Arletta Dawdy

Perhaps it was being seven years old and sitting at the kitchen table in Dover, NJ, being made to spell my list forwards and backwards that led me to a fascination with words. Or was it making up dramatic scenarios with diverse characters, languages and voices? At Occidental

College, my first Blue Book was barely a page and a half; the idea of writing books or being an archaeologist were not seen as possible. Jane Addams' TWENTY YEARS AT HULL HOUSE led me to social work at San Francisco settlement houses, working with girls' street gangs and developing services for unwed parents. Long years in Child Protective Services focused on family crises, all forms of abuse, addictions, mental illness and poverty which helped in character development in my fiction.

I began with short stories and poems in the midst a strenuous career, active family life and other creative endeavors. My husband was from New Mexico and I'd already traveled extensively in the Southwest as we continued to do with our children. Walking in Chaco Canyon at 4:00 am led to poems as did the crossing at Lee's Ferry, the Garden of the Gods, cr long stays in the Huachuas. A quiet meadow near Silver Creek in the Sierra offered meditation and inspiration and the setting for a contemporary novella. Nature nurtures my creativity and energy as little else can do.

The Huachuca Trilogy is the result of long years of refining my craft, extensive research, persistence and the faith and encouragement of my family, friends and supportive writers.