNoWriMo and got into a stream of consciousness and wrote a book in three weeks—still to be edited and published.

What kinds of scenes do you find most difficult to write?
Sex scenes. It’s hard for me to get the emotion and keep away from the graphic. I think I’m much better in Pele’s Children than in Pele’s Realm. I took tips from Ayn Rand. I think she writes the best sex scenes. The other thing I find challenging is shootouts and fights. One of my colleagues is the best. I get critiques from him.

Your writing takes several forms — short stories, novels, poetry. Is there one form you’re drawn to the most when you write or read?
My first love is novels. I like a fast-paced book and I get bored when there’s so much background the foreground goes underground. I recently read a historical romance novel that was a trudge because of so much history and little action. As for poetry, it is truly beyond me. Even though I’ve written it, I don’t think I know what I’m doing.

What writing projects are you working on now?
I’m writing memoirs. I’m the last of my generation who was raised on farms and ranches. Unlike my younger siblings and cousins, I knew my grandfather who was larger than life, a politician, Speaker of the Utah House of Representatives, and successful rancher and farmer with five sons to do his bidding. Even though I was a child, I remember vividly FDR’s “This is a day that will live in infamy” speech about the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and I remember the WWII years. If I don’t preserve my perception of those years, and write about grandma and grandpa, all will be lost in time. I don’t have children so I’m doing this for my nephews and their progeny. When I finish that, I’ll move on to Maryanne Winslow, a western with a female protagonist. It began as a short story for San Juan Writers’ first anthology and expanded into a full novel during my NaNoWriMo experience.

Is there anything else you’d like readers to know?
When I began to write, I wrote because I had something to say. It was a burning desire. Now I write because I can and for the pure joy of it. I hope that comes through in my stories. This I do know about my writing: nothing happens if I don’t put butt in chair and start typing.


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 Roger Floyd

Roger Floyd is a retired research virologist who is now a science fiction author of short stories and novels. He harnesses a fascination with outer space and space travel to bring readers on a journey with his characters to other planets and the stars beyond. In his debut novel, Explorer: Part I of the Anthanian Imperative Trilogy (August 2024), a team of explorers from a dying planet investigate their civilization’s best chance for survival. Look for Roger on his website RogerFloyd.com. Explorer is available in most bookstores, through IngramSpark, and from Amazon.


What would you like readers to know about the story you tell in Explorer?
I think the most important takeaway for readers of Explorer is the fact that space travel isn’t going to be as simple and easy as all the popular fiction stories make it out to be. We see TV, movies, books, comics, etc, all the time which make it so easy to just get on a spaceship and travel to all sorts of places in the galaxy. Or even out of it. While these stories are fun and enjoyable, they’re somewhat misleading. It won’t be that easy. There’s a certain naivety in that concept, a certain laissez-faire attitude that can’t be brushed aside in real life. We’ve already seen some of the most unfortunate results of that attitude: Apollo 1, Apollo 13, Columbia, Challenger. Yet in the popular media, characters travel thousands of light years in a short amount of time in comfort and ease. I suggest we modify our expectations of space travel somewhat and realize it won’t be as wonderful as we make it out. We humans are highly sophisticated in terms of understanding our world and the environment around us, certainly, but we still have a lot to learn about other worlds, even just the ones close by. I, personally, would love to be among the first to land on Mars, but it still will be a very dangerous journey.

What unique challenges did this work pose for you?
Since this was my first large scale work, and in fiction (I’d only written scientific articles before), I had to learn how to write in a completely different way. I’d never done fiction at all. I started by getting subscriptions to writing magazines. I picked up books on writing, especially writing sci-fi, and I began attending meetings and conferences. I’d read mostly nonfiction in my early years, but I’d read some fiction, and I thought I knew enough to at least get started. So I did. But the challenges of fiction still made it necessary for me to delve into the process of writing in a big way.

Tell us a little about a few of your main characters and why you chose them to carry the story.
At first, the two main characters, Lilea and Jad, were simply two names out of ten that I developed when I was laying out the main story of the book. My first thought was to not use any one person as a main character and tell the story from the POV of each of the different characters. But I soon realize that concept wouldn’t work—too many characters for the reader to keep track of. I settled on Lilea because she was the youngest on the team, and the one with the least amount of space experience, and the least amount of training. What better person to watch grow as the story unfolds? Jad, on the other hand, was highly experienced and well trained, both in space flight and in his chosen field. Growth for him would be much more difficult. An interesting juxtaposition.

How did the book come together?
The main story idea came about over a period of several years. I was living in Cincinnati at the time, and the autumns in Cincinnati are spectacular. While watching the leaves fall one year, I wondered what a visitor from another world would think if he (she?) landed on Earth at that time. Would they think the trees are dying? From that basic concept I developed the story that became Explorer. Of course, I had to develop a good reason for them to visit Earth, and from that work back to their homeworld and make up all the details that went along with it. I started the book in 1998, and got a first draft of 248,000 words finished around 2003. Wow. Way too big. I began cutting and revising and cutting and revising for years, and never really finished it until 2023 when I declared it finished and copyrighted it. Done. (In the meantime, I wrote the second and third books of the trilogy.) Probably the most difficult aspect of writing was learning how to cut. Cut–cut–cut. I kept telling myself, “Everything I cut always makes the book better, even if I’m cutting out some things I like.”

What was the most difficult aspect of world building for Explorer?
The most difficult aspect of world building was not only developing the characters’ homeworld of Anthanos, but finding out what Earth looked like around 15,000 years ago when the story takes place. Research was essential more for the second point than the first. I did a lot of Google research, but much of what I needed wasn’t online. Living in Cincinnati, I went over to the library at the University of Cincinnati and found several books on Earth around the time of the Pleistocene Era, the time of the Ice Ages.

What was your favorite part of putting this project together?
Getting the first books from the printer.

Was it always your plan to write a trilogy? If not, at what point did you realize you needed more than one book to tell your story?
I didn’t start out to write a trilogy. That developed after I finished the basic story for Explorer and realized I wanted to continue the story. That developed into Traveler (part 2) and later into Warrior (part 3).

You began your fiction writing career later in life. What did your mature self bring to the writing table that your younger self never could have?
Probably a life of research which required absolute attention to detail and a commitment to finding out everything I could about a research project.

Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently if you started your writing/publishing career today?
Writing the second and third books of the trilogy went more quickly than Explorer. The second took about five years, the third about three. I suspect I learned a lot about writing just by writing novels.

Do you prefer the creating or editing aspect of writing? How do you feel about research?
I have an affinity for both creating and editing. Research comes naturally, having done it for years.

What does a typical writing session look like for you? Do you have any writing rituals or something you absolutely need in order to write?
I tend to write in the afternoon and evening. I’m not one of those who gets up at 3:30 am and writes just because it’s quiet or I’m rested or the kids are asleep. Generally, I like quiet when writing, or if I play music, it’s classical music. Rituals? No. Just sit down and boot up the computer.

What writing projects are you working on now?
Right now, I’m finishing the second in the trilogy, Traveler, working with the artist to get the cover and interior art done, and formatting the manuscript to get it ready for the printer. All very enjoyable.

Is there anything else you’d like readers to know?
Yes. Buy the book! It’s available in most bookstores (highly recommended), through IngramSpark (also recommended), and from Amazon.


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 Linda Davis-Kyle

Linda Davis-Kyle is a nonfiction writer whose work focuses on natural health and fitness of body, mind, and spirit, as well as fostering critical thinking. Her articles and essays have appeared in numerous journals and periodicals in over a dozen countries on five continents. She has also authored eight books that include Real Food for Real People: Just Say “No” to GMOs and two series: Your Writing Matters and Writing About Animals. Her newest release, Writing about Your Pets #1: Questions & Prompts for ’Tweens, Teens & Beyond (July 2024), “offers loads of imagination-stretching and heart-warming prompts that reward young and mature wordsmiths, alike, with a more caring view of their pets and a more loving image of themselves.” Look for Linda on her website WritingNow.com, on LinkedIn and her Amazon author page.


Why did you write the book, and who did you write it for?
I envisioned that Writing about Your Pets #1 would be of value to ’tweens and teens who long to write but need a topic that naturally grabs their attention and won’t let go. Indeed, young and mature writers alike may find their pets to be such a topic. Approaches to writing about pets are infinite. Think about the almost unbelievable unconditional love from precious pets, their amazing antics, their great feats, their resemblances to their “pet” moms and dads, and even how pets, while being treasured and looked after, actually boost the health of those who love and care for them, as well.

Writing about Your Pets #1 also is especially useful for parents, grandparents, single parents, foster parents, and homeschoolers. In this upside-down world, sometimes pre-teens and teens often are shuffled and misplaced in the whirlwind schedules of their overworked and over-stressed families. Some families simply have no clue how to engage with their seemingly irrepressible ’tweens and teens, even though they may have had spectacularly positive ways of relating when those same children were toddlers. Even the meager five minutes, every now and then, that parents manage to muster to try to give time to older children may go awry again and again.

That’s where Pets #1 can come to the rescue either to help heal earlier upsets or to prevent future problems. Truly, if a parent and ’tween or teen mutually share the unconditional love from their family pet, for example, then they can use this phenomenal bond to anchor their own relationship. Here’s how. The ebook is abundant with useful power-packed, thought-provoking topics. If together they choose just one prompt or question from Pets #1 each evening or each week, for as many times as they like, and together entertain fun ways to write about their selected target topic, then these happy head-to-head chats can boost not only the progress and productivity of that young wordsmith but also can reinstate the precious bond that formerly had tied the two. Each young writer-in-the-making will feel heard and appreciated, and each new “fan” will feel included in the everyday life of their young writer. Here is an example prompt:

Pets, in a way, are our greatest teachers. Write about how your pets are happy just to be with you. To sit with you in silence, to ride along with you, to walk or run with you with no regrets about yesterday and no frets about tomorrow—that’s your happy pet modeling the beautiful concept of living in the moment.

Why not try this little sample with your own cherished young writer? Feel the difference that having communicated happily, as often as reasonably possible, yields an uplifting, strengthening, and empowering, undreamed of victory for both of you time after time. Oh. Be sure to invite your young writer to read aloud each masterpiece the evening after they compose it while you listen intently to hear their heartfelt message loud and clear. This meeting of the minds can manifest miracles.

What unique challenges did this work pose for you?
Statistics from sources such as the U.S. Pet Ownership & Demographics Sourcebook and the American Pet Products Association National Pet Owners Survey typically reveal dogs winning the hearts of the greatest number of households, cats capturing the second highest group, freshwater fish ranking third, and birds attracting the fourth largest number.

In general, dogs and cats consistently draw the largest number of adoring families. Beyond those treasured pets, fishes, birds, reptiles, other types of small pets, and horses, all in the millions, also are given happy living spaces with caring families of all shapes and sizes.

While researching and studying the numerous favorites, it seemed logical to group together these domesticated mammals—dogs, cats, rabbits, ponies, and horses—to include in Writing about Your Pets #1. Wanting to make sure also to write about other family favorites such as fishes of many species, birds, and reptiles as pets, plus amphibians, that many owner-survey type publications seem to overlook, I saved those, also favored by many, for Writing about Your Pets #2, in progress.

I wanted to recognize the animals in each book in an even-handed presentation to keep the different groups who appreciate them happy. Asking similar questions and prompts for young and mature writers to pursue about different mammal species made it practical in Pets #1. I had to deal with another challenge, though. Some sources focus on animals and pets as a menace. I barely noted the negative side. I deliberately chose to concentrate on the positive side. My goal is to encourage young and mature alike who may use Pets #1 to write about what animals can teach us, how their pets demonstrate unconditional love and living in the moment, how their pets see them, what pets contribute to their families, and other unique approaches that keep their writing on a positive note. Check out this sample:

The words “Man’s best friend” attest to the unconditional love from dogs. Animals of many other species also honor us with their devotion and unconditional love. Our pets truly do add joy to our lives. Perhaps they even add years to that joy.

How about talking heart-to-heart about this brief sample with your precious writer in your family—young or mature—and let the sharing elevate their confidence to write another gem knowing that you care about them and have a true interest in what they write.

How is the book structured and why did you choose to put it together that way?
Pets #1 opens with words of encouragement, writing tips, and a secret to beginners but a proven path to success that some longtime writers may hold dear. I suggest that polishing writing skills through practicing writing warmups, writing from many angles, and proceeding incrementally could speed writers along their way. I introduce statistics that rank pets to hope that writers might choose to write to speak up for their favorite pals even if their pet does not hold an envious popular position. Because canines typically rank highest followed by felines, I devote the next two chapters to dogs and cats, respectively.

Following the chapter on cats, I focus on well-being and include the concept of nature versus nurture, the value placed on pets, the importance of staying healthy, the significance of good pet nutrition, choosing houseplants that are safe for your pets, the importance of sleep, and, among other topics, the benefits animals and humans contribute to each other.

After this little break that shares ideas common to both groups, I introduce other mammals—sweet bunnies, magnificent horses, and precious ponies—to create a fresh, new start for readers and writers. In each of the pet-focused chapters, I tried to write even-handedly using similar questions and similar writing prompts for each pet while admiring all of them as those who have only one favorite pet type might feel to keep the readers and writers happy.

In “Chapter Eight. Urging You Onward,” the final chapter, I offer some suggestions to help writers to write more fully and to power up their writing. Consider the following thought:

Now that you are viewing the conclusion of Writing about Your Pets #1, enjoy reflecting on how much better you feel about your wonderful writing skills having been led in practices with these precious animals and others introduced. Write about how thinking about the awesome role that animals play in our lives when it seems that only our animals understand us and love us unconditionally.

If you have used this ebook to encourage a young or mature writer friend, then encourage them to write about the changes they feel from having had an adoring person by their side to cheer them along their writing journey.

Do you have a favorite quote from Writing about Your Pets #1 that you’d like to share?
“Writing helps you with self-discovery. Having a trusted animal friend who never will judge you, mock your heartfelt words, or disclose your secrets will help you to see through a lens unlike any others you may have experienced before. Writing from such a unique viewpoint can help you come upon answers. Through your writing, you may begin to resolve unspoken issues that have gnawed at you for years.”

Any “Oh, wow!” moments while doing research for this book?
Pets #1 introduced Lizette Borreli’s article “Man’s Best Friend May Boost Immune System: 6 Health Benefits of Owning a Dog” that appeared in Medical Daily and documented it in the sources for readers. Those who are adoring pet parents to dogs already know well most of the six benefits and have little need of the article. The first three benefits are that (1) dogs demand daily fun walks; so, you benefit from the pleasant exercise. (2) Dogs also reduce your stress level, and (3) they keep you from being depressed. A peek at the article reveals three other pluses, as well.

If you are enchanted with kind and gentle cats, then you will be happy to learn that the cat purr vibrations are believed by some to be medically therapeutic. Pets #1 has enumerated seven almost magical modes that may have gone unknown to most people.

What was your favorite part of putting this project together?
I liked logically choosing four popular mammals—dogs, cats, rabbits, horses and ponies — to build Pets #1. It was fun thinking through questions and prompts to share. Wishing so very heartily that I can be blessed someday to write fictional stories that readers might relish, I loved tinkering with fictional startups for beginners to tackle and to complete with their best story writing skills; and, I do so wish them well with their efforts, if my little setups may help them to get rolling on writing great stories to share with others.

It also was fun finding photos to illustrate the ebook. In the Acknowledgments, I gratefully noted each contributor and named their pets. Following the Contributors section, I listed and identified the photographers, attributed their work with their copyright, even though their fine photos were offered without copyright. Only one was able to respond to my effort to remit a sum by PayPal for their coffee funds. I remain grateful and hope that readers and writers will like their photos.

Of the eight books you’ve published, which one was the most challenging?
My Real Food for Real People: Just Say “No” to GMOs definitely has been the most difficult. My goal with the various versions has been to help families of all shapes and sizes with nourishing and nurturing their tots to teens and beyond. It offers “adventure foods” to make serving the most nutrient-dense foods — that some children simply hate—a pleasure. To make learning delightful for precious youngsters, it gives tips for turning sunlit home kitchens filled with the aroma of cinnamon or another delightful scent into useful “laboratories for learning.” Wholesome organic and regeneratively produced foods kept free from harmful pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides protect tots, teens, and adults and fortify good emotional, physical, and spiritual health. Such careful nutrition makes learning and teaching easier. The book offers much-needed kitchen safety tips, too. It also encourages saving the honeybees.

Real Food for Real People fully celebrates and vehemently supports the organic and regenerative local farmers around the world and maintains that they absolutely must be honored with their rights to own their own lands, to own and save their own natural seeds from season to season, and to grow their crops in the logical way that creates rich, healthy, living soil. Yes. “Living soil.” Their work with Mother Nature must be rewarded, never thwarted by those who seek to end their noble use of logic and common sense.

In Part Two of the book, Jaz Brown of Nourished by Nature even adds a stunning revelation about Sequestering 197 Tons of CO2 that everyone needs to know.

If you want to help our noble food growers, then here’s how. This ebook brings to your fingertips more than 100 websites of small organic and regenerative food producers and marketers around the world. Good food growers from your own local area may be included.

You can honor hard-working food growers who treasure the “living,” life-giving soil by buying from them locally or ordering foods from them and by turning your back on non-nutritive, synthetic, and chemical-laden factory foods bereft of nutrition. This ebook shares 35+ books of interest to parents, lists 30+ must-see movies and documentaries, and it is equivalent to about 340 pages as a print book.

Real Food for Real People also includes family bonding times of reading, playing wholesome family games, worshiping, and traveling together to make every day — sunrise to sunset — a celebration of life for you and all those you love. Think of it this way, the diligent stewards of the land help to make happy, healthy families. Without our honest, life-honoring farmers, ranchers, fishers, and dairies, there will be no food. Director Roman Balmakov said it best with his documentary, No Farmers No Food: Will You Eat the Bugs?

Which of your books was the most enjoyable to write?
I loved Teaching English to Children because it contains many fundamentals in the form of fun Mind Maps® based on the method of the late Tony Buzan to fortify learning and to boost memory. The ebook can serve as a welcome supplement for educators and homeschoolers when they need a little break from lesson planning or a quick bit of help in a time pinch.

It includes Mind Maps of Defining the Parts of Speech with Words and Images, Reviewing the Fun Roles of the Parts of Speech, Conquering Some Troublesome Words, Composing Sentences, Composing Paragraphs, Tips to Help Organize Your Writing, Writing a Play, and Focusing on Fitness.

In addition, grammatical rules often are built quietly into the questions, comments, writing exercises, and other activities to work fully together. Teaching English to Children brings robust additional fun elements to foster critical thinking and to encourage pleasant musings about the world.


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 Mike Gerrard

Mike Gerrard is an award-winning travel and drinks writer who has contributed to newspapers, magazines, and websites in the UK and worldwide. He has also published over 40 travel guides, a collection of travel stories, and two novels. His newest nonfiction release, Behind Bars: True Crime Stories of Whiskey Heists, Beer Bandits, and Fake Million-Dollar Wines (Prometheus Books, October 2024), is filled with stories of what happens when alcohol meets crime. Look for Mike on his website MikeGerrard.com, on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter/X, and several travel sites including Travel Distilled and Arizona Travel Guide. You’ll find his books on his Amazon author page. Behind Bars is also available on all major online bookstores through links on Prometheus Books.


In the year before releasing Behind Bars, you published three travel guides, a book about tequila, and another about bourbon. During what led up to a remarkable publishing schedule, why did you choose the project that became Behind Bars?
Before Behind Bars I had written a book about the history of barrels, Cask Strength (Matt Holt Books, 2023), and prior to that numerous travel guidebooks for publishers including National Geographic and AAA. After Cask Strength, I wanted to write another book about drinks, and I thought I was writing a book that would be filed under Food and Drink in the bookshops, but when I saw it in my publisher’s catalogue they had filed it under True Crime. Which is a much more suitable home for it. So, to my surprise, I became a True Crime writer without knowing it! I was delighted as I’m an avid reader of crime novels and True Crime stories, and I’m working on a crime novel as well.

According to your introduction to Behind Bars, a “connection has always existed between booze and crime.” You then take readers from “Scotland’s Illicit Stills” (chapter one) to great wine and whiskey frauds in “It’s Not the Real Thing.” Do you have a favorite story among all those you relate in the book?
My favorite story is definitely of the moonshine gang that operated in a place called Merry Hill in North Carolina. Two of them acted as a regular married couple and leased a mobile home, and underneath and behind it the gang built a moonshine distillery, without anyone local noticing their activity. They operated for 18 months without anyone becoming suspicious, and when they were caught they were charged with defrauding the authorities of over $1.6 million in tax revenue. That was over 50 years ago, so imagine the equivalent today, and imagine how much they must have made. And when they went to trial, some were found Not Guilty, and the ones who were sentenced to prison had their sentences later reduced to probation. Who says crime doesn’t pay?

Any “Oh, wow!” moments while doing research for Behind Bars?
Well, I was prompted to write the book partly by discovering what went on in the White House during Prohibition. Researching it further and finding that from the President on down, most of DC simply ignored Prohibition and did not go short of something to drink. I did think, “Wow, that’s how corrupt our politicians are.” You would hope things have improved, but I don’t know….

When looking for inspiration for your works, what things motivate you to write?
I’ve wanted to be a writer ever since I was about seven or eight years old. My father wrote a humor column for the local paper in the town where I grew up in the north of England, not far from Liverpool. He also did cartoons and sold some to national newspapers. This was all in his spare time. I thought it was brilliant. I started writing myself at the age of about 17, when I sold a poem to a local magazine, followed by writing one or two articles for them, and then expanding my horizons.

So to answer your question about what inspires me… simply the desire to write. To tell stories. To get experiences down in words and entertain people… and to make a living from it, which fortunately I’ve managed to do. I’ve mostly been a travel writer, so what inspires me there is seeing something that sounds like an interesting story, selling the idea to an editor, and then having to go away and write it.

What challenges have you faced as a writer, given your voluminous writing history?
The challenge is always selling a story or an idea, whether it be for a travel piece or a non-fiction book. I’ve always loved the writing, so for me the challenge is selling something, finding the right outlet. I hate pitching ideas and stories, love writing them.

Before writing travel guides, what kind of work did you do?
I started off writing general journalism pieces, a few humorous pieces, for newspapers and magazines in the UK. I liked the idea of being a travel writer so I sent in a story on spec to one of our national newspapers, based on a holiday in Greece, and to my amazement they bought it. Next time I went on holiday I wrote another piece, and they took that one too. After one or two more I asked the editor about press trips, and she explained to me that I should pitch her with a few ideas, and if she commissioned them then I could go on a press trip, or contact a tour company or tourist board, and they would set up a trip for me. In that way I built up a portfolio of work. I didn’t really think about writing guidebooks, till I got approached to do one to the Yorkshire Dales, which I thoroughly enjoyed researching and writing, and that then led to other commissions, and to me approaching other editors.

Do you have a literary agent? Why or why not?
My last job before I went full-time freelance when I was about 30 was with a literary agent in London. So I’ve always believed that you should have an agent, if you can get someone to take you on. My own agent is Linda Konner, who specializes in food and drink writers, and self-help books. I approached her with my proposal for Cask Strength, and she liked it and thought she could sell it. But she was also an enormous help in improving the proposal. I thought I’d written one that was good to go, but Linda showed me how to improve it, and there were several back and forths and me adding to it or rewriting bits of it before she was happy with it.

Who are your greatest mentors in writing? Authors who have either helped you or inspired you on your writing path?
Number one is and always has been John Steinbeck. Not that I could ever hope to write like him, but when I read Of Mice and Men as a teenager, I was hooked. It seemed to me to be the highest level of writing, and if I could only be 10 percent as good then I’d be happy. Reading good writers always inspires you to do better yourself. My other all-time favorite is Flannery O’Connor, a very different kind of writer. I used to love Hemingway but I re-read some of his stuff recently and didn’t like his mannered style at all. For travel writers, my all-time heroes are Norman Lewis, Paul Theroux and Bruce Chatwin.

Of the forty-plus books you’ve written, which one was the most challenging and which was the most enjoyable to write?
The most challenging was the first guidebook to Greece that I wrote, covering just the Greek mainland. I had to plan the trip (pre-internet days) of about 4-5 weeks, and, never having driven in Greece before, ended up driving some 5,000 miles, including through Athens, and in some remote mountain areas, all the way to the northern border with Albania, and the eastern border with Turkey. There were some hairy moments.

The most enjoyable was after I met my wife and we started writing guidebooks together, as she is also a writer. We were commissioned to write most of an official travel guide for the Rugby World Cup in France in 2007. So in 2006, we did a trip of several weeks around southern France spending several days in beautiful cities like Lyon, Montpellier, and Toulouse. My wife was less interested in touring the sports stadiums, which we had to do and which I loved, but overall it was probably the best trip we’ve ever done.

Tell us about your writing process and your writing routine.
I’ve mostly written nonfiction, so when it comes to books, they have to be worked out in full in advance, in order to sell a proposal to a publisher. When it comes to fiction, I am 100 percent a plotter. I have to know the full story, and know where it’s headed, before I write it. But strangely when it comes to travel writing, it’s very different. I always take copious notes on trips, but never plan out a story. I always need to have an opening sentence in my head before I sit down to write, and then from that sentence I just let it go wherever it takes me, using my notes and photos and my most vivid memories. Luckily that always worked for me. I’m just able to do it, in a way I can’t when writing fiction. I won several awards for my travel writing, so it must have been OK.

I write almost every day and always have several ideas on the go. I used to feel guilty about this and kept telling myself I should focus on one thing at a time, till I went to a talk by Joanne Harris who said she always had lots of projects on the go, at different stages, and she just waited till one of them took over.

Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently if you started your writing/publishing career today?
I think for travel writing, I would focus on my own websites, rather than working for other people. For fiction, in a similar way, I would strongly focus on self-publishing, but go in for it 100% rather than just sit back and wait for something to happen. The more personal control you have over your work, the better.

You’ve written both fiction and nonfiction. How does your experience as a nonfiction writer benefit your fiction writing?
When you’re writing non-fiction you have deadlines, briefs and word counts, and you’d better pay attention to them all. It teaches you that you can’t sit around waiting for inspiration. A newspaper wants 1,000 words by such a date, or a guidebook publisher wants 30,000 words by such a date — and you cannot miss those deadlines. It teaches you to sit down and write, every day, for as long as it takes.

In writing hundreds of travel pieces for newspapers and magazines, I learned that you have to have an opening that grabs people’s attention, then you have to make the piece flow so you never lose their attention. You also have to wrap it up in a satisfactory way. That discipline then carries across to fiction and you can apply it to either scenes or chapters or a whole book. Start it well, keep the momentum going, and then have a good ending that ties things together. Easier said than done, of course!

What advice would you give to writers who are just starting out?
Develop a thick skin as you will probably face rejection after rejection. Almost everyone does — JK Rowling, The Beatles, Stephen King…even Dr Seuss was rejected by 27 publishers but went on to huge and long-lasting success.


Christina Sultan is a former Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico resident who joined SouthWest Writers in 2022. A graduate of the English literature program at McGill University, Montreal, she has been an avid reader and writer of literary criticism all her life. She interned as a journalist at United Press International before working at the Whistler Question Newspaper and Whistler Magazine. She then went on to obtain a master’s degree in business in California. She was named to Who’s Who U.S.A. in 2007 and devotes much of her time to working in the arts, investments, and the humanities.




An Interview with Dr. Rinita Mazumdar, Part 2

Rinita Mazumdar, PhD is an author and poet and one of the leading feminist scholars in the Southwest. She has taught Philosophy for over 30 years in different locations across the U.S., including the University of New Mexico and Central New Mexico Community College. Her nonfiction book Unspoken Hindu Genocides and Ethnic Cleansing is a translation of Sandip Mukherji’s Noakhali 1946 and was released by Community Publishing in October 2024. Look for Dr. Mazumdar on her blog and podcast, as well as on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, and Amazon. To read more about Unspoken Hindu Genocides and Ethnic Cleansing, go to Part 1 of this interview.


The subject of genocide and ethnic cleansing is a difficult one to approach and to face. What kind of emotional journey did you go through as you read Noakhali 1946 and prepared to translate it?
This was an extremely difficult journey. Most modern Indians grow up with the stories of partition horrors, the genocide, and stories of millions of refugees, and the stories from the medieval torture of Islamic invasion, and the stories of Jwahar (An act that Hindu women of the North Western states did of mass self-immolation together to resist sexual assault and sexual slavery of the Islamic invaders of which the most important story is the story of the invasion of the fort of Chitor by the invaders from Turkmenistan, led by Alauddin Khalji; Khalij’s aim was to subjugate Chitor and abduct the beautiful Hindu Queen Padmini. The king Rana Ratan Singh was killed in a battle, and Queen Padmini with 12,000 women performed the Jwahar).

Nonetheless, when the actual stories of killing were coming live via the translation of Noakhali 1946, it was very hard. This was aggravated by the latest news of the continuous attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh trickling in via the news and social media. The same stories as Noakhali 1946 were happening in Bangladesh as I was planning to translate this book: attacks on Hindu festivals, desecration of Hindu temples, killing, abduction of Hindu girls, using various methods to prohibit them from performing their festivals. There were times when I thought I needed a break from this and go and do something else. Nonetheless, I kept telling myself that I owed it to my people and other people who have gone through similar experiences and to the future generations indeed to bring this out, for a lot of our past and how people responded to these past incidents will determine our future. If we as a human community with our diverse way of thinking and acting and our diverse belief systems must survive and thrive, we must recognize our past, our failures, our successes and how what people did to each other in the past can affect our relationship with each other in the future. So, it is not just a story about Hindu genocide and oppression, but a story about humanity and about our global future.

Interesting, for the first time, I starting to connect with some family members whose parents (or grandparents) fled East Pakistan during or after the partition. Many of their stories were like well-preserved family secrets. When I was growing up, I felt that whenever people started talking about the days of their refugee status, they tried to suppress it. Now I know they felt ashamed and guilty talking about their victim status. I am finding out that it is globally true.

People who have been victims of colonization and genocide feel guilty and ashamed to talk about it, although, they were never at fault for their suffering! For generations they built a life by getting education and wealth. Many in the second generation had well off sophisticated lives and did not wish to talk about this. In fact, their refugee past was an embarrassment. When I started asking them questions, some of them opened up and this gave me a sense of anchorage and a reason to follow through the translation despite the mental agony. It also gave me a chance to investigate some of the intergenerational issues with my mother, who is usually more intolerant of Muslims than I am. I could slowly understand her pain and the reason for her intolerance. I called my mother, who lives in India, to talk about her memories when they had to leave East Bengal (now Bangladesh) to come to a more secure place in West Bengal, the bordering state of India, before the partition of India. She said that my grandfather knew that bad days were coming for Hindus, and they had to leave their homes. Interestingly, she said, that they were lucky that they left Bangladesh before the partition of India; in 1947, 14 million people were fleeing and there was no place in trains or boats to flee. I connected with others who have worked on this and some groups who support Hindu refugees.

What sustained me through this journey of translation was my decision to visit Bangladesh and my ancestral home. It was a difficult decision as my family was scared for my safety; nonetheless, something told me that I had to do this. This journey was very important for me to go back into the past and visit some of the Hindu pilgrimages in Bangladesh, that my mother and grandmother always talked about. I visited several Temples and even those that were destroyed and rebuilt. I visited a Buddhist Monastery built in ancient India that was destroyed and rebuilt. I spoke to many people, both of Hindu and Buddhist faith, who were persecuted and still feel unsafe. They gave me important insights into how they negotiate this daily. With this journey, I felt anchored and empowered to continue my translation work. I felt I was not alone in the world struggling with specters of the past in bringing the past to light, there were thousands of others who were living with these memories but never talked about them.

When did the idea to translate the book first come to you? What was the impetus to finally get started?
I came to know about the book via a message from a friend on social media. The idea to write something on the historical colonization of Bharat is not new for me. I was thinking of it for a long time and doing my research on this issue. When I read Noakhali 1946, I decided to start by translating this book. The Hindu genocide in Noakhali is a watershed that brings the past, present, and future of Islamic colonization of Bharat, and of Asia in general; reading this, one gets a sense of a seamless history of the brutality of forced conversion, the breaking of the Temples, and the taking of millions as slaves to the Middle East.

The issue perhaps that is most important here is the phenomenon of forced conversion as part of that invasion. For often Muslims in the Asian nations like Afghanistan, the Indian sub-continent, Malaysian, Indonesia, etc. are negotiating their present Islamic identities and their Hindu and Buddhist past from which they often derive many of their cultural practices. This is possibly the case in Africa where Islam came in first with the merchants and then via the sword. Often Muslims in the sub-continent are not regarded as “pure” Muslims by those in Arabia, because they have retained some of their past cultural practices. Efforts are made to transform their identities into strong Muslim identities. This process is not just something on the local or personal level but will have a global impact on inter-faith communications, relations of nations in many parts of the world and indeed the entire global politics. So, when I read this book, I had the idea immediately to translate it for a global audience and use this as a platform for further research and writing.

The impetus was the continuous trickling in of the news from Bangladesh of harassment of Hindus, the killing, the burning of Hindu homes, the iconoclasts, the desecration of their temples and festivals. Again, this is not merely political, but personal for me, for Bangladesh, a place that passed through two identities. In 1947 it was a state in India, Bengal, and then a state in Pakistan, East Pakistan, and then an independent nation, Bangladesh. Again, all this is personal for me, as this is where my forefathers were from and where they overnight became Kafirs or unbelievers and had to leave. Furthermore, the impetus came from the ongoing conflict of Hindus and Muslims in the sub-continent. The hatred of Muslims towards the Hindus and vice versa form a background narrative of the daily lives of people in the Indian sub-continent and round the globe. All these conflicts are rooted in the past and the Noakhali 1946 genocide was one of these moments and a vital confluence of the past, present, and future.

In addition, another impetus was my interest in the philosophy of Ahimsa of Gandhi, something I also talk about in my classes. To fight against the British Raj, Gandhi used the method of Ahimsa, loosely translated as nonviolence. This is also the same method he tried to use in Noakhali in the face of extreme brutality faced by the unarmed Hindus. As I did my research on Ahimsa, I realized that Ahimsa was not merely nonviolence, as most believe. It is a complete transformation of the Self. It involves an acknowledgement of the existence of the other in the fullest sense. In its purest form, Ahimsa is a type of Yoga that must be practiced continually. The more I read about how Gandhi advised the victims (Hindus in Noakhali, especially Hindu women), the more I was intrigued and felt I either did not understand the philosophy of Ahimsa or Gandhi was completely wrong in his approach in dealing with extreme brutality and oppression. I wanted the world to judge this philosophy for themselves by reading about its application in Noakhali and thinking if in the present world Ahimsa is a viable form of resistance. This gave me a further impetus to translate this book.

Do you have a favorite quote from Unspoken Hindu Genocides and Ethnic Cleansing that you’d like to share? Or one that gets to the heart of the whole?
I think my favorite quote from the book is a lecture from Pir Golam Sarwar, as it summarizes the reason for the killings and is the pillar on which the past, present and future Hindu genocide is based.

“Sarwar took the microphone and started speaking. He said, “Alhamdulillah! We are Muslims, we have two types of countries. Dar Ul Islam and Dar Ul Harb. In 1803 when the British captured Delhi then the famous Alim Shah Haji gave a fatwa that the nation is now a Dar Ul harb. It is not of a Muslim to accept Dar Ul harb. It is said in the Quran. Now the Europeans will leave this nation. In their places will come the Musrik (h)indus…. Muslims can never live under Musrik (H)indus. (H) can never live in Pakistan. Only Jews and Christians can stay there as dhimmis paying Jiziya tax. But Musrik (Hindus) are dirty, and profane. They have no place in Dar ul Islam. We will not accept their idolatry. Our Prophet broke all the idols after occupying it, so that no one can make idols, it is your duty to destroy all the idols, and the Monasteries and Temples. If we break their temples, it will break their guts. Then everyone must read the Kalima (or the five pillars of Islam), and they must be fed beef. We must do this work together. But not everyone will accept your words. A spear must be pointed at their chest. If they refuse, then a couple could be killed. …As the Sura Anfal says, In the booty, the wives, and daughters, of the (H)indus are also yours… you can do whatever you wish…But yes you must give all the booty to the Amir…” (Unspoken Hindu Genocides and Ethnic Cleansing, pp. 28-29).

This is not only my favorite quote but also historically and politically the most important quote that bring history to the present. This quote shows that it was not a one-time killing of Hindus in a place called Noakhali, now in Bangladesh at that time part of India. It is a planned annihilation of an entire civilization, called Jihad. The word “Jihad” comes from the Arabic word Jahada meaning “strain,” “exertion,” “endeavor” on behalf or for the sake of something. Jihad is translated by E.W. Lane as “the using, or exerting one’s utmost power, efforts, endeavors, or ability, in contending with an object of disappropriation… namely a visible enemy, the devil, and one’s self.” There are three senses of the term Jihad:

Jihad bi al-nafs: Jihad against one’s sinful inclinations.
Jihad Al qwal: Preaching of the tongue.
Jihad bi al-sayf: Jihad of the sword.
∙ The last is the greater Jihad as opposed to the first, which is the lesser Jihad.
∙ Most mainstream Sunni tradition takes Jihad in the last sense.

This is important for us globally to be how some systems of colonial power work. It wants to bring the entire world under one faith, one law, and one State with no diversity, no pluralism. It is important to note that in the Islamic Jurisprudence there are two main types of lands, Dar Ul Harb, the ungoverned land, and Dar Ul Islam, the governed land with (Islamic) laws. There are “in between” lands, like the Dar Ul Sulk and Dar Ul Ahd, these are the lands of covenant or truce. A Muslim is not allowed to live in an ungoverned land or Dar Ul Harb, but momentarily can live in Dar Ul Sulk and Dar Ul Ahd, until a Jihad is declared and then society is transformed into Dar Ul Islam, the Utopian land governed by Islam and everyone submits to Islam. In this sense, parts of Africa, India, Europe, and other continents are all Jahiliyas, that is pre State lands that have to be transformed to “civilized ones.” Jahiliya is much like Hobbes’s State of Nature and have to be eventually transformed into a civilized land. This idea is not much different from other colonial mission of “civilizing the natives.”

The entire idea from the first Islamic invasion in a military campaign led by Muhammad ibn Qasim al-Thaqafi in 711 CE. was the establishment of the Dar Ul Islam. So the Jihad or struggle to annihilate the last ancient civilization is the real aim and Noakhali 1946 is only a symptom. We cannot understand Jihad as terrorism, but a highly structured and organized system of power that makes it a moral duty of every Muslim, as prescribed by their faith. Of course, one could say that it all depends on how one interprets the scriptures. Nonetheless, we as Kafirs see the playing out of violence on our lives via colonization and genocide and that is what makes sense of us. Via the use of the word “Musrik” and (H)indus, cutting of the “H”, the Pir is already “othering” a group of people, who can then be annihilated and that it is the moral duty of Muslims to do so.

Tell us how the book came together.
My publisher, Community Publishing, published a poetry book prior to this. It took me over a year to translate Noakhali 1946. A student, who is interested in Hindu genocide, helped me with some of the editing. Prof. Lakshmi Bandlamudi wrote the foreward. The actual publication took longer than expected as the printer had some issues with the formatting and the cover. Nonetheless, it was solved after a six week delay and Unspoken Hindu Genocides and Ethnic Cleansing was published in October 2024.

What writing projects are you working on now?
I am writing on the Hindu Genocide in Kashmir, Sindh (now in Pakistan), and the genocide in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), with special emphasis on forced conversion and occupation of Hindu women’s womb. I am specially focusing on how Kashmir, the seat of Hindu civilization was Islamized over 700 years and now how slowly the last of the Kashmiri Hindus who were forced to leave in the 1990s are trying to rebuild some of their past. I am also trying to research on Muslim identities in Asia, who have been converted a couple generations ago and follow many Hindu and Buddhist traditions and how they negotiate some of the conflicting features of their identities, and what it means for them to be a “Muslim.” I am also building communities with Yezidis of Iraq and some of the African people who have kept memories of their pagan pasts alive via research into the trans-Saharan African slave trade, the brutal castration of African slave boys, and the history of eunuchs. This feature is specific to the Islamic colonization. My research interest is, what was the life of these eunuchs once they were castrated? Did they have any pleasure after castration? How did they negotiate their identities and sexuality?

Is there anything else you’d like readers to know?
Both Noakhali 1946 as well as my research have implications for the future of our earth. The conflicts between Jews and Christians and Muslims are, I believe, a political conflict; the conflict between Hinduism and Islam, on the other hand, is an ontological one and it is the ultimate conflict. In fact one of the Hadiths in the Quran says that the last Gazwa or raiding will be the land of the infidels, India or Bharat. Why? If we go through the history of Islam in Arabia, we will see that the Prophet of Islam was neither a Jew nor a Christian, although there were minority Jews and Christians in Arabia at that time. The Prophet belonged to the Quraysh tribe who prayed in the Temple of Hubal (now the Ka’baa, the most Holy site of Islam) to Hubal and the three Goddesses, Al Manat, Al Uzzat, Al Lat. Then, after his marriage to Khajida, a local wealthy widow, the Prophet was influenced by Waraqah ibn Nawfal, an elderly cousin of Khadija, who converted to Christianity, and inspired the Prophet to follow monotheism. The Prophet went to meditate on Mount Hira and heard some voices and revelations about a new faith. He related this to Waraqah ibn Nawfal who told him to rely on what he heard. The revelations said that the Prophet was born to teach a new religion, following the teaching of Prophet Abraham, and reform Prophet Abraham’s teachings. Interestingly, there was a monotheistic system in Arabia at that time, Hanafi, which was adopted as one of the Jurisprudences in Islamic law, apart from Hanabali, Salafi, and Maliki. The Prophet was not very successful in spreading his new religion, he was persecuted for it. Some of the new converts fled to Christian Ethiopia. The Prophet with his followers performed a Hijra or migration to Medina. Then after several Gazwa or raiding on Meccan caravans, of which the Battle of Badr is decisive, he was able to win over Mecca and the Temple. After one unsuccessful attempt, the Prophet with an army of 10,000 went to capture Mecca and converted the most influential person, Abu Sufiyan, destroyed all the idols of the Temple and converted it to the Ka’baa.

The above history is important for us, for it shows that the primary antithesis of Islam was the polytheists, his tribe Quraysh and their Gods and Goddesses, very similar to Hinduism. It is also important to note, that the Hubal, probably a descendent of the Canaanite God Baal, was a God of fertility with a crescent moon and whose mound was a bull. This is what the Hindu God Shiva is. He is the Supreme destroyer, who wears the crescent moon on his head, and rides the bull. Probably, both Gods symbolize fertility which is why the bull is the mound. Hence, ontologically, Hinduism is the primary antithesis of Islam. The call of Gazwa I Hind or the Gazwa Tul Hind, the battle for Hindustan or Bharat (India) will be, according to one Hadith, the last most bloody battle, after which a world Caliphate will be established. All these are of course part of a story, like in all scriptures, nonetheless, we cannot take these lightly and brush it aside, for many take this as the coming history of the world. This is important for us in the present scenario of world politics and conflict and who will take which side and how the future of the world will be settled.

Noakhali 1946 (Untold Hindu Genocides and Ethnic Cleansing) is not just a genocide of Hindus and the danger of Hindu existence. It is a historical document about the future of humanity and global peace. I hope this book will encourage readers to do more research on the origin of Islam, the meaning of Jihad in Islam, and how those who dream of a global Caliphate via Jihad, think. It is a book that should make us curious about the days and how in a world that is fast globalizing and transforming. I was brought up where culturally there is belief amongst people in rebirth and cyclic time. In feminist theory, too, we talk about cyclic times. If rebirth is true, then it is possible we will all be back again in a different form in a different place, maybe as a tree or an animal. In whatever form, in whatever race, ethnicity, or faith we come back, one thing is certain, our lives, including those of nature and animals are interconnected and we cannot ignore each other or our past, however brutal that is. It is our connection to each other, friends or foes, in this or past lives, that shapes our identities. This is why, these stories have to be told and retold. They are the glues like the Vedas, Ramayana and the Mahabharata, that binds us, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, Zoroastrians, whites, Africans, Natives, mammals, birds, plants, or trees. Our future lies in our effort and intention to create a space where we can live with differences and talk of past injustices and still be at peace and harmony with each other.


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 Dr. Rinita Mazumdar, Part 1

Rinita Mazumdar, PhD is an author and poet and one of the leading feminist scholars in the Southwest. She has taught Philosophy for over 30 years in different locations across the U.S., including the University of New Mexico and Central New Mexico Community College. Her nonfiction book Unspoken Hindu Genocides and Ethnic Cleansing is a translation of Sandip Mukherji’s Noakhali 1946 and was released by Community Publishing in October 2024. Look for Dr. Mazumdar on her blog and podcast, as well as on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, and Amazon. To read more about Unspoken Hindu Genocides and Ethnic Cleansing, go to Part 2 of this interview.


When you began translating Noakhali 1946, what did you hope to accomplish? By the end of the journey, do you feel you were successful in your goals?
By translating this book, I hoped to bring to the global audience an intensely personal story that is also 100% political, based on the shared experiences of millions of people on this planet for over eight hundred years. Noakhali 1946 (the original Bengal title of this book, which is how I will refer to the book in the rest of this interview) is a watershed in the history of the Indian sub-continent and indeed the human history of a people’s tragedy, horror, resilience and survival.

Little does the outside world know the story of the Hindus and Hindu civilization. The Hindu journey, covering 6000 years, spatially stretches from what is now Afghanistan (depicted as Gandhara in the Hindu epic Mahabharata, the world’s longest poem), Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, stretching to Khamboja (Cambodia) and Indonesia is not only a history of the Vedas and the millions of philosophical sutras and art and architecture, but also one of persecution, forced conversion, genocide, iconoclasm, abduction, humiliation, culminating in modern time in the brutal partition of a land considered sacred by millions, India, that they know as Bharat (I will refer to India both as India and Bharat subsequently; India is also called Hindustan, the land of the Hindus) into India and Pakistan (West Pakistan and Bangladesh) in 1947; a division where 99% of the people had no choice and almost no Hindus had consent. I wanted to tell that story as it is unique in world history for its civilizational continuity. It is a story of my people who showed tremendous resilience, an unwavering faith in their own belief system, and their strength to sustain a wounded civilization and reconstruct it from time to time.

According to anthropologist Levi Strauss, myths give structure to absurdity; probably it is the millions of stories and myths passed from generation to generation that maintained the continuity of this culture despite numerous invasions, conquests, and brutalization. It is a story that the world needs to know how sacred text, epics, and tales constitute the glue and backbone of this continuity. In this long civilizational history, Noakhali 1946 has an important place as it marked the history of the past, present, and future in a moment by being the catalyst to India’s independence in 1947 and her entry into modernity at the same time, creating two nations out of one, a land of believers, Pakistan, and a land of Kafirs or unbelievers, India. It is a trauma of not only lost homes and of displacement and killing but also of realizing that despite their numerous deities and long philosophical traditions, they are Kafirs, unbelievers, and “others” with whom the followers of one true faith, Islam, cannot live in the same space. It was not only a history of partition, but also a history of the largest movement of human beings, refugees, across borders.

An estimated official record says that 14 million people were displaced and were refugees in 1947 during India’s independence and the partition. A legacy of this brutal partition was carried on again in 1971 when Pakistan was further divided into Pakistan and a new nation Bangladesh after a decisive war between Pakistan and India when India helped the Bangladeshi Mukti Bahini, the guerrilla freedom fighters to win their freedom against a brutal oppressive Pakistani regime. This time an estimated 10 million refugees moved into India from East Pakistan. This also is an important event in global history. India won the war led by Mrs. Indira Gandhi standing against the U.S. continuous support of Pakistan and its army by supplying weapons and logistics by President Nixon. The wound of 1947, the partition, was partially healed when India won the war and made Bangladesh into a free nation. The historical Noakhali genocide foreshadowed the coming war of 1971, the biggest after World War II.

I hoped by reading Noakhali 1946 people in the West would get a sense of how an ancient civilization was brutalized and yet how the world still has not recognized that brutality and how despite resistance from religions like Islam and Christianity, the Hindu faith is still the third largest in terms of followers in the world.

On the personal side, I wanted to tell my story and hoped to build bridges with others whose stories of civilizational memory are still hidden. I wanted to build a bridge with colonized people whose stories are being told, or had never been told, by telling our stories of invasion, forced conversion, and genocide. After 1947 each family in Bharat had a story that is different nonetheless, woven in a thread of loss, trauma, and the realization that they could never return to their place of birth. My mother’s family, landowners and wealthy, had to flee the Hindu genocide happening in 1947 in the Eastern part of Bengal, where Noakhali was situated, a continuation of the Noakhali 1946, and which eventually became East Pakistan after August 1947. Except my mother’s uncle (my grandfather’s older brother) and his wife, the entire family fled to India. Overnight, wealthy landowners became penniless refugees, surviving on the small stipend from the Indian Government. Those who were not that lucky got killed or had to convert to Islam.

Noakhali 1946 had an additional interest for me. My paternal uncle was in Noakhali in 1946 with Gandhi. Gandhi called upon young men and women to participate in assisting the victims of Noakhali. My uncle joined him and spent a year in Noakhali, worked with Gandhi’s team. We grew up hearing some of his experiences, although looking back, I realize that he did not give up a full picture of how Gandhi used his philosophy of Ahimsa, loosely translated as nonviolence and did not fully succeed. In addition, in Calcutta, where I grew up and went to college, a metropolis in the Eastern part of India, bordering Bangladesh, where once were open fields was completely inhabited by Hindu refugees who fled during the Noakhali genocide. The trickling of Hindu refugees did not stop once partition happened in 1947. Hindus, Buddhists, and all other persecuted minorities fled East Pakistan and Calcutta, and the rest of India gave them shelter during and after Noakhali in 1947, 1950s, and 1960s. Then came another shock wave of ten million fleeing during the Bangladesh liberation struggle in 1971 that saw one of the world’s most brutal genocide and mass rape with Hindus as specific targets of the Pakistani army. Even after the liberation of Bangladesh from Pakistan, the story remains the same, Hindus were coming in from the neighboring Bangladesh in 70s, 80s, 90, 2002, 2021, 2024….

All this formed the background of my growing up and shaped my consciousness. These also are my reasons to translate Noakhali 1946. I hoped to build a community with similar personal stories of persecution, loss, and brutality around the world by translating this book. I hoped that others who are in this situation now, evicted from their land, persecuted, facing ethnic cleansing and genocide will slowly tell their stories. For it is only our personal stories that can create a sense of community. I am in touch with the Yezidis of Iraq, with similar histories, and some other native communities in Central America, but Africa, with similar histories, must work harder to reach out to more people. I am talking about this book getting translated into other indigenous languages so that more people can see how our communities are connected.

I cannot say that I have fully accomplished my aim in either making the world aware of the brutal history or our resilience nor building cross cultural communities with similar histories, nonetheless, I think it is a start. Hindu genocide, as, unlike other genocides, is an ongoing process.

According to Raphel Lemkin, “… the destruction of a nation or an ethnic group… generally speaking genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is extended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundation of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.

Noakhali 1946 is just a symptom. The aim of Hindu genocide is to completely eradicate the Hindu civilization. To make that clear to the reader is a daunting task. With the publication of this book and many articles coming out, I am hoping that slowly the past genocide and the aim will become clear to the global audience. I am not alone in this effort. Across University campuses in North America and other places the Hindu Student Council is trying its best to pass on this history onto the next generation. I hope one day this will be a part of the public discourse in the West and we will be able to accomplish the task of building global communities with shared experiences and proceed in our healing process.

In every language certain words, phrases, or concepts don’t translate well. How often did you encounter this dilemma with Noakhali 1946, and what are some examples?
This was one of the biggest challenges in translating this book. I did my best to translate the book as it is given. When there were words that needed to be explained, I put a footnote so that readers can read those. There are several footnotes in the book, not only of words but also of cultural events and cultural icons, deities, so that the readers are able to put them in context. For example, this genocide started after Pir Golam Sarwar, an Imam, gave a call to annihilate all the Hindus in Noakhali. This happened in the first week of October and he said that the Prophet called for an action against the idolators of Arabia in Badr in the same month of the calendar of that time in Arabia. This battle was decisive in Islamic calendar as it eventually led to the Prophet’s army to capture Mecca and the Temple of Hubal and the Goddess, Al Manat, Al Uzaat, Al Lat, and convert the polytheists of Mecca to Islam and turn the Temple in the Qa’baa. Interestingly, as per the Hindu soli lunar calendar, this is the month that Hindus celebrate their largest festival, the festival of Goddess Durga, the demon slayer spanning nine days and culminating in Diwali, the festival of lights. Also, about a week after the festival of Goddess Durga comes the festival of Goddess Laxmi, the Goddess of wealth and prosperity. The mayhem and destruction of Hindu households and temples started on the night of the festival of Goddess Lakshmi. To explain the significance of these events I put elaborate footnote in the battle of Badr in Arabia and the Hindu festivals of Goddess Lakshmi, including her image.

What are some surprising facts you discovered while doing research for this book?
One surprising fact is Gandhi’s reaction to the Noakhali Hindu genocide. We who grew up in India knew from our history lessons about Ahimsa that Gandhi taught. It was more a lesson in theory than praxis. In translating this book, I was amazed how Gandhi applied this. In Noakhali 1946, we read about Sucheta Kripalani, an activist, who later became the Chief Minister (Governor) of Uttar Pradesh, a state in Northern India. She was in Noakhali in 1946 and worked with the victims, especially women. She recounted the absolute degradation of Hindu women and her own life during this time. Her husband, Professor Kripalani, was a politician and activist, and he said in an interview that Gandhi advised Sucheta to carry potassium cyanide and consume it if she was sexually assaulted by a Muslim mob! Is this the kind of Ahimsa resistance that Gandhi was preaching? Also, even when Hindus were being forcibly converted and babies were thrown into fire and killed, Gandhi told them to maintain calm and harmony! This was very surprising, for I thought Ahimsa was a general practice of nonviolence, but did not include this complete passivity on the part of the victim.

I did more research on this issue and saw that Gandhi did the same thing in the Moplah genocide in Southern India in 1922. Moplah is a place in the Malabars, along the coast of Southern India, where in the 12th century some Arab merchants and their families settled. Under their influence many Hindus converted. In 1922, some of them revolted and wanted the Hindus who owned land to convert or leave. When they did not, they were killed. Gandhi said it should be seen as part of the class struggle against landowning Hindus and should be forgiven! He had no explanation of why only Hindu landowning people and not Muslim landowning people were killed! Throughout, he only gave advice to Hindus to be patient, especially Hindu women, who had suffered most and said they must practice Ahimsa, even when they see their children being butchered. Translating this book showed me the irrationality of the entire philosophy of Ahimsa. Nonviolence is certainly, I believe, a better option than violence as a form of resistance; nonetheless, it is also a duty to preserve oneself. I wonder how Gandhi reconciled it in his philosophy of Ahimsa.

Another fact is the number of forced conversions, and the method used to do it. The method was the same everywhere, in Sindh and in Kashmir: First they force fed a Hindu beef, a prohibited meat for Hindus, then they made him read the Kalima, the five pillars in Islam, break an idol, and be declared a Muslim, usually by an Imam. Also, another thing that is surprising is the gendered nature of this conversion. The above type of conversion was/is for men only. For women, it is either rape or forced marriage with a Muslim man, and the process of conversion was complete.

What was the most rewarding aspect of putting this project together?
According to psychoanalytical theory, when the ego is overwhelmed by painful memories, usually, a mechanic called repression works and that memory is repressed. Later sometimes the memory returns covertly in the form of a metaphor. In the gaps and silences when talking about the partition, genocide, forced conversion, and iconoclasts, I felt that people in my family were often silent and there were gaps. Now, when the stories are coming out and when several of my family members have read the book, they are starting to talk about it openly. This has been rewarding for me and for the family in general. Another rewarding thing is that people from outside the Hindu communities with similar past histories are coming out and reading the book. This is a global issue, and one needs to reach out in order to overcome the feeling of guilt, shame, isolation and loneliness that these painful memories bring.

What did completing this translation teach you about yourself?
It taught me that as a person I am very resilient. I have gone through ups and downs in my life and have come out of them. Working on this book and doing all the research for this book, I realized that I am, like my people, strongly resilient. Many of my extended family who suffered forced eviction and terror in 1947 and in 1971 fled to India, struggled to bring up their children, and now the third or fourth generations are very successful here in the United States and in many places round the world. What sustained them was a strong faith and belief in their own community and in humanity. I also realized that I have strong faith in human beings, despite all the tragedies and conflicts that surround us.

What do you hope readers will take away from the book?
First, while translating this book, I researched on Jihad, as I described above, as a colonial process in the African continent and the Indian sub-continent. Although my research is in no way fully comprehensive, I have reached certain tentative conclusions about this process which I would like to share with the readers. Jihad, as portrayed by the popular media, is not terrorism, but a highly organized network of power, a colonial system that aims at establishing global hegemony. In this sense one could compare it to other global hegemonic powers, like global capitalism or global communism, who want total domination of the globe. Jihad is also intricately linked to racism and the idea of a supremacist philosophy that aims at bringing the entire world under a Caliphate via violent means. Although, it is a utopia at this moment in history, nonetheless, it is possible that it will infiltrate our everyday lives and will change many things we take for granted.


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 Rosalie Rayburn

Rosalie Rayburn is a journalist and author who has lived and worked around the world including the U.S., Europe, Australia, and Saudi Arabia. Her 18 years spent as a staff writer for the Albuquerque Journal inspired her Digger Doyle Mysteries that follow a young reporter with an eye for exposing corrupt politicians. Windswept (November 2024) is Rosalie’s latest release and the third novel in the mystery series. Look for Rosalie on her website RosalieRayburn.com and blog, and on Facebook and her Amazon author page. Windswept is available here.


Your new book, Windswept, is noted as being a continuation of your first two books. Are you happy with how the plot and characters have developed?
Yes. I started writing the first book, The Power of Rain, more or less for fun when my son was a New Mexico Military Institute student. I would write the story in my head as I made the long drive down to visit him in Roswell. There’s a lot of empty road on that journey. I then joined a writing group, and members of the group encouraged me to continue. They liked my characters, Digger, the reporter, and her artist/activist girlfriend, Maria Ortiz. They wanted to know what happened to them after the end of the first book. I did, too. Over the course of the three books, I have grown to enjoy my characters more and more. I love wise old grandmother Abuela, who advises Digger and Maria. I love the villainous property developer Danny Murphy, and I enjoy the crisis of conscience suffered by the politicians who are hoodwinked by unscrupulous people.

When looking for inspiration for your works, what are the two or three things that mostly motivate you to write?
I have drawn on my experience as a reporter for the Albuquerque Journal. I spent about eight years covering local city and county politics. You get to see all the prejudices, the NIMBYism, the bizarre decisions public figures sometimes make. Many people think public meetings are boring, but to me, they became a form of theater. It was fascinating to see how the characters interacted and to observe their conflicting loyalties. Another thing: when I was a reporter, I spent a few years covering energy policy. I learned a lot about renewable energy, solar, and wind. I am passionate about efforts to combat climate change. This is especially important in New Mexico because of drought and wildfires.

As an author, do you plan out the whole written work (and accompanying plot and story line) in advance, or is yours a more spontaneous and flowing style?
I only had a faint idea of where I wanted the story to go in my first book. In my second book, The Sunshine Solution, I sketched a plot. But early on, I decided I wanted to make it more of a mystery, so I veered off the outline. I followed a similar process with Windswept. I have the overall idea, but sometimes I get to a point where I have to figure out a character’s motivation or a way to get them from one point to the next without revealing the plot too early in the book.

What have been some of the challenges facing you as a writer in this third novel?
Windswept is my first murder mystery. The mystery in the first two books revolved around politics and a business scam. I didn’t have much experience covering the police beat as a reporter, so I had to do more research for Windswept. Also, I have been spending more time away from New Mexico, so writing the details about the landscape and weather was harder. Readers have said the New Mexico landscape is almost like a character in my books, so this was a significant challenge when I wrote Windswept. Thank goodness for internet research and Google Earth.

How did you come up with the title for Windswept? Was it hard checking to see if the title had already been used in another publication?
An early scene in Windswept occurs at a wind farm in eastern New Mexico. That is the setting for the discovery of the first murder. Windswept seemed like an apt title that fit with the environmental theme in the titles of my first two books. Checking on Amazon makes it easy to find out if there other books with the same title. I have found a couple of other books that include “Windswept” as part of the title. For my second book, I had originally planned to call it “Sunshine Dreams,” but the editor I used informed me that there were songs or bands that had that title. I subsequently changed it to The Sunshine Solution.

Before attending Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, where did you go to school?
My family left the U.S. and moved to Europe when I was nine years old because my father got a job working for the U.S. Air Force. From third grade onward, I went to a girl’s boarding school in England. He then retired to Ireland, where my maternal grandparents had emigrated from. That’s why I went to Trinity College Dublin.

Who are some of your greatest mentors in writing?
Honestly, I would have to say my high school English teacher Rosemary Scott. I am still in touch with her. I also owe a lot to the members of my writing group in Albuquerque. They gave great feedback and encouragement. My editors at the Albuquerque Journal, being a reporter honed my skills in noticing details and conducting research.

Would you describe your work style as crime/thriller (more of a hard edge) or mystery/adventure (perhaps, a younger style)?
I’m probably more into mystery/adventure. I am not into grisly stuff.

In thinking about your published works, are there any close parallels to other authors?
Maybe the Rita Mars mysteries by Valerie Webster, the books have a lesbian former investigative reporter as the main character.

Your blog life posts describe in great detail your life in Portugal with your pet. How do you think living in Portugal has inspired, or changed, your writing?
Living in Portugal has made me nostalgic for New Mexico. I think that’s why I write about the landscape, the unique culture, and the food. I miss those things.

What advice would you give to young writers who are just starting out today?
Keep writing. Write what makes your heart sing. Don’t expect to get rich and famous!

Do you ever think about returning to Saudi Arabia? Or Norway? Are they buying your books there?
I revisited Norway a few years ago and plan to return there again in 2025. A friend of mine in Stavanger is a member of a book club that chose The Power of Rain as one of their books. No plans to revisit Saudi Arabia.

How often do you write? Are you excited about promoting your latest book?
When I’m working on a book, I try to spend some time each day either writing or planning the next move, conversation, or chapter. I am looking forward to doing several book reading/signing events in Albuquerque in January.

Is there anything else you’d like readers to know?
I am planning to write a fourth Digger Doyle mystery, and I would like to turn my books into audiobooks.


Christina Sultan is a former Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico resident who joined SouthWest Writers in 2022. A graduate of the English literature program at McGill University, Montreal, she has been an avid reader and writer of literary criticism all her life. She interned as a journalist at United Press International before working at the Whistler Question Newspaper and Whistler Magazine. She then went on to obtain a master’s degree in business in California. She was named to Who’s Who U.S.A. in 2007 and devotes much of her time to working in the arts, investments, and the humanities.




An Interview with Author R.M. Tembreull

R.M. Tembreull is an author, an artist, and a twenty-six-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force. His life experience and love of the natural world informs his writing and led to the concept of telling his stories through the eyes of a sentient planet. Fractured State in the Blighted Earth (Atmosphere Press, September 2024) is Raymund’s debut eco-fantasy novel and the first of a nine-book series. Look for him on his website TheBlightedEarth.com, on Instagram and his Amazon author page.


What would you like readers to know about the story you tell in Fractured State?
From my lens, we are currently facing a convergence of extremes — of thought, ideology, emotions, climate, violence, etc. — which present a complex set of asymmetric conditions. One could think of it as a synthetic virus, but at the very least, an affliction challenging human existence. One might say this collection of extremes is humanity’s blight. So, I would ask my readers to ponder the following questions as they read Fractured State in the Blighted Earth: Are homo sapiens not the dominant species? Is it not our duty to address this multi-source affliction on behalf of the planet? If you looked at Earth Mother as one living body as she is described in Fractured State, She is hemorrhaging, and who would be in the best position to staunch the bleeding if not Her most gifted children?

By reading Fractured State you are starting a journey into a fantastical world which largely exists outside our known reality and beyond the limits of human perception. I sincerely hope the journey brings you as much entertainment and enjoyment as it did me in the creation of it. While giving you opportunities to think critically about our world, it challenges, and what you could do to cure the blight!

When you began writing this novel, what did you hope to accomplish?
Fractured State is only the beginning of an epic journey in a series which is currently planned to be nine novels. Book one is very much a stage-setter for a supernatural saga, introducing the reader to a world within a world, establishing a primary story arc, and introducing characters; some of whom will not play major roles until later books. As with all world building endeavors, I hope my story keeps the reader engaged, and I make a plausible case for how we could arrive at a continent on the environmental brink and a once proud nation becoming the “Fractured States of America.” I aspire to accomplish this through an artful blending of real-world events and science-backed facts combined with the actions and influences of powerful supernatural beings and timeless universal entities. Some of the feedback I have received from reputable review agencies since release would suggest I was successful in my goals, but whether I can successfully reach a wider audience (and my stories and messages resonate with readers out there) remains to be seen.

Who are your main characters, and what hurdles are they trying to overcome?
Some of the main (enduring) characters for the series are only introduced in Fractured State because they have expanded roles in the story arcs of future books. I also want to highlight that all the characters (except for the Texas-based ones, e.g., Arden, Daryn, Mack, Komkom, Dóatn, etc.) were either prominently featured or referenced in the stories of my first book (Stories, Legends, and Truths from the Blighted Earth). Here is the “short list” for Fractured State:

  • The Mothman: In general, the Mothmen are an ancient alien race, the Inani, whose existence can be traced back to the early universe. The Mothman reference ties them to Earth lore, but they live on a world on the “dark side” of the universe at the center of the cosmos. The Inani are governed by a technocratic society where citizens are organized into hierarchical task classes. The Inani must consume matter from the living side (our side) of the universe to sustain their way of life.
  • Kieran “Arden” McBride: Arden is a disabled Iraq combat veteran who suffers from Traumatic Brain Injury, among other things. He was homeless for a time until he was taken in by the Daryn, the Archdruid of the Druids of Hearthstone Grove in Austin, Texas. Arden serves as his grove’s protector, and with Daryn’s help, has become aware of and is beginning to understand and develop the special abilities of the “Hate-eater.”
  • Ithilbor Moonfist, the North American Guardian Spirit: Guardian Spirits occupy the highest rung on the Hierarchy of Sentience, short of Earth Mother Herself. Guardians are aligned with the Epoch in which they serve. Epochs are distinguished by the planet’s dominant species, and Guardian Spirits are created to blend in with and live among them. The current Epoch is that of humankind.
  • Nilch’i, Sentient Wind: Nilch’i is Chaos’s top field general and commander of the Formless Column of his army, the En’troop-EE (“EE” = Effector Elements). Though Chaos is a powerful entity whose existence can be traced back to the beginning of the universe, he cannot directly impact any world. Thus, he must work through the sentient denizens of a planet to achieve his destructive aims by corrupting them to his cause. Chaos indirectly wields the wind and fire elements through his Corrupted Formless.
  • STEM, the displaced Earth Elemental: STEM is an elemental who suffered a “Dislocation event,” which typically happens when an elemental is transiting their meta’en absent form. Their spirit essence becomes entrapped in some variant of the Manmade; such as urban environments that are constructed from a host of unnatural, human-manipulated materials, or in STEM’s case: the Internet.
  • Komkom “Kwin” Akwini, the Tree Spirit: Komkom is a subspecies of Earth Elemental, who has chosen to permanently manifest within a tree form. Kwin’s assigned protectorate encompasses the whole of Sam Houston National Forest in Texas. After Texas violently secedes from the Union and begins to hunt down non-Christians, Kwin provides sanctuary to the druids of Hearthstone Grove.
  • Parim, Earth Elemental: Parim, a subspecies of Earth Elements known as a Sand Spirit, is assigned to protect what humans call the United States’ desert Southwest. Because the Guardian Spirit Ithilbor is fully engaged in dealing with Formless-driven wildfires up and down the West Coast, he has charged Parim with organizing a holding action in the Southwest to blunt any aggression and violent expansion activities by the seditionist “Lone Star Nation.” Parim and Nilch’i are long time nemeses.

What is the main setting of the book? Why is it the perfect place for your story to unfold?
To set the table for the storyline, I needed the right set of conditions for Chaos to exploit in His relentless pursuit to initiate the Great Cascade and bring about the Discordant on Earth. In the United States, the makings of environmental catastrophe (extended drought, wildfires, natural habitat erosion, human over-settlement, etc.) have been present and worsening for some time with climate change driving more destructive weather extremes. Additionally, the novel was written during the trials and tribulations we all endured during the COVID pandemic and the unfortunate events in the aftermath of the 2020 Presidential election. When coupled with all the global threats, conflict, and uncertainty which have emerged in the last few years, along with their corresponding negative effects on our collective state of mind and emotions, the real world itself provided all the drama and necessary ingredients for ruinous potential on a continental scale. The final step was to inject the enduring struggle of otherworldly entities and supernatural beings into volatile mix—and viola—I had everything needed to create the “fractured state.” During the writing process, very little changed in the overall national setting, but local places, encounters, and characters within Arden’s story arc evolved as I achieved greater fidelity on the Druid’s supernatural powers and the overall impact I wanted him to have in the series. These considerations drove the choice of settings and locations within the state of Texas.

What was the most difficult aspect of world building for the Blighted Earth series?
The most difficult aspect of world building was developing the rule set which governs my fictional world. Without them, the story has no guideposts or structure, and even fantasy needs rules. If anything can happen without any corresponding cause-and-effect or impact, then nothing really matters. That makes it hard for a reader to become invested in the story and the characters. In Fractured State, the Earth-born characters all possess an immortal spirit essence or soul gifted to them by a sentient world (Earth Mother). Consequently, all life on earth progresses through many lives, and ideally, each of us can earn the privilege of becoming a High Sentient in service of the Natural Order by living well during our life chain. I even had to develop my own universe creation myth to explain everything from the origin of the alien race; to how life in our galaxy came to exist; to how the cosmos is structured and functions, etc. Fortunately, for me, the heavy lift for my world building and character-type development occurred in the writing of my first collection of stories. So, Fractured State, for the most part, just had to follow the rule set and employ character types that were already developed.

How did the book come together?
Strangely enough, other books in the series were written first. In fact, the first four books were originally intended to be one book, but it would have been far too long (especially for publishing as an indie author, where you must do a lot of the work yourself). Most of the formative writing happened during the lockdown associated with the COVID Pandemic in 2020. Fractured State was primarily written after the drafts for Books 2-4 were finished.

In terms of project timelines, it probably took about six months for the first draft. I signed a contract with Atmosphere Press in July 2023. After developmental editing, proof editing, interior and cover design, and pre-release promotion work (with multiple reviews/edits in between), the book was released on September 1, 2024. So, in total, I estimate the whole project took over a year and half, excluding gaps associated with work obligations and other projects.

What was your favorite part of putting this project together?
I think my favorite part of this or any other writing project is the beginning: the process of initial, raw creation when you have a concept and need to add the literary “meat on the bone” from idea to actual story. When I am in that creative flow, ideas can come from anywhere, at any time. I have lost more than my fair share of genius thoughts, so I always carry a notepad or some way to capture story ideas, potential research sources, etc. I just love being in the flow. I sometimes get lost “in there” for a couple hours and come out on the other end with 10-15 rough draft pages of potential greatness. Few things in this world drive you to be present in the moment inside your head like writing!

Explain what eco-fantasy is and why Fractured State fits in this genre.
Eco-fantasy, like any good fantasy, involves intricate world building but the created world does not involve one that is separate and distinct from our own. In achieving this, eco-fantasy authors must look inward vice outward. However, because this genre has ecological underpinnings, the world is centered in the natural world even though it involves supernatural forces and beings. Technically, I would describe eco-fantasy as speculative fiction which melds dystopian climate-change, the supernatural, and mythology and folklore to create a world within our earthly world. Finally, on a more serious note, eco-fantasy also seeks to highlight and engage readers to think critically about global challenges in the interests of preserving our planet through maintaining healthy biodiversity and a balanced relationship with nature. When assessed against this criteria, Fractured State in the Blighted Earth exemplifies the very definition of this new genre.

Your 2023 book Stories, Legends, and Truths from the Blighted Earth is a collection of short stories from the same universe as your 2024 novel. What were you trying to accomplish with these stories, and should readers read this book alongside (or before) the novel?
My 2023 story collection progressively knits together the world of the Fractured State with stories that feature everything from a universe creation myth to stories revealing the different character types to how the supernatural world imbedded within our own works. Every world-building exercise needs to establish a set of rules that governs the world. The story collection accomplishes this complex task by unveiling the hidden world through presented artifacts which are intended to draw the reader in. Stories, Legends, and Truths is a diverse collection in which there is something for everyone regardless of preferred genre. Reading the collection first will provide additional insight and enrich the experience of reading Fractured State, but the novel was designed to stand alone.

Tell us about your writing process and/or your writing routine.
I can say I am most productively creative in the morning so that is when I try to carve out time for “real” — initial draft — kind of wring. Ideas seem to flow the best then; probably because I have not allowed myself to get bogged down with the day’s tasks and stressors. I reserve later parts of the day for more tedious activities, like reviewing/editing manuscripts, working on promotions activities, updating websites, etc. I typically work on illustrations and social media posts at night, because I can work on that stuff while the TV is on, etc. I still work full-time, so I must work all this in around my professional obligations.

Do you have a message or a theme that recurs in your writing?
I explore several themes in Fractured State, and to me, some of the more important ones are: human belief systems and the huge impacts they have had on the environment and biodiversity of world; adverse impacts of our technology; rise of incivility in human civilization; storytelling being co-opted to insidious ends; and the process of radicalization and the rising threat of ‘homegrown’ violent extremists to our American democracy.

What writing projects are you working on now?
I am working on the second book of the series, Long Leg from the Blighted Earth, which will unveil a new story arc and more amazing characters. The Long Leg manuscript is completely knitted together, and I am about 50 percent complete on what I call a fine editing run. Like Fractured State, my second novel will also be illustrated so I am concurrently working on the artwork as well. I plan to have the book published in late 2025. I am also working on a heavily illustrated novella entitled Green Girl that follows a character who was introduced in my story collection. However, the novella has been set aside for now so I can focus on getting Long Leg finalized and handed off to my publisher. Besides the art for books, I am always working on content for my website, Instagram posts, etc. Additionally, some of my art will be featured in an anthology published in early 2025 through the Armed Services Arts Partnership.

Is there anything else you’d like readers to know?
Many of the themes of Fractured State may seem daunting, even overwhelming, because they are tied to daunting and overwhelming threats and challenges that we face in our world today: climate change, global warming, the rise of incivility and intolerance, and the fall of truth. However, I want readers to understand that the concerning “state of things” did not happen overnight. It happened over years, decades, and centuries, and it was the result of individual choices. Making the right choices, such as changing our imbalanced relationship with nature and starting the movements that convince others to do the same, are what is going to get us back on a good path and heal our world.

My perfect reader is open-minded and not stuck to one genre. They love good nature-centered, speculative fiction with intricate world building that is rooted in real events, places, and people. They love surprising and unique characters and want to be entertained as much as they want to be challenged to think critically.


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.