Embedded Files
by Linda Strader
by Linda Strader
Linda Strader is one of the first women hired on a fire crew with the U.S. Forest Service. A naïve twenty-year-old in the mid 1970s, she discovers fighting wildfires is challenging—but in a man’s world, they became only one of the challenges she would face. Battling fire is exhilarating, yet exhausting; the discrimination real and sometimes in her face.
Summers of Fire is an adventure story that honestly recounts the seven years she ventures into the heart of fires that scorch the land, vibrant friendships that fire the soul, and deep love that ends in devastating heartbreak.
New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards
Finalist
Biography – Arizona subject
“Linda Strader turns up the heat in Summers of Fire, a courageously honest memoir written by one of the first female wildland firefighters for the United States Forest Service.” — Andrea Lankford, Ranger Confidential: Living, Working and Dying in the National Park
“This book needs to be read by all women who want to step into a man’s world and see what it is like to give it your all and come away with much mental anguish and physical pain. We also can learn much about fighting forest fires, and many other parts of the National Forest world that we don’t think about very much as visitors.” — For the Southwest by the Southwest Book Corner
“Strader’s writing is insightfully descriptive, from nature’s wonders and brutality, to times when she survived only on sheer willpower, truly pushing herself physically to the brink, and the rewards she found working in the great Western outdoors. This well-written memoir will have readers caught up in the adventurous twists and turns to very end.” — Karen Walenga, Review, Green Valley News
“Strader’s story is an unsung part of the #MeToo movement . . . I found myself nodding and sympathizing as I read, and I thoroughly enjoyed her descriptions of working fires, building trail, and finding her way as a woman in what is tragically still a man’s world.” — Susan J. Tweit, Review, Story Circle Book Reviews
“It is a must read for anyone who wonders what it’s like to run toward a towering wall of flames that everyone else is fleeing.” — Laura Swan, The Bisbee Observer
“I must say I learned so much from reading this book, and this was what I enjoyed about it most. Altogether, I found this a great read on many levels and I would recommend it to anyone interested in memoirs about a different kind of life. It certainly opened my eyes!”— Marvellous Memoirs: Reviews and links
Details
Details
Bink Books
250 pp. ● 6×9
$14.95 (pb) ● $8.99 (eb)
ISBN 978-1-945805-66-0 (pb)
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Fire & Emergency Services
NATURE / Natural Disasters
Publication date: May 2018
"Podcast — Author Linda Strader" EatSleepWrite Podcast
“Trail Blazing Wildland Firefighter & Author Linda Strader” Podcast, Her Brotherhood
“Firefighting While Female” – Podcast, Out There
“A Voice in the Fire” Interview, Haven
“Stories that Empower: Linda Strader Interview” — Stories that Empower with Sean
“Interview” — You Read It Here First
“Book Corner Choices for March 2019” — FOR THE SOUTHWEST BY THE SOUTHWEST BOOK CORNER
“Episode 483 | Linda Strader Interview” THE AUTHOR STORIES PODCAST WITH HANK GARNER
“One of the USFS’s First Female Firefighters Tells Her Dramatic Story” – Adventure Journal
“Meet Linda Strader: Firefighter” by Brittney Andreesen, Wildfire Women
“Veteran Female Firefighter Blazes a Trail in Summers of Fire” — Parade Magazine
“Linda Strader: Interview With a 1970S Wildland Firefighter” — Mountain Crossings at Neel Gap
“A local woman’s experience as one of the first female Forest Service firefighters” — KGUN Channel 9 Interview
“Virtual Book Tour – Linda Strader reads from her memoir Summers of Fire” — Universal By Design
“eBS Linda Strader interview” by Graham Higson
“Summers of Fire author coming to Bisbee” by By Laura Swan, The Bisbee Observer, May 3, 2018
“Arizona Firefighter Finds Voice and Story In Memoir” Women’s Writing Circle
“How I Ended Up Writing a Book and Landing a Book Deal – Guest Post by Linda Strader” Quills & Coffee
“Author Interview: Linda M. Strader” by Natasha Orme
“Facing Flames: Adventures, challenges of female firefighter” By Ellen Sussman, Green Valley News
“The experiences of a female wildland firefighter in the 1970s” Bill Gabbert, Wildfire Today
Originally from Syracuse, New York, Linda Strader moved to Prescott, Arizona with her family in 1972. In 1976, she became one of the first women hired on a U.S. Forest Service fire crew.
Summers of Fire: A Memoir of Adventure, Love and Courage, was released on May 1st, 2018 by Bedazzled Ink Publishing. Her publishing history includes many web articles about writing memoir, her publishing and marketing experiences, and wildland firefighting. She has given talks on these topics to many clubs, including the American Association of University Women. Parade Magazine published an excerpt in 2018, and the PBS show Arizona Illustrated featured her segment “Wildland Firefighter,” in the fall of 2019.
The prequel to Summers of Fire, Uprooted: A New Life In The Arizona Sun, was released by Bedazzled Ink Publishing on December 1st, 2021.
Ms. Strader holds two degrees: a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture, and a Masters in planning, from the University of Arizona. In addition to writing, she is a landscape architect, certified arborist, and watercolor artist. She currently lives in the same area where her Forest Service career began.
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