Recent Entries in Author Blog
Colorado Book Awards select Finding Uri
Posted in Author Blog by Sandy Munro on April 16, 2012
I guess I was getting over mild feelings of dismay. My book had been submitted for several prizes, and yet there was no news. People seemingly love the book, and reviews have been almost embarrassingly positive, but I began to think that everyone was, perhaps, being kind. No one wanted to deliver the bad news, and my friends were all “blowing smoke.”
Now I’m all happy again, and pleased to announce that Finding Uri is been named a finalist in the Colorado Book Awards for this year. There will be a reading by category finalists in Denver on Thursday evening in Denver, and Award Winners will be announced in Aspen as part of the the Summer Words Literary Festival on June 22nd.
If you’re in the big city I’d love to have you drop by. It’s from 5 - 8pm at the Residence Inn at 1725 Champa Street.
http://www.coloradohumanities.org/content/2012-colorado-book-award-finalists
Aspen Public Radio Interview: Buried by the Roan
Posted in In the Press by Mark Stevens on January 11, 2012
Aspen Public Radio interview about “Buried by the Roan” in connection with the statewide controversy over fracking (hydraulic fracturing).
A Moment of Thanks
Posted in by Mark Stevens on December 31, 2011
A Moment of Thanks:
A few end of year (2011) thanks:
• To People’s Press and its mighty team—George, Mirte, Catherine and Christine. What incredible support. I have no idea how Mirte tracks so many issues and does so with so much flair, fun and good business sense. Catherine, “Buried by the Roan” improved vastly under your editing eye. Christine, thank you for all the public relations efforts and queries.
• To Cindie Geddes, who put “Buried by the Roan” through the close-in editing grinder and found a million fixes. Yes, I counted your catches. Thank you.
• To my friend Tanya Klein, who spotted out even more issues (and caught some potentially embarrassing stuff).
• To editors everywhere: those of us over here in the raw material gathering section depend on you and your eyes and ears and awareness of style.
• To the bookstore retailers and book people across Colorado.
• They are all “book” people, whether they work in a chain (the one big chain left) or an independent retail shop.
• To all the readers I met – Denver, Loveland, Golden, Evergreen, Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, Durango, Ridgway, Leadville, Meeker, Parker, Telluride, Estes Park, Frisco, Grand Junction. Thanks for your support!
• To my family, for allowing me the time to drive around the state and hang out at every bookstore I could find.
• To reviewers from major newspapers (like Durango Herald, Grand Junction Sentinel and High Country News) to independent book review sites (such as Think Banned Thoughts): thanks for devoting some space to a Colorado mystery.
• To the many fine friends at Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers.
• I won’t name too many specific individuals but thanks to Jenny Milchman, Pat Stoltey, Mark Graham, Colin Graham, Allyn Harvey, Frank McGee. That list could go to dozens and dozens who have offered their ideas and support.
Thanks for everything. Let me know what I can do in return.
Father’s Day Blogging Assignment
Posted in Author Blog by Sandy Munro on December 6, 2011
Dear Tasha,
When you were born, your great-grandfather Alec called you his little Russian princess. He should know—he was married to one. Perhaps Varvara was not an actual princess, but she was, at the very least, a darkly diminutive beauty whose aloofness could be mistaken for nobility. Alec was a Scot who married his Russian dream, and so your grandfather Uri was born in Russia. It’s why we called you Natasha, with no middle name.
I’m sending you this book I’ve written, to arrive in time for Father’s Day. It’s the story of Uri, and my mother Betsy. None of us, until now, had a chance to know my father. He was lost flying in torpedo bombers in the last few months of World War II when I was not yet four-years-old. Then, in 2007, what a shock! To receive almost two hundred letters that no one knew existed. And what a surprise to meet your grandmother Betsy, wildly in love at the age of twenty-three. As you know, even in her eighties she was the feisty center of it all.
I’m so proud of the life you’ve carved out for yourself. You’ve laughingly embarrassed me about my puffed-up stories of growing up with horses. I really did help take care of them, but only owned one—Blackie, a spirited Welsh pony with one eye blue and the other brown. On your eighth birthday I took you to meet horses. You fell in love and it’s never been the same. Now you and your beautiful children, Uri and Sophia, ride your horses, and feed your pigs, goats, lambs, and chickens while your well-read, soft-spoken husband trains horses that once thundered through my dreams. I’m proud of how lucky you are.
On this Father’s Day I find myself thinking not just fathers and sons, but daughters and mothers, and the strong threads that tie us. My editor and friend, Karen Chamberlain, taught me that we all have family stories—that they’re all important, and that they all deserve to be told. Keep our family stories close to your heart Natasha. When Sophia and Uri ask you to tell a story at the dinner table, remember you have some good ones to pass along. In the process of writing this book, I discovered that by sharing the stories we can make people live again.
Why should someone read my book?
Posted in Author Blog by Sandy Munro on December 2, 2011
As more people read my book, I hear more amazing stories about family letters, and especially stories about letters between people heartbreakingly in love, but separated by events beyond their control. If you’ve got letters in the attic (or basement) from your parents or grandparents, Finding Uri may well prompt you to dig them out and make them part of your family story. My wonderful editor, Karen Chamberlain, was founder of the Aspen Writer’s Foundation. She taught a memoir writing class in which she said, “All family stories are important—just as all people are important, and they need to be passed down the line.”
I was a Navy carrier pilot in the 1960s, and my father was lost in the Pacific while flying in Torpedo Squadron 90 in WWII aboard the USS Enterprise. When my mother passed away in 2007, I received a box in the mail containing 190 previously “hidden” letters. No one knew they existed. I spent two years reading, researching, re-reading, and writing as I read—so you’ll discover the story in real-time as I did. I finally got a feel for what my father was really like, but my mother at the age of 23 took me by surprise. There’s flying, squadron life, and true stories of heroism, but mainly … it’s a love story.
Veteran’s Day
Posted in Author Blog by Sandy Munro on November 10, 2011
I’ve never participated in Veteran’s Day gatherings. Maybe because I’ve always felt sort of like a low-level veteran … a veteran under-achiever. I missed the Vietnam War because I was in the East Coast navy. We went to Europe and the Caribbean, or rather I should say we operated in the North Atlantic, Mediterranean, and south off Florida. But every Veteran’s Day, and especially this one, I do spend much of it in reflection. I’ll open the box of medals, look at a few of the letters, or sit down with the family scrapbooks. And now I can look at the book, separate from the two years I was reading and re-reading those letters. Maybe it’s time to share that day. There’s bound to be some other accidental non-warriors down at the park on 11-11-11.
Sandy talks about Finding Uri - video
Posted in Author Blog by Sandy Munro on July 19, 2011
Greg Poschman filmed a nice video of me talking about Finding Uri and reading the Introduction. Thanks Greg. You’ve done pretty well for a guy who had me as a teacher at Aspen High School.
Game Changer
Posted in Author Blog by Mark Stevens on July 13, 2011
That’s the title of the current episode of “This American Life.”
Game changer.
And it’s all about the fight over natural gas resources in Pennsylvania, where a huge shale deposit has the ‘frackers’ licking their chops. It’s about money, profit, public relations and the battle over information. As a microcosm (it’s such a big fight, it may as well be a macrocosm) of our ability to hold a thoughtful discussion about energy development in our country, it doesn’t bode well. Kudos to Susan Koenig for a terrific hour of radio reporting.
It’s against the same kind of backdrop of fighting that I set “Buried by the Roan.” The state is different, but the battle is the same. There’s a lot at stake. There’s not much question about that.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/
Finding Uri - readers reactions
Posted in Author Blog by Sandy Munro on July 6, 2011
Now that the book has been out for a few weeks, it’s really interesting to get reactions. Many from friends, of course, but others from folks I don’t know. The reviews are impossibly gratifying, probably because no one has yet had the nerve to post a bad one. I’m waiting to be crushed. I’ve been hearing from three primary types of readers:
Type 1 receives their copy and stays up most of the night reading it with a box of Kleenex nearby.
Type 2 reads four to eight pages at a whack because they need to digest their emotions, or they’re falling asleep.
Type 3 leaves the book on their nightstand, waiting for the moment when the mood is right.
I have the greatest respect for all three types. If anything, I’m learning that one legacy of this story, is that already people have been sent rummaging through their attics. I’ve heard this from several folks that have heard me on radio interviews around the country. Remember, all family stories are important, and deserve to be passed along.
Lastly, feel free to comment here, and write a review about your reaction to Finding Uri. We’re hoping that over time, a dialog develops. Also feel free to post a review here, and other likely spots that a google search of Finding Uri takes you (i.e. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc.)
Finding Uri - PR and review
Posted in Author Blog by Sandy Munro on June 30, 2011
More and more interviews! Newman Communications is keeping me busy, and I’m gratified for the great review from Autumn Blues Reviews. You can listen to my CBS radio interview with Dan Raviv here if you like. It will be aired shortly on their nation-wide affiliates during his noon show, The CBS News Roundup.
For those that have been asking, the Kindle version will be coming out shortly. I’m also asking any of you that feel inspired ... please consider writing a review and posting it to this website as well as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and anywhere else googling Finding Uri takes you. You can certainly paste the same review in multiple locations.
Thanks to all, especially the hard working team at People’s Press.
More Entries
Search News
Most Read Articles
- The Prints of Tom Benton
Posted by People's Press on August 8, 2011
- Antler Dust - Four Years Later
Posted by Mark Stevens on June 1, 2011
- Falling for fall
Posted by People's Press on October 12, 2011
- “Flat-Out Terrific”
Posted by Mark Stevens on June 15, 2011
- The All New Woody Creek People’s Press Blogosphere
Posted by Sandy Munro on May 27, 2011
- Summer Reads in Aspen Sojourner
Posted by People's Press on May 27, 2011
- The Aspen Wallposters
Posted by DJ Watkins on May 27, 2011
- Finding Uri - PR and review
Posted by Sandy Munro on June 30, 2011
- Where reality and fantasy converge: Snowmastodon! Snow Day Adventure
Posted by People's Press on June 29, 2011
- The People Have Written
Posted by People's Press on May 29, 2011
- Fracking
Posted by Mark Stevens on May 28, 2011
- Finding Uri Launch at Two Old Hippies
Posted by People's Press on June 14, 2011
- Plum TV Features Snowmastodon! Snow Day Adventure
Posted by People's Press on June 29, 2011
- Prehistoric Pals in Aspen Peak Magazine
Posted by People's Press on June 2, 2011
- Through oversized glasses
Posted by People's Press on September 28, 2011
design by Graham Spencer, built by notebleu© People's Press, 2011, Woody Creek, Colorado / info@peoplespress.org / 970.704.5829