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Coming up next on this special l edition of Arizona Horizon, a new autobiography details a former state lawmakers fight against Covid 19.

Also tonight, bestselling author is Isabella maldonado and Jeffrey Deaver team up again for another thrill and an award winning author talk about the latest installment in her young adult series of fantasy fiction.

Those stories and more.

Next on this special edition of Arizona Horizon.

Arizona Horizon is made possible by contributions from the Friends of Arizona PBS, members of your public television statio Good evening, and welcome to this special literary edition of Arizona Horizon.

I'm Ted Simons.

Former state lawmaker Lorenzo Sierra has written a new book that details his battle with Cov 19 and his wife's fight against The book is titled Fight Like Hell Love, politics, and the Will to We spoke with Lorenzo Sierra about his memoir.

Good to see you.

Good to see you Thank you.

Last time we talked, we were kind of wondering how you were doing.

And it looks like you're doing pretty well.

Doing fantastic.

You know what?

The book is going to be released on October 14th, which is actually the fifth anniversary of the day.

They brought me home from the IC and it's also the ninth anniversary of Rhonda's last cancer treatmen Wow, what a date.

Good for you and good for your w You decided to go public on very with your fight against Covid 19 and you're still going public with that fight?

Why?

Well, at the time, it was, I remember that there was a lot of people.

This is a hoax.

This is just the And we wanted to make sure that people understood just how serious Covid 19 was at the time.

There wasn't a vaccine, and that was part of it, you know, part part of the whole reason for going public at the time.

And at the time, it really didn't look good for m Yeah.

There was a period where, you know, it's talk about in the book wher Hopkins called my wife and said, well, we've got a priest on the Would you like for us to adminis last rites?

And at that point, she called up my seatmate, Diego Espinosa.

And, you know, my wife is still battling with her own Covid, and she's now faced with this existential She calls me up.

She goes, you k He's a fighter.

Do not let them do last rites.

And they didn't.

Real quickly here.

When did you start feeling sick?

When did you know this is more than just something Well, it was about, a full week, more than a full week before.

We, my wife went to the hospital first on the Sunday before I did So she went.

And her being a cancer survivor, we really were dreadfully afraid because she has a compromised immune system system So when she went in, we're just absolutely petrif She turns out she only stayed in for a few hours.

They sent her home, and.

But we had to stay in D.C.

and quarantine.

I just kept getting sicker and s and just feeling worse and worse And then on that Sunday, doctor Amit Shah, who was, also in the legislature at the t Emergency doctor.

Yes.

And, he says, you know, you don't sound so bad, but let's let's go get you a pulse oximeter.

Oh.

I don't know what that is.

Yeah, you do now, though, don't So I do it, and it's a 78.

Oh my goodness.

And I'm saying, you know what?

That's a c-plus.

You know, a little bit more, and I'm a b, and, he gets deathl He goes, he goes.

I need you to go to the E.R.

now.

Yeah, with all seriousness, you need to go to the E.R.

now, and you may get put on a ve So that's when it really hit tha We don't we?

If we were in trouble, when did it really hit that things are turning for the So I'm in a coma at this point.

In the first 24 hours, it was mo It was it was, yes.

Pretty much on the other side that I wasn't going to make it r But something that happened right in there, I was put onto a Convalescent plasma, high dose of convalescent plasma And there was ten people in the and they had ranked them, you know, one through ten, one being, you know, you're going to be oka You're probably going to be okay Ten is the worst.

I was number eight in that study And after two doses, I started to turn around and they had told my wife, expect him to be in the on on a ventilator for weeks and in the ICU for months.

And I ended up being, miraculous recovery.

I was four days on the ventilato You write about the impact of pr and you write about the impact of science.

Talk to us about that.

So I, when when I introduced myself, when I'm doing a speaking, engag I say I come before you.

A man reborn of science and pray I had world class medical professionals who were taking care of me at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and I'd literally had prayer throughout the world.

And I have to believe that in so that really, really mattered.

So I always say, born of science and prayer.

Yeah, yeah.

And also fighting like hell because you can't give up.

You got to fight.

And that's that's part of you, i Ronda made up she right before they told me, I they came into the room.

You're going to be put on ventil We had just a minute to talk on and I she says, I need you to make me a promise.

And mind you, my wife is a widow and she is looking at the very s possibility of having to bury a second husband.

She says, I need you to fight like hell to come back to me.

And I said, that is a promise I'm going to make you.

I am going to fight like hell to come back.

And I just remember right before going under, praying to the Archangel Saint M just saying, defend us in battle I knew that it was a battle at a cellular level, and, we fou Yeah, you sure did.

And you won.

And does that give everyday now an extra oomph?

Every day is an extra oomph.

Because yes, I do know.

And people still tell me.

And this is the hard part, Ted, is when someone says, I followed your story.

And I was so glad you were were you came out of it.

You know, I lost my dad, I lost I lost my any number of folks.

Right?

And it's always that and I, I am that they're telling me this, that I was inspiring to them.

But at the same time, having to deal with the guilt that I'm here and your loved one Yeah.

Hey, before you go, we only got a couple seconds left here, but what was was it difficult to write this?

I would think it would be diffic to go back into those days.

Absolutely was.

But we all have stories, Ted, and the world deserves to hear t Well, they certainly deserve to hear yours again.

It's a fight.

Like hell.

It's love, politics and the will Lorenzo Sierra, congratulations on the book.

Congratulations on your marriage Congratulations on everything and the extra oomph you get each Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Arizona PBS deeply appreciate ev we receive, and we are proud to take this mo and recognize our Executive soci These supporters believe in the mission of public media and are making a real impact in our community.

If you would like to make an ann and join the Arizona PBS Executive Society, please call the number on your s or visit easy pbs.org/membership I love working at Arizona PBS for many The people I'm fortunate to work with some really talented individuals I was shocked, like I was going to wor for the place that produced Sesame Street.

I love that we have such a strong community because I get to tell the stories of Arizona.

Really, there's no job more fulf than using your skills and talen and abilities to enrich your com The creativity and the passion of my colleagues It's just a great place and I love being here.

Just.

Hi, I'm Catherine and I, a host of Horizonte, the groundbreaking program that has served as a platform for Arizona's Latino community for more than two decades.

Latinos care about issues across the board just like every There's a lot of diversity in thought and opinions.

We just need to make sure parents understand the value in having a multilingual student We like to hear our voices heard Stream episodes online at PBS.org, YouTube, or on the P Award winning authors Isabella maldonado and Jeffrey Deaver have written a whole bunch of books on their own, and they're now out with a follo up to their first murder mystery collaboration.

That first book was titled Fatal Intrusion.

This new book is titled The Grav and it continues with a combined solving efforts of a federal age and a private security expert.

We welcome Isabella maldonado to Arizona Horizon.

Anna, welcome as well to Jeffrey who also joins us.

Good to have you both here.

Good to be here.

Our pleasure.

Isabella, you're the local.

Are you local author.

Here, we're going to start with Okay.

When did you two decide?

Hey, let's get together and write a mystery novel.

Well, it started as a joke.

We were at a conference in Chicago together, and we just We were in the green room, and we just started joking about you know, wouldn't it be funny to write a novel together?

And then we bumped into each oth in New York at another crime, author or also attend the conference.

And we were we kind of talked about it again a little bit less jokey.

And then finally we bumped into each other again at the poisoned pen in Scottsdal Yeah.

And, after that, we sat down tog and we got serious and we were l you know, maybe this needs to ha Well, how does it happen, Jeff?

How do two writers write a book?

Well, it's, it's very fortunate that Isabel and I have a very si writing style.

We write what we call thrillers.

Now, there's a distinction there And crime writing is divided into two categories.

Thrillers, which ask the questio what's going to happen?

Will we stop the terrorists?

Will we find the serial killer as opposed to a murder mystery which asks what happened?

Love, Agatha Christie or murder?

She Wrote?

That's what I think.

They're bot But we write this, you know, pedal to the floor kind of fast paced thing.

We both write that we write from as a technical term, third person point of view.

We jump into other characters he and we said, you know, let's try Was it easier this time than las In the sense that we kind of had an idea of how we were going to In that sense, yes.

But every book is a challenge.

Yeah.

Did you find the same thin You've written so many books.

Is I, I don't want to say formul after the first one, did you say there's steps here that I recogn Well, I'll say there's nothing wrong with the word formulaic.

I mean, I fly a lot and book tou That airplane was built by a for We like that.

It works.

You know, we don't want somebody let's put an engine here, let's put the instruments here.

So we had the formula and it we stick true to that form, that template.

And we would just stay with that Well that raises the question what makes a good mystery crime, whodunit, whatever that whole ge What makes a good novel?

Well, I tell you one thing that and we made sure we did it here, is even though, like Jeff was saying, there's this sort of template or whatever, but it's the originality that you bring to that.

And in this case, we really wanted to be really or and we did.

And people are telling us they'r we've never seen anything like t before.

This is fresh.

Yeah.

The other thing we have to say is that we not for ourselves.

I mean, we get to sit down in front of our desk, our dogs at our feet, and we make stuff up.

Does life get any better than th But we do this for readers, and every minute of our writing is, is this going to be good for And I'll give you a first exampl No children are hurt in the book There's no explicit gore.

There's a lot of suspense.

Yes, but, no animals.

Oh, we never heard an animal.

But is there someone on your sho saying, you know, that's not going to work?

Or, you know, Joe and Glendale may not get tha The spirit of the reader, that's who's looking over our sh every minute.

Yeah.

Do you find the same thing?

Yes.

We do.

And also, the cool thing is abou you know, that we're both experi We edit each other ruthlessly and we trust each other.

And so that way, if one of us is like, oh, I don't know about this, then we look at that very seriou I noticed one of the blurbs on this latest one says it is, quote, intentionally misguiding until the final reveal.

Is that what makes a good myster So we have three surprise ending in this book, as we did with Fatal Intuition.

And you know why readers are so It's so irritating.

You know, we come up with what we think is a great twist.

They're going to figure that out Let's put another one in.

Did you know what the ending was going to be when you started?

Yeah.

Well, yeah, in the sense that we do outline.

So we know kind of where it's go Now the outline is not chiseled We are and we do deviate and we reconfigure.

Yeah.

But we do have an idea we know where we're going.

Because I was going to say I knew the authors all the time.

And I always asked, did the characters go off and do som you weren't planning on them doi They could offer suggestions.

They tried.

Right?

They tried that a few times in m And they're the next victims.

Ye When you're writing and you're you're there with the dog at your feet and the little person on your sh do you go, oh, this is this is this is good Well, you know, when that happen I'm a little suspect.

Because, you see, I should be like the airline pil And she sits down and she's very unemotional.

She looks at the instruments.

Big storm ahead, I don't care.

I see a big storm.

Beautiful sunset, I don't care, I'm all about getting the passengers where they're going.

That's what I concentrate on.

And we've we've decided that between us, we have that same attitude.

You agree?

Yeah.

Yeah.

When you're writing do you ever give yourself the cr I mean you can give the creeps on some other stuff.

Well there's all kinds of differ emotions can come out and you know sometimes like, like my throat will tighten or sometimes I get yeah I'm like, ooh, that is really creepy, you know.

But that's good because I'm like, that's hopefully what the reader Experience.

Yeah.

It's the same.

And I teach courses in writing.

I tell my students, if they look at something and they think, well, this is wrong, it's nonsense.

I say, don't be mad at yourself.

You just identified a problem.

Get in there and fix it.

You're a you're a craftsperson, you know, roll up your sleeves and fix it.

That's that.

That's a lot of people think that, you know, you can't write a great American until the muse comes crushing yo and you have to.

You can't do anything but.

Right But this is work.

You have to sit at your desk and Absolutely.

You can't wait.

You can't be precious.

You can't wait for the muse and I mean, Jeff and I are both working writ We are under contract, multiple all the time.

You can't just be like, yeah, yeah, breach of contract.

I don't feel it.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, no, you get to work.

It's like Jack London said.

The great author said, you can't wait for the muse.

You have to go after it with a c Yeah, I love that.

He did say, that's a great line, as far as you're concerned, former journalist, folk singer, And out of deference to you and your viewers, I'm not going you're not going to get an attor That's right.

And yet, being a writer, one out Well, I'll tell you, like Isabel another coincidence between us.

We wanted to write from a very young age, but, you Mozart was composing when he was Jackson Pollock was pouring paint on his mother's, you know, laundry room floor when he was three or whatever.

Writers have to live a while.

They have to experience things.

So I did journalism, folk singin and then, an attorney for a whil And then in my 30s, I knew now i and I've been doing this full time now for 45 years.

And you were involved.

We talked before.

You were involved in law enforce Right.

And when did you realize it was Well, I mean, yeah, like like Jeff, I knew I wanted to write, but I probably at the same time, in my late 30s, early 40s, I knew it was time.

But at that point I was full tilt, busy with my law enforcement career, and I was a captain on the polic department, says on call 365 days a year, 24 over seven.

I didn't have time until I retir So after 22 years with a gun and yeah, that's when I finally had time to actually write.

So you couldn't say to a suspect hold on, a plot idea.

I need to repeat that statement I think I'll use it, real quickl Is there another team effort in the works?

Oh, indeed.

We got the outline done and we're turning to that now.

We write for other publishers as Right.

But we're navigating that right So next year we'll maybe we'll come back and visit with t Yeah.

You're certainly invited.

And as well you're always invited as well.

And it must be exciting to have I just it's fun touching a book.

You must be so excited is know you wrote that there's nothing like it.

Yeah, it is all right.

Isabella maldonado and Jeffrey Deaver again is the grave artist And, it certainly starts with a Holy smokes.

It's good to have you both here.

Thank you so much.

Good to see you.

Thank you.

Than Oh oh.

Way up.

Way.

Oh.

Way, way up.

Oh.

Way up, way up.

A new book is out from an award winning local author who helps young readers navigate and emotional challenges through stories of imagination and empathy.

The book is titled The Hat Diaries Escape from the adventure.

It's the third book in the Hat Diaries series.

The author is Nadine Herron, and she joined us on Arizona Hor to tell us more.

Congratulations on the book.

So I was so it must be so neat to hold the book that you've wri It is probably one of the coolest feelings in t I have to say.

Yeah, it's a dream come true.

Yeah.

Okay, so this is the third in the Hat Diaries.

Series or book series of books.

What are the Hat diaries?

Hat diaries?

There are three books.

Each one is a little bit differe but it follows along Ryan Rigby, a young boy living with his mom.

In the first book, we find out that he is able to put on these magical hats at night that he puts on, and he and he has these adventures where he transforms into the role of the hat, where.

And then we take things up a notch in book two, where there is a portal, a magical portal, he can put on a hat and time tra and step into different dates and history with these hats.

And then the third one, escape from the adventure.

The new release is the final con ending in a big cliffhanger.

Yeah, so it's like historical fantasy in a lot of ways.

Exactly.

Yes.

And for what age group?

It's really age eight through ad The same genres the as the Harry Potter series.

So anybody who really kind of li believing in the unbelievable or want some kind of a book that's going to take them away to another place.

This book is for you.

Escapism is the key here.

Exactl And this last one.

Now, this last one deals, like w War Two, and it's in Germany and these sorts of things.

That's the setting for the beginning of the book, and most of the book and the chapters alternate between this setting in Germany and the real life unfolding, whe certain people are trying to res Ryan from this situation he's in So it's real life versus fantasy And a lot of the real life part takes place in this sort of haunted house, if you will.

Wow.

How do you how do you come up the ideas with all this?

It's really the idea started with the premise of how it would be to be able to sort o be someone else, even if just for a day, because I think a lot of us look at other people and you think it's better in those other person's shoes and that other person's shoes.

So that was kind of the premise and being able to to sort of go somewhere else in, in your mi And that's what this book is really premised on.

Believing in yourself.

Yeah.

Believing in yourself and also being able to overcome things like family i bullying, this sort of thing.

How much are those sorts of things part of your books?

They are, they are.

There's a woven thread in all of the books which are all things that people deal with from every age, from juveniles t And the, the thread in the especially in the first book, it following Ryan Rigby, who starts as sort of introverted, a loner, a little bit afraid of his own shadow kind of And he gains confidence through these adventures where he transforms and he can figure himself out how to get out of certain situat So you follow the character arc as he starts off introverted and a little bit lon and he becomes a newly confident version of himself.

He's able to handle the school b school crushes that he has, and things like tha So you see the character grow, and I think a lot of people can see themselves in the charac now as a character growing throughout the series of and eventually into The Hat Diaries, is it going to start being like a fedora diary or it's going to be an older guy Exactly.

It is.

He is growing.

The second book takes place a ye The third black book is in the s as the second book, but you do see the character continually grow, and real life challenges like the like divorce blended families, death of a pet, these kind of.

That's all included here, That's included there.

And also in my other children's which is called freed of the fro That one I really focus on that But the Hat Diaries I do focus on there's losing a p there's love, there's friendship and relationships.

So a lot of different topics that appeal to everybody.

So that The Hat Diaries again, we've got that there.

We just mentioned free to the fr maybe younger age group.

Free to the frog age.

I'd say pre-K through age ten.

And it teaches kids about differ of family situations.

Interesting.

All right.

How do you write for kids, especially with free to the frog But, I mean, in certain aspects of the hat, how do you write for a younger a without talking down to them?

That's a good question.

How do you write?

Basically, you want to make things understa at a very basic level.

If you're writing a book that's in this technically middl grade fantasy adventure genre, you want to keep it young enough You don't use any foul language.

You want to keep it understandab that children can relate to.

But then if you're also trying t to a larger network, such as eve you can't make it too simplified So it's it is a delicate balance and juggle to hit the right note Do you ever find yourself stopping yourself saying, wait a wait a minute, I'm kind of crossing the line he I do, I do, and I have readers, I have my editor and I have official editor, two editors, and I also have unofficial editors, people in the genre that I'm writing fo and they help me kind of keep it because I'm trying to be in the mind of a 13 year o when I'm writing, and clearly I'm not a 13 year old boy.

So the teenage younger readers help me keep it at the right lev And when when things like bullyi and death of a parent and death of a pet and these sorts of things.

How do you send a message without being too obvious, without being preachy?

That's also a delicate juggling act and a balance.

But you want to speak the way children would speak, or adults would speak in a very matter of fact way, and kind of make these topics not taboo and scary, and make children and adults feel comfortable to talk about these things, because, let's face it, even if people don't like talking about them, they are real life.

So it's not.

Life's not all a fairy tale, so you need to be able to approa in a way that's very matter of f and put it out there and try to encourage children and families to be comf talking about these things.

And there seems to be a lot of action in The Hat Diari especially here.

There's a lot o Yeah.

Are you getting some and some questions, some interest in film, TV stream whatever is out there these days So Netflix, if you're listening.

But that is the goal ultimately to become a screenpla or three screenplays or a minise And everybody who's read it, especially the adults, all say, seriously, when's the movie comi And that's really how I wrote th With that in mind.

Yeah, yeah.

Hey, last question h Especially with free to the frog for the younger kids, it must be rewarding to know that somewhere, someplace a parent is reading this story to their kid before bedtime.

Isn't that what that's supposed to be a great fe It is a great feeling.

A lot of teachers, parents have written to me, school psych that they use the free to series as tools to begin these somewhat uncomfortable conversations, and it feels great to hear that.

Yeah, well congratulations again Maybe an irony.

This is a The Hat Diaries escape from the adventures number three, but number one and two are out t and free to the frog never goes away either.

So she never goes away.

Yeah.

Thank you so much for joining us And congratulations on your song Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

You bet And that is it for now.

I'm Ted Thank you so much for joining us on this special edition of Arizona Horizon.

You have a great evening.

With you.

You.