June Member News

Our members continue to publish wonderful works and win awards!

Janet Fisher A Place of Her Own: The Legacy of Oregon Pioneer Martha Poindexter Maupin (TwoDot/Globe Pequot Press)  Martha defies her parents to marry the dashing Garrett Maupin and in 1850 follows him west across the Oregon Trail, but their struggles in a raw new land soon shatter her dreams of an idyllic life with him. When he dies, leaving her alone on the frontier with their many children, she makes a daring decision to buy a farm in that wilderness. The author, her great-great-granddaughter, now owns and operates that farm. Also on Amazon and other online sites.

 

Mary Beth Baptiste Altitude Adjustment: A Quest for Love, Home, and Meaning in the Tetons (TwoDot/Globe Pequot Press) This thoughtful, humorous memoir follows a wildlife biologist’s quest for purpose, redemption, and love through wilderness adventure, solitude, and offbeat human connections in Jackson Hole’s Grand Teton National Park. Also available at Barnes and Noble.

  

Gin Getz, TheColor of the Wild (NorLights Press) is an original, inspiring work of literary non-fiction; an unconventional memoir of woman and land. Lyrical and lilting, powerful and passionate, this is the beautifully told story of one woman’s life, love, determination and connection with the natural world. 

Gin Getz, The Last of the Living Blue (NorLights Press) is an intimate, intense personal account of the effects of our changing climate in my big back yard, Colorado’s majestic mountains and the Weminuche Wilderness.  It’s not a preachy lecture on climate issues, nor a “everything’s peachy” scenario. It’s real and raw. It reads close and comfortable, though the times it takes you through are often anything but.  It’s told in a quiet yet powerful voice taking the reader with me through one year of drought, fires, floods and the healing of mountain and mind. 

 Judith Grout, Chasing the Strawberry Moon Hitchhiking (for Girls) is an account of the adventures of a young woman as she makes her way west, running from conniving parents, the mob, and corrupt local law enforcement. Patsy Schwartz knows she has bigger problems to deal with than the Great Depression, the raging Dust Bowl, or another looming world war. Forced to disappear from Baywater, Minnesota to avoid an arranged marriage to the local sheriff’s son, Patsy hits the open road with her best friend, Virginia Burg.

Cynthia Leal Massey Death of a Texas Ranger, A True Story of Murder and Vengeance on the Texas Frontier (TwoDot, an imprint of Globe-Pequot Press) This is story of the murder of Texas Ranger John Green in 1873. Immediately word spread that the killing may have been the botched outcome of a contract taken out on Menchaca’s life by the notorious Gabriel Marnoch, a local naturalist who had run up against the law himself. But was it?

Donis Casey, Hell With the Lid Blown Off 

An Alafair Tucker Mystery. In the summer of 1916, a big twister brings destruction to the land around Boynton OK. Alafair Tucker’s family and neighbors are not spared the ruin and grief spread by the storm. But no one is going to mourn for Jubal Beldon, who made it his business to know the ugly secrets of everyone in town. It doesn’t matter if Jubal’s insinuations are true or not. In a small town like Boynton, rumor is as damaging as fact. 

Susan Wittig Albert has signed with Penguin/Berkley Prime Crime for three more China Bayles mysteries, to be published in 2016, 2017, and 2018. Bittersweet, Book #23 in this long-running series, will be published in April, 2015.

Nancy Oswald, Edward Wynkoop: Soldier and Indian Agent (Filter Press). Drawn to the West, Edward Wynkoop left Philadelphia at a young age.  He helped to found Denver and began his military career during the Civil War, distinguishing himself at the Battle of Glorieta Pass. His life took a severe turn, when he befriended Black Kettle and vouched for the friendly Cheyenne in the wake of the Sand Creek Massacre.  This biography for young readers tells the story of this handsome and outspoken Indian advocate.

Shanna Hatfield, Farm Girl 

What happens when a farmer who’s been wishing for a boy ends up with a girlie-girl? Come along on the humorous and sometimes agonizing adventures from a childhood spent on a farm in the Eastern Oregon desert where one family raised hay, wheat, cattle, and a farm girl.

AWARDS

Congratulations to all the winners and finalists!

 

Roni McFadden, Josephine~ATale of Hope and Happy Endings is a Finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards for 2014 in the Children's Inspirational book category. Josephine is the true story of a great granddaughter of the legendary Seabiscuit who searches for a new mother after losing her own at the age of 4 days. All proceeds from the sale of Josephine go to the T.R.A.I.L. program (Teaching Riding as an Access to Independence and Learning) at the Ridgewood Ranch in Willits, CA, home of Seabiscuit.

Bonnie Hobbs’ Beyond The Night is a finalist in the Unpublished Manuscript contest at PNWA in the Romance category. This western historical love story takes place following the Civil War.

Dawn Wink, Meadowlark is a finalist in the HighPlains Book Awards.
Based on a true story, the author provides a captivating and crystal clear window into the lives of some of the early settlers on the plains of South Dakota.

 

Tammy Hinton, Retribution, finalist for “Best Independently Published Western Novel” by WesternFictioneers.The war changed everything Emilee loved. The young woman couldn’t foresee the terror that peace would bring. Moving to Texas seemed the answer, but Death rode the same trail west.

Pamela Nowak's Changes received the 2014 Colorado Book Award for genre fiction as well as a 2014 HOLT Award of Merit for historical novel.  In 1879, Omaha librarian Lise Dupree struggles to keep her part-Sioux heritage hidden as she reluctantly agrees to help research legal questions for a band of Ponca Indians led by Standing Bear. What begins as a quest for justice becomes a search for identity