New Mexico, a place defined by a history of grand conflicts, conquistadores, Pueblo warriors, and nuclear scientists, will celebrate its state centennial in 2012. What better time for a collection of forgotten tales that recounts the adventures and exploits of priests, soldiers, witches, and politicians, who carved out a living in the harsh frontier. Ellen will introduce the reader to a cross-dressing Buffalo Soldier, a French trailblazer who opened a road from Santa Fe to Texas, an American spy who became a Mexican general, a Mexican raised by the Navajo who helped round up the Din for removal, and a governor whose head was removed and used as a football. Spanning from the 17th century to World War II, these stories are drawn from Native oral histories as well as the state's written records, and provide a sampling of New Mexico's colorful past. Ironic and slightly offbeat, Forgotten Tales is a bit of a high wire act over the minefields of New Mexico's historical controversies. Skippingly brisk, it's also a handy field guide to the eccentric history of the land of New Mexico as it changed from kingdom to colony and from territory to state. There are 40 tales for 400 years, featuring ambivalent heroes and unfortunate losers, Indian warriors, priests and soldiers, cheating husbands and wandering wives, witches and ghosts, corruption and betrayal. - Pasatiempo, Santa Fe New Mexican. Q: A quote by Governor Manuel Armijo, on the back cover, reads, "Poor New Mexico! So far from heaven, so close to Texas!" How is this quote a reflection of the stories in the book? A: I disagree that New Mexico is far from heaven, but it's certainly proved a headache for governors as well as anyone who came here hoping to get rich. New Mexico certainly has been a poverty-stricken and isolated outpost of whichever country has laid claim to it. A common theme of the stories in this book are the difficulties poverty and isolation cause for residents with regards to commerce, travel, education, medical care and defense. As far as suffering from proximity to Texas, it's amazing how many times the Texans invaded New Mexico! The Texas plains were a terribly dangerous place beginning during the first century of Spanish occupation. This created constant misery for people living close to the plains, like story I wrote about the Salinas Jumano who were cut off from their kinfolk. Even the crew that accidentally dropped a nuclear bomb on Albuquerque were flying in from Texas.  Texas even also stole El Paso (kind of), which is not a story that made it into the book but it's an interesting one. In fact, there's only one story in the book that shows a friendship between the Spanish in Texas and the Spanish in New Mexico, about a Frenchman who blazed a trail between San Antonio and Santa Fe and the story does mention what a tenuous link that road proved to be. --From an interview with Albuquerque The Magazine "Poor New Mexico! So far from Heaven, so close to Texas!"- Governor Manuel Armijio Ellen Dornan loves learning about the rich heritage of the American West, particularly the scoundrels, misfits and visionaries who make history so interesting. In commemoration of New Mexico's centennial of statehood, Ms. Dornan wrote Forgotten Tales of New Mexico" and as a cultural resources interpreter specializing in new media, she developed the the online Centennial Atlas of Historic New Mexico Maps (atlas.nmhum.org)."