It's Here! Steve Edwards has Published His First Book 'Notes From the Sweet Grass Hills'

Steve and Sherry Edwards moved to Chinook in December of 2013. Soon thereafter Sherry walked through the doors of the Blaine County Journal News Opinion with Steve a few steps behind. She asked Keith and Keri Hanson, Owners of the newspaper, if they might have a need for someone to do some writing. From that point on Steve, the writer, became immersed in the community of Chinook and was out and about all over Blaine County learning all he could learn about the area.

Steve published his first article in the paper, January of 2014, a story about Kuper Memorial Cemetery and how they laid the 'Cooker' over the frozen ground and then heated it up through the night with propane to prepare it for burial. In no time Steve was as much a 'local' as anyone who had lived their entire lives in the area.

Flash forward nearly seven years and our humble reporter is set for his very own book signing. For 18 months Steve temporarily resided in Whitlash, Montana. I say temporarily because the community wanted no part in Steve 'leaving'.

Steve will be on hand for a Book Signing on Friday, December 18 at the Blaine County Journal, 420 Indiana Street, in Chinook. Steve's book is titled, 'Notes From the Sweet Grass Hills'. The signing will take place from 1:00-4:00 p.m. Stop in visit with Steve, have some hot chocolate and get your book signed, complete with his hand drawn logo.

"When I found out I was going to Whitlash, I thought I was done writing, but Keith and Keri (Journal owners) suggested I do a column about life in the Sweet Grass Hills," said Steve. As such, Steve continued to write for the Blaine County Journal, sending in weekly columns about his time in the Sweet Grass Hills. Folks in his adopted Blaine County community, were enamored by the tales he told and looked forward to reading them.

In the end Steve wrote 48 columns while he was temporarily relocated to Whitlash. He then took 27 of those columns that he felt strongly about and included them in his first published book, "Notes From The Sweet Grass Hills".

"I picked these 27 because I thought they were the best sampling of what life was like and some of the challenges and joys of living there," said Steve. "It's a small community that values getting together with family, friends and neighbors."

Steve writes in a way that is completely his own, and it is a style that our readers have come to love. How is that done? Well, as he puts it, he is a 'Conversational' writer, "I'm not a trained writer by any means. I try to answer the questions that I'm curious about when I'm writing."

He refers to himself as unskilled labor when doing research for a story, "I'm an experience junkie, I like to experience first hand what I'm writing about," said Steve. I'd say he is very similar to Mike Rowe and his Dirty Jobs show on TV.

Steve has participated in a Womanless Beauty Pageant competed in a Chili cook-off at the Montana Seed Show as part of his research. He immerses himself in any new community he finds himself in. He asks a lot of questions, gets out and talks to people and has an insatiable desire to learn about the community he is in.

I consider Steve to be a Small Town Investigative Historical Reporter as he loves to write about the history of whatever area he is in. It would be fair to say that after even just a few weeks, Steve Edwards would have a greater understanding about 'local' history than most of the locals would.

"I started asking questions about this and that, said letting people know I was writing a story for the Blaine County Journal and soon enough I didn't have to go looking for stories anymore. People started coming to me, asking if I knew about this or that, and it just took off," added Steve.

The name Steve gave his column 'South of the Boarder' is a play on words, "What do people think about when they hear that... Mexico. Well Whitlash is just six miles south of the boarder," said Steve with a laugh.

Some readers may wonder what Steve's favorite story in the book is and he doesn't hesitate with his answer, "The Snow Snake story without a doubt! I still get people asking me about that, and it was an April Fools story."

Although he was away from Blaine County, people still enjoyed reading his stories and that meant a lot to Steve, "When we would come back to visit people would ask me about my stories and things and that was very gratifying."

Steve noted that there are a lot of connections between the Sweet Grass Hills and Blaine County through families and such and even noted that some of the story ideas originated from suggestions made by Blaine County residents. The final story from the Sweet Grass Hills featured Willie Miller, a 2010 Chinook High School graduate now working as a Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks Game Warden out of the Chester office.

Although his time in the Sweet Grass Hills covered a significant amount of time, Steve is very familiar with writing stories about his time away from home. Through the years he has written dozens of stories about trips he and Sherry have made together, vacations to see his kids and grandkids as well as a trio of Senior Bus trips he organized.

Steve organized trips that picked up seniors at the Chinook Senior Center as well as in Harlem and headed out on week long trips. Three destinations were traveled to, the Black Hills South Dakota, New Mexico and Colorado Springs, and he shared the adventures with our readers each time.

Whatever the story is, wherever it takes place, if it has Steve Edwards name on the byline, check it out, it will be a great story. Blaine County residents and readers of the Blaine County Journal can readily attest to that!

Steve is a pleasure to be around and an absolute pleasure to have a conversation with. Please make time to stop in, pick up a book and say hi at his book signing.