Yuman turns collection of columns and musings into book

Lots of people are pretty open about their innermost thoughts, but few bare their heart for all to see each week in the pages of their local newspaper.

Donna McNutt did just that for eight years back in Iowa, spilling the beans on everything from her battle with depression to her fascination with quilts.

Now that kind of exposure would scare most folks silly. But McNutt insists how that intimate sharing with her readers truly proved a rewarding experiencing, so much so in fact that she's planning to share those columns all over again - this time in a book.

"I'm pretty much a transparent person anyway. Sure, I sometimes felt vulnerable, but it was still worth it for me," McNutt said, adding that she was always tickled by the fan mail. "People would stop me on the street or they would call the house. People were always very supportive."

The newspaper that carried McNutt's musings each week was the Tri-County Times, which comes out each Thursday in Cambridge, Iowa.

McNutt, who now lives in Yuma, wrote her columns from the early to mid-1990s.

Now about 90 of her favorite essays and poems from those newspaper pages are hitting the national scene. They are featured in a book McNutt has called "Iowa in the Rearview Mirror." McNutt self-published the book through a company selling it both in physical form and as a download on the Internet. For people who might wonder about the name on the front cover, McNutt explained that she wrote the book under a pen name: D.J. Christopherson.

"It's being sold both in Iowa and Arizona," the author said with pride.

The book is available locally at Barnes and Noble Booksellers. On the national level, "Iowa in the Rearview Mirror" can be ordered by BarnesandNoble.com, as well as Amazon.com.

So far she's done a book-signing event in Yumam and she's made a presentation to the creative writing class at Arizona Western College.

Students who attended that speaking engagement surely heard the excitement in McNutt's voice when she talks about writing, a passion that has gripped her imagination since she

was a child.

"I always loved writing and I always loved singing. I also wanted to become a famous singer, but I realized that I didn't have the voice," she said, laughing. "So I kept on writing."

McNutt took every writing and literature class offered at the schools in Cambridge, outside of which her parents ran a farm and grew corn and soybeans.

"I've always had a fascination with words. It's their power to influence or move people - or to make them think. So much of our language today is being lost, though. With things like phone texting, our language is getting abbreviated and that's too bad. There is a lack of eloquence."

Then McNutt catches herself, chuckles and adds a humble disclaimer.

"I'm not trying to say that I'm full of eloquence or that I'm just overflowing with sage-like thoughts."

But instead of taking up writing or some other language pursuit for a living, McNutt turned to her love for numbers. She worked as a bookkeeper for about 30 years.

"I've been working full time since I was 17," she said.

A bookkeeping job with the newspaper is how she got her foot in the door and her name into print.

"My topics ranged from veterans to columns about the seasons or extreme weather. There were also human-interest stories about different people who affected me in a positive way. I also did columns about my own faults, like how I'm pretty much a klutz and I trip over everything."

Her column about going on Prozac to treat her depression proved to be a true highlight of her columnist career.

"It was interesting, the reaction I got, most of which was positive. I have to admit, though, that one lady from a church I belong to and adore told me that had my faith been stronger, I wouldn't have needed antidepressants. I obviously knew this was a physical condition, however."

McNutt says she's glad she was able to write about Iowa, too, a state that she feels has a lot to offer to folks from other corners of the land.

"Iowa was a wonderful place to grow up. It's also a place where you learn what they call the Midwestern work ethic. You learn to be devoted and you learn that you have to work hard to get anything you want. Nothing is given to you and you should not expect anything to be given to you."

McNutt and her husband, Jim, moved to Yuma seven years ago. She currently works for Perricone Development Group, doing accounting work.

She's obviously quite busy promoting her first book, but she's already busy putting her second one to paper, too.

"This one will be essays about memories from my childhood. It's about how the time and place of where you grew up really does form you. It's been interesting to look back and see the person who I am at age 50, to see what happened when I was 35 to form me into the person I am today."

WRITING TO THE AUTHOR

To contact Donna Mcnutt, send e-mail to mcnuttdj@msn.com.

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Darin Fenger can be reached at

dfenger@yumasun.com or 539-6860.