My News

JUNE 2008

June is fast leaving and summer is approaching. Here in the Colorado Rockies, the nights are still cool and often close to freezing which means covering fragile plants. In southwest Colorado the spring’s slow warming trend was evident in a snow storm on Memorial Day weekend that left over a foot of snow in the higher elevations and several inches on our deck. The storm also caused the cancellation of the annual Iron Horse Bicycle Race—50 miles up the mountains from Durango to Silverton—for the first time in the race’s 37 year history. I missed it all because I was on an adventure in Copper Canyon, Mexico. Summers give me a slower lecture schedule so the warm months ahead will continue to be filled with travel—mostly camping—hiking, and some work. I hope your plans are filled with adventure and fun in spite of the gas prices and airlines trying to out-price each other on tickets. Have a wonderful summer.

APRIL 2008

The LA Times Festival of Books is now behind me. It was a wonderful event as usual. Not only did I meet new and interesting people but I was reunited with many friends I haven't seen in a while which is always special. When I noted how many people attended the Book Festival I am reassured that reading is not dead as the media so often predicts. In fact the enthusiasm of the crowds on the UCLA campus surely proves there is still a large curious poplution anxious to read another book. In fact many attend in search of their next favorite new author. The night after I returned to Durango I spoke to a creative writing class at Pueblo Community College about publishing. They benefitted from the high I was on due to my own experience at the Book Festival. Getting published is tough. Yet if a writer is persistent, researches the market and starts on a small scale, success will follow. The authors at the festival would agree.

MARCH 2008

I recently returned from a trip to Michigan where I spoke in honor of Women's History Month at both Delta College and Olivet College. I always enjoy meeting and interacting with the students and faculty. This trip however was made even more special because several remarkable women friends and former colleagues attended my talk at Olivet followed by a delicious dinner. We filled the restaurant with wonderful memories and laughter.

On another day two friends and I went to Coldwater to meet another friend, the warden at two prisons. We made the journey not only to see the warden but to see the dog rescue program in the prisons. The prisoners rescue Grey Hounds and dogs from the Humane Society and get them ready for adoption. It is a wonderful win-win program.

The sad part of this trip was when a friends’ mother died suddenly while we were having lunch put on by the prison’s food tech program.

One highlight of my trip was watching my oldest grandson’s hockey team take the championship. He is a goalie and the final winning game was a shut-out.

FEBRUARY 2008

I missed January and wishing all you a HAPPY NEW YEAR. I hope you have the year you planned and dreamed of.

It has been a tough winter for us in southwest Colorado. It hasn’t stopped snowing since Thanksgiving. The good news—skiing and snowshoeing are terrific. However, my outdoor adventures have been interrupted by my many presentations which are always rewarding. I love meeting and speaking with all you, and I particularly like hearing about your personal journeys. I hope to see more of you on my travels this year. If not there, please keep in touch with on this site.

DECEMBER 2007

It is already in the heat of the holiday season and I have been remiss in my updates. Sadly it was do to a web server glitch. The good news is that I received an early Christmas present--the cover and blurb for my new novel Inevitable Sentences is posted on my web site and on the Medallion Press website. You can find it by going to my home page and clicking on the title.

Agnes Pharo said, "What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the presesnt, hope for the future. It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace."

I cannot express our holiday or new year wish to you as eloquently as Ms Pharo did.

Yet for me there is nothing better than sharing our days with family and friends. I reminisce about the good and the bad memories, hoping I have learned from each. I am always eager to greet each morning trusting it will bring me joy. I ache with the loss of loved ones. And I desperately want peace and understanding in our world which is filled with such turmoil and hunger.

Dale Evans said, “Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas.”

We should then celebrate Christmas every day.

I wish you a new year filled with adventure, excellent health, laughter, peace, and sharing your fortunes with family, friends and those in need.

OCTOBER 2007

I've just joined a web site www.bookclubcookbook.com where members of a book club can find authors who are willing to speak to the club either by telephone or in person whenever the author is in the area. Check out the web site. You may find an interesting book and author and much more.

Another site www.conniegotsch.com shares information about the authors including me who have been featured on Write On Four Corners, a program Connie hosts on KSJE, Farmington, NM.

I am anxiously waiting to see what the artist produces for the cover of Inevitable Sentences. As soon as it is ready I will post it on this site.

My calendar for 2008 is already filling. I always enjoy getting out and meeting those who have read my books and potential readers. Please join me when I am in your neighborhood.

AUGUST 2007

August 8 is my birthday and I have received a wonderful gift. Medallion Press has purchased Inevitable Sentences the sequel to Life Sentences. It will be released sometime in 2009. Check back for the actual date and information about the novel. I am delighted to continue working with Medallion's wonderful staff.

JULY 2007

I can't believe it is mid-July already. Summer is moving at a fast pace and will soon be behind us. For me, though, my lectures slow down at this time of year, which means I have the time to enjoy the wonders of summertime in the Rockies abundant in wildflowers. I will, however, be doing this at a much slower pace than normal since I am recovering from an ACL and meniscus tear in my left knee. I have had to trade aerobics for spin classes and physical therapy, and forego hiking for several weeks. On the upside–my husband and I are off to Michigan to visit my stepson and his wife and children at their cottage in beautiful Suttons Bay. I won’t mind lounging on the beach or boating on the bay or afternoon strolls to the ice cream shop with my three grandchildren.

When I return from Michigan I will spend five days in a basket weaving workshop. Weaving is one of my favorite pass times. I recently spear-headed a community weave at the Durango Art Center as part of their collaborative art project program. Weaving friends and others from the community wove the basket. The final product was auctioned along with the other works of art. It was a fun project.

I hope all of you are having a joyous summer filled with laughter, sharing time with your friends and family and great adventures. Stay cool!

MAY 2007

On May 19, I gave the commencement speech at Cazenovia College, New York, voted one of the top coed colleges in the United States. I also received an honorary doctor in humane letters degree. I cannot adequately express my gratitude for both honors. But I am thrilled to now be a member of both Cazenovia College classes of 1964 and 2007. As I noted in my commencement speech I am so impressed with the 2007 graduates. I I found them intelligent, articulate, gracious, creative and compassionate. I believe our world will be a better place with them in it. I am placing a brick in their honor at the base of the clock tower as a way to thank them for letting me be a member of their class and for the beautiful and thoughtful gifts they gave to me. I hope the class members will keep in touch with me. Best of luck on your exciting journeys.

APRIL 2007

Hello all

I just returned from participating in the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on the U.C.L.A. campus. It is a truly amazing event with over 95 indoor author panels and 300 outdoor exhibitor booths for booksellers, publishers and literacy and cultural organizations. Plus there were outdoor readings, storytelling, music , presentations and a food court. It is a booklover’s paradise and it’s free. As an author selling my books at the Sisters in Crime, L.A. Chapter booth, I found the attendees fascinating, eager for new material and fun to talk to. I was told by a California resident that this festival is the premiere event in the area. If you should be in L.A. at the end of April 2008, it is an event well worth attending and I will see you there.

Now I am off to Cazenovia College, New York to give the commencement speech. I am looking forward to this event because it is an honor to have been asked to help celebrate the Class of 2007 and because many of my childhood friends will be in the audience. I’ll report on the event when I return.

As always I look forward to hearing from you.

MARCH 2007

I recently returned from Michigan where, in celebration of Women’s History Month, I spoke in two very different venues. The first was at the Brandon Township Library in Ortonville. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many men in the audience. However, I was even more thrilled by the arrival of two men who worked with me at both Huron Valley men’s and Women’s Correctional Facilities in Ypsilanti and also a male supervisor from my first job as a probation officer in Oakland County. They added a special flavor and humor to my words.

The second venue was at Haven, a safehouse in Pontiac. As would be expected, women made up the audience. However, the Honorable Judge Edward Sosnick, a dear friend for over 35 years also attended. Since he helped found Haven his appearance wasn’t unusual. But it did get me to thinking about how many men share in the battle to keep women secure and to insure their equality. I am honored and grateful to know these men especially Ed who has been honored for his dedication to disadvantaged youth and youth at risk, victims of domestic violence and substance abuse prevention and rehabilitation. We can all learn from his efforts.

In preparing for my presentations, I was stunned and saddened to learn that there are about 15000 women in safehouses in Michigan alone. That tells me we still have a lot of work to do in this country when it comes to women’s issues including providing equity, healthcare, education and a safe environment for them and our children

Words to ponder during Women’s History Month.

JANUARY 2007

I always welcome the new year. I feel like I am being offered a chance to right wrongs, to change a negative in my life, to improve my health, to learn something new and to move forward in my writing with a renewed zest. Because of this attitude I decided to be the reviewer for our January reading group. I chose an easy to read novel, Murder in the Lincoln Bedroom by Elliott Roosevelt, the son of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt. From my choice we all learned that he had written 21 such novels which were published between1984 and 2001 and in which Eleanor was the sleuth. Although they are fun mysteries they are also a trip through history and a peek at how Elliott envisioned his mother and life in the white house. My choice of a novel also gave me the opportunity to discuss Eleanor Roosevelt, a woman I greatly admire and whose words of wisdom communicate my own new year’s goals. Although it is tough to choose from Eleanor Roosevelt’s many wise remarks, the following quotes are three of my favorite:

            “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences.”

            “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

            And finally, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

I wish you a happy, productive, healthy (in mind, body and spirit) 2007.

On another note check out www.authorlink.com for my short fiction titled, Hostage which is inspired by a true event.

OCTOBER 27, 2006: SERENDIPITY

            Money isn’t what drives me to put words on a page. Like so many writers I wouldn’t be able to support myself if I depended on the income I earned from writing. I believe as most writers do—we write because we love to and we must. I write because I hope what I say will make the reader laugh and cry, to consider issues that they hadn’t thought about before, to become inspired to make the world a better place, to poke fun at life’s absurdities and to touch the reader’s soul in a way they never thought possible.

            I get great joy from a reader who contacts me after s/he’s read one of my published works—like Kelly who was under house arrest who now is studying criminal justice, or the former female gang member who got a degree and now works with at risk youth, or my cousin Ed whom I had only known from a photograph (at the age of thirteen and after my parents died I had been separated from and lost all contact with my family except my sister and brother). After another cousin told Ed about my memoir A Bowl of Cherries, he read it and sent me a letter. We then met. I would have never known this amazing man if I hadn’t written that memoir.

            Yet the most remarkable story among so many wonderful ones in which my writing had a part is the one about Jeff Deskovic. At the age of seventeen, Jeff was found guilty and sentenced to prison for fifteen years to life based on a coerced confession of the rape and murder of a schoolmate. After sixteen years in prison Jeff had exhausted all his appeals and was denied parole. He faced the bleak reality that he would never be exonerated and perhaps never released from prison. 

            Serendipity, luck or providence—whatever you call it plays a major role in our lives. It certainly did for Jeff. By some miracle he borrowed from the prison library Chicken Soup for the Prisoner’s Soul for which I had written an essay. Jeff checked my credentials at the back of the book and discovered my first memoir, The Warden Wore Pink. He contacted the publisher and my friend, Julie Zimmerman and told her his story. She then contacted our friend Claudia Whitman, an advocate for the wrongly accused and death penalty cases. Claudia took up Jeff’s cause and convinced the Innocence Project who had previously turned down Jeff’s request to handle it. They persuaded the District Attorney to run the DNA evidence through the database. The result proved Jeff’s innocence and that the actual guilty man was a prisoner serving life on another murder. Jeff now 33 was found innocent and released from prison on September 20, 2006.

            I cry every time I think about Jeff and how my essay and memoir played a role in setting him free. There is no amount of money that can take the place of this kind of reward from my writing.

            So because of people like Jeff I will continue to write. Perhaps there will be others whose lives I will touch.

Fall has arrived in the Rockies. Several mountain peaks are snow covered and the Aspen are turning to their brilliant gold. The skies are clear, deep blue and the air is crisp. It is a special time of year and my favorite. And for us in the southwest- the aroma of chiles roasting is everywhere. The changing season reminds me of my own change in careers, which became a true life style change.

Though the decision to write opened up an exciting and dynamic world to me, I wasn’t prepared for the humiliation and rejection it also brought. As a warden, I had developed a thick skin and stubborn streak. Yet even armed with those traits, I often found myself curled into a fetal position sucking my thumb after being rejected by an editor twenty years younger than I who probably never saw the movie The Bird Man of Alcatraz.

            My training as a warden did pay off in the end because I was persistent despite the rejections. I’ve endured because of my new-found colleagues and friends–seasoned authors–I have met through workshops, conferences, associations and my critique group. They persuaded me to never give up. The women in my critique group have also become my true writing teachers. Because of their encouragement I have pursued a writing career and have reaped many rewards.

            However I had to be willing to take chances, make mistakes and face rejections, while exercising perseverance and seizing opportunities. I also learned that money isn’t the reason I write. This is true of most writers I know. It is the joy of creating something that is thought provoking and stimulates others to action. Joy for me is found in the letters I receive from readers. One example is the letter from a former female gang member who now works with troubled youth and attributes her change to reading my first memoir The Warden Wore Pink. Another example is the letter from a teenager who was on house arrest. After meeting me and reading both my memoirs she is now studying criminal justice. No money can replace these kinds of rewards for my writing.

            I am thrilled to get messages from readers who tell me I’ve made them laugh or helped them to reflect on the absurdity of life. For me creating a written piece deepens and expands my life. I can only hope it touches others.

            Writing gave me the freedom and confidence to expand other personal pursuits as well such as hiking in the Colorado Rockies. Why are these personal excursions important to writing? I believe these activities help release hidden creative juices or skills that were buried deep inside me during all those years I devoted to my corrections career. Now I keep a journal of what I see, hear, touch and smell. Every experience inspires writing. Every experience can be woven into a story. Every experience has proven to me that there is a fulfilling life after being a warden and I can put it into the written word.

            Now at sixty-three I have two memoirs, several non-fiction articles and stories, and a novel published. I have completed another memoir and hope to have my second fiction published shortly. I never stop writing. When one project is finished, I start another, which has been rolling around in my head. The process is happily addictive.

A FEW OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS:

Too Close to the Falls by Catherine Gildiner

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

The Color of Water by James McBride

Surviving a Writers Life by Suzanne Lipsett