LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: Judy, your work has been recognized with awards from the Western Writers of America, the Texas Institute of Letters, and the National Cowboy Museum and Hall of Fame. You’ve been honored with the Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Achievement by WWA and inducted into both the Texas Literary Hall of Fame and the WWA Hall of Fame. But how did you get started in this business?
JUDY ALTER: Just out of graduate school, I read a friend’s mother’s memoir and itched to do something with it. Being taught to support, defend, document, all I could do was annotate it. Some YA books inspired me to turn it into fiction, and it was marketed to a YA audience. That was After Pa Was Shot. I caught the fiction bug right then.
You grew up in Chicago, is that right? How did you get to Texas?
My then-husband accepted a surgical residency in Fort Worth, so I worked on my PhD at Texas Christian University. That was 1965. I am now a confirmed Texan.
Your first book was published in 1978. What was that process like?
Confusing. I didn’t know how much about publishing I didn’t know. We met a California agent at a Western Writers convention; he referred us to his New York counterpart, who submitted the book. I had little to do with the process. But the NY agent cheated me out of royalties—I knew so little I didn’t know to expect to receive them.
You were the director of the TCU Press for many years. How did that come about, and how would you describe the world of university presses?
When my husband left us, I knew I had to get out of the house each day. I left the children with a nanny they adored and accepted a job as coordinator of continuing education at TCU. I shared an office with a man slated to be director of the press (long story) and one day he looked at me and asked, “Would you like to be editor?” Yes, thank you very much, I would. After a few years he left to go to another institution and I, who never thought I wanted to be director, took over the job. I loved it.
Academic presses, especially small ones like I headed, are strange, charged with being scholarly yet also expected to sell enough books to make a profit. It’s a delicate balancing act. There’s always the fear that the university will close the press—it’s happened across the country. So it’s sometimes an uncertain existence, but you just have to plow ahead and do your job. And the job is exciting—we produced some books I’m very proud of. I loved editing, working with words, and I loved meeting authors and arranging events.
Has publishing changed since you’ve been in the business?
Oh, heavens, yes! Audiobooks appeared on the scene, then ebooks, and then self-publishing became respectable and a plethora of small presses sprang up. Authors have many more choices these days and you have to work for acquisitions. It’s still changing daily, and for an author it presents confusing choices—you can write or you can spend your day studying the market, self-publishing, etc. I have self-published two books and am medium-satisfied with the results.
You have so many books—in all kinds of genres—what’s your writing process like?
I have to find a subject or idea that really grabs me—like the story of Cissy Palmer in the Gilded Cage. For historical fiction, a lot of research follows. For my mysteries, I make a few plot notes but I am pretty much a pantser—I write from the seat of my pants, hoping ideas will come to me. They usually do. Even in retirement, I don’t have a writing schedule but wish I did—I’d get more done. As it is, too many other things get in the way.
What advice do you have for aspiring authors?
Read a lot, especially in the genres you’re interested in. Write but don’t expect every word to be golden. Realize that building a career as an author is a long, slow, tough process. Join a writers’ group of some kind if you can—exchanging ideas is a huge benefit.
If there was one thing you could change about the publishing industry, what would it be?
I guess the stranglehold the big five publishers have on the market and the out-of-proportion attention paid to “name” writers. There are many excellent writers out there who deserve to have the spotlight turned on them. I would also jiggle the system so that authors were more fairly paid for their work. As it is, it’s almost thankless and you have to write for the love of it.
Who are some of your favorite Texas authors? What are the five Texas books you believe every Texas reader should read?
Elmer Kelton should lead anybody’s list of favorite Texas authors, closely followed by Bob Flynn and John Graves. That gives you three books everyone should read: The Time It Never Rained by Kelton; Wanderer Springs by Flynn, and Goodbye to a River by Graves. I think folks should read some of Joyce Roach’s folklore to absorb her love of and feel for the land. And maybe Shelby Hearon or Beverly Lowery for the disaffected Austin writers of the ’70s and ’80s.
What’s next for Judy Alter?
Probably more mysteries, unless I come up with a historical figure that intrigues me enough to do the research and writing. Right now I’m an author in search of a subject—took some time off due to health problems and worked on promotion of The Gilded Cage, blogging, etc. But I think I’m ready to get back to a creative project. I was so pleased with The Gilded Cage and reaction to it that I’d love to do another big historical, but I just haven’t found the subject that interests me. People are always asking for more in the Kelly O’Connell Mysteries or the Blue Plate Mysteries, so that is probably what I’ll do.
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Selected reviews of Judy Alter’s historical fiction
Review of Libbie, from Booklist:
More than 100 years after his death at Little Big Horn, General George Armstrong Custer remains firmly entrenched in the American imagination. Alter, a Golden Spur winner, looks at the Custer myth from the first-person perspective of his widow, Elizabeth Bacon Custer. Libbie's narrative begins when she is 12 years old and grieving her recently deceased mother. Custer, summering with his family in Monroe, Michigan, offers some heartfelt encouragement to the young girl. Their courtship doesn't actually begin until years later when Custer has already graduated from West Point. Even then, though, Libbie must overcome the objections of her father and stepmother, who feel that being the wife of a career military man isn't fitting for the daughter of a judge. What follows is a genuinely moving love story based on three books written by the real-life Libbie, on numerous biographies of Custer, and on surviving correspondence. Life with Autie, as Libbie called Custer, was far from perfect—he was a notorious womanizer—but it was intense, exciting, and romantic. Alter stays comfortably within the formulas of the historical-romance genre, but she cares about accuracy and detail. An entertaining novel.
Review of Mattie, from Library Journal:
Inspired by the life of the first woman doctor in Nebraska, though not based on it, this first novel was written by a former president of the Western Writers of America. Dr. Mattie herself narrates in the informal style of an 80-year-old woman looking back on good days and bad in a long life. In 1885 she became the first woman student in the Omaha Medical College. That took courage, a quality Mattie never lacked as she struggled for years to gain recognition as a competent and progressive doctor. Her career proved more successful than her personal life, which was marred by an unfortunate marriage that ended in divorce. Troubles and all, Mattie is worth reading about in this very pleasant book.
Review of Jessie, from Publishers Weekly
Alter's re-creation of Jessie Ann Benton Fremont's (1824-1902) exceptional life lulls the reader into forgetting that it is fiction. The winner of a Spur for Mattie, Alter is a meticulous researcher but never at the expense of the skillful first-person narrative. Jessie was the daughter of Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton (great-uncle of the painter) and an outspoken, ambitious, brilliant woman in a time not quite ready for her. At 17, she eloped with the handsome, clever and illegitimate John Charles Fremont, bringing to him the political cunning and connections that helped build his reknown as an explorer of the West. Plucky Jessie (with kids in tow) sometimes joined John in his globe-trotting—out to California gold country via Panama and Europe—and helped him write widely read reports on the West. Fremont's undertakings (and consequently Jessie's) were not always successful—he was, as Alter's heroine describes him, an "explorer, topographer, soldier of fortune, presidential candidate, senator, governor, mining king, and, sometimes, bankrupt failure, court-martialed soldier, disgraced businessman." This is a subtle portrait of the Fremonts' relationship, one balancing warmth, humor, passion and a realistic sense of maturing love. Alter's characters (including Bret Harte and Lincoln) are believable and very human. Given the overall excellence of this work, one can easily forgive the odd cliche.
Judy Alter holds a PhD in English from Texas Christian University with a special interest in literature of the American West. She joined TCU Press as editor in 1982 and was named director in 1987, a position she held for twenty-two years. She is the author of almost eighty books. One was named Best Juvenile Novel of 1984 by the Texas Institute of Letters; one received the Spur Award from Western Writers of America as Best Western Novel; and in 2005 she received the Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Achievement from Western Writers of America. She lives in Fort Worth.
