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MEET DEANNE STILLMAN "Deanne Stillman and Bugz, the wild horse (1998-2009)"
by Bonnie O'Brian

What books influenced you most when you were growing up?

Deanne Stillman & Bugz

I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and the winters there were very brutal.  The skies were often gray and I never felt comfortable in that climate.  My father had taught me to read when I was quite young, and he would often read to me from his favorite works, including the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe.  His favorite poem was Poe’s “Eldorado,” about a knight wandering the desert, searching for gold. When my father read, I would enter that poem and wander with the knight, through the sunshine and shadows.  From then on, I was drawn to the West, and began to read stories about frontier characters like Calamity Jane, Sitting Bull, Jesse James, and also wild animals. THE CALL OF THE WILD was important to me. Later, MOBY DICK became an influence. These works and others in that vein have shaped my writing.   

Did you write stories when you were growing up? at school? Or at home as a hobby? As a young child, or as a teenager, or both?

I began writing stories in elementary school, with my father.  We would talk about current events and then respond to them with stories, situations, and characters that we made up.  We wrote plays and short stories together, and also sometimes parodies of what was in the news.  When I was 8 years old, I began submitting some of these to Mad Magazine, and I changed my name from Deanne to Dean on my letters because I noticed that there were no girls writing for Mad.  Well, calling myself “Dean” didn’t help – I got many rejection notices!

When you were a child did you ever have moments when you decided that you were going to be a writer when you grew up?

I somehow always knew that when I grew up, I would be a writer.  The only other thing I wanted to do was ride off on a horse across the red rock mesas of the southwest, places I had read about in all of my favorite books.  Also, when I was growing up, we had horses; my mother had taught me and my sister to ride, and growing up around horses fueled my desire to escape.  And in my imagination, I would ride with all of my favorite characters – cowboys and Indians – as they lived their lives in the wilderness.  I had a suede jacket with fringe on it as a kid, and this wasn’t just a cool jacket; it also fueled my imagination. 

Do you do other types of writing - for example, educational, nonfiction, magazine work?

I started out writing for magazines, and I still write for one or two.  I’ve had some great assignments over the years – going to Florida to test suntan lotions; going to Hawaii to write about surf culture; writing about my favorite places in the desert, and covering dramatic trials. 
I also write plays and they have been produced in theatre festivals around the country.  Theatre is magic and with plays, you can tell stories in a way that is much different than on the page.  I’ve written for television too, which I don’t really like because so many people are involved in the writing process.  And I’ve written screenplays as well; one of them was based on one of my books, TWENTYNINE PALMS: A TRUE STORY OF MURDER, MARINES, AND THE MOJAVE, and right now, I’m working on a documentary based on my book MUSTANG: THE SAGA OF THE WILD HORSE IN THE AMERICAN WEST.

What kinds of things inspire you to write?

I’m inspired by the wide open space in the desert; it helps me quiet down and sooner or later, certain stories come to me.  Often the land is a main character in my stories, and I’m also inspired by the things that are there – cactus, rocks, coyotes, tortoises, ravens, and, yes, people…I have met the most amazing characters in the desert – unsung Americans whom we do not appreciate, just like the plants and animals that live there, and the desert itself – and all of these elements add up to my stories which seem to drift in when I’m in the desert and hear things.

Have any of your books earned special recognition?

Yes, they have.  TWENTYNINE PALMS was a Los Angeles Times “best book of 2001” and in 2008 was published in a new, updated edition.  It was also a finalist for a Southern California Independent Booksellers Award.  MUSTANG was a Los Angeles Times “best book of 2008” and won a California Book Award silver medal for nonfiction.  It also appears on various other “best of the year” lists around the country. 

What do you most want the students to get out of your school visits?
       
I would like to encourage students to follow their dreams and their hearts and not be afraid of what people might say if they don’t do the things that other people think they should do.  Many wonderful writers and amazing figures down through history have blazed the trail, and students should know that they are not alone, and that if they feel so inclined, they should write down their stories in whatever form they come, and pass them on.  Story is how we link to each other, and ourselves.  

Was your first book accepted immediately? or did you experience a number of rejections?