NEXT CHAPTER AUTHOR

Anne Montgomery

Anne Butler Montgomery has worked as a television sportscaster, newspaper and magazine writer, teacher, author, and amateur sports official. Her first TV job came at WRBL-TV in Columbus, Georgia, and led to positions at WROC-TV in Rochester, New York, KTSP-TV in Phoenix, Arizona, and ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut, where she anchored the Emmy and ACE award-winning SportsCenter. She finished her on-camera broadcasting career with a two-year stint as the studio host for the NBA’s Phoenix Suns. Montgomery was a freelance and/or staff reporter for six publications, writing sports, features, movie reviews, and archeological pieces. Her novels include Your Forgotten Sons, The Castle, A Light in the Desert, Wild Horses on the Salt, The Scent of Rain, and Wolf Catcher. Montgomery taught journalism and communication skills in a Title I high school for 20 years and was an amateur sports official for four decades, a time during which she called baseball, ice hockey, soccer, and basketball games and served as a high school football referee and crew chief. Montgomery is a foster mom to three sons and a daughter. When she can, she indulges in her passions: rock collecting, scuba diving, and playing her guitar. She splits her time between Phoenix, Arizona and St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands..

IN THE AUTHOR’S WORDS

Author interview

Interview submitted 10 June 2022.

What inspired you to start writing?

I was a TV and print reporter where story telling and writing were part of my everyday gig. Expanding to novel-length writing seemed to be a normal progression.

Who are some of your favorite authors and books?

The first book that inspired me to love reading was T.H. White's The Once and Future King. I was 18. I'm dyslexic and struggled with reading early on, so I didn't enjoy it. This book changed me.

What would you like to tell readers who have just discovered your books, but haven't read one yet?

I'd like them to know that, while my books are written in different genres, they are similar in that the subject matter tends to revolve around important issues. So far I have addressed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, environmental issues, child abuse, cults, rape, domestic violence, archeological looting, and the black market sale of antiquities. I write about things that interest me, topics I generally glean for the news.

Who is the favorite character you created, and how did they come into being?

Kate Butler is an aging, former award-winning TV reporter. She is deemed no longer pretty enough to be on the front end of a camera. Still, she lives for reporting and struggles to stay in that world. Kate is, basically, me.

What are your future plans as a writer?

I hope to continue writing books that make people think about the world we live in. I guess I want to keep my reporter's cap on.