From Torrey House: Pursued by a hired killer after they protested at a mining site gate, Luna Waxwing and Hip Hop Hopi seek refuge in the remote Southwest village of Stony Mesa where they start over as micro-farming restaurateurs with a dangerous secret. With their rodeo princess partner Kayla and a colorful cast of unlikely allies, they struggle to find common ground between coyote-killing cowboys and bird-watching retirees.
Along the way they explore the nature of the energetic body, how the sins of the past echo into the present, and how to live lightly but joyously on the land. Can Luna and Hoppy keep their secret? Did Mayor Dooley strangle his rich nemesis? Will Bunny Cleaver’s patriarchal prophecies come true? And what’s the deal with that mystical coyote? Stony Mesa Sagas is a thought provoking and laugh-out-loud romp through the cultural conflicts of today’s American West.
CHIP WARD, after living for four years in wilderness, moved to the edge of Utah’s West Desert, an environmental sacrifice zone, where he organized and led several campaigns to make polluters accountable. He co-founded HEAL Utahand served on the board of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance for several years. Starting as a bookmobile librarian, Ward ended his library career as the Assistant Director of the Salt Lake City Public Library. His books Canaries on the Rim: Living Downwind in the West and Hope’s Horizon: Three Visions for Healing the American Land, describe his political adventures. He is a regular contributor to Tomdispatch.com and his essays on conservation have appeared widely across the web. An essay about homelessness, “How the Public Library Became the Heartbreak Hotel,” is the inspiration for the movie The Public now in production. As a spokesperson for environmental causes, he has been interviewed by CBS, CNN, NPR, the BBC, and more. This is his first novel. He lives in Torrey, Utah.