Sierra Russell

People come to the American Southwest from all over the world for very romantic reasons. The desert is a fascinating and exotic place that deserves all the attention and mysticism projected onto it.

Sierra Russell is one of those people who came to the southwest for very romantic reasons, speaking to her you can hear the very faint influence of a Tennessee accent betraying her origins. She has adopted and prescribed for herself Tucson as home.

I ask her where she was born expecting maybe a hospital name in any American city, her reply surprised me, "The flatlands of Illinois. At home. My parents were hippies they had all of us at home."

It surprised me that she was raised so unconventionally by non-religious parents in the Christian bible belt, I appreciate because I had been myself. "We moved to Colorado when I was a baby. To cabin with no running water or electricity. Then we moved to east Tennessee." Russell replied.

I ask Russell how her parent's being hippies had any influence in her life. She smiles, "Absolutely, we certainly have more of an appreciation of nature because we were raised in the country."

Having such a great background I wondered what would bring her all the way from Tennessee away from her parents, "I love the desert. I love living among the outlaws. and I wanted to finish school. I spent two years at University of Tennessee. I was undecided. I knew I loved writing but I resisted it. Now that's all I want to do."

Here is her great blog, I think it shows that her dreams of becoming a environmental journalist are right on:
http://sirenasierra.blogspot.com/