Meet Hall of Famers Patricia Raybon and Clive Cussler

Attitudes at Altitude Promise to Readers … We celebrate the outstanding authors inducted into the Colorado Authors’ Hall of Fame in 2019 and 2021. They are the first in the United States that only honors published authors exclusively.

Each month, two of the past Inductees will be featured with their background and latest books.
One of our past Inductees will offer their sage advice on "how they do it"–whatever "it" is.
You will be the first to hear about Hall Events that are planned. Next up is the Aspiring Authors Scholarships on September 16th.

Discover the latest book by 2019 Legacy Inductee Clive Cussler NUMA Files, co-written with others … to keep Clive’s legacy alive. And 2021 Inductee Patricia Raybon’s hot on the charts All That Is Secret (An Annalee Spain Mystery Book 1). Patricia has also added a delightful article for readers, "Knowing Your Audience and Loving It, Too"—sage advice for all authors.

Do you know a newbie author or one-to-be? Get on the train now and share the news! The Aspiring Author Scholarships submissions are now open. The celebration luncheon will be held at Denver University on September 16th. Remember, this is not for "academia" … this is for supporting time-off to write; to polish a manuscript; for learning the craft; for getting help. All submissions must be in by June 1st.

Meet Board member Danielle Hampson, visionary of The Author’s Show® which has eleven different channels, broadcasting every day. During the summer months, plan to visit several Colorado Barnes & Noble stores will be celebrating local authors and donating a percentage of proceeds to the Aspiring Authors Scholarships. Visit the Colorado Blvd. store in Glendale on June 18th, the Southlands store in Aurora on July 2nd, and the Lone Tree store on August 6th.

Spring is coming to the Rockies and the Aspiring Author Scholarships are open for entry. What a fabulous way to seed an authoring career. Are you telling others about them? For authors who desire to be successful in the publishing realm, winning one of these could be the foundation of a career going forward. All info is up on the Hall’s website HERE to Donate and/or submit a nomination.

And do hold the date: September 16, 2022 for the reveal and celebration over lunch. It will be held at Denver University.

Patricia Raybon

Lifelong Colorado resident Patricia Raybon is an award-winning author, essayist, and novelist who writes top-rated books at the daring intersection of faith and race.

Her notable books include My First White Friend, her racial forgiveness memoir, which won The Christopher Award; I Told the Mountain to Move, her prayer memoir on her struggle to learn to pray, a Book of the Year Finalist in Christianity Today Magazine’s 2006 annual writing contest, and Undivided: A Muslim Daughter, Her Christian Mother, Their Path to Peace, written with her younger daughter, educator Alana Raybon.

Her first fiction is a 1920s murder mystery about a prim, clever, Black female theologian—a fan of Sherlock Holmes—solving murder and crime in Colorado’s dangerous KKK era. A new series, its debut title, All That Is Secret, is set to release Oct. 5, 2021, from Tyndale House.

Patricia’s essays on faith and race have been published in the New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, USA Today, USA Weekend, Guideposts, In Touch Magazine (In Touch Ministries), Christianity Today, the Washington Post’s Acts of Faith Blog and aired on National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition Saturday.

Patricia lives with her husband Dan, a retired educator. They love movies, popcorn, gardening, college basketball and biking with their beloved family, including two grown daughters, a son-in-law, five grandchildren and their "grand dog" Max.

Books of note: My First White Friend: Confessions on Race, Love and Forgiveness and All That Is Secret (An Annalee Spain Mystery Book 1)

This is Patricia’s latest book: https://amzn.to/3ylp2S9

Clive Cussler (July 15, 1931 – February 24, 2020), was the author of more than eighty books in five bestselling series, including Dirk Pitt®, NUMA Files®, Oregon Files®, Isaac Bell®, and Sam and Remi Fargo®. His life nearly paralleled that of his hero Dirk Pitt. Whether searching for lost aircraft or leading expeditions to find famous shipwrecks, he and his NUMA crew of volunteers discovered and surveyed more than seventy-five lost ships of historic significance, including the long-lost Civil War submarine Hunley, which was raised in 2000 with much publicity. Like Pitt, Cussler collected classic automobiles. His collection featured more than one hundred examples of custom coachwork. Cussler passed away in

February 2020.

Graham Brown is the author of Black Rain and Black Sun, and the co-author with Cussler of Devil's Gate, The Storm, Zero Hour, Ghost Ship, The Pharaoh's Secret, Nighthawk, The Rising Sea, Sea of

Greed, Journey of the Pharaohs, and Fast Ice. He is a pilot and an attorney.

This is Clive's latest book in the Numa series: Dark Vector: https://amzn.to/3slJChg

KNOWING MY AUDIENCE AND LOVING IT, TOO

Patricia Raybon

The question stumped me for years. Who’s your audience? I wrestled to answer, settling on various reader avatars, as we authors say—depending on a particular book—but often never feeling I was precisely on target.

I write at the intersection of faith and race. So, to be honest, I always seemed to be guessing who would be willing, ready, or interested in anything I had to say.

I receive hate mail, that is, when I step on the wrong toes. Since my first book, My First White Friend—about my struggle as a Black woman to make peace and find it on American soil—I’ve stirred up hornet’s nests. A little timid by nature, except on paper, I tiptoed around my topics, praying I’d get to the heart of a message without firing up the trolls.

But this time? For my debut fiction? For, yes, my historical mystery novel, All That Is Secret, released during a pandemic, in the middle of a supply-chain crisis? For it, I wanted to land in the right place. No second guessing. No crossing my fingers. No hoping beyond hope that I’d zeroed in on the right people—or person, as John Steinbeck said—waiting and eager to read and enjoy my story.

Sure, I’d heard bits and pieces about audience wisdom. There’s the simple: "Know yourself—and know your audience," as Tennessee Ernie Ford, the popular country and western singer and TV host, said in the fifties and sixties.

Then, there’s the strategic: "You’ve got to keep your finger on the pulse of what your audience is thinking and know what they’ll accept from you." – Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, the former professional wrestler, whose films have grossed $3.5 billion in North America and $10.5 billion worldwide.

There’s the somber: "Getting an audience is hard. Sustaining an audience is hard. It demands a consistency of thought, of purpose, and of action over a long period of time." – Bruce Springsteen.

From authors, meantime, we hear the subtle and sublime: "Your audience is one single reader," wrote Steinbeck. "I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out a person—one person—a real person you know, or an imagined person—and write to that one."

British poet Robert Graves warned: "Never use the word 'audience.' The very idea of a public, unless the poet is writing for money, seems wrong to me. Poets don't have an ‘audience.’ They’re talking to a single person all the time."

But Alice Walker said this: "I never have an intended audience. I just write, you know."

My own answer came together in halting and slow steps, first because of rejection. For the first time in my 25-year, book-writing career, not one trade resource reviewed by new mystery novel. So, no Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Library Journal, or Booklist.

I felt like a literary pariah. In fact, when I contacted my hometown newspaper—requesting a review—I was told the paper doesn’t review Christian or faith-based fiction.

I didn’t see my book then as "Christian," not in the current politicized manner. Sure, my publisher, Tyndale House, is a Christian fiction juggernaut—known, for example, for releasing the Left Behind series whose Colorado co-author Jerry B. Jenkins told me the franchise has grossed Tyndale a billion dollars. The book’s audience? People compelled by "The Rapture."

For my mystery novel for Tyndale, however, my proposed audience was a jumbled profile—die-hard, mystery-reading, female fans of historical mysteries and romantic-suspense fiction who are impassioned followers of detective series on Masterpiece Mystery as well as "readers hungry to learn about the African American experience" who also are "churchgoers."

That’s not an audience. That’s a sub sandwich.

In truth, I was reluctant to commit to one narrow audience. Faith based? I was fighting any association with "Christian" politicized groups, feeling affinity with literature’s more beloved authors of faith, including the late Flannery O’Connor, a Roman Catholic whose Prayer Journal is a collection of tender, God-seeking prayers. Dear God please help me to be an artist, please let it lead to You.

But finally, I had to choose. How? I was forced by Facebook. (Of all things.)

I’d budgeted to buy targeted Facebook ads to excite my novel’s’ pre-orders. Not wanting to throw money at a blank wall, I forced myself to finally identify my readers. They are:

Women ages 45+
Fans of historical mystery fiction
Churchgoers
Followers of Oprah’s Book Club
Lovers of the Bible
Readers of Sherlock Holmes
Excited by Black history

Essentially, my reader loves Jesus and a good mystery, too. Not too shabby in my world. But couldn’t she be more sophisticated? More Flannery O’Connor-ish?
Or was my reader just a lot like me? A no-longer young, church-going woman who loves a good mystery.

Nothing fancy about her. After a busy day of working, caring for aging parents, helping with grandkids, or encouraging grown kids, she wants to curl into a comfy chair and read a twisty, page-turning, but clean detective story. A series would be even better.
So, I stepped up with All That Is Secret (An Annalee Spain Mystery Book 1)—from a Christian publisher.

Nope, no review yet by The New York Times. But Parade Magazine picked it as a Fall 2021 "Mysteries We Love" selection. Woman’s World—the grocery-store magazine that’s stored by checkout counters all over America—picked it as one of four "Best Books of the Week" on Oct. 18 (along with the newest Danielle Steele offering). CrimeReads, as well, named it to three of its lists, including one of five "October’s Best Debut Novels."

My reader, meantime, had coalesced in my mind and heart as a real person—and I liked her. A lot. Designing my Facebook ads, I choose a feminine vibe she’d notice, with some ads introducing my Annalee as "the praying sister Sherlock Holmes always needed."

To my delight, my targeted ads struck the right chord—and my reader answered. Despite a release week with supply-chain horrors, my reader is still finding my book—and I’m still finding her.

I’m humbled to know her, in fact. So, Steinbeck was right. My audience of one has a face, name, and reading preference. My job? To never forget how much she matters.

Patricia Raybon is an award-winning Colorado author and novelist who writes stories of faith and mystery. Her debut 1920s mystery novel, All That Is Secret, is a Parade Magazine Fall 2021 "Mysteries We Love" selection.

Support the Hall

The Colorado Authors' Hall of Fame celebrates the accomplishments of living and deceased authors who have been connected to Colorado—their words, wisdom, accomplishments, and the life-changing impact their works create. The result: their legacy lives on.

The Hall is an all-volunteer-run 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that honors and celebrates authors connected with Colorado by birth, residence, temporary residency for writing encouragement and support, writing about elements within Colorado, or placing storylines in or about Colorado.

Authors’ words have immense power and impact on changing others’ lives. They solve problems, bring awareness to a topic, and provide hours of pleasurable reading. It’s the power of their words.

Your financial assistance through donations and participation at events supports the bi-annual Induction Gala in odd-numbered years, the Aspiring Author Scholarships, and the general operation to bring these events to the public.

Please support the Hall for this year going forward.