Contact Information:
Kendall McCook
1812 Fairmount Ave.
Fort Worth TX 76110
817-924-0393
About This Land
These stories were written over a period of years, beginning with their inception in Mr. Robert Roripaugh's creative writing class at The University of Wyoming. While in graduate school, I found little time to complement the first two rough efforts. I finally moved back to New Mexico and lived in an abandoned farmhouse along the Seneca Creek. There, I picked up the pulse of my characters and wrote �Comin' Home� and polished �Saves You Time.� I returned to Texas after that full and crazy summer in the hills. Teaching at Dunbar High School occupied most of my time until 1978 when my wife, baby boy, and I, packed up bag and baggage and headed for one more abandoned farmhouse at the end of another winding dirt road. I managed a year of writing and talking to the spirits of my grandfathers and grandmothers, their brothers ans sisters who left faint memories on the land for me to search for. We lived at the end of twelve miles of dirt road, at the base of a long table top mesa, just around the canyon from the Garden of Gods picnic grounds. There are pictures in my possession of my grandpa and his sisters standing atop the sandstone spires that were formed from the swirling wind and rains of New Mexico storms. I walked with my little boy and ate sandwiches on the benches Grandpa had build more than fifty years ago. I drove down the Otto read that led its dust way into Clayton past the abandoned windmills and scattered clumps of trees where once my people lived. Several of these stories were written that year.
Listen to Chapter 'Saves You Time'
