avg_rating: 4.04
name: Lesley Poling-Kempes
about: My writing life is completely connected to my daily life on the high desert of Abiquiu and northern New Mexico. Like my "Bone Horses" protagonist, Charlotte, I was born and raised in New York, specifically in Westchester County. Unlike Charlotte, I loved the wild vast empty desert and wide blue sky of the Southwest on sight. I was always working my way back home to this exotic, magnificent place. After college I moved full time into the Indio-Hispanic world of Abiquiu. I began to write the real and imagined stories of my adopted community, first in non-fiction books and then in my first novel "Canyon of Remembering" and now "Bone Horses."For several decades my primary work was as a writer/historian. For my first 3 books ("The Harvey Girls", My writing life is completely connected to my daily life on the high desert of Abiquiu and northern New Mexico. Like my "Bone Horses" protagonist, Charlotte, I was born and raised in New York, specifically in Westchester County. Unlike Charlotte, I loved the wild vast empty desert and wide blue sky of the Southwest on sight. I was always working my way back home to this exotic, magnificent place. After college I moved full time into the Indio-Hispanic world of Abiquiu. I began to write the real and imagined stories of my adopted community, first in non-fiction books and then in my first novel "Canyon of Remembering" and now "Bone Horses."For several decades my primary work was as a writer/historian. For my first 3 books ("The Harvey Girls", "Valley of Shining Stone", and "Ghost Ranch") I interviewed and talked with literally hundreds of old-timers all over the Southwest. I heard remarkable tales of the early days in New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona. These are the foundation for all of my writing. ...more