Deborah J. Lightfoot Author and Editor
(aka Deborah Lightfoot Sizemore)
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Author Bio
Sitting in a fig tree in La Primavera Bosque, a land of forests and mountains near Guadalajara, Mexico
Deborah J. Lightfoot (known to some readers as Deborah Lightfoot Sizemore and to others as D.J. Lightfoot) was born on the South Plains of Texas, the daughter of a farmer and the granddaughter of a cowboy. Her grandmother is on the honor roll of Texas quilters. An agricultural journalism graduate, summa cum laude, of Texas A&M University, she is the author of three books and many articles about the American Southwest. Her first book, The LH7 Ranch (University of North Texas Press), was a finalist for the C.L. Sonnichsen Book Award and won a San Antonio Conservation Society publication award, as did her second book, Trail Fever (Wm. Morrow, New York), published under the name D.J. Lightfoot for readers 9 and up. With the late Simon W. Freese, P.E., she coauthored A Century In the Works (TAMU Press), which received the History and Heritage Award from the Texas Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers. An Anglophile, she has focused on British medieval history and folklore for her new novel, a fantasy with the working title Waterspell, to be published under her Lightfoot byline. In manuscript, Waterspell has won awards in several writing contests.
Additional Background, for the Curious: Deborah grew up writing, reading everybody from Tolkien to Kjelgaard to Orwell, studying nature on the farm and playing clarinet in the school band. Her band letter-sweater, a favorite keepsake, displays a National Honor Society pin with her solo-and-ensemble contest ribbons, and academic medals in English and History alongside one for Algebra: proof that writers can do math. At Texas A&M she switched majors from Wildlife Science to Agricultural Journalism upon realizing that a bachelor of science in journalism would support any kind of words-work she might ever want to do. There have been many kinds. She's a former newspaper copyeditor and reporter, more recently a magazine editor and feature writer, frequently a teacher and a speaker, and currently a science writer, educational writer, book manuscript editor, author of three award-winning volumes of history and biography ... and with the Waterspell twosome, a novelist and fantasist. Thus she may claim not to have held a real job for twenty years. Besides writing, editing, reading, photography, and launching her own publishing venture, her pleasures include traveling abroad and hiking the Yorkshire moors, Vancouver Island's Pacific Rim National Park, and Jalisco's La Primavera Bosque. She stretches a pinchpenny decorating budget between two houses: a two-story in Texas that she and her husband, Gene Sizemore, built from scratch, and a red-tile-roof masonry casa that they acquired on impulse while vacationing in Mexico. (Additional biographical details may be found at www.waterspell.net/faqs.htm.) Awards and RecognitionsEditors' Award, Creative Nonfiction, 2009 Canis Latran Anthology, Weatherford College
Prize Winner, Panhandle Professional Writers Frontiers in Writing contest for Memoir: "Filling Spaces" (2006) and "Heima's House" (2005) Ribbons, 2008 and 2006 State Fair of Texas, Creative Arts: Photography Prize Winner, Pikes Peak Writers 2005 Paul Gillette Memorial Writing Contest in the Science Fiction/Fantasy Category Prize Winner, Panhandle Professional Writers 2005 Frontiers in Writing contest for Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror Novel Award Winner, 2004 Lu Spurlock Black Gold Writing Contest in the Science Fiction/Fantasy Category "Best of Show," 2002 Laura Bower Van Nuys Writing Contest First Place, Articles/Essays, 2002 Laura Bower Van Nuys Writing Contest Finalist, Science Fiction/Fantasy Novel, 2002 Southwest Writers Contest Quarter-Finalist, Novels/Novellas, 2002 New Century Writer Awards Planet Doom SF/F Index Cool Site Award for my labor-of-love Web site, Waterspell History and Heritage Award, 1997, Texas Section, American Society of Civil Engineers Citations (two) for outstanding contribution toward the preservation of the history of Texas, 1993 San Antonio Conservation Society Finalist, 1989 C. L. Sonnichsen Book Award competition Nonfiction Book Awards, 1988 and 1989 Texas-Wide Writers' Competition Certificates of Merit, 1984 and 1986 Livestock Publications Council Named Gift honoree, 1984–1985 American Association of University Women Educational Foundation and a Foundation Grant Recipient 1978 Senior Merit Award in Agricultural Journalism, Texas A&M University 1976 Thomas S. Gathright Academic Excellence Award 25-year Member The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi Professional MembershipsThe Authors Guild
Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Texas Folklore Society Two-time Spur Awards judge, Western Writers of America Speaking EngagementsHere's a partial list of the places where I've stood up (or sat down) and talked: Barnes & Noble Booksellers Black Gold Writing Conference Borders Books Cattle Raisers Museum / Girl Scout Day Center for Texas Studies Children's Book Festival and Young Adult Conference, Department of Library Science, Sam Houston State University Dallas Community Television Exploding Market Possibilities! Sixth Annual Trinity Writers' Workshop/Tarrant County College Writing Conference Farmers Branch Manske Library Fort Worth City Video Fort Worth Corral of The Westerners Fort Worth Council of Reading Freelance Writers Network Friends of the Fort Worth Public Library Book & Author Luncheon Great American Read Aloud The Mosaic of Texas Culture national conference, Hardin-Simmons University Newcastle School Old Trail Drivers Association of Texas Paragon Community Television Renner Frankford Texas Book Festival, Dallas Public Library San Benito CISD Seventh Annual Literary Conference Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, North Central/Northeast Texas Chapter Tarrant County College Texas Folklore Society "Texas Shelf," TCU Radio, Texas Christian University University of North Texas Waldenbooks/Ozark Literacy Council Various other readers', writers', school, and library groups |
Deborah J. Lightfoot
Cookin' and Bookin'Check out my flavor-of-Poland South-of-the-Border contribution in Cookin' 'n Bookin' Texas Style, a collection of biographies, favorite recipes, and memories of Texas authors and illustrators, edited by Tara Henderson Forrest, published by the Texas State Reading Association.
ISBN 0-9715293-9-6 Order at TSRA Cookbook I'm also profiled in these books:
Contemporary Authors, Volume 138 Who's Who in America Texas Women Writers: A Tradition of Their Own, edited by Sylvia Ann Grider & Lou Halsell Rodenberger Awesome!
"Thank you again for taking the time to come speak to us. One of the mothers came up to me at lunch and told me how much her daughter had talked about enjoying the class today. The student said it was 'one of the most awesome classes ever!' "You have inspired the futures of my students." —A Texas Teacher
Little did I guess the trouble I was getting into when I used my married name of Sizemore for my early writing, then switched to my maiden name, Lightfoot, for my current work. It's confused readers, booksellers, and librarians. A modest proposal: One way to fix the identity problem many married women experience in the U.S. is to adopt the convention followed by wedded women in Mexico. There, the woman retains her maiden name as her primary surname and simply appends her husband's name, using the preposition de. My doctor in Mexico, for example, is Dra. Maria Teresa Morales de Ramos, and she is addressed as Doctora Morales. Her husband is Dr. Joaquin Ramos. Perfectly sensible. If I could become known as Deborah J. Lightfoot de Sizemore and be always alphabetized under Lightfoot, the confusion would end. Women of America, what do you think? Can we overturn centuries of convention and adopt the better solution offered by our sisters to the South? |
