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Don Willerton grew up with history in his backyard. Raised in the Panhandle of Texas, he picnicked where Kit Carson led his troops to the first battle of Adobe Walls in 1864, hunted arrowheads along the Canadian River, walked in swales made by pioneer wagons more than a hundred and fifty years ago, and adventured in the canyons of the Palo Duro. An award-winning author of more than a dozen books, most of his novels are set against the mountains, rivers, and canyons of the American West. |
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After earning a degree in physics from Midwestern State University in Texas and a master’s in computer science and electrical engineering from the University of New Mexico, he worked for Los Alamos National Laboratory for almost three decades. During his career there, Willerton was a supercomputer programmer for a number of years and a manager after that for “way too long,” and also worked on information policy and cyber-security. 
He finds focusing on only one thing very difficult among such varied interests as home building, climbing Colorado’s tallest peaks, and rafting the rivers of the Southwest (including the Colorado through Grand Canyon). Willerton also has owned a handyman business for a number of years, rebuilt old cars, and made furniture in his woodshop.
He is a wanderer in both mind and body, fascinated with history and its landscape, varied peoples and their cultures, good mysteries, secrets, and seeking out treasure. Most of all, he loves the outdoors and the places he finds in the Southwest where spirits live and ghosts dance. Weaving it all together to share with readers has been the driving force of Willerton’s writing over the past twenty years. |
Ask the Author
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Q: When did you start writing the Mogi Franklin mysteries?
A: I went on a rafting trip on the Chama River in the early 1990s. Along the river, I saw a very interesting rock formation. It occurred to me that it would be a great place to hide a stash of gold coins. A few weeks later, I had written a story: bandits robbing a stagecoach, a leaking boat bouncing down a flooding river, a psychopathic killer for a bad guy, and Mogi discovering a pile of gold while rafting down the Chama. The story was resurrected after a number of years, changed, enhanced, and is now Book Nine in the series - "The River of Gold" Q: Where did you get Mogi as a name for your main character? A: There's a remarkable highway between Mexican Hat, Utah (where you launch your rafts to float down the San Juan River), and the take-out (where you get off the river to come back home), about 60 miles away. It includes a one-mile section where the road switchbacks straight up the face of a huge mesa. And I mean straight up! That portion of the road was designed by a road engineer named Moki. When you see it, you understand that it is an incredible achievement. Look on a Utah road map for the Moki Dugway on Highway 261. After having gone up and down it a couple of times, I thought the name Moki was a pretty cool name for a character. But I later figured out that I had not spelled it correctly. I had used Mogi instead of Moki. Anyway, I liked my spelling better by that time, so that's the way it stayed. Q: Are the historical stories in your books true or made-up? A: Completely made-up. Q: Is the history in your books true? A: In general, the history is mostly true: where the story takes place and what it was like at the time. Gas, oil, and gold prospecting in southeastern Utah; hard rock mining in Ouray; the conflicts between the Pueblo Indians and the Spanish army; the fire in Los Alamos; the cattle drives of Charlie Goodnight and the kidnapping of children by the Comanches. But there's no turquoise being stolen, no European style resort threatening Ouray, no mysterious Spanish village, no stolen plutonium, and no cattle baron with a castle. Those are from my imagination. Q: Are the locations real? A: In general, the locations are real. You can go to a map and find the San Juan River (which I've rafted several times); Ouray, Colorado (a beautiful town); the El Malpais National Monument (south of Grants, New Mexico); Los Alamos (I live there); and the joining of the Mora and Canadian Rivers (east of Las Vegas, New Mexico). However, there's no hidden mine in a mesa, no gold mine next to a waterfall, no Querencia, no hidden river, no education center in the Valle Grande, and no frontier castle on the Canadian. Those are from my imagination. |