Lou Dean is the author of countless articles in major magazines, five books of memoirs and two young adult novels. She has received four Colorado Authors’ League Awards and a prestigious Wrangler Award for her work. She grew up on a farm in Osage County, Oklahoma, and attended Oklahoma State University. She now resides in an isolated area of northwest Colorado.
Her novel “Autumn of the Big Snow” is a Colorado Book Award finalist for Romance.
SunLit: Tell us this book’s backstory. What inspired you to write it? Where did the story/theme originate?
Lou Dean: This story evolved out of my love for hiking and riding my donkey in the mountains of northwestern Colorado. I came from Oklahoma to Colorado because my son had chronic asthma. The doctor recommended moving my 5-year-old to a high, dry climate. Scott was on a dozen meds and struggling to breathe when we arrived in Rangely, but after only a few months his health began to improve.
Homesickness for Oklahoma choked me that first year, but as Scott’s health improved, my attitude changed. Ten years later, when I moved to rural Blue Mountain and began to hike with my dogs, I slowly fell in love with the mountain mystic and all of its wonder. My love for this country became the setting for the novel and my years of experience working construction jobs to support my writing habit and son inspired the plot.
SunLit: Place this excerpt in context. How does it fit into the book as a whole? Why did you select it?
Dean: The excerpt, where the wife of my heroine’s lover arrives with a gun and announces she intends to shoot Katie Jo, is a turning point for the protagonist, who, for two years has believed the lies of her married lover. It also deepens her attraction to her handsome coworker, August Atkins, who warned her that “men lie to get what they want.”
UNDERWRITTEN BY
Each week, The Colorado Sun and Colorado Humanities & Center For The Book feature an excerpt from a Colorado book and an interview with the author. Explore the SunLit archives at coloradosun.com/sunlit.
The preparation for Katie Jo’s hiking trip to the mountains and the gathering of her animal family is something I’ve done for decades and love doing, probably that is why I selected it.
SunLit: Tell us about creating this book. What influences and/or experiences informed the project before you sat down to write?
Dean: Many factors in my life influenced this book. I play the guitar and for years wrote songs that I entered into contests. I have had the experience of being lied to in a relationship and remaining very naïve when others tried to warn me. I have lived alone for years, supported by my family of canine companions. The time I spent hiking in the foothills and mountains around Blue Mountain slowly became therapy for me and began to shape this story long before I began to write about Katie Jo and August Atkins. My characters, of course are fictional. Yes, many unexpected twists and turns took me in different directions through 10 years and four drafts of this novel.
SunLit: What did the process of writing this book add to your knowledge and understanding of your craft and/or the subject matter?
Dean: I have nine books in print. Each has been a lesson. I sold my first article in 1974 to the American Human Association for one and a half cents per word. In 1993 I sold my first book, a young adult romance, to a German publisher through a California literary agent. I called everyone I’d ever known to tell them I’d sold my first book.
Two weeks later, the agent informed me the book would only be published in German. I had to call everyone back and tell them I did sell the book, but they wouldn’t be able to read it. Yes, every book is a lesson in humility. This novel was written in between four other projects that were eventually published. I kept going back to it and even last year at 75 years young, was determined to get it published. Perhaps, the writing of this novel made me realize, yet again, the importance of never giving up on a project you love.
SunLit: What were the biggest challenges you faced in writing this book?
Dean: The biggest challenge in finishing this novel was the fact that other projects kept getting in the way. In 2007 a man I’d known 30 years before came back into my life in Oklahoma. He had spent his early years racing horses on the old bush tracks in the fifties. As he introduced me to other jockeys of that era, a book, “The Boys from the Bushes,” surfaced and demanded I drop everything and write it while these men and women (most in their 80s) could still talk to me.
After that four year marathon of interviewing, collecting, and writing this nonfiction book, an editor at a small publishing house in Wyoming, High Plains Press, approached me about writing a memoir. In 2001 I rode my donkey across the state of Colorado to promote nonviolence in the schools. That 400 mile trek that took a month involved two years of writing and editing and became “On My Ass, Riding the Midlife Crisis Trail.” That memoir was a finalist in the 2014 Colorado Authors League Awards.
I returned to the current romance novel while still traveling around promoting the two above mentioned books, but at age 70, I was slowing down. Then, I sold an article to the Guidepost Magazine, All Creatures, entitled “Too old for a puppy.” The response I received across the country from that story and a special puppy named Dell, inspired me to write my last memoir, “The Amazing Grace of Dogs.”
In the fifties, when my mama left our family farm in Oklahoma, a very caring teacher enrolled Shorty Dog in school so he could comfort me. Four decades later, a dog named Jake saved me from a life-threatening ATV accident on a horse ranch in Utah. Dell Dog, the puppy I acquired at age 70, made me realize I had one more important memoir to write. “The Amazing Grace of Dogs,” became the unforgettable story of how love from dedicated canine companions gave me the strength to survive family tragedy and the unmerited divine assistance (grace) to become an award-winning author.
During the writing of this book, I connected with an editor who had, at one time, worked with Doubleday Publishing. He loved my book, jumped on board to help me edit and tried to find an agent for me. Then COVID happened and everything changed for two years. Because of my age, I made the decision to offer the book myself on Amazon. It was a Colorado Authors League finalist in the memoir category in 2021.
SunLit: What’s the most important thing – a theme, lesson, emotion or realization — that readers should take from this book?
Dean: If you’ve been devastated in a loving relationship and are struggling to persevere, believe in hope and cling to a sense of humor.
SunLit: Walk us through your writing process: Where and how do you write?
Dean: The desk where I do my daily writing faces south. From my picture window, I can see thousands of acres of sagebrush-covered public lands without a trace of civilization. I am so fortunate that God put me in northwest Colorado, where I can walk for hours with my dogs off leash and never see another human.
The Blue Mountain Community sets nearby with eight houses east of me on small acreages, most peppered with horses, cows, and chickens. Since I was born and raised on an Oklahoma farm, being in the middle of nowhere suits me. In my early days, when I had to work a day job to support my son, I wrote evenings and weekends. Later, as I began to sell articles, I had more writing time and wrote 8-10 hours a day. I have been blessed with the ability to discipline myself.
Now, 10 years past retirement age, I usually write early morning until noon. I started out on a Smith Corona electric typewriter and finally got my first laptop in the early 1990s. For decades, I typed up my manuscripts, sent them out in a manila envelope with a stamped, self-addressed envelope included, in order to get either a rejection or a check. I still have boxes of rejections from that era, but also countless articles in major magazines.
SunLit: When are you going to write the sequel to “Autumn of the Big Snow?
“Autumn of the Big Snow”
Where to find it:
- Prospector: Search the combined catalogs of 23 Colorado libraries
- Libby: E-books and audio books
- NewPages Guide: List of Colorado independent bookstores
- Bookshop.org: Searchable database of bookstores nationwide
SunLit present new excerpts from some of the best Colorado authors that not only spin engaging narratives but also illuminate who we are as a community. Read more.
Dean: I answer that question with, “Time will tell.” I have other projects that are beckoning. Over a period of 50 years, I’ve written poems for many different occasions and events. Many were for fun, some more serious. I may do something with those. I wrote six or eight picture books in rhymed verse that I think are good.
My greatest weakness as a writer was always in marketing. If I sent a manuscript out a few times and no one seemed interested, I tucked it away and went on. For me, the writing always took priority over the selling. I have a middle grade novel that is good. At my age, it becomes a question of “what is the most important project for me?” So, as I said, “Time will tell.”
SunLit: Tell us about your next project.
Dean: Currently, I have one article already scheduled later this year for Guideposts Magazine and another in the works. I have a short Father’s Day piece coming out in the June/July issue of Guideposts, an another project in progress for their “Joys of Christmas” special issue. I enjoy these shorter projects and the input I get from Guideposts readers, so will continue with that.
As far as a longer project, I’ve finally learned to be patient, consider all possibilities and see where I’m led.
A few more quick questions
SunLit: Which do you enjoy more as you work on a book – writing or editing?
Dean: I must love the work. I’ve been dedicated to it since 1974, when I sold my first article and saw my name in print. Of course, it is lonely, sometimes very hard work, but the satisfaction of getting the response from readers is rewarding. Like any other profession, at times it is discouraging.. Living where I do and being able to get out and hike with my dogs has saved me from despair. When I get stuck in a bad place and feel blocked, I go out with my dogs to the hills, hike and relax. I have found many answers to plot twists in my northwestern Colorado foothills. Probably the hardest part of continuing to write was transitioning to the current technology and learning how to give editors what they needed.
SunLit: What’s the first piece of writing – at any age – that you remember being proud of?
Dean: In 1967, I was enrolled at Oklahoma State University in pre-vet-med. Because of my early love for dogs and animals, veterinary medicine seemed to be a good fit. But I had a poor background in math and science and for a female to get into vet school (during that era) was next to impossible without a straight A average. As I struggled daily with tutoring and dealt with the possibility that I might never comprehend chemistry, I entered a campus poetry contest and won.
The fact that I won was a shock to me. Although I’d kept a personal journal for years, I had never considered the possibility of pursuing writing as a career. My roommate. Elaine was a serious-minded academic who rarely showed emotion of any kind. She was impressed that I won the contest and asked me to read the poem to her. To my astonishment, she openly wept as I read the poem about leaving my horse in order to attend college. Even though it was several years later when I enrolled in my first creative writing class, I never forgot the way my words moved Elaine.
SunLit: What three writers, from any era, would you invite over for a great discussion about literature and writing?
Dean: When I began to seriously consider writing, I read all of the old classics. Mark
Twain quickly became my favorite. I read everything he’d written and all that was written about him. So he would be invited to my Blue Mountain home to have a discussion about literature. My second invitation would go out to James Herriot, he had the gift of humor and a deep love and respect for animals. My third invite would have to go to Margaret Mitchell, who wrote and published one book that became an instant classic and was one of the greatest novels ever written.
SunLit: Do you have a favorite quote about writing?
Dean: I have several inspirational quotes around my desk, but my favorite would be
a Peanuts cartoon taped beneath my keyboard. Snoopy is sitting on his doghouse with his typewriter. “Why Dogs Are the Most Superior of All Creatures On Land, Sea and Sky and Maybe Space.” Lucy reads this and says, “I think your title is a bit long.” Snoopy, still behind his typewriter, thinks for a moment and decides, “I’ll take out the ‘maybe.’”
SunLit: What does the current collection of books on your home shelves tell visitors about you?
Dean: My books would tell any visitor that I love books of every genre. I love books
that are classics and books that are little known. I love memoir, novels, history, inspirational and self-help. I have the work of Hemingway, Shakespeare, Dickens, and Poe displayed on the shelf next to the novels of Tony Hillerman.
SunLit: Soundtrack or silence? What’s the audio background that helps you write?
Dean: Silence except for the doves and red-winged blackbirds in the yard.
SunLit: What event, and at what age, convinced you that you wanted to be a writer?
Dean: When I was seven, my mama left our Oklahoma farm. My teacher enrolled my dog, Shorty, so he could be with me at our one-room schoolhouse. Shorty became my security. Our farm was located less than a mile from the school, so I got in the habit of sitting on the school steps in the late afternoon long after everyone else left and reading to my dog. Books and reading became my escape from the pain of Mama leaving and sharing stories was a balm for my soul. I didn’t know then, but I know now, I became a writer sitting on the steps of Braden School in 1955 in Osage County, Oklahoma, at age 7.
SunLit: Greatest writing fear?
Dean: Since I will be 76 in June this year, I guess I am afraid of losing the ability to create. But, I have written and published two books in the past four years and sold six feature articles, so I have no intention of retiring.
SunLit: Greatest writing satisfaction?
Dean: The process of writing is fascinating to me. Getting an idea, letting it develop, rearranging story elements, watching a story grow. The completion of an article or a book is a great feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction.