A few months ago I received a gracious invitation to address that Op Cit Taos' Mystery Book Club at the Martyrs Steakhouse on Wednesday, August 19. Each member of the book club buys the book of the month and reads it in advance, then meets for lunch and a Q&A with the author. More book clubs/bookstores need to do this!
Obviously an opportunity too good to miss! I said "Yes" immediately and began to plan. I remembered that I needed to take a look at some material in a collection at the Lunder Research at the Couse-Sharp Historic site, so I made an appointment for the day before the book club meeting. I hoped that would give me Tuesday afternoon to look around Taos, as I had never been there before. I made a reservation at the Historic Taos Inn and started putting together swag bags.
And then, the Saturday before the event, I received another invitation for an interview on a local public radio station, KCEI Cultural Energy. I'm starting to feel like a fairly average size fish in a moderately large pond, not just a guppy. 😁
Because I avoid freeways as much as possible, it's about a 3 hour drive from our house in Albuquerque to the middle of Taos, with spectacular southwestern scenery once you get past the city. It is actually possible to take state highways all the way, but that makes the trip nearly 4 hours, so I got on the 25 north of the city, then got off on the truck route that avoids Santa Fe. There are some rather windy (in both senses of the word) stretches through the mountains there, along the course of a river -- which was a welcome site, as the Rio Grande has been completely dry down here for months. Smoke from the Frijoles fire was visible for many miles and gave me brief flashbacks to the Santa Clarita fires of 2004.
Downtown Taos feels like a smaller, less touristy Santa Fe (but don't say that to a local!). There's even a La Fonda in the plaza. Everything is within walking distance, and closer than it looks on the map.
Now I have to be perfectly honest. The Historic Taos Inn was a disappointment. One reason I booked it was for the atmospheric lobby that looks like something out of a historic adobe ranch house, with its Santa Fe style sofas and chairs, the central fountain, and the eye-catching gallery. Sadly, now, it looks like a food court. It's packed with four-tops and chairs, for the nightly local live music. Forget sitting on the banco next to the sunken kiva fireplace -- tables and chairs are crammed right up next to it.
But enough complaining 😁The staff at the Lunder Research Center could not have been more helpful or more interested in my research. They were ready for me, with everything that I'd requested pulled and on a cart in the research room, which looks and feels like a 19th-century private library. When I wasn't able to find what I was looking for, one of the archivist went above and beyond to locate the information on "Find a Grave." I swear I had looked there, but I think that I misspelled her name! In any case, I now know far more about Winnifred Shuler Berninghaus than I did. They even showed me a pencil sketch of Winnie made by -- I forget, but some famous Taos artist. 😂 I may request to use it in my book. Now I have to try to track down info on the Taos Art Association.
Wednesday was THE day. KCEI's mission statement is, "Creating Media Voices for Youth, Arts & Activism in Northern New Mexico & Southern Colorado," and the interview questions very much reflected that. They gave me an opportunity to talk about the characters and events in Fried Chicken Castañeda in that light, such as why Tom and Martha were Jewish, the Indian Boarding School system, and the politics of small town life. You can download the interview at https://www.culturalenergy.org/mp3/suzanne%20stauffer%2029m43s19aug26-a.mp3 The conversation did not end with the end of the interview, either. Mike and I discovered a common interest in classic western movies, among other things. I'm looking forward to being invited back after French Toast comes out. Then it was off to Martyrs Steakhouse.
The members of the Mystery Book Club were so welcoming! They'd all bought and read my book, and were especially thrilled with the swag bags I had brought -- just a feathered headband, string of beads, and bookmarks in a gold organza bag. Something fun and flappery. One question they asked that I had difficulty answering is "Where did the name 'Castañeda' come from?" I knew that it is a place in Spain and, luckily, had recently read that it was named for Pedro de Castañeda de Nájera, who chronicled Coronado's 1540 expedition into what is now New Mexico -- but nothing more. So, for those who are interested, Castañeda is a city in Cantabria, near the northern coast of Spain, off the Bay of Biscay. It's southwest of Santander. However, he was most likely from Baeza, in Jaen, which is in Andalusia, in the south of Spain. UNM's Most Splendid Company: A Database of People from Sixteenth-Century New Spain includes a biography.
Then, it was back on the road for home and a different perspective on the Frijoles fire.
Mike and I are planning a real road trip together (with Treme, of course) that will take the state highways through Jemez and Los Alamos, with a stop at the Puye Cliff Dwellings and sidetrip to Chimayó.
