Linda M.
Lockwood
About Linda
My beloved saddle.
Hi there and welcome to my website.
I'm Linda M. Lockwood, the author of the powerful memoir, Sky Ranch, now available wherever books are sold.
All the best,
Linda
Linda M. Lockwood
Linda was born near Seattle, Washington, and from the age of eight, she lived and worked on an isolated wheat, sheep, and cattle ranch in rural North Central Washington. She holds a BA with Honors in mathematics from Central Washington University, an MA in economics from The University of Michigan, and a Certificate in Literary Nonfiction from the University of Washington. She enjoyed a thirty-five-year career, first in health care and then for the City of Seattle’s electric utility. Since retiring in January 2015, she has focused on writing. Linda enjoys reading books and writing her own, going on nature walks, traveling, and time with her daughters and grandsons. She resides in Seattle, Washington, with her husband and still misses her Arabian horses and border collies.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was your process in writing this book?
I had so many stories burning to be shared, but I resisted writing them in first person because in my childhood I had learned to hide my feelings. Memoir meant exposing who I truly am, which frightened me. My hiding ended in 1998, during a class in writing Literary Nonfiction from Robert Ray and Jack Remick, when I wrote and workshopped the intimate story of the miscarriage of my first, much-wanted pregnancy. That story set me on my path, and in classes and a memoir writing group, I wrote more stories as they called to me. Once I retired from full-time work in 2015, I focused on forming my stories into a meaningful memoir.
How did you choose the stories to include in your book?
I chose scenes and events that served the greater arc of my story—how my young life was shaped by my mother’s mental illness and how the challenges of ranch work strengthened me to pursue my quest to find out what caused my mother’s mental illness, and whether it could happen to me.
How did you cope with the loneliness?
My border collie companions and the horses I rode were my solace in those years, but the long days I spent herding our sheep left me feeling lonely for friends to share with. Loneliness is about not being known for who you are. I didn’t feel able to express myself fully with my school friends because my life on the ranch was so different from theirs and I had to keep the secret of my mother’s mental illness.
How do you feel about mother nature?
Nature isn’t a mother; it’s a community. I paid keen attention to the land and creatures around me, from weeds to trees to birds to deer. I took seriously my responsibility to the land and thought about the needs of its various inhabitants. I detested some natural parts of the community, such as the wild coyotes that hunted our sheep and I tried to get rid of the ever-present rattlesnakes and the invasive weeds that spread across our pastures.
Was your ranch different from others around it?
Our land was better preserved and more productive than most of the land around us. Our native grasses weren’t overgrazed by our cattle, and our sheep preferred to eat a variety of plants and shrubs. My horses and the wild grouse and deer found their natural habitats in our native bunch grass pastures. I took seriously my responsibility to the land and to its various inhabitants.
What is unique about your memoir?
I grew up with no information about my mother’s mental illness, so I’ve since read many reference guides on schizophrenia and memoirs by those who lived with it themselves or their family members. My memoir is unique because I go to the state mental hospital who treated my mother, where her story unfolds in the pages of her medical chart, and I find answers at last.
