Dirt, books and vistas are some of my favorite things. I have delivered sailboats, sold puptents, herded sixth graders and planted hundreds of trees as a residential landscape designer, all in order to write. My historical novel "Tributary" won the Utah Book Award in 2013 and was a WILLA Finalist in Fiction for 2012. It follows the life of one young woman in 1870s Utah, who dares resist communal salvation in order to find her own. Molly Gloss calls it "a remarkable odyssey of the American West." Peter Heller says, "Richardson is a new American voice worth listening to." My novel "Guest House" brings together kids I have taught, cities I have loved, women I've admired and the ongoing motivation to see, honor and make good homes for neglected children. I love trees, natural ethics, old farmhouses and a handful of books. There are writers whose sensibilities elevate the whole human enterprise. I aim to be one of them. My websites: http://www.barbarakrichardson.com/ind... www.dirtalovestory.com