Margaret Tessler, Paula High-Young, Patricia Smith Wood, Ruthie Francis
Several years ago, way before I was a published writer, I did the smart thing. I started attending writers’ conferences as often as I could.
I was lucky. I connected with a very talented woman who had already been published several times over. Margaret Tessler invited me to join her writers’ critique group and suggested I attend a writer’s conference the next year. I readily agreed, and I’m forever grateful to her for taking me under her wing as she did.
In 2005 I signed up and attended the Tony Hillerman Mystery Writers Conference being held in Albuquerque that fall. Margaret and I carpooled together. It was my first big writers’ conference, and it was amazing. Meeting and talking with so many published writers was the best. Thankfully, Margaret already knew all these people, and she introduced me to them. That’s how I met Don Bullis.
Don Bullis is a tall, lanky cowboy, who has been a writer for many years. He mostly writes non-fiction and he’s the best source I know of when it comes to New Mexico history. He’s won more awards than I can count, and he keeps chugging along, writing what he knows–the West.
Several years ago Margaret and her husband happened into a small restaurant just north of our town. Don Bullis was there with friends, and Margaret and her husband went over to his table to greet him. Don told his friends Margaret was his “Groupie.” It got a big laugh and a seed was planted.
After I had met Don and his wife Gloria several times, I told him I was one of his groupies. He was thrilled because he said he now had two groupies. More time went by and I became friends with another woman, Ruth, and she’d known Don much longer than I had. I told her I was one of his groupies, and she said she was too.
An idea was born. We must organize and get T-Shirts!
What you see in the photo above is the result of that effort. Five T-Shirts (including one for Gloria) were made and distributed. Our little group decided to wear them together at the June 2019 meeting of the NM Book Co-Op. When Don walked into the room, he grinned when he saw our shirts.
Someone in the crowd dubbed us The Bullis Babes, and there it all is!