Idaho is a state of contrasts—from farmland to mines to sagebrush
steppe to rocky mountains, to blue lakes and white water rivers.
Shoshone, Nez Perce and other Indian tribes
peopled the varied geography.
They met, guided,
and saved Lewis and Clark on their expedition to explore the Louisiana Purchase
in 1804-05.
And then the Indians were swept
away.
Forested and mineral filled mountains and deep lakes—Coeur
d’Alene and Pend O’Reille—fill the panhandle of northern Idaho. Rolling hills of fertile earth and high
plateaus of camas and the tribal lands of the Nez Perce comprise the large
batholith of central Idaho. From there,
the land turns to high desert and more mountains, this time the granite peaks
of south central Idaho, and the Stanley Basin, where the Salmon River begins
its flow to the north as the River of No Return. Farther south lies more farmland irrigated by
the Snake River.
In the mid to late 1800s, thousands of settlers arrived
in Idaho, both north and south, mostly searching for gold, which they found in
abundance for a short period. When the
ready gold played out, only the hard rock miners stayed, digging deep for lead,
silver and zinc with tunnels and shafts into the mountains and rock crushers
and smelters on top. Loggers cut the
forests and farmers settled the fertile Palouse area in north central Idaho,
and their winter wheat farming continues to this day. The southern farmers grow
not only the famous potatoes of Idaho, but also range sheep and cattle and
raise sugar beets.
My mother’s family arrived here in the 1870s, on their
way to Oregon.
Weary and ill, they
stopped in Boise City.
My forebears
cleared sagebrush from the town square, claimed land for settlement near by,
worked in the mines of the Wood River Valley and freighted supplies to other
mines north and west of the Stanley Basin, where they also spent summers
searching for valuable metals.
My
grandmother and my mother were both born in Idaho.
I was raised in the mining town of Kellogg, in Idaho’s
panhandle.
Although I left Idaho to
attend school and law school in Seattle, Washington, Idaho has always been the
home of my heart.
I now live here again,
this time in Hailey, a south central town located near the first American destination
ski resort:
Sun Valley. Skiing has been and still is
a passion of my husband and me.
My first book is a memoir of place: The
Good Times Are All Gone Now: Life, Death
and Rebirth in an Idaho Mining Town (University of Oklahoma Press,
2009). This book tells stories of my
ancestors in Idaho, of the mining in north Idaho over 100 years, and of my
growing up years in a town famous for its silver and lead and notorious for its
brothels, gambling and drinking. This
book won Honorable Mention in the 2009 Idaho Book of the Year Award.
Nearly all of my writing—short stories, essays, and
books—has been about Idaho and the stories I learned from my own family, as
well as from the miners and characters of my home town and the towns of Hailey,
Ketchum, and Stanley, and research. The
beauty of the state has influenced my characters and me, but so have the fierce
landscapes, the outdoors, the mining, the prejudices of the state’s people, the
sheepherding, and the contrasts reflected in its geography.
My next two books are mysteries, set in the 1920s in the
high desert and mountains of central Idaho.
Nellie Burns, a photographer, comes to Idaho from Chicago and is based
on an early woman photographer in the panhandle. Her black Labrador dog, Moonshine, fits right
in with all the dogs of Ketchum. The
Chinese characters; Rosy, a one-eyed miner; Charlie Asteguigoiri, a Basque
sheriff; and Goldie, owner of a boarding house, could have stepped right out of
the streets of Hailey and Ketchum, where the action takes place, in MOONSHADOWS (Five Star Publishing,
2015). Kirkus Reviews said: This debut mystery from Weston authentically
portrays the gritty mining towns and the wild beauty of Idaho while presenting
a challenging puzzle. Ridley Pearson called it “A gorgeously written, taut
mystery.” It was a Finalist in the May
Sarton Literary Award and True West Magazine named it Best of the Rest in
mystery.
My second mystery, BASQUE
MOON (Five Star Publishing, 2016), set in the Sawtooth and White Cloud
Mountains of the Stanley Basin, follows many of the same characters, and adds a
few more to the Idaho pantheon, including sheepherders and cowboys. Kirkus Reviews called this one a “rip-roarin’
Idaho yarn.”
Nellie and
Moonshine and the sheriff are now embarked on an adventure in Craters of the
Moon, a national monument since 1924, finding bodies and terror in caves and
desolate lava fields, in the third mystery, still in process.
All photographs, including the cover photos, are by Gerry
Morrison.
To enjoy more of his work,
visit
www.gerrymorrisonphotography.com
.
The painting on the cover of my memoir
was done by my mother, Marie Whitesel, in 1961.
If you crave mystery set in 1920’s
Idaho, I am offering one lucky
winner his or her choice of MOONSHADOWS
or BASQUE MOON and an 8x10 of one of the photos above. Please leave a comment with your preferred contact info to be entered
to win!
And of course, there’s those amazing potatoes, a staple in most everyone kitchen pantry. 
For more information on Idaho, visit www.idaho.gov and www.visitidaho.org
With a very active imagination, I’ve been writing since I was a teen and finally got off my tush to make my dreams come true. New Concepts Publishing took me into their family and I am grateful to Andrea DePasture for believing in me. I like to shake up the genres and love writing combinations of historical, fantasy and vamps. 
Product of a book loving mother who got me hooked on reading at the early age of three, I quickly decided I wanted to write my own. As I said, you can find my hand in several genres, and currently released is the Borne Vampire series. I love meeting readers and other writers, so please feel free to e-mail me at wend.petzler@yahoo.com.
