A Letter from the AuthorMichael McGarrity, author of The Last RanchIn one of my early novels, I intr
A Letter from the AuthorMichael McGarrity, author of The Last RanchIn one of my early novels, I introduced readers to Molly Hamilton, the blonde, pretty chief research librarian at a small New Mexico college, who with her laser-sharp mind and thousand-watt smile helped Kevin Kerney, the protagonist in my then still evolving crime series, solve a mystery.While on book tours and at speaking engagements during the next several years, librarians repeatedly approached me to say thanks for creating a true-to-life character that ran counter to the dowdy, old maid librarian stereotype. My response was to simply tell them that from childhood on, librarians have always been among my most favorite people. But I haven’t told why until now.I don’t truly know if it was John Gregory Dunne who said that writers should thank their lucky stars they came from a dysfunctional family, but I attribute the quote to him. In my case it’s one hundred percent true. The library was where I could escape to a safe and secure place and be left alone in silence to explore the world through books. It was a place where helpful people encouraged me; gave me advice, not criticism; treated me kindly; and helped me refine my taste in fiction, history, and biography — my three favorite subjects. It was at the library where I discovered that I could learn things my way, on my terms. There were no bullying teachers, no constant reminders of my shortcomings, no discipline handed out because of my restless inattention and out-of-seat behavior. At the library, I was free to pursue what interested me without all the imposed rules and structure. At times I’d roam the stacks, randomly pick out books by titles that caught my eye, and hurry home with my selections, eager to discover what awaited me inside. Guided by the librarians, I discovered writers such as George Orwell, Albert Camus, Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Chandler, Ray Bradbury, and Isaac Asimov. On my own, I found Bernard DeVoto, J. Frank Dobie, Will James, C.S. Forester, and others. Each time I presented my choices at the checkout counter, I’d receive more suggestions, and every time I walked back through those library doors, my world would expand. Under their gentle tutelage, librarians did as much, if not more, to educate me than all of my public school teachers.Starting out twenty years ago, with the publication of my first book, Tularosa, I resisted the notion that my writing was autobiographical. I’d willingly admit that I wrote based on experience and observation, but I saw little of myself or my personal history in my twelve crime novels. Looking back, I was kidding myself a bit, which I clearly discovered when I embarked on writing the American West trilogy. It was a daunting enterprise to imagine and create four generations of one family living out their lives over the course of a hundred years of American history. I never could have written Hard Country, Backlands, and now the final book in the Kerney family saga, The Last Ranch, without drawing deeply on my own lifetime of personal and family experience. And I doubt I could have done it without the long-ago help of some perceptive, kindhearted librarians who saw a restless solitary kid with a hungry mind searching to find himself. What beautiful people they were, one and all. -- source link
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