Bulletin report
Celebrate Authors 2023 will be in the Roadrunner Room on the second floor of Thomas Branigan Memorial Library, 2-4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 17.
Friends of the Branigan Library (FBL) is partnering with MOONBOW Alterations and Moonbow’s Book Nook to sponsor this year’s event, said event coordinator Alice Davenport. FBL started Celebrate Authors in 2014 to showcase area authors.
Celebrate Authors 2023 will feature authors from Las Cruces and the surrounding area with books published in 2021, 2022 and 2023, Davenport said. 45 authors will participate from more than 270 authors represented at Moonbow’s Book Nook, 225 E Idaho Ave., No. 32, she said.
MOONBOW Alterations and Moonbow’s Book Nook will make monetary donations to Children’s Literacy Reading Alliance and Spay Neuter Action Program after the 2023 Celebrate Authors event. Guests and participating authors can contribute.
For more information, contact Davenport at 575-527-1411 and adavenport@totacc.com.
Here is information about some of this year’s authors and their books, provided by the authors.
- Bill Cavaliere is the author of “The Chiricahua Apaches: A Concise History,” a documentation of the people called the Chiricahua Apaches. The book chronicles important events that occurred throughout their history and compiles major episodes relating to their ancestral homelands, called Apacheria. Cavaliere is an independent scholar who retired after 28 years in law enforcement. He worked for the U.S. Forest Service in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona and was sheriff of Hidalgo County, New Mexico. Cavaliere is president of the Cochise County Historical Society. He and his wife, Jill, live on a ranch. Articles by Cavaliere have been published in historical journals and magazines. He was a contributing author for the book “Cave Creek Canyon: Revealing the Heart of Arizona's Chiricahua Mountains.”
- Margaret Bernstein’s first children’s book is “Malu and the Pineapple Seed.” Bernstein is a Las Cruces artist who has reported news and feature events for several major city daily newspapers, and has taught English, journalism and art in public schools. Las Cruces artist Rebecca Courtney provided the art for Bernstein’s book. “I hope the open drawings allow children to picture Malu as looking like them so they can go with Malu on this journey,” Courtney said.
- Daniel Aranda was born in Las Cruces in 1947. He is a retired firefighter, but he had many other jobs along the way. Aranda became interested in history at an early age. He is a member of the Doña Ana County Historical Society, Cochise County Historical Society and the English Westerners and is a proud charter member of the Order of the Indian Wars, an organization dedicated to preserving this important part of our national heritage. In the late 1980s Aranda was commander of the Department of the Rio Grande of Council on America’s Military Past. Aranda’s book” Apache Lands” is a collection of 10 true stories that occurred during turbulent times. Some episodes are relatively unknown today while others are readily recognized but expanded on through meticulous research. There are chapters on Geronimo, Ulzana, Victorio, Diedrick Dutchover, Maggie Graham and Indian captives Roque Ramos and Jimmy McKinn.
- Merry Smith & Rex the Dog's Medieval Adventure" is the title of Mary C. Smith’s book, detailing the adventures of young Merry Smith, who wishes she had been born a boy to be of more help to her family. An injured dog appears and with her knowledge of healing and herbs, Merry saves his foot and nurses him back to health. Merry knows the dog is a valuable possession of a landed lord and she should not fall in love with the giant wolfhound. By the time the lord claims his property, Rex the dog and Merry have formed an unbreakable bond and must fight against an eternity in the grasp of the Fairy Queen. Smith is a native of Mesilla Park where she lives with her four-legged companions. Southwest and border themes are among her favorite topics, as well as all things medieval. Interested in writing since an early age, Smith devoted her free time during covid to finishing a few discarded projects, one of which turned into an actual manuscript.
- “The Moonlit Path” by Las Cruces author Peter Goodman is the 1914 journal of Katherine Willard, a 32-year-old artist and avid gardener in Oakland, California. A strong-minded woman in a world run by men and an artist in a profit-driven society, she’s spirited, and not always wise. 1914 brings unforeseen, life-changing challenges. Katherine’s U.S. feels foreign but this vivid glimpse of it can help sharpen understanding of our own time. She confronts earlier stages of contemporary issues such as women’s rights, racism, immigration, and child abuse. Goodman is a poet, fictionist, photographer, newspaper columnist, lawyer and radio host. He has been a New York City cabdriver, a San Francisco lawyer and a newsman here and in Taiwan. He has wandered through China, Tibet, Perú and Mexico and crossed the U.S. on motorcycles often. He has two NMSU degrees and one from Harvard. Goodman lives in Las Cruces with his wife, Dael, and the dog who rescued them.
- Amy M. Bennett was born and raised in El Paso. She worked as a cake decorator with Walmart in Alamogordo and Ruidoso Downs for 22 years before retiring to sling vino full time at Noisy Water Winery in Ruidoso and write mysteries. Her first mystery, “End of the Road,” won the Dark Oak Mystery Contest and launched her writing career. Her Black Horse Campground mystery series is set in south-central New Mexico in fictional Bonney County (which looks suspiciously like Lincoln County). Bennett lives in Bent, New Mexico with her husband and son and is working on the ninth Black Horse Campground mystery novel.
- Mary Armstrong, a retiree from a diverse career spanning various fields of land planning and design, found a new passion in writing when she landed a gig as a weekly columnist for the Las Cruces Sun-News. Armstrong’s historical fiction play, “It is Blood” had a well-received theatre performance, inspiring Mary to embark on The Two Valleys Saga. Drawing on her love for fiction and deep respect for history, Bennett’s research and attention to detail bring historical settings to life. In 2021, her work was recognized when her book “The Mesilla,” part of The Two Valleys Saga, won an award from The Historical Fiction Company. Java, their beloved Cavachon, leads Mary and her husband, Norman “Skip” Bailey, on daily jaunts around their Las Cruces neighborhood.
- Michael DeMers grew up in East Grand Forks, Minnesota, during the 1950s and ‘60s. Beginning work at age 10, his free time was spent playing sports and going to fantasy movies with neighbors. Surrounded by books at home, DeMers spent hours immersed in the writings of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, Fritz Lieber and Michael Moorcock. At that time, he developed the character of Vandar. Later a student of judo and archery, DeMers became a geography professor, traveling in the United States and abroad. Upon retirement, he has let Vandar's life unfold through what will be a series of novels beginning with “Young Vandar.”
