Leaphorn & Chee Book 27

When I was a youngster, I remember grownups asking if I wanted to be a writer like my father, Tony Hillerman. I lied and said no, but secretly I did. My Dad was my hero. He went to work in the morning and came home with something wonderful---stories. At first, they were stories of the news he had covered as a journalist; then stories of the students he taught at the University of New Mexico and, finally, stories of the joys and challenges of his ultimate career as a mystery fiction writer.

Stories have been like oxygen to me from the time I was old enough to climb onto a welcoming lap and snuggle up with the storyteller. My parents shared their deep passion for reading: something vitally important to a potential writer. They also shared their sense of adventure. My five brothers and sisters and I would pile into the family station wagon for trips exploring the Southwest. 

From hearing and reading stories, the next step was writing my own. I started with true stories for student publications, then wrote and edited for newspapers, radio newsrooms, and magazines. That segued into opinion columns, feature stories and reviews, and then to travel guides and other non-fiction books.

After Tony Hillerman died in 2008, I got the happy idea to write a novel that would keep the stories he created alive by putting his characters to work solving new crimes. One of his minor characters, Navajo police officer Bernadette Manuelito became my central protagonist.

Here I am, many novels later, amazed and delighted at what these characters still have to say. And eager to see what happens next.