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Plant My Feet On Higher Ground: A Novel History of the Great High Southern Plains

by Ila E. Flinn

245 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #06-0908; ISBN 1-4120-9154-3; US$19.50, C$22.42, EUR16.02, £11.21

From prankster to preacher? Just start in the Galveston Storm, September 1900. That will lead you back to 1857 and your parents for the most unusual of three love stories in this history.

About the Book

I heard many stories about the Galveston Flood when I was a child, although I then grasped none of its tragedy. I realized what an impact the storm had left with my mother and her family, so I decided in the fall of 1979 to write this story beginning with that Galveston Hurricane.

The setting would move from Galveston City and East Texas to where my mother's family had migrated to New Mexico Territory to homestead a farm in 1906. I knew what the flat plains country of eastern New Mexico was like, for I was born in Clovis, ten miles west of the Texas border, and lived the first eighteen years of my life in Curry County.

Reviews

"…your book arrived. It looks good — nice cover design and good print…

…Your book is a fascinating story and a wonderful record of the life, times, and history of the region (high southern plains)."

Dr. and Mrs. Robert Hall
Rio Rancho, Albuquerque, NM

"This is the kind of book I like to read — a little bit of history in a good story."

Barbara Wagner
Aguanga, CA, USA

"I read every word in the book and thoroughly enjoyed it."

Agriculture professor, Phd.
New MExico State Univ. , Las Cruces, New Mexico

About the Author

Ila's freelance newspaper and magazine feature articles were printed in San Diego city and County area periodicals in the 1970's during a break between state and parochial school teaching jobs. As a single mother following a divorce in 1970, she joined the National Federation of Press Women, entered NFPW's annual contest, won first place for a short story in California. It went on to the National Competition and placed second. Until this book that was her only published work of fiction. She has moved back to her hometown of Clovis, which also happens to be the setting for the conclusion of this book.

Previously published byline features:

A poetry collection, The Lives of Will Rogers, An Improbable Fate for a Cherokee Cowboy and Other Prognostications

Prose and Non-Fiction:

Freelance features in the Chula Vista Star News:

Bridges, New Materials, Old Ideas

Newspaper Goes Authomatic. Therein lies a story (about Linotypists and their jobs and machines being replaced).

In The San Diego Daily Transcript: Pine Valley Creek Bridge. Cantilever construction 450 feet above creek takes 10 miles off trip, S.D. to Yuma.
Fiction:

In the Beginning - a satirical short story written in 1973. Man creates Man in his own image. This won 2nd place in The National Federation of Press Woman awards.

Commentary:

San Diego Union Tribune: Doctor Townsehd Had a (Retirment) Plan - Remember?

Excerpts