Meet Amy Hale | author and cowboy

We had the good fortune of connecting with Amy Hale and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Amy, have you ever found yourself in a spot where you had to decide whether to give up or keep going? How did you make the choice?
What is give up? I am in a holding pattern in my career, but my day job goes on. I cowboy for a Forest Service grazing allotment and there is no “give up,” when working with animals in weather and rough country. We must show up to ride, all day, and go until the job is done. And then, more often than not, sleep on the ground, cook over a wood fire, and go again the next day, no clocking out of this work. This dynamic, this lifestyle, has served me well as an author. I show up every day, to the page, to the lifework that is my passion. I show up even when I am in the bardo in regards to publishing. I have been here before and face forward, refusing to go backward, face forward and recognize that faith and intention are nothing without action and discipline. I write every day, because I must, rising early, before dawn and the noise of others. I write beside the fire in cow camp, in a puddle of lamplight in my office, when I travel, when I am a guest in another’s home, in hotel rooms, and while backpacking in the wilderness. I keep going because I believe that meaningful work, whether raising food on untillable soil or writing of the natural world, makes my life worth living and is the foundation to happiness.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I finished the manuscript for my first book in 2006. That collection of essays was not published until 2011. Since then, in partnership with a university press and an independent publisher, I have released another work of creative nonfiction, two novels, and a collection of poetry.

I am proud of my discipline, of my dedication to showing up to the page, to my ability to see the metaphors in the natural world that translate to the universal experience. I love what I do, both in my day job as a cowboy and in my creative life on the page and on the stage where I present spoken word.

As an author, I should be proud of the awards I have won, but the truth is, I am much prouder of those moments when someone comes up to me and says, “I read Ordinary Skin over and over,” or “Uncle Bill is my favorite character.” I love knowing that some readers out there “get it.” I write because I can’t not write, but readers make it all worthwhile.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Gail Steiger, my husbandboss who has always believed in my pen

Website: www.amymhale.com

Instagram: just_call_me_spike

Facebook: Amy M. Hale Author

Other: My instagram is a blast!! It is all about the natural world and the work I do on the ranch.

Image Credits
My own photos for the most part, or Gail Steiger (one on horse) and Jeff Robinson with Big Picture Video (couple shot).