All three books are currently going through editing and formatting in preparation for ARCs — Advance Reading Copies, which AP will be sending out soon to national book buyers and reviewers in advance of the official release in September. AP is simultaneously designing covers for all three as well.

I’ve talked online with both Christine and Cary. It’s been great to get to know them and share the first trek down the fiction trail for all of us. We’re all excited, and we feel like we’re in great hands with not only an experienced publisher but one that is extremely familiar and knowledgable about the geography in which our stories take place.

More soon.–MM

Double Dare is an adventure/thriller set in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado. It’s about an outdoorsman who overcomes the amputation of his leg, intentionally set wildfire and a confrontation with an old mentor-turned-enemy who wants to steal his life’s dream — Double Dare Ranch. The hero, Cutter, has a colorful sidekick, and there are three very strong female characters. The remote, rugged geography of the San Juans and the Dolores Valley becomes a challenging character itself.

I will write more about Double Dare and how the publication process of the book is coming along in coming weeks. Maybe there will even be a sneak-peek of the cover, which is currently in design. Watch for more here–MM

A cheer went up along Cherry Creek late the night of April 22, 1859. William Newton Byers, 28, and a crew of three men – not all experienced printers, as you will learn – cranked out the first edition of the Rocky Mountain News, beating its very first competitor, The Cherry Creek Pioneer, to the streets of Denver by 20 minutes.

Colorado had its first newspaper.

Byers had arrived from Omaha only one night earlier, setting up shop on the second floor of a log building operated by Uncle Dick Wooton as a general store and saloon. Immediately, he found himself in a race against the Pioneer, as he explained on page 3 in the first edition:

QUICK WORK. – On the 21^st, at 7 p.m., the wagons carrying our press were driven to the door and we began unloading. We set up our press, arranged our matter, and the next day at 10 p.m. began printing the outside of our first issue.

One man working with Byers, Ike “Buckskin” Chamberlain, may have had some printing experience. But Byers apparently wasn’t so sure that he could out-race the Pioneer that he would turn down help from an unlikely volunteer. The following account appeared in the paper’s anniversary edition 38 years later:

O.P. Wiggins, the well-known policeman … was in the city on the day and had never seen a press. Hearing that one was about to be operated he went to The News office and requested to be allowed to assist in the printing. Mr. Byers gave him a chance to run the roller which distributed the ink over the type. He accepted the offer and worked faithfully for an hour … Chamberlain was killed about a year later on the trail between Pueblo and Taos. Mr. Wiggins subscribed for The News at that time and has been a continuous subscriber ever since. Amos Steck divides the honor with Mr. Wiggins, having taken the paper as regularly.

History-maker

Byers went on to become one of the most influential leaders in the state’s history. He was instrumental in gaining statehood for Colorado; helped bring in telegraph lines and the railroad; served on the committee that founded the Colorado Seminary, later the University of Denver; trekked with the first party known to climb Longs Peak, and helped found the Colorado Historical Society, the Natural History Society and Denver’s first library.

The Rocky first published as an evening weekly. It went on to become one of the leading newspapers in the country and an integral part of Coloradans’ lives. Since 1926 it has been part of the Scripps newspaper chain and media family. It has been a rich and colorful 150 years, as you will see.

From Byers’ first editorial

“Fondly looking forward to a long and pleasant acquaintance with our readers, hoping well to act our part, we send forth to the world the first number of the Rocky Mountain News.”

(In the early days of newspapering, “number” meant edition.)

Paper’s first home

The original site was the second-floor attic of a saloon near the Market St. bridge in Auraria, one of three towns that made up what was to soon become Denver. The other two towns were Montana City and St. Charles. Denver City eventually won out over St. Charles as the city’s name because, in one prospector’s opinion: “There ain’t no saints in St. Charles.”

The GyPSy Line is my first work of fiction to be published, so I am very proud of it and its inclusion in Gem Street. Labello Press is a fledgling small press launched in Tipperary, Ireland, by Deborah McMenamy, an American. She is a published author and playwright and artist. One of her first steps was to create a writing contest named in honor of her father, the Leonard A. Koval Memorial Prize. The eleven winners represent seven countries — Ireland, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Spain, New Zealand and France — and each received a cash prize. For the complete list of winners http://www.labellopress.com/gem-street-2012—now-available.html.

McMenamy describes Gem Street as “an eclectic and outstanding tumble of glittering new stories.” It is definitely eclectic. Now that I’ve read the others, The GyPSY Line reads pretty tame to me. The idea for the story came to me when I was standing in — where else? — a shopping line two years ago, hoping to buy one of the first Wii’s for my son’s Christmas present. I guess my imagination just took off from there.

Besides the fact it’s my first published fiction, I just like the story. It’s about four very different characters waiting in a big-box store shopping line five days before Christmas hoping the score the “toy of the year,” a gee-whiz computer called a GyPSy. The name hints at both its functional properties and its child-like appeal to the diverse characters. I made it up — GyPSy. Frankly, when I did a search I was shocked that no GPS device or site that I could find had claimed it. The story also includes a twist ending, which I particularly love in any fiction. So far, all the fiction I’ve written includes surprise endings. I hope I can continue that signature.

Some of McMenamy’s comments about The GyPSy Line:

“I loved GyPSy from the moment I picked it up. I fell in love with Lucy and her not knowing why she was jumping up and down (still makes me laugh) and her screeching. I love the treatment and the motivation of the characters so desperate to score a GyPSy. I was in that line with my take-away coffee and my frozen toes. It brought me right back to the States, to winter and skiing and the smell of snow in the air. Your writing style is unique and the ending (happily) surprised me which made it even better. It’s simply a magical and quirky story.

“My father plucked Labello (loosely from the Latin) from somewhere (Labella means ‘the beautiful’ and there is no actual translation for Labello) and decided that this should be our alternative name … I guess you could say it was our bond. He believed that to be a ‘Labello’ was to have integrity and to be a person who is true to themselves no matter what anyone around them thinks. He was a bit of a philosopher in his own way. And yes, he sure did love his baseball.”

As you will note, there is no excerpt from The GyPSy Line on my site — part of my agreement with Labello for one year. Hopefully, you will be intrigued enough to buy a copy of Gem Street to read all of the authors’ stories of delusion, whimsy, anguish, fear, horror and … well, I could go on with at least eleven different descriptions because that’s how different they are.

The Labello link will take you to more information, McMenamy’s back story, and how to purchase Gem Street. Hopefully, it will soon be available online at Amazon, at least. For now, my site is the only place you can buy the book in the States. Of course, I’d like to see it in Tattered Cover, Barnes & Noble and other independent stores. I’ll keep you updated here.