Montana Writers - Writers

about us

	Nona Burroughs Babcock, the daughter of a farmer and a school teacher, grew up in South Dakota. She attended a one-room elementary school and, as a teen, moved to Montana. There she met her late husband, Robert Babcock. They raised three children, two girls and a boy. A career with the U.S. Forest Service led her to Ogden, Utah, where she graduated from Weber State University and retired. She lives in Missoula, Montana, with her life-companion, Darrel Fite, and their precocious dog, Mr. Dillon. More about Nona Burroughs Babcock, and about her books, Little Wolf's Adventure and Seeds of New Life, can be found at www.nonababcock.com
	Franses Hermann, is a native Nederlander and immigrant to this country. Some accent remains and shows up in her writing as a delicious difference in word choice and repetition of expression. Her experiences during the world war are a rich source of material in her memoires. Her dragon tales, however, are a world apart and reflect Franses' rich inner life.
	Kate Kronen is the critique group go-to girl for the last sharp look at precision of language. She has a natural, easy-to-tolerate authority. Thanks to the personal trials she has won through, she can be gentle and thoughtful of other's feelings, but the characters in her novels are warriors. There is a poetry, a rhythm in her writing swelling beneath the words she has tacked to the page and the dance her characters perform. Her work reminds us to a degree of Ursula K. Leguin.
	Kathleen Snow Kathleen Snow, aka "bear writer Snow" growed up near Gnaw Bone, Indiana, not too far from Stoney Lonesome. She has been puttering about in woods and creeks ever since. Recently she has been specializing in writing about national parks. New books include two set in Yellowstone: "Taken By Bear in Yellowstone" nonfiction from Lyons Press, and a Yellowstone Park mystery, "Searching for Bear Eyes" from the University of Montana Press. Welcome you to visit the puttering author at kathleensnowbooks.com.
	Parris ja Young Mom said as a wee child I would sit a long time with a book, staring at it cross-eyed. The crossed-eyes went away. One Christmas my grandmother Myrtle sent me three books. I was quite disappointed; you know, no toys, no candy. Later, bored, I picked one of those books up and, after a choppy start, devoured it. I read the others. Then I reread them. I was ten years old and transported. Mrs. House, my fifth grade teacher in Darby, Montana, read Guns Along the Mohawk aloud to the class. Those events turned on a star for me that has directed the wheel ever since.
	Mel Laubach is held by some of us as an inspiration. Primarily a classic visual artist, he came to the group interested in writing, but quite ignorant. In a very short time he maneuvered his way over the obstacles and began to produce a novel that had all of us listening. He wrote of the relationship of men and women in novels of time travel and adventure. His female characters came alive, both gentle and strong. His male characters reflected the best behaviors of the SNAG (Sensitive New-Age Male) which, in this cynical age, many of the not-so-thoughtful would like to label and bury as the "Berkeley Man". He has since passed on, but remains with us in spirit.