Mystery Author Steven W. Horn: Good Literature Entertains and Educates

KINGSLAND — When Steven W. Horn retired as a dean at the University of Wyoming, he decided to go public with something he had only done privately: write books.
However, he knew he couldn’t simply write tales that entertained; he had to create stories that compelled his readers to question.
“I usually have a message; I like to write about that,” he said. “That’s probably the educator in me coming out. There’s no better learning than a good story. I have this curiosity that needs to be satisfied.
“I spend a lot of time crafting those endings and creating a response for that reader,” he added. “I want that to stay with you for a long period of time. I want that to haunt you, to stay with you every single day for 30 days.”
Horn, who lives in the Highland Lakes part of the year, will talk about his writing career and sign copies of his latest work, “When They Were Young,” the third installment of the Sam Dawson Mystery Series, from 1-2 p.m. Monday, March 12, at the Kingsland Branch Library, 125 W. Polk St.
According to a summary of the book: Photographer Sam Dawson is fishing in Wyoming’s Laramie range when he encounters a child’s body. Dawson must discover what happened in order to clear his name and protect those closest to him as they are pulled into a web of revenge.
Horn was a member of the University of Wyoming staff for 17 years as dean of the College of Agriculture and a professor of animal science. Before he accepted a job with the university, he was the commissioner of agriculture in Colorado.
He describes himself as a lifelong avid reader and writer, even doing so while serving in Vietnam.
While working at the university, he would rise before the sun and write from three to four hours before heading to the office. He noted that writing is a tough way to make a modest income.
He has had articles published in educational journals, science journals, and peer reviews. Since he was familiar with the process, he went into book publishing soon after retirement.
Writing, for him, serves a dual purpose: telling a story and informing the reader. Even in retirement, he remains an educator.
Horn often includes U.S. history in his novels, even the ugly chapters of history such as the eugenics movement in the late 19th century and early 20th century in America, which reportedly inspired the Nazis.
Eugenics was a method of preserving and improving the so-called “dominant groups” of the population.
Horn said research on eugenics continued into the 1960s in an “attempt to improve the human race.”
“We sterilized hundreds of thousands because we viewed them as a menace to society,” he said. “It was taught in our secondary school system. But it’s been erased from our history, and that’s why it needed to be exposed.”
Eugenics is part of the storyline of “The Pumpkin Eater,” the first Sam Dawson Mystery Series book.
“When Good Men Die,” the second book, forces the hero to clear himself in the death of a nursing home resident as he detangles decades-long secrets in this murder mystery.
“It’s a mystery within a mystery within a mystery,” Horn said. “It exposes the reader to the problems associated with the elderly and nursing home caregivers. It exposes the reader to a part of America’s past during the Depression.”
The author said there’s very little he and his hero have in common, except maybe they both love to fish.
“Sam Dawson is an antihero, a flawed individual with flaws that most can identify with, and (readers) like him,” Horn said.
He noted his first book, “Another Man’s Life,” is more autobiographical because it deals with the reality of Vietnam wartime atrocities intertwined with guilt that threatens innocent lives decades later.
“It’s a novel that haunted me for 40 years. It’s a novel that had to be written,” he said. “I wrote it in my mind, and then when I sat, I wrote it in less than a year. It was very therapeutic.”
As he continues his writing career, he strives to come up with stories and topics of interest to his readers. At the same time, he still wants readers to be moved or even changed by his novels.
“I used to believe you needed to write to satisfy yourself,” he said. “That’s not the goal. That’ll cause you to fail. When people are entertained with a good story, they let their guards down. They read for sheer pleasure and enjoyment, and it creates a learning moment.”
jfierro@thepicayune.com