Meet Robert De Mayo.
Q: Tell us a little bit about what you do in Sedona.
A: I write historical fiction novels and travel-based articles. I’ve been a writer for nearly two decades, having started in my twenties, but I didn’t have what it took back then. I left home when I was 20 years old after a fight with my dad, that led me to travel internationally for a year and a half, pre-internet. I ran out of money within the first three months, picked up odd jobs along the way, and eventually landed an ongoing gig with a newspaper as a travel writer. The gig involved traveling to a different continent every winter for six months at a time, to write six different feature stories. I visited 100 countries before turning thirty. Movies today focus on separating a person from their cell phone; I didn’t realize the value of what I was doing back then, but I have a passion for writing about it now.
Q: How did you end up in Sedona?
A: After all of my travels, my wife and I were in Alaska when she became pregnant with our eldest daughter. We relocated to New Hampshire, where I landed my dream job working with the Explorers Club through a travel company that produces Archaeology Magazine. I got to work with Neil Armstrong and Robert Ballard, among others. When 9/11 hit three years later, our offices shut down. We drove a minivan with a nine-month old and a two-year old back to Alaska and became tour guides. One moment, we had lost our jobs with zero savings, and the next moment, I was riding a horse in the Yukon in front of a grizzly bear. That experience was a real life lesson for me on how fast circumstances can turn around. One year, we came to Sedona seeking work for winter. I started to give Jeep tours here, and we went back and forth between the two places for some time before deciding to settle our family here.
Q: And how old are your girls now?
A: They are 25, 23, and 13. All of them went or are going to school in Sedona. Our eldest is living in Hawaii now with our grandbaby. Our middle daughter works for us, and our youngest is in school. They’re all great.
Q: Does Sedona feel mystic to you, or do you sense the vortex here?
A: My best expression of this feeling is my bestselling novel called The Sirens of Oak Creek. It combines 1,200 years of Verde Valley history with mythology, told by eight female characters. It’s similar to the way James Michener wrote, with one book featuring four different stories. The first story is about the Mayans and Saguaros, the second covers the Spanish and Apaches, the third story details the pioneers, and the fourth is set in modern day. This novel allowed me to blend legend and mythology with facts, history, and explain their influences on modern day.
Q: Do you feel it yourself?
A: I do. For me, I feel this effect of awareness when I am alone in nature. A few characters I wrote about, a young guy named Michael Flamenco and another named Everett Ruess, both reject organized religion, but when they get here, they begin to sense a presence while alone in the wilderness. And that presence senses them too.
Q: Where’s your favorite spot in Sedona?
A: West Fork. I am obsessed with West Fork. The Sirens of Oak Creek has a bunch of chapters set there. I wove elements of well-known folklore of that area into the book as well. The Lost Coconino Gold Mine and the Yavapai-Apache Creation myths both have a box canyon with a hidden entrance hidden somewhere around West Fork.
Q: What book are you working on right now?
A: I’m currently working on a historical fiction novel set in Maine, that spans four decades beginning in the seventies, and is a modern version of Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley. The book follows a man dealing with depression and anxiety who travels cross country and makes a list of other authors who’ve traveled the same way, to cope, but he starts to hear their voices in his head and begins to have conversations with them. It’s a strange book, but entertaining, and people who’ve read it have enjoyed it a lot. My most recent published book is called The King of the Coral Sea, about an Australian who left society in 1958 to live with the Aboriginals. It is based on a true story, and details the trials and tribulations, as well as the abuse this individual endured by the government during the Cold War. Right now, the bulk of my online sales are from Australia and France. Amazon promotes my work a lot; I’m not rich yet but getting close, and it’s exciting.
Q: Who is one of the most interesting people you’ve met since you’ve lived here?
A: John Bradshaw. As a guy from New Hampshire, meeting John was fascinating. I worked for John when he was Vice Mayor and managed three of his companies. Back then, many of the other tour guides were Native Americans and descendants of figures like Custer and Billy the Kid. Broken Arrow Trail had just opened up to the public. John was a part of us being welcomed to Sedona. I managed the company through a recession, which was tough, and learned to wear many hats through that experience.
Q: Do you have anything that I haven’t asked you that you’d like somebody to know about you?
A: That I visited 100 countries before finding the Southwest, and it stopped me dead in my tracks. That’s worth mentioning. I am so inspired by the land, the people, and the history here, and it drives my passion to create stories out of them. I love giving a voice to the stories that are from this place, and especially exploring the time before 1940. From the Navajo, and the Hopi, to forgotten tales and myths of the land, I have been able to completely rediscover the Southwest through all of the inspiration here.
Q: What else could I ask you?
A: I could tell you about my four books that take place in Sedona, and the ways in which I receive happiness as a writer that doesn’t come from money. I’ve met seven or eight people now who moved to Sedona because they read The Sirens of Oak Creek. I actually wrote that book while dealing with a hernia injury that left me temporarily unable to walk. I am most proud of my biggest book, a 700-pager called The Wayward Traveler. I get emails now and then from someone who’s picked up the book abroad, in Peru for example, and it brings me so much joy. Writing itself has turned into a spiritual practice, and the feedback I get these days is just wonderful.
Q: What do you do in Sedona for fun?
A: I like to go on walks, practice hot yoga, and stretch. I’ve lost 35 pounds in one year. I learned to let go of stressful things in my life and started taking classes to strengthen my spirit.
