{"id":16827,"date":"2025-08-21T20:03:04","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T02:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/farmington-author-writes-about-downwinders-in-fatal-winds\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:02:08","slug":"farmington-author-writes-about-downwinders-in-fatal-winds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/farmington-author-writes-about-downwinders-in-fatal-winds\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmington author writes about downwinders in \u2018Fatal Winds\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Roberta
Roberta Summers, a Farmington author, received the International Impact Book Award for her book Fatal Winds about the atomic bomb and the negative impacts it had on downwinders.<\/span>Debra Mayeux<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The New Mexico Congressional delegation last week demanded a swift response from the Department of Justice in providing compensation to New Mexico downwinders.<\/p>\n

Downwinders are those exposed to nuclear fallout from atomic bomb testing in the western United States, and the newly expanded Radiation Exposure Compensation Act was adopted to address the health concerns of \u201cgravely ill survivors,\u201d according to a news release from Rep. Terese Leger Fernandez.<\/p>\n

A Farmington author addressed the issue of downwinders in the book Fatal Winds <\/em>published in 2019.<\/p>\n

The book by Roberta Summers has garnered national attention, as it was the recipient of a 2025 International Impact Book Award<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These awards are \u201cdedicated to celebrating excellence in storytelling and honoring the authors whose words spark transformation,\u201d according to the organization\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

Fatal Winds was chosen from eight entries in the Historic Fiction War and Military category.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a well-deserved award,\u201d said Traci Hales, a writing instructor at San Juan College. \u201cRoberta has written an important book.\u201d<\/p>\n

Summers received the award July 26 at a gala in Phoenix.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was profoundly moving to receive this recognition with its accompanying trophy surrounded by voices that challenge and inspire,\u201d Summers said. \u201cWith Fatal Winds<\/em>, I wanted to offer both truth and tenderness to a story buried under decades of silence. It became my passion to get this book out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Roberta
Roberta Summers, left, with Nim Stant, director of the International Impact Book Awards on July 26, 2025 in Phoenix.<\/span>Studio 3 Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Summers is a cancer survivor, who contracted the illness from being a downwinder herself.<\/p>\n

She began researching the effects of nuclear testing in 2010 after writing a short story Mutual Assured Destruction, which was published in the San Juan College\u2019s Arts and Literary Magazine.<\/p>\n

The main character of the story was Atom.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Atom intrudes in the book (Fatal Winds<\/em>) from time to time with snarky comments and sarcasm,\u201d Summers said.<\/p>\n

The core story of Fatal Winds focuses on the atomic bomb testing in the Nevada desert from the late 1940s to the early 1960s.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe radioactive fallout caused cancer clusters with children and women being the most vulnerable,\u201d Summers said, adding that animals also were negatively impacted. \u201cSheep lost their wool. Sheep lost their lambs. Sheep died.\u201d<\/p>\n

Summer\u2019s cousin Jimmy was a downwinder who died young from cancer. Her younger sister died six years ago from the same cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a downwinder,\u201d she said, adding she survived Stage 4 lung cancer.<\/p>\n

She began researching the effects of the atomic testing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to Los Alamos, the Trinity Site, the nuclear museums in Albuquerque and in Las Vegas, Nevada,\u201d Summers said, adding she researched government files and probed the internet for information.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more I read the more angry, and concerned I became,\u201d Summers said, adding \u201cThis was the era of duck and cover. It was also the era of the Cold War, and America had to be on top. They had to be ahead of Russia and everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fatal Winds<\/em> was the culmination of the research. It is a historic fiction book that follows the story of Reese Mayfield, a physicist, who develops the first atomic bomb. Other characters in the books include her cousin Jimmy and the Atom.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy whole purpose isn\u2019t to be a Stephen King, my purpose was to get the word out,\u201d Summers said. \u201cI wanted to people to know. It became a passion. Something I had to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fatal Winds<\/em> is available on Amazon, Goodreads, and at robertasummers.com.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roberta Summers earns International Impact Book Award<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16827"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20415,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16827\/revisions\/20415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16827"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}