Avalon Books - Author! Author!


	Read some interviews from past editions:
		V.S. Meszaros April, 2009
		Nikki Poppen February, 2009
		Sue Gibson December, 2008
		Elisabeth Rose October, 2008
		Sherry Lynn Ferguson August, 2008
		S.J. Stewart June, 2008
		Zelda Benjamin April, 2008
		Shirley Marks December, 2007
		Donna Wright December, 2007
		Carolyn Brown August, 2007
		Roni Denholtz June, 2007
		Tara Randel April, 2007
		Sydell Voeller February, 2007
		Sheila Robins December, 2006
		Ann Holt October, 2006
		Cynthia Danielewski July, 2006
		Jane McBride Choate March, 2006
		Kathryn Meyer Griffith January, 2006
		Mel Taylor November, 2005
		Kathleen Fuller September, 2005
		Tracey J. Lyons July, 2005
		Ludima Gus Burton May, 2005
		Holly Jacobs March, 2005
		Sandra D. Bricker January, 2005
		Kathryn Quick November, 2004
		Cheri Jetton September, 2004
		Heather S. Webber July, 2004
		Karl Fieldhouse May, 2004
		Shelley Galloway March, 2004
		Ilsa Mayr January, 2004
		Kathy Carmichael November, 2003
		Dorothy P. O'Neill July, 2003
		Joani Ascher May, 2003
		Patricia DeGroot March, 2003
		Nancy J. Parra January, 2003
		Barbara Meyers November, 2002
		Christine Bush September, 2002
		Debby Mayne July, 2002
		Jean C. Gordon May, 2002
		Charles E. Friend March, 2002
		Norma Seely January, 2002
		Glen Ebisch November, 2001
		Gina Cresse September, 2001
		John Paxson July, 2001
		Terri Alcock May, 2001
		Clifford Blair March, 2001
		Amanda Harte January, 2001
		Carolyn Brown September, 2000
		Annette Mahon July, 2000
		Marjorie McGinley May, 2000
		Jack Lewis March, 2000
		Amanda Harte January, 2000
		Joyce and Jim Lavene November, 1999
	Return to the current Author! Author! interview:
		DeAnn Smallwood June, 2008


Author! Author!: November, 2000
Click on images to learn more about these books. An Interview with Kent Conwell

Where do you get your ideas?
	As most writers, I’m barraged daily by ideas, some of which disappear into my subconscious and begin to grow only to later appear as a fairly solid premise for a book. Some ideas strike an immediate spark that makes me think, ‘hey, that’ll work.’ Then I’ll read all I can about it. I’m an eclectic reader, but my preference runs to Old West history. My fascination for Old West history resulted from the stories told me by my paternal grandparents. My grandfather ran away from home in Tennessee at the age of fifteen and bullwhacked his way to Texas. My grandmother came from Illinois, making the last part of the trip in a covered wagon. I prefer ideas illustrating the happenstance that plays such a decisive role in the lives of the everyday individual. In Sidetrip to Sand Springs, an average man finds his life completely redirected because of a simple poker game. In Texas Orphan Train, the common man with little to show for his life simply wishes to earn a few dollars, but because he just happens to take that particular job on the spur of the moment, he earns a lifetime of golden trust and love from children who had been thrown away. The Ghost of Blue Bone Mesa came after I read of the Anasazi and their legends in New Mexico. I do believe there are things that go bump in the night. And this was a fun story to write.
Many of your books have children in them. Why?
	Having been in education for thirty-seven years and still counting, I’ve long recognized the lessons that children and their innocence can teach us. Many of my characters turn their lives around because of the children. And children are funny. Take an embittered father mourning the death of his wife and child by the Apache and stick him with three Comanche children cast from the tribe because of their handicaps, and you have Glitter of Gold, set beneath the Mogollon Escarpment in Arizona. Such a combination of characters brings about laughter and, I hope, a little compassion and wisdom.
Most of your books are set in Texas. What about the other western states?
	I grew up in the Panhandle in Wheeler, population 848 in 1940, and that included sixteen Indians camped on the creek that marked the city limits. The rolling sandhills and mournful howling of the wind are locked deep in my memory. I can still remember trekking across the North Fork of the Red River, warily avoiding the quicksand pits. Many of the stories give no choice as to setting. Ghost of Blue Bone Mesa is such a book. Another one was Alamo Trail, which used the Runaway Scrape as a vehicle for the story. Laughing Girl Creek and Painted Comanche Tree are set in West Texas because that’s where the creek and the tree actually exist. Same is true for Wild Rose Pass. Sidetrip to Sand Springs is set in Central Texas because at that period in history, there were very few settlements farther west. Wide-open Central Texas was the frontier, where big men tossed wide loops. And unfortunately, my character found himself caught in the middle.
When did you begin writing?
	I wrote my first mystery in a Spiral notebook when I was nine or so. It was three pages long, and naturally, fame and notoriety didn’t find me. I didn’t do much until college where I felt my brilliant talent would more than compensate for my lack of craft. The truth is, I didn’t even consider there to be a craft to writing. The resulting manuscript was pretty bad. Shabby would be a more apt description. And then I married, and life got in the way. In the early seventies, I tried again, and made the same mistakes. Seems like I was one of those who couldn't figure out that if you kept doing the same thing over and over, you’d keep getting the same result over and over. Seventeen years ago, I hitched up my belt and approached writing as I approached my masters and doctorate, study and practice, study and practice. I won a few local awards, and then in 1991, sold my first to Avalon, Panhandle Gold. Sidetrip to Sand Springs is my seventeenth. Currently, Avalon is considering the eighteenth, Friday’s Station, a story of the Pony Express set in South Lake Tahoe.
What are you working on now?
	Presently, I’m working on the story of an average cowpoke who firmly believes a woman’s place is in the kitchen and taking care of children. He hires on to ramrod a wagon train of twenty-eight independent, determined brides-to-be over seven hundred miles from Westport Landing on the Mississippi to Palo Pinto County in Central Texas. The conflict arises not only from the rigors of the journey, but the fundamental perceptions men and women have of each other. I’m always pleased, and yes, still surprised, when the editors like my books. I’m fortunate to be rewarded for doing something so enjoyable.