Works by
R. Z. Halleson

Fiction

God's Child:
The Origin of Fear

The Death Called Change

Non-Fiction

Spare Them?
No Profit.
Remove Them?
No Loss

Essays & Reviews

Blog

R. Z. Halleson spent most of her career in the not-for-profit sector, primarily in health care, child welfare, and retirement housing.

She has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from South Dakota State University, Brookings and worked for many years as a nurse, a nursing instructor, and later as a marketing professional.

She has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

She grew up on a farm in Wisconsin and has lived in Iowa, Minnesota, Maryland, Ohio, Illinois, and in Caracas, Venezuela. 

Halleson has traveled to many areas of the world including Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Central and South America, and also to Southeast Asia to research her book about Cambodia. 

She is a widow with two children, four step-children, nine grandchildren, and one goddaughter.

My first book was a children's story My Name is Mike Trumpsky written for elementary school libraries in 1979, and it is currently out of print.

After years of writing advertisements, video scripts, newsletters, newspaper feature stories, annual reports, and ghost-writing for employers, I decided to try writing a full-length novel.

I felt driven to write The Death Called Change as I had been working for a small retirement home that was in dire financial straits. The impact of this uncertainty on elderly people who had thought they were secure for life was profound, so I wrote a novel based on my experiences in this situation. I wrote from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. before awakening my husband and children. From this I learned that I had lost my natural writing voice to the clipped requirements of the commercial world and was concerned that I might not find it again.

Seven years were spent working with Chhalith Ou to write his memoir of being a young teenager under the Pol Pot Communist regime in Cambodia. The result, Spare Them? No Profit. Remove Them? No Loss, is an important story because it gives an insider's view of how the Khmer Rouge's traveling workgroups functioned. Nowhere else have I found such a detailed description.

With these two published and selling, it was time to develop my storytelling skills and to find my own "true voice" as an author. This past year I finished the first in a series of mysteries called God's Child. The first is called The Origin of Fear. It takes place in rural Wisconsin in 1940-41 just before World War II begins, when there were few resources available to help solve brutal murders taking place in isolated areas. I hope readers enjoy this historical mystery.

During the years when I was a marketing manager for not-for-profits, if something needed to be accomplished for which no funds had been budgeted, I had to find a way to do it myself. That left me with skills that I can put to good use now as an author. I do my own editing, formatting for e-book upload, illustrations, photography, graphics, and websites. Because I am self-taught, that means that I am constantly learning and trying to improve, so it seems wise to try and keep things simple

Please go to my blog and write me a note. I value your feedback.

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2012 R. Z. Halleson, Illinois