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Mary Armstrong Author Posts

Here I am

Thanks for joining my newsletter group.  I’ll be filling you in on news about my current book, historic facts related to my writing, hints on the upcoming book in the series and some personal tidbits on my writing and personal lives

I know, I know, you’ve been looking all over for me … no? Well, you’ve been thinking about looking all over for me … maaaybe?

Anyway, you’ve found me and I hope you enjoy your stay. I can’t offer you coffee, tea or tequila, but if you stay tuned, there’ll be some freebies coming your way. There’ll be quizzes on my books, excerpts from books in progress, commentary on my characters, discourse on historic events, what I’m reading, perhaps one of my short stories, and once in awhile an insight into the writing life and the ‘other time life’ of which there isn’t much these days.

“The Mesilla” was the result of ten plus years of reading and research. It started, innocently enough, with me getting acquainted with the history of my new stomping grounds here in the Mesilla Valley. Hubby Skip and I moved here from the Boston area in 2010. I was reading lots of other things, also: Ken Follett, Diana Gabaldon, Michael McGarrity, Sara Donati, Margaret Atwood, Louis L’Amour, Jean M. Auel and others that aren’t so HF (Historical Fiction) related. I expect The Two Valleys Saga to be four books, but hey, you never know. The series spans ten years and the first book only spanned three months! There will be some bigger time jumps to hit historic highlights, but the story will have continuity.

The idea of writing about Colonel Fountain and his family got me started. After writing a column in our local newspaper for a couple of years on another subject, I began thinking about what a project about the Saga of the Fountain family would look like. That led me to writing a one-act play for the Las Cruces Community Theaters One-Act Play Festival. It was one of several selected and performed here at the LCCT in February of 2017. That play historically took place two years after this book series ends. It is set in a Las Cruces general store as the storekeeper and Gabby (no, not the Gabby in “The Mesilla”) where the storekeeper reads the Rio Grande Republican to the illiterate Gabby.

Anybody that knows southern New Mexico knows the Tularosa Valley and Mesilla Valley don’t see eye-to-eye on much. I wanted to understand why and realized that it goes back to the times of Colonel Fountain. I read and read until my eyes were red (btw, I have a vision problem – more on that later), but there really isn’t as much written about some of the primary actors in the Tularosa side and what there is, is often legend or folklore. Still, there was plenty to find that could give me a basis for writing about the place and the people in both valleys. As I became more acquainted, I began to think I understood how we got where we are today. This series is for entertainment, of course, but I also have the hope that people will have a better understanding of how we got where we are today in southern New Mexico.

The Tularosa won’t be the focus in this or the next book, but I hope book three and more will jingle spurs for the Tularosa folks. There are several chapters in this first book and Book Two that are set in the Tularosa to introduce characters and landscapes, and rest assured, they are there for a reason.

Originally, my manuscript was nearly twice as long as “The Mesilla.” I wanted to get it to a point where the next book would be entitled “The Tularosa,” but I got a lot of flack from my writing group Facebookers about the length, so I decided to shrink it and have the remainder for a solid start on Book Two. I don’t have a working title yet, but I hope to have it available for sale for the Christmas season.

So, I think I need to get back to the task at hand – and I hope you’ll tune in now and then for some fun.

Mary