TERRY GREENE STERLING: MEDITATIONS ON ILLEGAL THE BOOK, LIFE AND DEATH IN THE UNDOCUMENTED UNDERGROUND, WRITING, MINUTEMEN, AND GONGS.
I worked for over a year on what seemed to be a never-ending project, the book about undocumented immigrants in the Phoenix area.
I reported like crazy. This picture shows me reporting. Yep, you got it. The grey-haired woman with the notebook. I took a lot of notes. I translated from Spanish to English as I took notes. Then, at night, I went over all my reporting and then I closed my eyes and listened to Tibetan gong sounds on my iPhone.
Then the next day, I’d write. This picture below shows me writing. Or, at least, thinking about writing.
And this picture below shows me relaxing with my husband after I finished the book for real.
I relaxed for two weeks. You didn’t see me on these pages. You would have seen me in the Sonoran Desert, though, hiking around, looking for Mexican poppies and lupine.
It was my first real vacation in over a year.
The book won’t come out until August, so now it’s time to write again. I’m working on a post about Minutemen. Stay tuned. I will be back really, really soon. Just as soon as I get a couple of documents.
And down the road, as we near publication dates, I will redesign the website, too, so you will be able to meet the real-life characters in the book via video and podcasts. And, also, I really want to take polls. I want to see what you think about, say, Minutemen.
Would you like to read about them and their connections to highly placed politicos in Arizona?
I hope so, because that is the topic of my next post.
Can’t wait to read the book, Terry.