​Award-winning fiction writer and writing teacher Kris Neri discussed with Lynn Moorer her latest book, Hopscotch Life, whose protagonist, Plum Tardy, is quirky, goofy, and missed getting a copy of life’s rulebook.  Just as she discovers that her executive chef job has evaporated because one of the owners has absconded with the restaurant assets, she finds her fiancé has taken both another woman to bed and Plum’s share of house payments.  Jobless and essentially homeless, she flees on a whim to Applewood, Arizona to the heart of a battle to site a new big box Budget-Mart—a battle which involves characters who turn out to have historical and familial connection to Plum and who savor her uniqueness.  

​Poet and co-editor of Sin Fronteras/Writers Without Borders Ellen Roberts Young spoke with Lynn Moorer about, and read from, her book of poetry Made and Remade which was inspired by Natural Theology, a book published in 1802 by English clergyman William Paley (1743-1805) which argues that the physical and social order of things evince God’s design of the whole creation. Young explained how her interest with Paley’s book, which grew into an obsession, was sparked by learning that her great grandfather had studied the book seventy years earlier as part of his coursework.  A thread that weaves through both Paley’s book and Young’s poems is his watch analogy: if one finds a watch on the ground, the inference is inevitable that the watch must have had a maker.  Her poems reflect on how much has changed in the two hundred years since Paley.

​NMSU English professor and former assistant basketball coach Rus Bradburd chatted with Lynn Moorer about his memoir, Paddy on the Hardwood:  A Journey in Irish Hoops, which recounts his quest for an easy job in the Republic of Ireland coaching basketball while learning traditional Irish fiddle tunes and finishing a short story series.  Coaching the Tralee Tigers, headquartered in a small town in southwestern Ireland, turned out to be an unexpected coaching challenge, not least because the Tigers didn’t have their own gym to train or play in, basketball had to compete with many more popular sports in Ireland, and his Irish players had other jobs while playing only for the love of the game and practicing only five hours a week.  Instead of writing short stories, he found himself embracing his unique coaching challenge and creating an entertaining and, at times, riveting journal about his vivid experiences.

​Eighth-grade English language arts teacher Lydia Udero-Vaughan chatted with Lynn Moorer about her debut book of fiction, As I Battle Your Demons:  Book One:  The Chosen, a young adult novel that traces the trials, tribulations, and paranormal experiences of Lee DelRay who, when thirteen years old, begins to endure terrifying nightmares that leave her physically wounded and her parents, who deny abuse or mistreatment, baffled.  After she is committed to a mental hospital, Lee initially experiences hell on earth through overmedication and mistreatment while she fights demons in horrifying nightmares.  After an angel comes to her and tells her she’s God’s warrior, she asks God for victory in battling demons and her life begins to improve.  When she leaves the hospital after reaching age eighteen and having experienced a loving relationship with a kindly doctor and his family, she begins to build a happy life with new friends while also fighting demons encountered when awake.  When traveling in Italy with a friend, then meeting an older brother she hasn’t seen for years, and finding a new love interest, an angel gives Lee a life-altering choice:  join the battle against Lucifer and his army or live a normal life.