About the Book
Simple Gifts from Taos chronicles the life and times of an author who escapes the confines of a structured existence, while seeking to retain a daughter's affections and grow in spirit.
After becoming aware that his second-wife "thought she no longer loved him," a man no-longer-young, began to sort-out what to do, and where to go... He'd previously visited Taos, New Mexico, with an artist-friend, and was enthralled with the small town, full of artists and writers; it becomes "settled" in his mind that Taos is where he intends to move, with all his worldly goods packed into an ancient truck, bearing the logo: STARVING-STUDENTS, INC. He and his wife manage to work-out an amicable divorce, and he manages (with difficulty) to tell his ten-year-old girl that he and his wife are divorcing, and that he will be moving six-hundred miles away, assuring her that she'll be able to visit, talk to him on the phone, and that he'll come back and see her, as well as exchanging letters, and her school-papers.
After he has settled into a remodeled 1906, adobe house, with corral and tack-shed intact, he suffers through "learning to buy groceries," solve the furnishing problems (plumbing and a frozen-well) with the house, itself. Then he launches himself into the artistic-life of the unique New Mexican town, adjusting himself to the three-cultures of the town: Native-American, Spanish, and Anglo...
He suffers from culture-shock immediately, meets Taos women in a "singles" group, joins a Flamenco Dance Group, has a three-act play, "Winter-Sun" accepted for a staged reading, reads his poems in "Slam-style," and puts his paintings in the Taos Gallery... Meanwhile, he acquires a dog and a cat, just as his daughter comes to visit... The story gathers a number of Taos "characters," on its way, and seven puppies, as he shows his daughter "Indian," Spanish, and Anglo friends, her age, and as he ponders whether his future will be in this complex and fascinating place, or elsewhere... There are many "spiritual" twists and turns, along the way, which he manages to endure...
About the Author: Robert E. Wiltsey's life can be divided roughly into three parts; a carefree childhood in the country of Southern Utah; then into a "working-life," which began as janitor and steelworker, and evolved eventually into twenty-five years of teaching high-school; which ended as a teacher of war refugees from Asia, and ultimately economic refugees from Mexico and Central America. Needless to say, there was little time or energy for creative activity during this time, which was a wonderful, but exhausting, time. About 1989, Robert Wiltsey was liberated into an entirely different, but equally wonderful phase of his life; Robert was out of the harness, and had no excuses for not getting busy. He not only launched himself into his long-neglected poetry, and half-finished plays, but went out on a limb with book-length essays, more plays and screen-plays. As though this wasn't enough, he jumped into the colorful world of graphic art, with little preparation. The large canvases proliferated, with vivid color and form. When this man worked, he worked like a fiend! The poems continued, and a four-book saga, and four more separate novels followed; seventeen plays and screen-plays came miraculously into existence, another book of essays, and four experiential books which could be described as "lost wives and children" books, which related personal spiritual development. This happened in a timely fashion, just before the era of e-books began, and Mr. Wiltsey fortuitously met an author/geek/publisher, Yoly Fivas, who was a published author, who could find her way (with Wiltsey in tow) through the electronic-mazes of internet publishing. Together they fashioned a P.O.D. book, which was poetry about Mr. Wiltsey's third wife's untimely death, called "The Josie Poems." It grouped splendid photos of the Prescott lake area, around some of his better poems; it remains relatively untouched in its splendid-book form. Once that difficult book was done, the floodgate opened, and the four-novel set "The Woman of the Valley" series came out, followed by the novel "The Mexicans Are on Our Side." Then came the adventure of a "lost daughter," "Journal for Jenny," "The Sappho Poems," to be quickly followed by "Homelessness and Mental Illness: Two Plays," dealing with homelessness and the mental illness of his son. If past is prelude, books will continue to flow from this man.
