Question: What it’s like to indie-publish, to slog through dozens of revisions, hire an editor (one simply cannot edit oneself), format the book, create an attractive cover (operative root, attract), and finally, to submit press releases, order postcards to mail or deliver to bookstores, libraries, and readers, all while remaining fairly sane?

You’re kidding, right? In these times?! Actually, the work is remarkably sane-making—if occasionally tedious, hair-on-fire scary (when a file goes missing), or when medical appointments, errands, chores, and other vicissitudes of life must intervene. Which is frequently. It seems my husband and I are busier than we have ever been. Why is this? He recently turned seventy-five, and I am seventy-three. One might hope things would slow down a little bit. But no. They do not. Is this the famous, “as you grow older time speeds up” phenomenon? The physics of ageing?

So . . . what’s it like?  

Apologies. I digress. . . . In the main, it is fulfilling. It is wonderful. It is gratifying to be able to do something that returns such joy. Glitches notwithstanding. In completing THE EARTH IS HER OWN, the fourth installment to my Riven Country series begun in 2015, detouring to a non-fiction memoir, CROFTER, A Wyoming Homestead Manual and Radical Memoir, Rooted in Place, I am free to start over, to explore elsewhere and merrily skip through my imagination. But first I must coax this book out into the world, often the harder part. I am not designed this way.

You’re not designed this way?

It is the truth in the paradox. It is why authors have publicists and such. To help them over these shoals. I am more articulate on paper than verbally. But never mind. No feeling sorry for myself. Put one foot out in front of the other and go for it. I do the best I can and let the low side drag, as the saying goes. And I have faith. I am reminded of those first heady years, 2015-2019, when I felt so in love with the process; motivation verily oozed out of me. . . I entreated friends and family to listen to my prose, for heaven’s sake, so thrilled was I with this formidable recharged new toy of writing seriously, day by day, down in my little hut, where no distractions interrupted me. I inhabited Heaven on Earth. Truly. Reality slipped in unnoticed one day when I realized I was feeling less romantic about the writing, as humility and the truth of my aspirations settled like a gentle fog, gentle for it not being a harsh thing. Sort of like marriage.

What else have you learned about yourself, as writer?

So much remains below the water, like the balance of an iceberg, where it must, I suppose, for the simple sake of my not wishing to bore or exasperate. But what sticks out, see what I did there? if I may be so obvious, is a sense of purpose, agency and, dare I say it, relevance. These qualities appear like magical sightings of lightning bugs in summer, in the doing, in the quiet solitude of my hut, and I know myself as part of a grand tradition. Above all, I feel gratitude for the inclination, though it feels more like a charge. A responsibility and duty. If not to the world, then all right, to myself.

How would you describe this latest book, and when will it be available?

May 18, 2026! The following summary is taken from the back cover:

In Book Four of The Riven Country quartet, THE EARTH IS HER OWN, Senga Munro’s disappearance prompts discussion as to what she may be. Her herbal notebook has been discovered in an old man’s medicine bundle from the 1800s, wherein Senga details her captivity in an underground cave. One morning, she awakes in a Cheyenne camp, believing she is part of a living history project. Upon her extraordinary return, she discovers a world altered and transformed by “The Phenomenon,” an evolutionary leap in consciousness that has reshaped global values and circumstances. As Senga prepares to celebrate her 50th birthday with a new husband and old friends, further surprises await her, bringing closure and a new beginning.

Through its rich tapestry of characters, historical elements, and philosophical musings, the novels explore the complexities of human experience, the sacredness of the Earth, and the transformative power of compassion and understanding. It is a meditation on the struggles and triumphs that define both individual lives and collective humanity.