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IMPERIAL — Local writer Sherri Kukla, who is from Ocotillo Wells, held a writer’s presentation of her latest book, “Riders On the Storm,” on Tuesday, April 14, at the Pioneers Museum.
According to the book’s blurb, Riders on the Storm “is the gripping true account of Billy Cook’s rampage across the American heartland” during the winter of 1951 when he traveled across the midwestern United States killing at least six people and traumatizing several others.
Posing as a hitchhiker, Cook kidnapped and murdered travelers he encountered, making his killing spree one of the most notorious in American history. Cook’s killing spree took him from Missouri to Texas and even brought him down to the Imperial Valley.
The museum book talk event was well attended, and Kukla gave a presentation on several aspects of her book, including her inspiration for it and her research methods.
Another local writer, artist, and filmmaker, Roy Dorantes, helped to facilitate the event. He said, “I want to recognize several authors who are here today. Authors are a very special kind of people. They spend a lot of time examining events, happenings that a lot of us just wouldn’t pay attention to. And then they write about them and take us on these mind trips.”
Dorantes explained the difficult task of writing as a solitary endeavor. He said, “Nobody is clapping for them. There is no applause. It’s just them, in their room writing and fighting with that sentence.”
Dorantes described authors as “jewels” and “incredible people” who do not work for the recognition. Instead, he compared authors to mountain climbers who write because “they had to.”
“Authors are like that,” he said. “They just can’t help but tell stories.”
Kukla also explained how she dove into primary sources such as first-hand eyewitness accounts, newspaper archives, and court documents. In addition, she discussed the proximity of the crimes to the Imperial Valley and even how some locals were involved in the trial proceedings.
Kukla said, “My sole reason for writing the book was because my grandson said he thought I should once I told him the story behind the Doors’ song. I didn’t take him seriously because I hadn’t written true crime before, but then the next day my husband said he had been thinking about it and agreed it was a good idea. So between the two of them encouraging me, I decided to do it.”
She said, “I really wasn’t sure why Morrison chose that name for the song… And most people I’ve talked with had no idea that a verse in his song was based on this crime spree. I think the line in the song that is the most heartbreaking is ‘sweet family will die,’ especially since I got to know that family while I was writing the book.”
Kukla said, “As far as connecting the title to the book, I related to the storm of trouble they were all going through and mentioned it in the chapter where the El Centro police chief was searching for the latest missing vehicle and hoping to find the killer.”
Sherri’s book poses an age-old question—do we excuse someone for their crime because of a bad childhood? She said she hopes readers are left with “a sense of hope and a desire to live their lives in a way that makes a difference in the world, to help counteract evil.”
Audience member and fellow author, Poli Flores Jr., described how he felt reading Kukla’s book, specifically about one of her literary techniques. “Not describing the character physically or mentally, that, to me as a reader, creates an atmosphere that is terrifying—because he’s like a ghost,” Flores said.
As far as her writing methods, Kukla said, “I have changed up a bit my method of writing. In the beginning I wrote my middle grade mystery series from beginning to end, but as I got into the adult series and then this true crime, I learned a new technique, and that is I work on whatever chapter or scene I am most passionate about at the moment and then piece it all together like a jigsaw puzzle.”
The new technique seems to be working for her. Kukla said, “That has enabled me to write much faster because I’m not sitting staring at a blank page wondering what is next.”
Kukla has also become more strategic in the publishing sense, saying, “And in the true crime book, instead of releasing it as soon as it was finalized, I waited four months so I could release it on the 75th anniversary of the crime spree, which was in January.”
When asked about her next book project, Kukla said, “I don’t know for sure what is next. I guess I don’t know yet.”
Although she has many projects in mind and a couple of series books that she could add to, Kukla is open to writing about more true crime.
Kukla said, “The other evening someone told me about an interesting crime from the Ocotillo Wells desert region in the 1970s, so I’m already trying to look into that.”
