LaDene Morton

LaDene Morton is a writer of fiction and non-fiction in all their various forms. For the past thirty years, she spent her writing energies helping the non-profit world navigate through plans, changes, strategies and initiatives using her many and various talents of writing, analysis and presentation, all rolled up into story-telling forms. For the past ten of those thirty years, LaDene has turned her focus to publishing. Her first major work of fiction, What Lies West, is a homage to all the elements she loves about the western stories she grew up with in film and television. For that effort, she couldn’t have been more delighted to have the book named a WILLA Literary Award Finalist in 2010 from Women Writing the West.

Most recently, she’s turned her attention to her current home town of Kansas City, itself a place rich in western history. Her two recent books from The History Press draw out the stories of two of Kansas City’s most well-known and beloved neighborhoods, Brookside and Waldo. These books have helped her create a following and keep her out in community, where she finds constant ideas for future projects. Her current works-in-progress include another non-fiction history, a Holocaust survivor biography, two novels set again in the mythical American West, and several other ideas that simply won’t leave her alone. She couldn’t be happier.