2016 Cripple Creek Ice Festival a Reminder of Days Gone By

I’m a Colorado native and one of my favorite Colorado festivals is the Ice Festival in Cripple Creek. For two weeks in February each year, Bennet Street becomes a frozen fantasy land. On the weekends, the fantasy comes alive before your eyes as chainsaw wielding artisans carve huge blocks of ice into beautifully crafted images to enhance the annual theme. It’s amazing.

This year, walking Bennett Avenue on a weekday afternoon was like a blast from the past, with an old west motif that called to the history buff in me. Themed sculptures included interactive sculptures for the kids, even the big ones, such as the covered wagon slide and a maze running almost the length of the exhibit, with old town false fronts and mine entrances, and a coal-burning locomotive for photo ops.

Of course, in a town where gambling is a main attraction, we also had to have a lucky horseshoe. I guess even in the old west folks could use all the luck they could get. The ice miner and his mules were specters of a time long past, appearing ghostly in the afternoon light.

I’ve been going to Cripple Creek since I was a little girl, long before the days of the Ice Festival, before gaming was legal, when Cripple Creek was still an old west town with brick sidewalks and a real live melodrama diner theater. Most kids these days have never booed and hissed for a villain, or cheered for a hero, except perhaps in a video game, if that. I remember those days with a loving fondness, walking the brick sidewalks of Bennett Avenue after the show with my parents, looking in the shops and business establishments, with wide-eyed wonder. It’s a bygone era, relived in my memories with a visit to this frozen western fantasy world.

Why Fiction is Better than Fact

Have you ever looked back and thought about how doing one small thing different at some point in your life might have made things turn out very different? Is there one decision that you made that might have changed everything, making you a very different person than you are today? There’s probably many choices and events that fit this bill, because that’s how life is. What we do and the choices we make, shape the hills and valleys of our life stories.

I’ve gone over the years prior to my son’s death thousands of times in my mind, searching for one thing I could have done differently, which might have resulted in his being alive today. Although there are many things that might have changed the events that occurred, in the end it comes down to facts, and the facts are, things happened the way they happened and I made the choices that I made because we can’t see the future and hindsight doesn’t change anything.

That’s one way in which writing is so much better than real life. In our stories, we are the creators who determine the events that occur and we can go back and change things, and we often do. In fact, one little change can change the entire story, sometimes in ways that are unexpected. Never has this become as clear to me as it has recently, as I’ve gone through the most recent revision of my western novel, Delilah.

Delilah began as an excerpt assigned in my first M.F.A. class in genres, with the idea of taking us out of our comfort zones by having us write outside the genres we were used to writing in. By the end of the second semester that year, I had a rough draft of a western novel. Although my cohorts who critiqued it would probably recognize some elements of the story it has turned into, it is also very different in many ways from that first original story.

Delilah is a young woman who did two years in prison in the early 1880’s for killing her step-father when he raped and killed her mother and younger sister. On her way back to San Luis, she is raped and hanged, but she doesn’t die and instead, sets out on a quest for revenge that takes her to the Colorado mining town of Leadville.

Except somewhere during the first revision, it occurred to me that there had to be more at stake, so she gained a 16 year old traveling companion named Sarah, who gets kidnapped when they hang Delilah, which changed a lot of things further along in the story.

During the second revision, I was reading aloud the scene where Delilah confronts her love interest, Clyde Harper, after he mentioned something to the sheriff that sent him sniffing around in her tracks, when it occurred to me that when she marched from the office of the Little Pittsburg after telling Clyde off, something needed to happen. Delilah needed to run smack dab into one of the men she’d been seeking. So I wrote a new scene in which that’s exactly what happens, and the story just kind of took off from there. I wrote new scenes for the new story line, and rewrote some of the old scenes that I particularly like to fit the new story, and I swear at times even I didn’t know where my story was going.

The final result is a much better story than the original, I think. But it is also very different from that story. My point is that all of this occurred from changing just a couple small details, which sent the story off in different directions. It’s really quite amazing when you think about it.

It is just one reason why I maintain that fiction is better than fact. Fact, you can’t go back and revise. I can think of all kinds of things I could have done different that might have resulted in my son being alive now, but I can’t go back and change any of them to make the story of my life or his come out differently.

Michael Daniel Lee Booth

If you’re interested in knowing more about Delilah, you can like my Facebook page, Delilah – Kaye Lynne Booth for updates.

it happened again

Source: it happened again

The 2016 Writing to be Read

Well, it’s a new year and time for new beginnings. I know I promised you a new Writing to be Read was coming your way and I haven’t forgotten. No, indeed. But I gave up on re-designing the site myself. I’ve always been technically challenged and the digital world is no different for me, so I’ve recruited someone who knows more about it than I do, and I think she’s done a great job so far. I hope you agree.

My mystery tech is not really a mystery though. She’s my Western State cohort, a talented writer and skilled editor, Robin Conley, and she’s going to guest blog here as well as provide a few regular features, and perhaps share some reviews with Writing to be Read readers. Robin is an amazing woman who took the 365 challenge and wrote a flash fiction piece every day for a year. She is an alpha reader for much of my work and her suggestions do nothing but improve my stories. For that reason, one of the regular features she will offer is Weekly Writing Memo, offering tips on different writing issues that come up during the week. Robin also has her own blog, Author the World, and you can follow the link here, or in the blogroll, to check it out.

I want to thank those of you who have stuck in there, even when this blog seemed to be stagnant. 2016 promises to bring big changes for me, because I’m determined to make those changes happen, and I’ve already started the ball rolling.

I’ve stepped down from being the Southern Colorado Literature Examiner on Examiner.com. While I enjoyed the role, the pay per click column didn’t produce enough to justify the time it took away from paying gigs and my schooling. But because I did enjoy the role, I’ve decided to carry it over here, with book reviews, author profiles and coverage of Colorado literary events. In other words, I will provide the same great content I did as an Examiner, but I will do it here, with some added improvements to pep things up. For example, some of you may be familiar with my red quill logo. The reviews will now have a rating system, but we’re going to dispose of those boring little stars. Reviews on Writing to be Read will each receive from one to five quills. Also, I plan to make the posts here more personable and share what’s happening in my writing world.

For starters, I want to fill you in on what I’ve been up to, and you’ll see why I wasn’t finding time to pop in here, although I should have been. None of this is meant to excuse my absence, just explain it. As my regular followers know, I got my MFA in Creative Writing with an emphasis in genre fiction last summer, and this year I am seeking a second emphasis in screenwriting. The time is now approaching when I will need to make all that education pay off, so I can pay off all my student loans.

So, I have been busy revising and polishing a lot of the stories I’ve already written, and submitting them like crazy. One member of my writing group referred to me as a “submission machine”. I’ve got my children’s stories out there, as well as several shorts and a couple of flash fiction stories, and I’ve even dug out some of my better poetry and submitted to anthologies. In fact, I recently had one of my poems accepted to be included in the Manifest West Anthology, so I’m thinking that’s pretty cool. And of course, I’m on the lookout for a publisher for my thesis novel, The Great Primordial Battle, the first book in my epic science fantasy series, Playground for the Gods. And, my western novel, Delilah, is in the final stages of revision, so I will have it out there soon, too.

I also self-published a short science fiction story, Last Call, about time travel and new beginnings. It’s kind of an experiment, or maybe a learning experience is a better term. So far it’s taught me that I suck at marketing. But now, at least I know what skills I need to work on. It’s available on Amazon for .99. You can follow the link at the bottom of the page to get there if you’d like. On the positive side, it’s gotten two reviews which have given it a four star rating, so that’s a good thing, right?

So, with all that said, I’m going to turn the next post over to Robin and I hope you all will give her a warm welcome with lots of comments. Remember 2016 is going to be a great year for Writing to be Read, so don’t miss it. If you’re not already a subscriber, just click the “subscribe by email” button on the top right to get notifications of the latest posts. I’ll be glad to add you to the subscribers list. And if you enjoyed this post, or you are excited about the 2016 Writing to be Read, leave a comment and share how 2016 is going to be great for you!

The “5820 Diaries”, by Chris Tucker brings the undead to Colorado

The 5820 Diaries, by Chris Tucker, start out with classic zombie horror. In volume 1, One Shot One Kill, Payden Browning is just a young guy on a date with his girl when the streets of Denver are suddenly invaded by zombies. One minute he and Katie are enjoying a zombie crawl on Larimer Street, and the next, real zombies start taking chunks out of the participants, turning fake zombies and spectators into real zombies, as well.

In volume 2, Sanity’s Edge, a few short weeks after the zombie invasion, it seems world has been transformed into a barren landscape of walking dead. Payden Browning takes up with another survivor, looking for his daughter, but before they can find her, his new friend is bitten and… well… You know this can’t end well, right?

In volume 3, Flood of Souls, the zombies take on a new twist – speed, creating a bit more of a challenge than the slow-moving flesh eaters pose. There’s a new threat around every corner. Just trying to survive, himself, Payden Browning seems to have a knack for taking on responsibilities he didn’t ask for and forming attachments that force him to make some very difficult choices.

The post-zombie world is hard and cruel, changing survivors in unexpected ways and zombies aren’t the only threat to survival. Payden Browning learns this lesson first-hand in Volume 4, Infected, when he considers joining forces with a group of survivors that have taken refuge in a huge Costco warehouse. He finds himself once again taking responsibilities that he didn’t ask for, but can’t seem to walk away from, when he realizes all is not as it seems within the group. Payden believes that all hope for a return to something akin to normalcy is too much to hope for in this zombie infested world is beyond hope, until he meets a woman in the group who makes him believe that anything is possible.

Each volume of the 5280 Diaries tells a small piece of the story. Tucker threads the tale in each volume within the bigger story chronologically, weaving a tale that captivates readers and should thrill Colorado zombie fans. By locating his zombie-fest in Denver, he creates a world easily visualized, building a post-zombie world on familiar territory to many Coloradans.

In addition to the 5280 Diaries, Chris Tucker is the author of a fast-paced action novel, Lost Voyage. I look forward to watching this new author evolve as develops his skills more with each story that springs forth from his creative imagination.

A new “Writing to be Read” is coming

My latest graduate class through Western State Colorado University dealt with the business end of writing. You know, agents, editors, contracts and, due to a plethora of changes in the publishing industry, brought on by the rapid rise of digital media and the resulting increase in the popularity of the self-publishing realm, marketing. Writing is a business and you must treat it as one, whether you opt to go for a traditional publisher or to self-publish, or to go with some type of hybrid publishing house, (and they’re out there).

The rise in self-published authors, who do all of their own marketing, (and get to maintain copyright and control of title and cover, as well as content. All while claiming a bigger percentage in royalties than traditional publishing offers and requiring less time lapse before publication), has triggered a trend with traditional publishers to utilize the marketing power of their authors, as well. So regardless of which method of having their work published writers choose, they’re going to need to understand marketing strategies and techniques in order to sell their work.

Writers must have a way for readers to find them, and in the digital world we live in today, that means they need a strong writer’s platform, or following. To get that a writer needs a blog or website where that following can grow and a strong social media presence, because that is where you gain fans or readers.

What all this means, is that it is time for Writing to be Read to get a makeover. So for a while, if you pop in here, there won’t be much happening. If you’re a subscriber already, you will receive an e-mail notification when my next post comes up, and that will be the first post for the renewed Writing to be Read site. If you aren’t subscribed, I hope you will do so in anticipation of what’s to come on the renewed site. There are several promises in store.

The renewed Writing to be Read will still feature book reviews and author profiles from time to time, but it will also feature blog posts which update readers as how the tides are flowing in my writing processes as I revise two very different novels, (one western – Delilah, and one epic science fantasy – Playground for the Gods), and maintain my freelance career simultaneously. I’ll share with readers my trials and obstacles, as well as tidbits I learn along the way. So I hope you’ll join me in my writing journeys and benefit from whatever you find useful. Please be patient, knowing that I will be posting again soon and the renewed site is going to be great. Good things will come to those who wait. I won’t keep you waiting too much longer. Thank you for hanging in there with me, and my apologies for any inconvenience.

Copyright Infringement: A Warning to all Authors