As an author of award-winning biographies, I take my craft seriously, and I am fairly critical when I read those written by other people. I recently read three totally different biographies. These particular subjects may or may not appeal to you for summer reading, but you can apply the same principles when choosing subjects of your choice and selecting your biographies this summer. These books all receive my biographer’s nod for excellence. Cecil Smith: Mr.…
This week, Wyoming Author Jean Henry Mead revisited her 2011 interview with Joyce B. Lohse. Jean’s interview is shared here for the first time. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Joyce Lohse is an award-winning biographer and journalist, who accepted induction in the Colorado Women Hall of Fame for Eliza Routt, the subject of one of her biographies. Since 2002, she has worked as administrator for Women Writing the West. Joyce, your books have won quite a few awards, which…
In the early stages of writing a biography, ideas sometimes percolate on the back burner and germinate slowly through the seasons. Ideas grow as the creative cells divide. Sometimes I find myself in a locale that calls to me while I decide my next move. Usually, the place I seek is a cemetery. When I see the final destination of a person’s journey, I can visualize and speculate about the life which brought them there.…
If Thanksgiving is upon us, it must be time for CAL – the Colorado Association of Librarians Conference. Every year, publisher Filter Press hosts a booth for this event in Denver, allowing the authors to meet and greet librarians, teachers and readers. It is always illuminating, and a mixed bag of good news and bad news comments. The bad news is predictable … more book buying budget cuts, more social studies programs slashed, more demand…