An Interview with Rick Donahoe
Originally from the east, I lived in a hundred-year-old log cabin in the Colorado foothills while I attended CU Boulder, earning a degree in Natural Resource Conservation. Upon graduation, I turned down a state job to work in game management and agriculture in East Africa, after which I went to horseshoeing school in Texas to become a farrier. Eventually I moved with my wife and two children to a small farmstead on Central Oregon’s high desert, where I spent the next thirty years farming commercial peppermint, raising cattle, and shoeing horses.
Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?
The title, already familiar to most readers, came right away. I thought it said a lot about where the story takes place at the same time as leaving unanswered questions.
How did it feel when you first saw your book cover? Or when you first held your book in your hands?
Pretty exciting. It immediately made me want to read it.
Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?
A long-time member of ONDA (the Oregon Natural Desert Association), I wanted to do more than write letters to the local editor about saving old growth forests. By incorporating a certain amount of sex, violence, and general humanity, I wanted to write a story that a wider audience, including those who wouldn’t normally read about saving trees, might actually want to read.
What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?
I speak fluent Swahili. A farrier (a professional horseshoer) by trade, I worked on my last horse five years ago, when I was seventy-nine. I mainly write short stories, many of which have also won prizes.
What was the most rewarding/meaningful part of publishing your book?
Working with Atmosphere Press, start to finish, was such a positive learning experience. Having sat on this book for thirty years, tinkering with it, rewriting it over and over (it getting shorter and shorter), seeing it finally in print was one of the great joys of my life.
If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?
Home, Home on the Range. Tumbling Tumbleweeds. Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright. The Gambler.
What is one thing you hope readers take away from reading your book? How do you envision your perfect reader?
Our world on every front – environmentally, politically, financially, militarily, morally – is headed in an unsustainable direction. But there’s still hope…there is something each of us can do, picking up a scrap of paper, if we care enough and are brave enough to just do it.
What creative projects are you currently working on?
Marketing Deer and Antelope. Writing short stories. Fighting the good fight via various local and national environmental groups. Supporting thoughtful politicians. Placing conservation easements on my own and other properties. Being generous. Being kind.
How was working with Atmosphere Press? What would you tell other writers who want to publish?
Start to finish, a positive learning experience I will gladly recommend to others.
Are you a writer, too? Submit your manuscript to Atmosphere Press.
Atmosphere Press is a selective hybrid publisher founded in 2015 on the principles of Honesty, Transparency, Professionalism, Kindness, and Making Your Book Awesome. Our books have won dozens of awards and sold tens of thousands of copies. If you’re interested in learning more, or seeking publication for your own work, please explore the links below.