The 5:00 p.m. "teaser"
The full interview on the 10:00 pm broadcast:
A humorous look at a serious topic-sexual harassment in the workplace
Writing truth in memoir
What I learned about being resilient: a guest post
Hate book promotion? Me too. My tips on how to make it easier
What is it about firefighting that made me love my work?
I recently saw a post
asking what being a wildland firefighter means to people. This to me is
what it's about. The camaraderie you have with your crew. The nights
spent out at a remote spike camp, sitting around a campfire after a long
shift talking like you haven't been around each other 24/7 the whole
summer. Jokingly complaining about how awful the line, food, coffee or
hike in or out was, but looking back and being satisfied with the
progress the crew has made. More and more I feel like firefighters are
being told they're glamorous, adrenaline fueled heroes doing an
extremely dangerous job, battling the forces of nature and more and more
inexperienced firefighters are believing it and thinking that's what
this job is about. It's sad and about as far from the truth as you can
get. It's all about teamwork, camaraderie, and a few clear, calm
decisions to solve evolving problems.
Kyle Miller
I couldn't have said this better. This is what I miss. This is what made my job special, and far more than just a job to me. This time in my life was the only time I felt that way. There is no doubt I am quite lucky to have had those experiences.
Kyle Miller
I couldn't have said this better. This is what I miss. This is what made my job special, and far more than just a job to me. This time in my life was the only time I felt that way. There is no doubt I am quite lucky to have had those experiences.
Diagram of how a fire crew works
Book review in the Green Valley News
Some can't visit the actual article, so here it is:
“Summers of Fire: A Memoir of Adventure, Love and Courage”
By Linda Strader
Bink Books
247 pages
Summering
at the rustic Florida Ranger Station in our Santa Rita Mountains may
sound ideal to some of us Southern Arizona desert dwellers, but surely
not if we had to fight fires and clear heavy tree limbs up and down the
steep slopes! But it was a dream come true for 20-year-old Linda Strader
when in 1976 she began seven years of seasonal work with the U.S.
Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.Kudos to Strader for pursuing a career as a firefighter in the 1970s and early '80s, and persevering as one of the first women hired on a Forest Service fire crew. No easy task in a male-dominated profession. From the Santa Ritas to the Santa Catalinas, up to Flagstaff, then in Alaska and Colorado, Strader shares it all: the excitement, hard work and danger; the camaraderie and her love interests; and her tremendous personal successes and hard knocks on the job and in her personal relationships.
As a first-time author, Strader's writing is insightfully descriptive, from nature's wonders and brutality, to times when she survived only on sheer willpower, truly pushing herself physically to the brink, and the rewards she found working in the great Western outdoors. Strader cites support from several local writers and her friend, advisor and writing coach Joanne Burch. She put their advice to good use. This well-written memoir will have readers caught up in the adventurous twists and turns to very end.
Karen Walenga
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