Mary C. Simmons’s Followers (14)

Mary C. Simmons

Born

Albuquerque, NM, The United States

Website

http://www.authormarycsimmons.com

Twitter

Ecofantasy

Genre

Fiction, Contemporary, Fantasy

Influences

Geology, Earth's landscape, Art ...more

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I live in the North Fork Valley of the Gunnison River in Colorado at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. After spending nearly my entire life in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I moved to Colorado in 2012. First to Gunnison, land of mines and cattle at 8,000 feet. I had no idea things could live through winters this cold; 2012-13 saw temperatures dip 30 degrees (F) below zero, 21 times.

The long, cold Gunnison winter drove me to the North Fork Valley, just over the West Elks–about fifty miles as the crow flies; one hundred as the car drives. Land of peaches and apples, grapes and hops, horses, cows, and a few people, Paonia is for peony, after the flowers brought to this tiny place a hundred years or so ago.

I’ve created a large amount of art in variou I live in the North Fork Valley of the Gunnison River in Colorado at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. After spending nearly my entire life in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I moved to Colorado in 2012. First to Gunnison, land of mines and cattle at 8,000 feet. I had no idea things could live through winters this cold; 2012-13 saw temperatures dip 30 degrees (F) below zero, 21 times.

The long, cold Gunnison winter drove me to the North Fork Valley, just over the West Elks–about fifty miles as the crow flies; one hundred as the car drives. Land of peaches and apples, grapes and hops, horses, cows, and a few people, Paonia is for peony, after the flowers brought to this tiny place a hundred years or so ago.

I’ve created a large amount of art in various media, including clay, metal, fabric, drawing and painting. I have focused on ceramic art the last several years, which delights me endlessly in the obvious participation of left and right brain functions.

I have a Master of Science degree in Geology, and have taught the introductory course in geology in southern Indiana–about as alien to my desert New Mexico homeland as it gets. After four years of teaching the same class, my imagination rebelled and I returned to New Mexico. I taught another geology class. I realized my house was nearly paid for, built a pottery studio and started writing Corvus Rising.

Ten years after I finished graduate school, I was asked to revise my thesis and submit it for publication in the New Mexico Geological Society Guidebook. While I never launched myself on a geological career, I’ve stayed connected to the rocks and the people I met in geology school.

I can’t drive for a moment through the beautiful landscape in which I live without contemplating the forces and time that shaped it. The rocks themselves tell this story, if we have the time to listen. The grasses, flowers, shrubs and trees also have tales to tell, though none of these entities speak in ways that we humans recognize as communication.

I never did settle on a ‘career’ as is understood by most people, in large part because I am so curious about nearly everything. And I love freedom.

Corvus Rising is my first fictional work-a science fiction novel in the "Ecofantasy"** genre-where crows and humans talk to one another and pursue like-minded goals concerning the habitat Earth that we all share. Such is my interest in writing and creating art; to give voice to the non-human, whose wiser lives point the way to understanding ourselves and our place on this glorious planet Earth.

**What is Ecofantasy? Click on this link:
http://authormarycsimmons.com/2013/07... ...more

144 posts
Mary C. Simmons's Blog

Mary C. Simmons isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.

A Year in a Cat MASH

They don’t have thumbs

And a lot of them are starving.

The homeless cat wandered up to my porch, looked me straight in the eye, and said ‘Miaow!” She had kittens somewhere, by the pink, swollen nipples on her underside. She was otherwise emaciated and had lost most of the hair on her back. “Miaow.” She rubbed her thin body against my legs.

I gave her a bowl of dry catfood borrowed from my Elvis t