been left behind who later come to the u.s. to be reunited with their parents. we don't talk about how immigration breaks up families and how you know, it takes a toll on the whole family. so this is one of the reasons why i wanted to write about this, because you know, it's an experience that definitely scarred me that has really shaped the woman who i am today. and also the experience right now with the young undocumented people who are fighting to get legal status. in terms of giving people an insight into what their situation might be like, and i touch upon the fact that my family and affected from the amnesty of 1986. i had a green card by the time i

was 14 so the moment i got my green card, the whole world just opened up to me and there were so many possibilities that came my way. i was able to jump on them because they had a green card and i would really love to see this happen through the dreamers, for us to give them that chance to pursue their dreams, and to also get back to society. because, they will pay everything back. the way i have been paying back, through my writing, through all the work that i do so i want to see that happen for them. >> we have been talking with reyna grande, "the distance between us" a memoir, a simon & schuster title and and you are watching booktv on c-span two.

up next deanne stillman reports on the largest manhunt in cover history after -- this is just over an hour. [applause] >> that was a really nice introduction and i want to say a big thank you to debbie, debbie kross and trudy mills and you all have been such great supporters of my work and the literary community. it's really nice and also think you to c-span for continuing to support my work as well. i love booktv and in the program may teach at uc riverside in palm desert i recommend highly to my students that they watch the tv every

weekend. also i would like to thank all of you for coming out tonight. it means a lot to me and it's a beautiful evening, a full moon evening and it's hot out. not unlike the weather that wasn't played on -- when they incident i write about in my new book "desert reckoning" takes place. i want to tell you a bit about how and why i came to write this book. it was august 2, 2003 and as some of you know the mohave is my long-time beat longtime beach and i was visiting the photographer at his home in the antelope valley, which is the northern half of l.a. county. on its shadow side. it is like the kooky cousin that nobody likes to talk about, but it really is the other half of

los angeles, only 1/2. it's also desert and we were visiting, mark and i, and i was in the middle of finishing up my previous book and also working on another project about the antelope valley. suddenly we heard all the sirens screeching into the desert and not like one or two or five but dozens and dozens and dozens. even for that area, where you hear everything because sound travels very great distances in the desert and there are lots of police calls up there on domestic violence and so on and it can be a very violent place but also a peaceful place. so we decided to turn on the tv

and find out what all the ruckus was about. it turned out that there was a beloved local sheriff named steven sorensen had been ambushed at a trailer in a remote town near lancaster in the city where i was visiting mark. it was quite a violent incident according to the early reports and by then it was an hour to after we had heard the first sirens. there were choppers flying around and six or seven different police agencies were converging with the huge and rapidly escalating manhunt. mark turned to me and said this sounds like your kind of story. he was sort of half joking but when joshua trees are involved i'm usually right there. even though i do break for sand

and the desert is often the main character i don't respond to every siren i hear and i don't do that kind of reporting even though the story "desert reckoning" and ironically enough. i guess i have with this book. which took eight years by the way. at any rate we started watching the coverage as it unfolded that afternoon and it turned out that the two main characters involved were very compelling to me. there was a dedicated hermit donald cook who was a suspect in the shooting and he had fled after ambushing the sheriff and it turned out that he was a doctor too little figure with an assault rifle and his best friends were animals and yet lived out there for years. he eats out a living off the land and as i said steven

sorensen was a beloved sheriff in the area. he was kind of in andean mayberry figure who was available 24/7. everybody in that part of the desert had a cell phone number. you could call him and so there was this very brutal shootout in the other half of the county. this is an hour away from the studios and the beaches but it was really like tombstone territory. i don't mean now but in the 19th century and in fact l.a. county was the most violent frontier outpost for violence at tombstone or deadwood, you know, the time the country was broiling and coming into its own. at that point, a few hours into the manhunt, i decided maybe it

was something i wanted to look into and of course it this is that the desert was involved and the joshua tree. i also respond to elements of the sacred in the story and there was this old testament -- but it means something much more than that. there were these two people who seem to have some sort of longing that chewed them together, longing for connection as they found out the deeper i got into the story. they both had very interesting back stories which i recounted my book. so i called my editors at "rolling stone" whom i had worked with in in the past on other other stories and asked them if they wanted me to cover this manhunt. and they did, and the siege went on for seven days. donald cook knew the desert so well that he was able to outfox this massive high-tech posse and as they said the biggest manhunt in california history which

involved the fbi and the dea and thousands of cops and i'm not exaggerating, on foot and it on horseback, mounted posses, civilian vigilantes or go people were all over. this was very brutal and it had all these wild west frontier elements. it's not typical that one man was able to outfox this kind of a posse of these days. so that is what was going on as i got into the early days of the manhunt for "rolling stone" and then after i finished my piece which took two years to write, i realized that the story needed to be a book and so here we are. so i will tell you a little bit about it as i go through and then answer your questions.

this is from a strange request. alone in a small trailer donald charles cook had been singing a song. it was a pretty song or was it a song that the casual passerby would hear on the off chance that he or she was in the vicinity of the remote little abode. it was a weird so weird and discordant toot emanating from the trailer, always calling, calling, calling for someone to come and put it out of its misery. few could monitor it sound waves dating in and out of the radio dead zone that pockmarked the vast desert expanse. he was persistent and unwavering in his song and circle the stage and drifted across the last desert tortoise. traveled down washes cut by ancient -- and one day it crossed the tejada and the

singers yearning for his days two dazed more fiercely sending the dearth into the higher elevations studded with joshua trees and granite slabs and bobcats until it was swept away by a santa ana wind. the high-voltage swirl of hot air that is born in the mojave and is said to carry messages of evil. air wafted across the high desert scrub over mountains and seas and was heard by sensitive souls in other lands. far-flung sisters of the man who sang his own death song and they called each other open now what and pensacola and arizona and knew something was wrong. in another desert community outside of los angeles, there was a daughter who also sends the pending doom and she wrung her hands as she knew the end was near. animals with their keener

hearing responded to the softer notes of the singers criminality for all living things respond to music and the comment from points south east, north and west of the trailer to be fed and nourished by the man who loves them but hated cops. in the morning said jack rabbits were the first to arrive arranging themselves to brown the special outdoor breakfast table with portions of food placed at individual settings. other critters would stop by throughout the day on their rounds. there was a raven that what flight would light on the man's on. river rats amazing for their ability to go without water seen skittering across the sands with slow themselves finding a rare moment of rest and their perpetual state of panic, oblivious to the automatic rifle inside the trailer, the magazines loaded with high velocity rounds and the handwritten well perhaps column

by the repeated reverberations of the death song. for all living things, let them that. but the company of animals was not enough to stop the man's desire to die. it is certainly within reason to figure that some of the animals, i coyote his chops possibly or a thank you of rattlesnakes may have even watched or slithered by as one night or have sent her a full man while he was tweaked on a desert cocktail of math, dharma and soma, the devil threw him a. zero koets you the man said, now what? the devil did did not answer in the man said, i see. so that tells you a little bit about what was going on with donald cook in his final months. i won't tell you everything that happens in the prolog, but i do want to let you know that you

have all heard that saying about somebody who was, he is so self-destructive he is digging his own grave. well here was somebody who actually did that and took the town sheriff with him. now, on august 2, 2003, when steven sorensen got this call to head out to donald cook's trailer, nobody knows why he decided to drive onto that property on that day. it was sorensen's day stay off's day off but when a neighbor cooks call them that morning the deputy said no problem, he would come right over as he always did have someone on his remote desert heat had a need. the neighbor frank aker was a mastercard or in the studio down below, then working on the set of the judy -- jody foster movie. is concerned about a man we shall refer to as mr. x a

particularly tenacious squatter whose trail of raw sewage was approaching baker's well-traveled airfield where members of the ultralight community gathered and kept their planes. the august morning heated up heading past 100 degrees. it was even too hot for rattlesnakes and to escape the furnace they were treated to pockets of shade. under that greece would bring to the sand. i tend to human and animal sounds deputy sorensen walked beside where he'd recently served eviction papers to the squatter, seeing no sign of him and told the baker's. then he got back in his ford expedition and started for home. but something changed his mind. to this day what that was is not known. ..

at. >> we dodo whether or not he looked to his right to see the grave he was digging and what he thought about it. did he stop? blinder? keep going? but one of the most mysterious elements to dig their own grave to take the town sheriff with him. of the neighbor heard the shots and called police that kicked off the manhunt with the launch. that we were hearing that

afternoon. i want to tell you about donald kueck, the herb it. they don't want to do anything with them betty and the severs all ties. he was married with two kids a and walked into the breakfast table and told her he did not love her anymore and left. there are a lot of people come and the only place they can flourish to only 111 place. this is not cutout for civilization. deputy sheriff stephen sorenson he was also

gravitating toward the desert to volunteer for this position in a remote outpost. they have a dangerous line of four. but they will volunteer to be called the domestic violence incident it is violent and dangerous. one point* achieve sheriff at one point confirmed it is the sixth most powerful agency. why of good deputy stephen

sorenson volunteer? it was his mission to protect god's creation. it is not just a line that he throughout but it interestingly enough to sides of the same call into rescue while the devils a and rescued use pit bulls and i was widely as to go to his house during the eight years while writing the book and all of the animals were still at the house. it was very powerful. his best friends were animals. to have breakfast with the two men to have much in

common. >> he had two kids. this is part of a warning and the statement. to try to reconnect with kids of viewpoints -- time before the final incident and had a reunion in riverside california that i talked about in the book. his son was eight teen-ager and well-known and even reconnecting they decided it would be a good thing for

father and son to see where this wed. and went to live with his father donald kueck. one thing that dodd did with the compound was would barter and trade with nabors for what they needed. he fixed up old cars and vans. there was one labeled the anarchy van. to listen to music and sometimes donald would hang out with him. friends would come out and they would make music. donald kueck used to hobnob with the engineers at

edwards air force base. they wanted runaround in the desert setting off rockets and blowing up stuff. but the father-son thing did not work out. which is why he moved to the desert in the first place pro the relationship degenerated and the son idolized kurt cobain and was a long time junkie and overdosed in a warehouse in downtown los angeles before the shootout with teeth seven -- stephen sorenson. his friends predicted it is only a matter of time before donald kueck went off the rails. to tell you about the man had, the los angeles county

s.w.a.t. department where very well trained with urban warfare. they had never spent-- tracking anybody. they realized they need a place to land the chopper. there were no trespassing signs. if police chopper to land on your front yard. mrs. where they were staging. but every hour a criminal is on the loose the chances to find him diminish. by day never 2000's had joy and the manhunt. walking every cubic centimeter.

the county spent no expense on the search that was part of the monster that donald kueck feared a display of manpower, vehicles, aircraft manpower, vehicles, aircraft, c ammunition, fuel, surveillan ce equipment, tracking year. sister mary michael to of:walk in joshua tree and there is a mountain range that with the most common. and to those who appreciate the part of the l.a. county county, beckoning them to slowdown. what was it called traveling

up 10 down heading westward into the mojave desert closing -- going over another mountain range to the pacific ocean? nobody knows the answers but the orders joke it was fitting say lived near the three sisters to arrange to invoke their calling. it was to serve the area's four to provide a day-care center if of parents worked in the valley orchards or field. known that the fugitive could be lurking mr. barry michael was weary as she strolled on the second day of the man had. she was struck by the owe amd, sky9, lights and was in

the state of sheer humility and got a and offered up the silence brother of gratitude that looked like the first place of the savior. and as she reflected the figure approached roper this and. something told her the person was the man. it was not unusual to see someone walking at dawn but it was not uncommon. she grew more suspicious wondering if it might be the wanted man. he was big and tall and headed directly for her. he turned back to the convent tv and i am a stranger. she saw he was wearing a dark suit. how strange. he is supposed to be wearing a t-shirt and jeans. does he want to hide in the convent? what about the children?

surge tank could win extending a hand combat was angeles county homicide. beginning in the 13th and century when the permit went to live in a grado. according to real testament it is with the believe that a test of faith, i'd decades order it was the 15th century mystic toward between the material and spiritual world and embattled with demons. during her journey sheet underwrite miracles with about some of x to see and levitated and communicated with angels. the convent was situated often named dragon's of palmdale where cellphone reception was good with wide-open space and.

not bad as a takeoff launching pad for helicopters. that is where the s.w.a.t. team staged the manhunt. i was struck by the fact here word to orders, the cops and the nuns that civilians don't call autumn was there is an emergency, coming together in this extreme situation. the nuns were cookie and praying and some board take gain mass and by the end of the week, the cops were giving rise is -- ride in a chopper. [laughter] visited amazing?

here they are, members of the order which was started in honor of st. teresa and it occurred to me they're having a moment of ecstasy up there. [laughter] the manhunt is growing meanwhile and the sheriff's department has now decided to use what was used in the month for bin laden but it was unfolding at the same time. i talk about this in my book in one of our desert its.

with the same surveillance equipment to make the same call dead or alive. from the capture of donald kueck dead alive. he was able to do what they did out there in the wide-open space hiding in burroughs and caves in did have a self some calling his daughter while he was on the run when the ground temperature is the same as body temperature if you hide in the same and you can fool infrared technology. he was hiding calling his daughter.

but at that point* his phone was tapped and the cops knew the general area he was then. recounted details of the manhunt been told by the informant headed to the complex of sheds to make his last day and. why this incident at the trailer they knew he was inside the complex. there was a full moon, newsstands her walking to the site it was a real they started to fire tear

gas into the complex and while the final siege was going on and the the detective was very helpful to me. but today on the telephone with donald kueck who was calling his daughter trying to convince donald kueck to surrender. he let me list send to the hours and hours of tape. it was very dramatic the daughter is in the background saying dad, come in. and i want to read you a little of their final

conversation. and one was from his daughter's apartment. he is on the phone. trying to flush him out. >> hour you? simon detective. myself will battery is on its last legs. talk to me. turn on the of walkie-talkie. it has many channels. talk on the radio. is there something we can do for you? incited in there the asian doctors are worse than nine the law. he did not want to go back to jail. he vowed he would never go back.

we will use the nine asian and doctors. >> bank cannot have global blanket. >> u dollar sign jeht? >> i cannot have been, it's meadows, and a c-span mike they agree. talking to headquarters they were rescinding like that in his arms got very tired. don said the man solitary. i have chronic fatigue syndrome. those cops will shoot me on sight. >> know they will not. >> don't tell my mother. i have got to go. >> i can't have the sheriff back in 10 minutes. keep on the phone for five minutes.

we don't want a little kid to find it. >> i don't do there. i will get my a class is. >> hold on. stay with me. you will hear someone talk. quit moving channels. we will find the one you are on. and might take a week. the radio is getting hot. that is to. in this is 320. you sound smarter than i am with police radios. >> i don't want to get arrested or killed. >> nobody bonds to kill you. there is probably a 1 billion cops out there. , now. >> the conversation goes on with the cellphone cutting out.

but he is running in between the sheds the siege goes on for hours and hours. by midnight there is no more contact with donald kueck. even after one week they did not know they have gotten their man. more than three hours after the fire was raging. two teams were is sweeping the field. they began walking through the rubble. but things can go through your head at any time.

the men from nevada were planning to leave for the golfing trip. >> we have to hurry up. if not we will miss the play in. of course, they had no time table. now the 23rd psalm that chase thought of. the power had been turned up several hours ago. with powerful hand-held lights and then stopping in his tracks it was time to go home. and then they continue their weary march then they spotted them jetting through the ashes. moving and for a closer look

donald kueck was clutching his rifle on his back. a few days later they scattered his ashes into the formation he looked into add-on. august 11th at 86:00 p.m. the dispatcher announce the end of watch will call for did these killed the maligned of duty, calling from a patrol car, it was an honor to know you. godspeed. from all over the desert the messages poor did. 110 linkdin and adam and sam you'll never be forgotten my brother. your family is in good hands you are in good hands. wrested peace my brother. it went down with some old

jars of peanut better. the land remained as scavengers paradise engines and furniture. a broken-down arizona boy and his chair that he sat in watching the sun rise over the mojave coming he has come out here to escape civilization but could be evicted added a point*. fed is there was drinking -- shrinking and it did not like people who violated the code. and he wrote i tell you this because i get choked up with personal issues. the next life is waiting for me. doubling yourself with the inevitable. the feeling has been growing.

in a burst of optimism, of course, the future can be changed and it would be fun trying. i had the dream to build a place of the desert. to the right to of those lazy boy was a palette of construction material for the house you never go. one of these days he would make a course correction. he never got there. instead he dug his own grave at the to the property. a last thing you see and the way out of project made sure he had finished now filled in by wind and the russian. to retrieve and spread the ashes of the ground -- grave. that includes why story.

-- concludes my story. ending with the passage of a prayer that the human flashes of the human mind and heart, there prayers of the outpouring of belonging four got. thank you for coming. [applause] i am happy to hear your questions or comments. >> my question is how you did your reporting. were you able to join the police? how did you manage that?

>> i did not at the time. i was monitoring the man as i was in the area where people word gathering with the impromptu memorials friends of the hermit coming forward in their own way is. a lot of the people that i write about their not kidding with no trespassing signs. you have to wait for them to come to you. my book tick -- took a year's previous ltd. 10 because it takes a long time for people to open up to talk to me. just like real life.

arrow it is of paranoia and that we give them a short rope and they're suspicious. and in particular, reporters. it takes a long time to get to know people. then once they open up, they are my friends for life. i have been to their weddings, i have developed close friendships. that was a long way to answer the question. but asking about the man hand, i just introduced myself i don't think i'd do

any at that time. but if the book of 29 palms the of my book was there and to speak up for the voiceless. most people feel that they are misunderstood and nobody listens. they are right. i feel like that sometimes. the people populate and veer poor not listening to them. and cops of particular feel they're not treated well in the media. that is often the case.

this is something i get into. i go to the museum and i write about that. the police characters in my story are critical. i could not have written a without a the members of the s.w.a.t. team. as it made my initial calls, initially they were very suspicious when i said "rolling stone." [laughter] there is a perception of loud music, sex drugs and rock-and-roll. but "rolling stone" has a long time history of publishing in depth and complicated work. they did not know about that. some of them it helped to know about my work.

the suspicion was palpable but it then getting to know them you get a feeling for people. they do not call a people. i don't do that. but to listen in to the tapes survey on. and it went from there. and the cops but i had to go back to allot to of people.

then the others went from there. and i appreciate that. again i think we've don't understand what a lot of them go through. with the domestic violence call these guys are really risking their lives for us. it went from there. when people see i mean it am working on this story, i mean years. but with the informational and, the story about the

s.w.a.t. team. but then later for the composition, that is how will wind. even while is finishing the book, i had to make a decision because friends of of -- of donald kueck son even he was a little reluctant to talk in the beginning. i forget exactly what had happened but they started to call me of the people i really needed to talk with to complete the father-son story which was critical.

this started to call me as the book went to press. it is amazing. it is a crucial part of the story about fathers and sons the broken families and how the land can help heal the wound and what it is about. and if we don't preserve our desert space i am not just talking about was and troubles come lonesome but as a duty to god to protect the odds creations. anyone else?

>> the essence of my question is about how these long novels which are often about the voiceless i wonder how zero years and years of working on the book with the correct s, how do keep yourself kohl? how do not collapse under there's tragedy. that is the essence. i feel that your humor comes through with your passages but not like three been

something have the and totally dark. there is some much beauty and the desert passages, and i lived but at the same time i found myself wondering how odious sustain your own sense of hope and positive the motion and when you get so close to people that seem to have suffered? sit with the land and see how it becomes a graveyard, a junkyard and a temple to everything that has happened. >> that is a really good question. it is critical. these kinds of stories have taken their toll on my life. and emotional toll. another reason my books and

take years because i have to step away some times. previous book is about would get those wars going on around it, the roundup, unless the one outside of reno at christmastime during 1998. that about put me away. i have the identification, i have blanks on my website. by talked-about some of this with the introduction. very places but to escape

that situation, the literature of the west at the time, these stories do take their toll. i came back from the mustang roundup and getting to know the worst is. the survivors. i would come home with chest pains. really. i look for moments of race. but to see the cactus growing out of a rock? it is unexpected moments of beauty. what does life go through in order to ensure?

i hope all of my work is what sustains me. of the people are incredibly inspiring. strange, violent, and the dume life but to the people are amazing. there is a point* where george h. gibberish talked about that particular incident by a explorer of those ruthless kids and of the modern frontier these kids america heroes for a thorough and the amazing

moments of grace. you took care of wild animals. but for those to be more rooted in civilization, you was but those who looked up to him. he showed them a way out of august of the cops could have turned out to to these people in the desert. they are felons but like a lot of the outlaws loopholes

would hire them to clean up the town. we need you. like 27 with under given. there are these incredible moments of zero. when notice with my characters as they are long name for a connection not social networking. [laughter] the human connection that is what drives us and all the stories. even the people who go out into the wilderness, is something is amiss -- a mess. says have a find acceptance

but that is the broken circuit. that is what i am looking at. also the american credo. it is a free country. i can do what i want. i agree. let's spray. but we're frozen. what happens from that idea? you cannot shut it down. then people are in the desert living alone and hearing messages and they get to a lot of information. whenever they think is okay. there is no checking for balance especially if people

have cut themselves off from their own family. my story is sometimes one month that it time. and there are things that always called me back in. powerful. i believe, is a calling. i will leave it there. it gets quiet in the desert and i hear things and i respond. people call me all the time was stories because there in the desert. this was about terrible people and they and.

i have to identify with everybody that i write about. it is not there, i turn it down. "rolling stone" wanted me to cover the michael jackson and child molestation case. i felt there was no weigh in. the whole thing was totally evil. everybody. everything. i am pretty selective. cahal -- i do not look for them. i appreciate u.s. being. it is a rough calling. thank god for van halen and foreigner.

great music and the desert garcia anyplace you can hear it anymore. [laughter] the desert is stuck in the '80s. >> i wonder what you might be working on? >> i am superstitious but i will say i am going back to the front year era thank you for asking. >> i have all night. that is fine. with the final standoff between donald kueck and the sheriff's department, during

the manhunt did donald kueck have this negative of weapons are just the automatic rifle? and second do you compare the final standoff lightbulb ruby ridge or waco texas? >> and has those elements but it was not like it was the standoff. it was not like he was lobbying. he did not have a cache of weapons but what was in his trailer. to kill deputies sorensen.

during that week he had his recall per. -- revolver. he did not have a cache of weapons. >> when he was digging his own grave and sought the devil he said between a rock and a hard place did he not the time what he would do? because of the impending doom and music of what would actually happen? >> he did tell various family members and friends that he dug his own grave.

by then he was on a downward cycle. he was melting down in the desert. in particular there the death of his son. his relatives suspected they figured sooner later he was ready to check out. it was also a matter of time. all the the incident was shocking.

>> anyone else? >> if you don't mind a the shallow question. [laughter] one thing about the book that they did so will live was specific details. how do keep track? can you talk about process? i assume they are all true shallow question. [laughter] one thing about the book that they did so will live was specific details. how do keep track? can you talk about process? i assume they are all true and they are all there. >> thank you for asking. i keep extensive files. now formed in the moon sino a little about it.

we do keep extensive files. i had even merited down to this particular area. you could go to the sir and archives but now they're different accounts or oral history. i keep files on each character and the various aspects of every story i am working on. and files within the files. does that answer regress chiang? that is how i do live. i generally do not take

notes. sometimes ago how to write down the conversation but i have good good year for dialogue. if a crime is involved the will take notes but you have to use that legally with the publisher. but no taking gets in the way. i don't do a. for the most part it seems to work out. it works like at. -- that. i get excited suddenly to

think they can plug it in. four years ago the could here's something. that happened law. anyone else? thank you for coming. i appreciate it. [applause]

>> our policy is one of patients and restraint. the powerful nation to the day world wide alliance. and from the year fanatics action is required and under way and miami be the beginning. will not risk the course of nuclear war which the fruits of victory would be ashes in the mouth. but we will not shriek from that rescued anytime. acting on the defense of their own security and the entire western hemisphere and the authority trusted to me with the constitution and

endorsed by the revolution of the congress, i directed the following initial steps be taken immediately. first, a strict quarantine on military equipment to be initiated. all ships bound for cuba of, found to contain cargo or offensive weapon be turned back. this quarantine will be extended to other types of cargo and carriers. not this time we're not the ninth the necessities of life as the soviets attempted to do with the blockade of 1948. second, i have directed increase to close surveillance of cuba and the military buildup. the foreign ministers and there communique of october 6 rejected secrecy on such matters in this

hemisphere. should these preparations continue, increasing the threat to the hemisphere, further action will be justified. i have directed the armed forces to prepare for any eventuality. i trust the interests of the cuban people and the soviet technicians at the site may hazard to all concerned will be recognized. third. it shall be the policy of the nation to regard any nuclear missile against any nation in the hemisphere as attacks from the soviet union in the united states requiring unfold retaliatory response on the soviet union

>> it is a book about my a child hut -- childhood in our data colorado growing up by the rocky flats nuclear-weapons plant. the house is 7 miles away and in 1969 they move to a subdivision that was closer about 3 miles away. we had an idyllic childhood with dogs and spend time outdoors writing our house and -- forces and swimming in the lake. we never knew what went on at rocky flats. we had no idea of the environmental contamination

happening in the area. tritium, plutonium and other items we had no idea. i worked at the plant myself and got a sense of what it was like to be on the inside. one evening i came home from working at rocky flats and there was a show on "nightline" that was the expos' veba was happening for the the first time i had an awareness of understanding and how extraordinary the contamination was. on that day i decided to quit and i decided to write a book. it took me 10 years of research and writing i wanted to read like a novel

but heavily plan noted and it is all factual. i wanted to write the story from the perspective of the people who is live this had been affected. but the workers and the activist, thousands of people in colorado and beyond that were affected. another reason, we continue to do with the legacy of the nuclear weapons production. environmentally and cultural legacy of how important the plant was. and people were not aware how they were affected. it was common to refer to ourselves as