About Julie McDonald

About Julie McDonald

Julie McDonald Flagstaff Books

I love history!  I am a third generation native of Flagstaff, Arizona.  My grandparents were Swedish immigrants and arrived in Flagstaff in 1909.  I am an avid gardener, selling my produce, plants and flowers at my farmstand on my driveway in my Cheshire neighborhood.

My first book, Farm Your Front Yard, was written to help others garden successfully in the Inter-Mountain West.  In that book, I  had a short bio about my grandmother who put six children through college by selling vegetables in Flagstaff.  I was delighted when people told me how much they enjoyed reading about her.  That is how I got started writing about Arizona pioneer women in Unbreakable Dolls, Unbreakable Dolls, Too and Three Cheers for Unbreakable Dolls.  With each short story in those books I paired a humorous and complimentary Arizona history story my dad had written in the 1960’s. My dad always said, “History is the most interesting subject, or the most boring, depending on who is teaching it.”  His short stories are wonderful!  I especially liked finding women who had not been written about before, immigrants and minorities.

About Julie McDonald Flagstaff BooksWhile doing research for those books, I came across so many fascinating stories, good men and bad women, bad men and good women, that I did another book, Saints and Scoundrels, Colorful Characters of Arizona.  While visiting my daughter in Indiana I became interested in the Underground Railroad.  I currently have nine Black History/Underground Railroad stories, all as eBooks.

While training to be a Grand Canyon Tour Guide, I heard so many wonderful stories!  The fun animal stories seem to be half the book, so I did a separate book, Tails of Grand Canyon.  Saints & Scoundrels:  Colorful Characters of Grand Canyon has wonderful historic and modern stories of the many characters of Grand Canyon.  Some spent their lives there, others were there for only a short time.  The Scoundrels out number the Saints by about 5 to 1!

I sell all the eBooks for 99 cents and often give them away.  I am a committed Christian and am active in my church, Flagstaff Christian Fellowship, primarily raising money for world missions. My hobbies include visiting my four adult children in 4 states.  I love going by Amtrak!  My favorite, but most expensive hobby by far, is having fun with my six, soon to be 8 grandchildren!

I hope you enjoy reading these stories as much as I enjoyed writing them.  Here’s to Fun History!

– Julie