Chama

Ty McDuffey is a writer living in a small red wooden cabin in remote northern New Mexico, below the Brazos Cliffs, outside the railroad town of Chama, with Savanna. In the summer, Ty recounts the journals he's kept since second grade and his years playing football for the Camdenton Lakers and Missouri State Bears. He reflects on the difficulties of getting his law degree from UMKC. Ty befriends locals in the mountain town, and a store owner points him toward a waterfall.

The aspen leaves change colors, and a cold winter begins. As the first freeze rolls through the Chama Valley, a record blizzard knocks the power out, and Ty's childhood dog dies. Savanna's wedding ring arrives after chasing a UPS truck down State Road 512. A son appears on an ultrasound screen in Santa Fe, ribs and spine and two brain lobes, due in May.

Chama is a record of a quiet year in the mountains, written day by day. A wood fire burns in the fireplace. He drives sixteen hours home for the holidays. He fills his freezer with elk. Turkeys eat in the front yard. He faces money worries and small victories as a man who is learning about what he owes to his coming son. Chama is for readers of place-based memoirs and honest first-time-father stories.