Anne Montgomery

A lot of living before finally becoming an author.

Please introduce yourself. Tell us about your personal life, family, education.

I’ve been fortunate to be involved in a lot of different fields. I’ve worked as a television sportscaster, newspaper and magazine reporter, teacher, author, and amateur sports official. While my interests seem all over the place, there was logic to the progression. I wanted to be a sportscaster when I was in high school in the early 1970s, back when women just didn’t do that sort of thing.

After graduating from Miami of Ohio with a degree in Communications, I couldn’t even get an interview for a job. Since I realized I didn’t know enough about sports to do a good job as a broadcaster, I decided to become an amateur official in the five main team spectator sports—football, baseball, ice hockey, soccer, and basketball—so I could be better prepared to be a sportscaster. I believed that somewhere there was a forward-thinking news director who would give me a shot and that’s exactly what happened. I would work for five TV stations including ESPN where I anchored SportsCenter. What I never expected is that I would fall in love with officiating, an avocation I practiced for 40 years.

My TV career ended as I was approaching 40, since I was deemed no longer pretty enough to be in front of a camera. I went on to become a teacher in a Title I school where I taught journalism and communication skills for 20 years. During that time, I also became a foster mom, and though my kids are now all in their twenties, I’m still “Mom” and even have a seven-year-old grandson.

What do you like doing in your spare time?

I have been a rock and mineral collector since I was a child. Today I have about 400 specimens in my living room alone. I am a member of the Mineralogical Society of Arizona and love heading out into the wilderness on colleting trips.

As previously mentioned, I spent forty years officiating amateur sports, including 24 as a high school football referee and crew chief, which means I was the one wearing the white hat. I was in charge. Today, I am retired from officiating, and while I don’t miss teaching or reporting, I do miss Friday night football.

I have been a scuba diver for almost 20 years. Being able to meet the creatures that live in the sea is one of my great pleasures. And, yes, I’ve encountered sharks many times. They are not the monsters people paint them to be. I have played the guitar since I was a kid. I also like to sing. I’m not great at either one, but I am enthusiastic. I dabble in gardening, both the desert variety and in the tropics. I live in Phoenix and in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and trying to grow things in those disparate climates is always an adventure. I am also pretty good at baking, as long as one of the ingredients is chocolate.

First Inspiration

What inspired you to write your first book?

When my TV career ended, I found myself with nothing to do. I was married to a minor league umpire at the time and he often told me stories about some shady things going on in the professional baseball world. We collaborated on a book called The Integrity of the Game, which was based on the ways gambling could creep into baseball. That manuscript remains in a drawer, and since gambling on sports is now acceptable, it will probably remain there.

Later, unable to find a job, I went back to amateur sports officiating to help pay the bills. I met a man named Don Clarkson while umpiring and we would go on to work baseball together for about five years. Don was a Vietnam veteran who told me stories about his time in country. My first published book, which was initially called The Jerusalem Syndrome, utilizes his stories. The book is dedicated to Don, who died in 2010 from the effects of Agent Orange poisoning.

Have you developed a specific writing style and why?

I have sometimes been told I write like a man. Even my agent made this remark. The explanation is simple. I learned to write as a sportscaster, where I was required to tell maybe dozens of stories daily in journalistic style. Some were 15 seconds long, some 30, some two minutes. It varied. But the idea was always the same. Tell a story. When I moved into print reporting with newspapers and magazines, I had more space to tell stories, and the jump to novels just seemed to be part of a natural progression. My training then came in the newsroom, where there is not much in the way of flowery writing. Those time and space limitations require one to choose words wisely. Note that doesn’t mean we’re not descriptive, it’s just that journalists tend to write sparingly.

How much of your books are realistic and experiences based on someone you know, or events in your life?

There are occasions when I have used my own experiences in books. In Wolf Catcher, a modern-day reporter is searching for information on an 11^th century man who was buried in an elaborate tomb outside of Flagstaff, Arizona which was unearthed in 1939. I had been hired by a magazine to write an article about the man they call The Magician. It was a difficult assignment. Kate Butler, the protagonist in my novel, is a reporter. Just about all of the issues she faces are ones I actually went through myself. Also, in my novel Wild Horses on the Salt, the main character is a woman fleeing an abusive relationship. I have been in that situation myself, so I used my own experiences in that case, as well.

I do sometimes use real people as inspiration for characters. I have already mentioned Don Clarkson, but there have been others. My most recent novel, Your Forgotten Sons, a work of World War II historical fiction, was inspired by a soldier, Sergeant Bud Richardville, who worked in the Graves Registration Service where his job was to locate, identify, and bury the dead. I wrote the story from a packet of 75-year-old letters Bud sent home to family members. While Bud and I never met, his niece is one of my best friends and I certainly feel as if I know him.

Advice for New Writers

When you see new authors struggling, what single piece of advice could you give them on a moment’s notice?

It’s so important to have a thick skin. The publishing world is known for being cold and cruel. If you take everything personally, it will beat you down. I am always grateful that my former careers in reporting, sports officiating, and teaching—all jobs where one is apt to take a lot of criticism—prepared me for my life as an author. As you can imagine, it’s pretty hard to hurt my feelings.

Authors need to look in the mirror. If they admit they’re afraid to send their manuscript out into the world because someone might not like it, they’re in the wrong line of work. They need to accept criticism as a gift. Learn from it. Thank those who took the time to give their opinion. And if no one wants your book, write another one. Note that writing is a lot like sports. No one is great the first time they pick up a racket or throw a football. We all get better the more we practice.

And while you said one piece of advice, I can’t help but offer one more. Please, don’t ever quit your day job! Work so you can afford to write. Most of us will never make a living as authors. So, write not because you’re dreaming of a big bank account. Write because you love to.

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