Sue Boggio and Mare Pearl, Award winning authors talk about their work and lifetime collaboration

The fictional village of Esperanza, NM is the setting for two delightful books Sunlight and Shadow and A Growing Season by co-writers Sue Boggio and Mare Pearl. I was intrigued by these two writers who write so well in one voice that I wanted to catch up with them and learn a bit more. In the last week to the delight of both writers and their audience, it has been announced that Sunlight and Shadow was awarded the 2014 Tony Hillerman Award for Best Fiction by the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards; a nice achievement. Read on to learn more about these two authors and their work.

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Your friendship is an intrinsic part of your writing experience. Would either of you have chosen to be an author without the other?

Sue: I've always been a writer, since I could hold a crayon, so I would have continued writing my journals, short stories, and poetry, but would I have become a published author? Or written novels? It's possible, but hard to imagine since our lives and writing have been entwined since we were kids.

Mare: I have so many other creative outlets. I pursued musical theater in New York in my twenties. I've sung in nightclubs and coffee shops. I've dabbled in jewelry making, vintage furniture restoration, wherever my short attention span takes me. I would not have become an author without my partnership with Sue.

I read in your biographies that after Mare moved to New Mexico you wanted to do something together and since writing didn’t require money to start, you decided that would be your course. Was it really that simple?

I think we were being a bit facetious. We used to joke that we chose writing because we could sit around and laugh and eat and drink wine and entertain each other. The truth is, we came to our writing collaboration at age ten when we were creatively inspired by John Lennon and Paul McCartney's collaboration. The idea that two people could come together to co-create something neither could have imagined alone was thrilling. After Mare moved to New Mexico, we made the conscious decision to take our collaboration to the next level, and that involved tons of self-directed education to learn the craft and business of writing.

We joined Southwest Writers Workshop, attended conferences, learned to pitch, learned how the publishing industry operates, read all the writing books and journals, and read authors like Jo-Ann Mapson, Barbara Kingsolver, Alice Hoffman, Anne Tyler, Walley Lamb, Michael Chabon, Sarah Bird, Annie Proulx, and so many more. And of course we wrote and wrote and wrote! (and learned to persevere despite the heartbreak of rejection). It was tons of hard work, all while we were working full time jobs, having marriages and families, and living our lives. Nothing about it was simple! 

I was fascinated by your writing because I felt as if there was only one writer telling the story. I imagine it could be quite difficult to write as a team and keep the same voice and continuity. What is your process writing together?

We meet one afternoon a week. After our extensive pre-writing phase (brainstorming every aspect of our novel: filling notebooks with character building, theme articulation, settings, research, pinning down a myriad of details, asking questions, figuring out major plot points, trying to know as much as we can before we start the actual writing), we choose our point of view characters. We each write at least one POV character, sometimes two or three. Each POV character has his/her individual arc. Their arcs are woven together to create the overall narrative. 

We discuss what scenes each of us will write in the coming week and then we go off to do our homework. We meet back one week later and read aloud to each other, listening intently, giving feedback, asking what works and what doesn't. Then we discuss what the reader needs to know/experience next, what scenes need to follow, assign our homework and repeat this pattern for around nine months until we have a first draft. We do complete read-throughs, make our revision notes and revise our own material. Then I merge Mare's scenes with mine in our decided order, determine the chapter breaks, and then begin editing, which can take another two or three months of intensive work on my part. I constantly consult with Mare over the phone regarding changes, problem solving, etc. When we are convinced it is ready, we give it to our first readers for another round of notes and revisions.

Continuity is a constant concern with two writers and we scrutinize everything every step of the way to try to catch inconsistencies. The amount of prep we do in the pre-writing phase is partly in service to continuity. In a Publisher's Weekly article about fiction duos, our NAL/Penguin editor was quoted as saying when she first received Sunlight and Shadow, she set aside the title page without looking at it. When she finished reading it and knew she wanted to publish it, she retrieved the title page and was shocked there were two writers. It helps that we grew up a block apart, had the same teachers, and have been finishing each other sentences since we were in elementary school. 

Your characters are drawn so well that readers could easily identify someone they know who has similar traits. How did you develop your characters? Are they based on people you’ve encountered?

Thank you! Due to our years of experience working in an inpatient psychiatric center for children and adolescents, we use the concept of psychodynamics as a basis for constructing our POV characters, meaning, the dynamics of their psychological make-up, its origins and how it is expressed. We create characters by beginning with their childhoods, their backstory. We get specific about their parents and grandparents, siblings, how did they treat each other? What were their happiest times, their most painful times, the scars they carry--we write it all down because we both have to know why they are the way they are, because that determines what they want, the needs they are trying to meet, and what they are trying to achieve. Their choices becomes their story line. Character arcs are how they grow/change/heal in response to their situation and the story is the unfolding interplay between the characters and the events which arise from their choices.

Our POV characters are not based on anyone we know, though they probably contain aspects of ourselves. We have had fun with some of our secondary characters, playing homage to some colorful people we have encountered. But we'll never reveal who!

You wrote about water and land issues important to New Mexico in A Growing Season and you captured the characteristics of the people on both sides quite well. Can you tell us about the research you did into those issues?

It was extensive. The worsening drought in New Mexico was all over the newspapers, which was the genesis of that novel, wondering how the severe drought would impact our chile farming family. John Fleck of the Albuquerque Journal wrote a weekly column about water issues, the farmers, the endangered silvery minnow--and still focuses on these vital issues as we speak. The Valencia County News-Bulletin and The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (The agency that provides irrigation, flood control and responsible water conservation services to irrigators and farmers in the middle agricultural region of the state) were both great resources. Please read the acknowledgements in A Growing Season for a thorough listing of the wide variety of research materials we devoured in our quest to present a fair and accurate representation of these difficult issues, which unfortunately will only become more difficult as time goes on.

Do either of you have any unique methods that inspires your imagination and your writing?

As writing partners, we have a pact that we each are responsible for constantly recharging our individual creative energies, so that we are ready to draw from that source. Mare loves her rural acreage, planting flower and vegetable gardens, and hanging out with her animals (dogs, cats, ducks, turkeys, chickens, peacocks, goats, and a husband!) She also has two gorgeous parcels of land out side of Pagosa Springs--one high in the mountains and one right on the river. I like going to art galleries, restaurants, and movies with my husband, swimming, nature walks, playing with my granddaughter, and reading with two big Maine Coon cats vying for my lap. 

Then it's a matter of getting the butt in the chair and do the writing! I like to write most days. Mare saves it up for binge writing close to her deadline.  

A Growing Season recently won several awards that include 2013 Finalist in the New Mexico Press Women's Zia Award for Fiction, the 2013 Finalist in Women Writing the West's Willa Award for Contemporary Fiction and it was the 2013 winner of the Tony Hillerman Award for Best Fiction - New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards. Also Sunlight and Shadow is now a finalist in the 2014 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. Did you expect such accolades? Can you tell us how that has changed things for you?

Sunlight and Shadow was just awarded the 2014 Tony Hillerman Award for Best Fiction! Since Tony was a friend and early supporter of Sunlight and Shadow, and his daughter Anne Hillerman presented the award, it was beyond special.

We never expected to receive awards. All we've ever wanted is to get our work out there so we could hear back from readers. That's why we enjoy meeting with book clubs so much, hearing readers' reactions and how our work resonated with them completes the creative loop. We learn so much from our readers. If winning awards translates into more readers, then that's the best part of it.

To win for both Sunlight and Shadow and A Growing Season reflects so much on the expertise and dedication of our brilliant publishers, UNM Press. Clark Whitehorn, John Byram, Elise McHugh, Kathryn White, everyone else there who works so hard to produce such amazing and beautiful books. We are so fortunate!

For aspiring and new writers, the publishing process seems to be the most daunting element. Can you tell us a bit about how you published your books and any lessons you may have learned?

We've had some really bad luck (oh the  sob stories we could tell!) and some incredibly great luck. We've had painful failures and lovely successes.

What we have learned in a nutshell: Educate yourself about all aspects of the publishing industry so you know how to function as a professional. Agents and editors are just people with incredibly hard jobs to do, learn how you can make their jobs easier. Educate yourself about your craft, constantly. Read! Never think you are good enough, always strive to become better. Write! The more you write, the more you hone your craft. Eat rejection for breakfast and keep going. Never take no for the ultimate answer.

Do you have any other writing projects in the works?

We have the best agent in the universe submitting our latest completed novel in New York. It's called Hungry Shoes and it is based on our work with adolescents in psychiatric settings. Fingers crossed! It is a project near and dear to our hearts.

We are more than midway through the first draft of our third Esperanza book, Long Night Moon, that we will be submitting to UNM Press by spring.

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors you’d like to share?

Aside from the lessons we shared above, the main thing is to love the process, love the journey, find your rewards in the writing itself. Life is to short to only focus on the destination.  Mare and I have found great comfort in the embrace of our fellow writers. Find ways to build a community with other writers through writing organizations, book clubs, critique groups, writing conferences, and social media. We love our sister and brother writers who understand what we go through, and appreciate how hard it can be. We celebrate each other's successes and encourage each other along the way. It's sometimes called networking, but if you do it right, it is so much more than that. It's family.

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Thank you Sue and Mare for sharing with us!

Both Sunlight and Shadow and A Growing Season are enchanting New Mexico stories about community, family and the friends that become family. 

You can learn more about Sue and Mare and their work by visiting their website (be sure to see the beautiful video trailer for A Growing Season).. Their books can be purchased at all the usual places including B&N and Amazon but if you are so inclined I would suggest you support a local independent bookstore such as Bookwork’s in Albuquerque, The Collected Works Bookstore in Santa Fe or one in your neighborhood.

Sue Boggio and Mare Pearl

An interview with award winning author of Bone Horses and Canyon of Remembering, Lesley Poling-Kempes

Several months ago I read two fabulous books, Canyon of Remembering and Bone Horses written by award winning author and long time New Mexico resident Lesley Poling-Kempes. Both were stunningly well done and deeply enchanting stories and one of those books, Bone Horses has won several awards which include the 2014 WILLA Award winner for Contemporary Fiction, the Tony Hillerman Award for Best Fiction by the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards, the Silver Medal 2014 IPPY Book Awards and the Southwest Books of the Year "Good Read." 

I recently caught up with Lesley and asked if she would be interested in an interview. Much to my delight she agreed …

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Was being an author always your goal?

When I was a young girl I made up stories, wrote them down, and made drawings to go with them. But I didn’t consider being a writer until college. I studied journalism at the University of New Mexico when Tony Hillerman was chairman of the department. Tony was my teacher and mentor, and he encouraged me to write both fiction and nonfiction.

Although you’ve been writing for awhile, there was obviously a time when you were just starting out. When did you openly call yourself a writer and feel comfortable doing so?

I called myself a writer right out of college. I worked at New Mexico Magazine for 6 months, and then quit so that I could ‘just write’ and find out who I was as a writer. With my husband, I lived in a very old adobe house in rural northern New Mexico. I wrote short stories and freelanced articles. While working on a documentary (I did post grad work in filmmaking) I stumbled into the story of the Harvey Girls and began working on a book that became The Harvey Girls: Women Who Opened the West, published in 1989.

You write with a wonderful sense of place and you capture the culture and traditions of northern New Mexico so well. What is most intriguing to you about the Indio-Hispanic culture?

I have always been aware of the influence of places in my life and how a landscape affects the people and cultures that are connected to that landscape. I was smitten by northern New Mexico as a child (I was raised in New York, but had family in the Southwest) and wanted to live here after college so that I could be immersed in the place. It was natural to write stories about my adopted home of Abiquiu and the cultures native to this place, but I did not take on the history of Abiquiu until I had lived here almost twenty years. My book Valley of Shining Stone: The Story of Abiquiu was an enormous undertaking as a writer and a researcher, and I depended on the input and stories of my neighbors to bring that book to life. My book about Ghost Ranch (Ghost Ranch) also depended as much on oral histories as on archival research.

You mention you were raised in New York, why did you choose New Mexico as your home?

My dad was raised in El Paso and went east for college and grad school. I lived most of my childhood in New York. I came with my family to Ghost Ranch in the early 1960s and was smitten by northern New Mexico. I knew I was home here, and I returned to stay in my college years. I’ve lived near Abiquiu for more than three decades.

Lesley Poling-Kempes

You recently won several awards for your book Bone Horses. Did you expect such accolades? Can you tell us how that has changed things for you?

Having Bone Horses win these awards has given me wonderful affirmation as a writer. I become very disconnected from the outer world when I’m working and the publication of a book can be both exhilarating and nerve-wracking. I felt that Bone Horses was a good novel but until it began to get read and reviewed, I had many moments of doubt. I’m working on a new novel right now, and the process is difficult, as always. But the success of Bone Horses, a novel that took me years to sort out and write and rewrite, does help me through those days (and there are many of them!) when going is tough and slow. Have the awards changed things for me? Yes and no. People take my work more seriously now, and perhaps give Bone Horses a read because of the awards it has won. But ultimately, the success of a book comes down to how much readers love it and pass it along. That remains the same.

How would you categorize your writing style? Do you think your writing has changed over time?

I love magical realism and the blurring of what is considered ‘real’ and what is considered fantastical. I love for a place to be a character in my stories. My stories are always woven into a place, and the place is woven into the characters. My writing style has changed very little, except that I have become (I hope!) a better editor of my own prose. My first published short stories (in the literary reviews Puerto del Sol and Writer’s Forum, and in Best of the West and several other anthologies) were about people and place, and when I reread them, I recognize the emergence of the themes and style I still favor today, more than 30 years later.

Do you have any unique methods to inspire yourself to write?

I keep a notebook for every project I am working on, or hope to work on. In this way I can engage in and connect with a novel or book of nonfiction even before I begin to work on it. I am very disciplined when I’m working on a book and keep to a daily routine. I begin work early in the morning and often write until mid-afternoon.

Do you hand write your manuscripts or do you use any specific technology application to write?

I keep a journal that is handwritten – I love good paper and pens. But when I’m drafting a book I need to write quickly and so use a computer. I write a fairly messy first draft and do heavy editing. The computer makes this job bearable (I wrote my first book, The Harvey Girls, on a typewriter and literally cut and pasted text into place). I do print out drafts and do first edits and comments with a pen. I need to see the way a narrative is unfolding on the page. Then I return to the computer.

Do you have any current projects in the works?

I worked the last 2 years on a nonfiction book called LADIES OF THE CANYONS: A League of Extraordinary Women and their Adventures in the American Southwest, a project that was under contract with the University of Arizona Press. I handed the final manuscript in just a month ago. It is the most ambitious book I’ve undertaken, and the most satisfying. The book chronicles the lives of women who came into the Southwest before World War One. I did research in Boston and the East Coast, in San Diego and Los Angeles, and in archives in the Southwest. There are more than 50 historic photographs in the text. LADIES OF THE CANYONS will be released in September of 2015. I have also recently completed an historical novel, Gallup, with Robert N. Singer. This novel is based on a screenplay of the same name, and is represented by my literary agent and currently seeking a publisher.

What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

Write write write. Write when you are inspired and write when you are not inspired. Believe that what you have to say is important and trust in your process. Read authors whose words and images and stories move you, change you. Honor your voice. Be kind to yourself and most of all, be patient and love the creative journey.

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Thank you Lesley for your time, I'm looking forward to reading more of your work.

Canyon of Remembering and Bone Horses are hauntingly memorable, with carefully crafted characters and a magnificent sense of place, both geographical and sociological.  I plan to add Valley of Shining Stone: The Story of Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch to my ever growing list of books to be read.

You can learn more about Lesley and her work by visiting her website and Facebook page. Her books can be purchased at all the usual places including B&N and Amazon but if you are so inclined I would suggest you support a local independent bookstore such as Bookwork’s in Albuquerque, The Collected Works Bookstore in Santa Fe or one in your neighborhood.

"WWA Spur Award finalist "Canyon of Remembering" is now available as an eBook and is free to borrow for Kindle Prime users" ~ from the authors website

Lesley's publications include:

Books:

Ladies of the Canyons, University of Arizona Press, 2015

Bone Horses, La Alameda Press, June 2013; 2014 WILLA Award for Contemporary Fiction; Tony Hillerman Award for Best Fiction, New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards; Silver Medal, IPPY Awards, Best Fiction/Mountain West; Southwest Books of the Year “Readers’ Choice” Award.

The Harvey Girls: Women Who Opened the West, Paragon House, New York, 1989; Da Capo/Perseus, Cambridge, 2007; Zia Award for Excellence, New Mexico Press Women

Ghost Ranch, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 2005; IPPY Awards, runner up, Best Western nonfiction; Southwest Books of the Year “Top Choice” Award

Georgia O’Keeffe and New Mexico: A Sense of Place, (Barbara Buhler Lynes, Lesley Poling-Kempes, Frederick Turner), Princeton University Press, 2004 Winner, IPPY Award, Best Fine Art Book

Canyon of Remembering, Texas Tech University Press, Lubbock, 1996; paperback 2000 Western Writers of America Spur Award, finalist - Best First Novel

Valley of Shining Stone: The Story of Abiquiu, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1997

Children’s Literature:

The Golden Era: West by Rail with the Harvey Girls (Vol. 2), Texas Tech University Press, Lubbock, 1997

Far From Home: West by Rail with the Harvey Girls (Vol. 1), Texas Tech University Press, Lubbock, 1994

Contributing writer:

Voices From a Sacred Place: In Defense of Petroglyph National Monument, “Keeping History Underfoot,” Artcraft Printing, Seattle, 1998.

Ghost Ranch: Land of Light: The Photographs of Janet Russek & David Scheinbaum, “Piedra Lumbre: A Brief History,” Balcony Press, Los Angeles, 1997.

Short Fiction:

“Edith’s Own,” Higher Elevations: Stories from the West, Swallow Press, Ohio University, Athens, 1993

“My Sister and Her Visit West,” Best of the West 3: New Short Stories from the Wide Side of the Missouri, Peregrine Smith Books, Salt Lake City, 1990

“Edith’s Own,” Writer’s Forum 16, University Press of Colorado, Colorado Springs, 1990


“My Sister and Her Visit West,” Puerto del Sol, New Mexico State University, 1989

Winter of Beauty by Amy Hale Auker ... A Review and an Interview

I finished reading Winter of Beauty by Amy Hale Auker a few nights ago. As I closed the book and held it in my lap, I sat with barely open eyes relishing the characters that Amy created, each of them with a story and each as if they were your own circle of friends.  This is the story of people who live each day working hard and caring big in the shadow of a mountain called the Bride.

Of all the characters so vividly drawn, I found this story to be the story of Shiney, the ranch owner, who I fell in love with almost immediately. Shiney watches quietly but with a keen eye over her ranch and over those working for her and has an understanding heart for each of them. She struggles with the losses of the past, the hardships of the present and she struggles with what the future will bring as she gets older but ultimately she knows she would never leave the ranching life as hard as it may be. She is the ranch, she is the story, and she is very much like the Bride, a steadfast overseer.

Amy has a talent for bringing you to a quiet place where people live their lives simply and naturally and her use of language to create that place is exquisite, making you hungry for each coming paragraph, each coming sentence.

As an ex-ranch wife, I felt the raw authenticity of this story, memories flooding back to me as I could place a similar character and I could smile at the coming together of individuals who create a community and ultimately a family.

Thank you Amy!

For more about Amy and her previous book Rightful Place, pay a visit to her website.

Interview with the Author, Amy Hale Auker:
When did you openly call yourself a writer and feel comfortable doing so?
"I had an amazing experience in 2005 with my friend and editor Andy Wilkinson. He was teaching a creative process workshop in South Dakota and I had gone along for the experience. We were having lunch alone one afternoon and he asked me when I was going to begin to call myself a writer. The conversation stayed with me, and from then on, I did begin to privately taste the words "I am a writer," on the back of my tongue. That evolved over the next year to the point where I began to say so openly to others." When you were younger, did you ever think you would author books?
" I did dream of being an author someday, just as I dreamed of being a nurse a la Cherry Ames, a horse trainer, or a marine biologist. However, words are what come naturally to me, and in the mid 90s I began to seriously consider that I would write a whole book and see it in print."
What do you love most about writing?
"I love painting a whole world with words. I love the solitude of writing. I love it when the sparks start flying and the ideas are popping. And I love having a whole book-length manuscript, the raw figure, the form-able clay.... I love editing and shaping what is already on the page in some form."
Do you use any specific technology application?
"I love ink on paper. I love Word (and I type very fast). I have downloaded Scrivner, but don't think it is going to augment my process much. I think it is important to switch mediums from time to time... write in longhand, brainstorm on yellow legal pad, type on Word with a new font, make a visual collage with scissors and glue to match a character or bring an idea to life, even speak the words into a recorder."
Have you ever received a negative review and, if so, how did you handle it?
"I have not received a negative published review yet (fingers firmly crossed). However, when I finished my first (horrible) draft of Winter of Beauty, several of my beta readers hated it, including my husband. How did I handle it? I listened to what they had to say and I went back to work."
Describe your writing style?
"I am a very sensual writer... I want to bring my reader into the world I am creating... and to do that requires all the senses. I also am enamored with the metaphors in the natural world around us, and I can't help but make the land a character in the story."
You've written two books so far, which is your favorite and why?
"I have written two books.... true. But one was creative non-fiction and one was fiction, so apples and oranges. My favorite book is the one I am currently writing... it always is!"
In your current book, "Winter of Beauty", who is you favorite character and why? 
"My favorite character in Winter of Beauty is very easily Jody Neil. Jody captured my heart from the moment he walked onto the page, and I gave him Del as a gift... as a guide into manhood. And then, I continued to give him fathers because he needed them. In return, Jody gave me Shiney. I will always be in Jody Neil's debt because he gave me Sunshine Angel Lewis. After Beauty was born into the book, she quickly became a favorite for me even though she never speaks a word. Beauty is the powerhouse in the book, the one who changes so many lives, simply by arriving on the planet."

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