Evelyn Neil began her career as an author by submitting short stories to several writing contests – which she won! She has a gift for entwining the hearts of her readers with everyday events and the decisions made by ordinary people that are so important to all of us.
Though she currently lives in the foothills of the Sandia Mountain in Albuquerque, Evelyn Neil grew up on the prairies of southeastern Wyoming where she acquired an early love for animals, western landscapes and expansive skies. She earned a BS in Business Ed from the University of New Mexico. She began writing in 2013 following retirement as President and CFO from the petroleum equipment company founded in 1972 with her late husband, Don.
She has been published in the anthology of the American Military Family, From the Frontlines to the Home Front. Her work appears in the SouthWest Sage Newsletter, Ageless Authors’ Anthology, the SouthWest Sage Anthology and the SouthWest Writers Award Winning Anthology. She is active in the Write Stuff critique group and the Writers Workshop. She serves on the board of the Friends of the UNM College of Education and Health Sciences.
Dancing to the End of Our Rainbow
This tale of devotion and hard work follows this couple on their heart-wrenching journey through uncharted territory while coping with Don’s unwelcome health diagnosis and slow physical decline. As the years pass, they remain lovers, partners and best friends even as Evelyn takes on more responsibility for their business and eventually becomes Don’s caregiver.
Married following a three-month courtship, soul-mates dance off to begin a fifty-eight-year adventure of travelling both the high road and the low road. Constant companions, Don and Evelyn, build a successful business while imparting strong ethical values to their two sons and each of their four grandchildren.
When they reach the end of their rainbow, Evelyn is left to grapple with the day-to-day challenges of widowhood and to wonder who she is without Don. With resilience and determination, she strives to accept what has happened and to reinvent her life.
Dancing to the End of Our Rainbow won first place in the Memoir division of the New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards in 2023.
It is currently available on Amazon.
Customer Reviews of Dancing to the End of Our Rainbow
Gene Wampfler – This is a book written from the heart and the deepest feelings. It is often a difficult read but it is leavened by the many periods of joy that Evelyn experiences with her husband and family. I admire the way in which Evelyn paced the book, starting at the dark moment but then filling the pages with wonderful days they experienced until the fateful end. …a personal and emotional ride.
Clair-Lise Benaud – The epigraph says it all: Choose your death or your death will chose you.
Adrienne Larking – A very loving and brave book. I was captivated early on by the down-to-earth, charming style of relating rich family stories from the west in the middle of the last century. I was engaged throughout by the mutual devotion of two people who maintained a romantic love so often lost in a long marriage. It is a love story about life, and yet courageously takes on death.
Patricia Walkow – Evelyn Neil’s Dancing to the End of Our Rainbow is a loving testament to a long, happy marriage. It showcases two people who loved each other, built their future and nurtured a family until one of them died after many years of illness. Funny, sad, and thoughtful, you will enjoy this book and gain strength from how the couple sought joy in their lives.
AWARD WINNING SHORT STORIES
Kaleidoscope
A VERY BEARY SUMMER
Description: Trauma ensues when a black bear choses to spend summer nights in the backyard Ponderosa pine.
Available for Sale Amazon
A Diversity of Expression
2022 – 3rd place Memoir
BUBBLE GUM
Description: How a dilemma of three children sharing two pieces of precious bubble gum during World War II rationing can lead to life-long consequences.
Available for Sale Amazon
Holes in Our Hearts
Winner: Military Writers Society of America annual writing contest and New Mexico Press Women annual writing contest
HITCH HIKER
Description: Disaster looms when Ken, a Vietnam Veteran, picks up a uniformed hitchhiker who then holds a gun to Ken’s head.
THE PRICE OF FREEDOM
Description: A reflection of walking on Omaha Beach in Normandy and contemplating the enormity of the events that took place there on D-Day 1944.
Available for Sale Amazon
SouthWest Writers 2019 Winners Anthology
1st place Adventure
MIDNIGHT EXPRESS
Description: Adventures abound when a bus driver, dead heading and empty bus, gets lonely and picks up hitchhikers along his route.
1st place Memoir
NOT SO FUNNY
Description: Chaos breaks out when two young cousins on a camping trip with their grandfather find him in a dangerous situation.
Available for Sale Amazon
SouthWest Sage 2018
THE SLIPPERY SLOPE
Walt moved into the downstairs bedroom last night. Surrounded by pillows, I was left to toss and turn in the master bedroom upstairs where we had made love and talked our way through fifty-eight years.
