Up until the time I was 12 years old, the federal government conducted open air tests of nerve gas in the county where I grew up. In 1968, the dispensers malfunctioned, nerve gas sprayed beyond the "test area" and more than 6,000 sheep were killed. .....About six years before the sheep were killed, my father decided to buy a run-down ranch, and I became the daughter of a rancher. In my late 40s I began to understand how my father's decision molded my views and ideas of the west, and created in me an unyielding connection to the geography of the west. I also began to contemplate how this romantic myth of the cowboy had been perpetuated through movies and books and expectations of Americans, often to the detriment of the geography itself. 

Although this book is not autobiographical, some truths lie at its core. The two events mentioned above provided the seeds for the story of THE LAST COWGIRL. I guess you could say that I've been "working on" this novel since I was about six years old, although the story itself took about two years to write. I returned to Utah's west desert often during the writing of this book--the place of my youth and the place of the dead sheep.  

King's English Event