Very few people in the USA realize that a nuclear war was waged with nature in the southwest by their own military.

~ Steven Magee

Steven Magee Few Military Military History Military Industrial Complex Military Philosophy Military Quote Military Theory Nature Nuclear Own People Realize Southwest Their Usa Very Waged War

This landscape is animate: it moves, transposes, builds, proceeds, shifts, always going on, never coming back, and one can only retain it in vignettes, impressions caught in a flash, flipped through in succession, leaving a richness of images imprinted on a sunburned retina.

~ Ann Zwinger

Ann Zwinger Beauty Canyons Grand Canyon Landscape Memory Mindfulness National Parks Nature Nature Writing Southwest

The women in the kitchen sang: Sarampión toca la puerta. Viruela dice: ¿Quién es? Y Escarlatina contesta: ¡Aquí estamos los tres! The cook would sometimes shout a little madly, “Sing it again!” And the women would sing again: Measles knocks at the door. Smallpox asks, Who’s there? And Scarlet Fever replies: All three of us are here!

~ Sharman Apt Russell

Sharman Apt Russell Cabeza De Vaca Epidemics Fantasy History Measles Sixteenth Century Southwest Young Adult

Now she could smell what the jaguar could smell, odors deeper and richer than anything she had experienced before, layers of smell she could read like Fray Tomás had read the words in her father’s book: the wet decay of leaves, the death fear of a mouse, the poisonous cloy of datura, water and mud and insects, the wind carrying the smell of other animals, the wind itself, and the girl, of course, always the girl with her juicy flesh. The girl smelled incredibly good. Should the jaguar do this? Should Teresa eat herself?

~ Sharman Apt Russell

Sharman Apt Russell Fantasy History Jaguars Shape Shifting Sixteenth Century Cabeza De Vaca Southwest Young Adult

Cabeza de Vaca had wrapped her in his arms and in his language, whispering about a life she did not understand although understanding seemed to form just beyond the sea and sand, waiting there for her to grow older. Even when the story confused her, she had caught words or phrases, ideas like fish, bold and surprising, tasting of her father’s mind. She had learned quickly to nod and speak because he needed her to do this, because his need surrounded her like the blue sky. She was his bastard, and he had loved her. Yes, he had loved her. That was the memory she couldn’t bear.

~ Sharman Apt Russell

Sharman Apt Russell Cabeza De Vaca Fantasy Father Daughter Relationships History Plague Sixteenth Century Southwest Young Adult

The 'Wild West' is a good description of law enforcement in the desert southwest USA.

~ Steven Magee

Steven Magee Description Desert Enforcement Good Law South Southwest Usa West Wild