Royal 1972 graduate to promote novel

ROYAL CITY - Ann Clizer, who grew up in Royal, will make a return on Thursday, August 11, to promote her recently-published novel, "Selective Abandonment".

Clizer will be at the Royal City Public Library from 6-8 p.m. She will do a reading from her novel and autograph and sell books.

The book is available through online book sellers, including Amazon.com and Barns & Noble. You can find the book and an excerpt on her own website annclizer.com.

Set in North Idaho's backwoods, Selective Abandonment leaves no doubt the author has tread its trails and weathered its seasons to create an offbeat ride through rough country.

Selective Abandonment grew from a series of short stories with common characters that Clizer had composed. After a writing instructor of Clizer's read several, she informed Clizer she had a novel on her hands.

In December of 2000, one of those vignettes, which is a pivotal chapter in the book, placed second in The Pacific Northwest Inlander's annual short fiction contest.

Selective Abandonment centers on three eccentric characters - Liv Nuttley, Grizz Collins and Haley Hanover - who provide a fresh look at familiar challenges. Each one measures choices against potential consequences and desired results

The book's back cover promotion includes: "Living among renegades and dropouts, Haley Hanover keeps her hatchet blade sharp. The former Navy Nurse's bravado serves her well until breast cancer disrupts the rhythm of her moments in mid-life. Haley searches for answers and solutions, shifting between explorations of her Native American heritage and submitting to harsh modern treatments."

That Clizer would write a novel should be no surprise to the people with whom she attended school. She participated in various aspects of school publications, assisting in yearbook production. She contributed to the Columbia Basin Herald.

Over the past two decades, Clizer's works have appeared in regional and national publications, anthologies and literary journals. She nurtured her skills by rubbing shoulders with Northwest writers at conferences and workshops.

Clizer came to the Slope only occasionally after graduting from Royal High School in 1972. She visited a brother, who continued to farm here, a year ago. The previous visit was five years before that.

Clizer attended Washington State University right after graduation. After one year she moved to Wenatchee and started taking classes at the community college. She married there and moved around the Northwest until 1980.

That year Clizer had a major lifestyle change when she moved to the mountains of Northern Idaho. Her parents and some siblings had previously moved to a homestead about 18 miles outside of Sandpoint, and she wanted to live close to them.

"We had a big close family," she said.

There were eight siblings. Thanksgiving usually meant as many as 40 people.

Clizer's mother had 29 great grandchildren at the time of her death in March. Clizer, 57, has eight grandchildren.

The Idaho to which Clizer moved was primitive. She lived on an unimproved dirt road and in a house with no power for eight years.

"After we got power, I bought my first computer," she said.

The Clizer household's running water was a nearby creek. Clizer hauled it to the house in buckets.

The Clizer house lighting was by kerosene lamp, and it was a mile and a half to the nearest county road and the mailboxes.

"We either walked there or rode horses about half the year," Clizer said. "Everbody rode horses."

Mid-wives were a common site in the mountains. Clizer's daughter and several of her cousins were born without benefit of a hospital.

"It was the roughest kind of homesteading," Clizer said. "The bears and the coyotes were our nearest neighbors."

"It was an awesome lifestyle," she added. "It was a privilege to be living like that. The kids loved it. It was a big family thing."

Clizer, who was married 28 years before a recent divorce, home-schooled her children. And she sort of home-schooled herself. She practiced endlessly at home, by kerosene lamp in the early years, for writing courses she took at locations away from the mountains.

Clizer took advantage of (writing) residencies in Wyoming and Costa Rica and attended several writing workshops over the years.

Although Selective Abandonment is Clizer's first novel, it is not her first book. Her Uncle Harley Tuck paid her to write his biography, "Angel On My Shoulder." Published in 2010, it is available on her website.

Uncle Harley was a soldier in World War II. He ended up a prisoner of war at Stalag 17.

After the war, Uncle Harley earned a college degree and spent the rest of his life hopping the globe aiding impoverished countries with his expertise in agriculture.