After 80 years, award winning environmental writer Emily Ungerecht Horswill, 88, has finally seen her life’s work come to fruition with the release of her historical novel, “Follow the Hawk,” which she started at just 8 years old.

Horswill, a Ballard resident of 40 years before moving into an assisted living facility in the Northgate area, grew up in eastern Montana in the Yellowstone badlands where Theodore Roosevelt’s ranch was located.

At 13 years old, in the middle of a dust blow, she moved with her family to northern Minnesota and left it all behind.

“When the drought came it didn't rain one drop for four years,” Horswill said. “All the animals died and starved to death, so we absolutely had nothing left.”

Horswill remembered the nights her father would tell stories about the badlands, which was spectacular until it was flooded, she said.

“He kept telling stories about it, it was a place that criminals hung out, these badlands were almost impenetrable,” she said.

With fond memories of these stories, Horswill said she had always wanted to put the pieces together but never found the time, especially once her writing career finally kicked off.

With little journalistic experience, Horswill said it was in 1960, around the time her and her husband’s home in lower Phinney Ridge was built, that she started writing to the local newspapers.

“I started writing letters to the editor and wrote so many and they were all published in (The Seattle) Times,” she said. “They called me up one day and offered me an opportunity to teach me how to write.”

Horswill continued to write independently. She was able to publish 2,500 words a week and won 23 literary awards like the Western Writer’s of America award.

In 1970, she was contacted by Zola Roass, who had just retired from the University of Washington, to join her and seven others, mostly published writers, to attend a workshop.

“For the next 12 years I had this lady who had taught all her life at the university and written 40 books, teach me,” Horswill said. “She called us up and we met twice a week for 12 years. These people were all fine writers and I guess I was at the bottom of the rung. I didn’t have a degree, but I had a lot of experience.”

Horswill’s education resume includes just two years at Seattle Central Community College and one year from Seattle University. Her journalistic education came from experience and Roass’ guidance, Horswill said.

Roass’ class was on how to write novels, which Horswill said brought her back to the story she started when she was 8 years old.

“Through the years, I rewrote this book and edited it and did all the things and collected the comments,” said Horswill, who finally had her novel published six months ago. “I have comments from Bill McKibben, a big environmental writer and Craig Leslie a professor at Oregon University, who would come up and help me.”

The story of “Follow the Hawk” takes place in 1884, when a 16-year-old boy, Jim Albricht, puts his ambition to become a minister on hold after an influenza epidemic hits.

Albricht heads West and meets Gimpy, an African American vaquero who teaches him the business end of ranching.

Two years later, Albricht had collected as many as 30 cattle but runs into an obstacle as he sees fellow rancher Charlie Russell lose and starve a number of his own cows in the badlands.

Hoping to keep his own herd alive, Albricht struggles to fulfill his mission of building a ranch of his own.

“Follow the Hawk” has been more than 80 years in the making, said Horswill. “It’s a story about this young man who made millions of dollars by doing things right on this wasteland.”

“Follow the Hawk”, can be found at a number of selected bookstores and Seattle Public Libraries.