Rabbit. Rabbit. Rabbit. Hop on to the Author Happy Hour

Legendary AUTHOR & BOOK advocate and bookstore pioneering visionary owner of the Tattered Cover Joyce Meskis died on Thursday. Her gutsiness, her vision, her can do philosophy created an all things good environment for authors. Joyce’s impact on bookselling cannot be surpassed. In 2019, she was Inducted into the Colorado Authors Hall of Fame with its first Lifetime Achievement Award. So well deserved. I am honored that she became one of the first people I met when I moved to Denver in 1989 and she told me to, "Come to my store."

Indeed, I did. So, so many times with six author signings and a variety of workshops I coordinated for budding authors in the great conference area they had on the second floor of the LoDo location. The old Cherry Creek 4th Story restaurant was an instant favorite with me—wonderful meals and memories. The best.

Joyce Meskis was a literary visionary. A treasure not just in Colorado ... but in the United States.

Drum Roll Time ... starting this month, the Hall will be hosting an Author Happy Hour with one of our Inductees on the second Friday of the month. Insights, ahas, creativity reveals, tips for authors at all stages, and of course, what they are currently working on in their writing ... and life. Dom Testa will kick it off, a 2019 Inductee who writes under five pen names. Holy Moly ... it will be a great hour.

Other Hall authors ready to real their "truthiness" on the Author Happy Hour include Jerry Jenkins, Michael Gear, Mary Tyler Young, Margaret Coel, Charlotte Hinger, and Avi. What a gift for any author ... and book lover to be part of. They will have the opportunity to ask the featured author questions.

A separate email will go out with registration to attend. All sessions will be recorded. The first date will be Friday, January 13th with Dom Testa.

Second Drum Roll ... Nominations are OPEN for the September 16th 3rd Induction Gala for the Colorado Authors Hall of Fame. Who will they be? I’m clueless ... get your nominations in—and recommend to others to nominate as well. The details are on the Hall Home page. All nominations must be in by February 28th.

Attitudes at Altitude’s promise to our readers …

We celebrate the outstanding authors inducted into the Colorado Authors’ Hall of Fame ® (Hall) in 2019 and 2021. They are the first in the United States that only honors published authors exclusively. The next Induction will be on September 9, 2023. Put the date on your calendar.

Each month, past Inductees are 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 the Hall Events that are planned. Nominations for 2023 Inductions are OPEN ... Who is your favorite author—one that has delivered mega hours of reading enjoyment ... one that has made an impact on society or their field? Nominate them. Forms are on the Hall’s website.

It’s Nominate a Favorite Author Time!

Will a Hall Inductee Be Someone You Nominated?

The Colorado Authors' Hall of Fame honors the authors of extraordinary, published works who meet the Hall’s criteria. Members of the public must study the criteria and enact their nominations of exceptional authors. Nominations are accepted from organizations or individuals throughout the state. A diverse group of Colorado citizens, including literary professionals, is recruited to serve as the Selection Committee. The Selection Committee reviews all nominations, performs additional research if necessary, and selects nominees for induction into the Colorado Authors' Hall of Fame.

They can’t be Inducted unless they are nominated ... that’s the first step.

Nominations are OPEN until February 28, 2023—submit yours ... and tell others to do so as well. And remember—it’s the breadth and inclusion of how great ... important ... impacting your Nominee’s body of work is. The judges do not read the books, although many may be aware of some of a nominee’s published work.

NOMINATE HERE: https://coloradoauthorshalloffame.org/nomination-form.html

Margaret Coel

is the author of the Windriver Mystery Series (the first and only series featuring the Arapaho people) Were it not for Margaret, the complexities of modern Arapaho culture might be virtually unknown. Her carefully structured intertwined plots reveal a depth of understanding of how two cultures interact and affect one another. Without her intriguing work, the Arapaho culture might still be shrouded in mystery.

Margaret is also the author of the Catherine McLeod Mysteries, set in Denver, her original hometown. The State of Colorado has proclaimed December 8th as Margaret Coel Day. As the recipient of multiple book awards, including a WILLA Award and six Colorado Book Awards granted by the Colorado Center for the Book, she believes in, and practices, mentoring and supporting fellow authors. When she received an endorsement from Tony Hillerman, her own books began to hit the best-seller lists. She has since given endorsements to several other authors, making a difference in their careers. Margaret’s first book was an award-winning historical work, Chief Left Hand, about the great Arapaho Chief.

Books of Note: Blood Memory, The Eagle Catcher, Chief Left Hand, The Perfect Suspect.

Flint Whitlock

Colorado called to Flint Whitlock in the 70s when he was an advertising expert and creative director. Eventually, he landed in Denver in 1975. Born in Illinois, his father was a WWII veteran of the 10th Mountain Division—hence the 10th being the subject of his first book. His Army career took him to West Germany and South Vietnam. His final year in service in 1970 landed him at Fort Carson.

With book number three, he became a full-time author and military historian. He’s had over 50 magazine articles and 14 books published thus far with several of them winning awards (no Pulitzer or Booker Prizes yet, however).

He’s been the Editor of the WWII Quarterly magazine since 2010. The Smithsonian, National Geographic, Colorado National Guard, and other groups is honored to have him as a battlefield tour guide. Flint has appeared in several television documentaries on the History Channel, "War Stories with Oliver North," and Netflix. With his sea legs, he’s a history lecturer on Viking sea cruise line..

Active in Colorado, he’s a member of the board of directors (and designer of exhibits) at the Broomfield Veterans Museum. Married to Dr. Mary Ann Watson, a clinical psychologist and former professor at MSU Denver, they have three grown children.

Books of note: Soldiers on Skis: A Pictorial Memoir of the 10th Mountain Division and The Beasts of Buchenwald: Karl & Ilse Koch, Human-Skin Lampshades, and The War-Crimes Trial of the Century

It's the Story!

By Margaret Coel

I’m on my way to an author event in Denver where the hostess is known for asking authors what they are thinking as they write novels. I can’t wait to hear what I’m going to say. What was I thinking when I was writing the novels in the Wind River series? Or the novels set in Denver? It’s easier to talk about what I am not thinking when I write.

I am not thinking about the words I’m typing. I see them on the screen and they don’t always make a lot of sense. I don’t care. Sometimes I can’t wrest out of my brain the exact word I’m looking for, so I type a series of X’s and write on. I am not thinking about grammar, which is why, years ago, I had to turn off that annoying computer function that corrected my grammar before I killed it. (I do write crime novels.)

I am not thinking about whether whatever I’m writing should be in another chapter or maybe shouldn’t be in the novel at all. In short I am not cutting, editing and polishing to a shiny hue my first venture into a story. Which means I will have a one word answer to the question: What am I thinking about as I write a novel? Story.

From the moment I turn on the screen and type Chapter One, I am lost in the story. All other thoughts are banished. The house could disintegrate around me. I’m not sure when I might notice. A blizzard could be raging outside, but if my story is set in the heat of summer, I am mopping the sweat from my brow. Out my window may be a view of the rooftops of Boulder, but what I see are the wide open plains of the Wind River reservation in Wyoming when I’m writing a novel in my Wind River series. For the novels set in Denver, including The Perfect Suspect, all I see are the streets, bungalows and neighborhoods of Denver as investigative reporter Catherine McLeod chases down a killer.

Every novel is about story. Authors enter into the story in different ways. I often feel as if I’m watching a play. The actors enter stage right, say and do whatever they are moved to say or do and make their exits, while I type away, recording every move and word. It’s as if I were right up there on the stage. I live the lives of all my characters simultaneously, laughing and crying when they do (I’ve shed a lot of tears over my keyboard), plotting revenge or forcing them to do what I think they should, making a general mess of my characters’ lives, and finally extricating myself and watching while they live their own lives.

In The Perfect Suspect, I walked down Denver’s streets with Catherine McLeod, seeing what she saw, sometimes shouting out loud whatever she was thinking, and finally figuring out, as she did, who had murdered the popular politician sure to be Colorado’s next governor. I’m scared to death, right along with Catherine, once she realizes she is now the one hunted by an increasingly psychotic killer. I’m madly in love with Detective Nick Bustamante, as is Catherine, and worry about the ups and downs of their relationship, as does she. An Arapaho, raised in a white family in Denver, Catherine is just beginning to get in touch with her own culture. I love the settled feeling that comes over her—and me—in the moments when she draws closer to the ancestors and to herself.

Non-writers think that writing is lonely work. After all, writers sit all day in front of a computer, no fellow office workers around, no one to shoot the bull with over the water cooler. All alone. Nothing could be further from the truth. Writers are never alone. We are surrounded every day by dozens of fascinating people, talking, acting up, doing all sorts of immensely interesting things.

That’s because, when we write, we are telling a story to ourselves, and story is the heart of every novel. I have no patience for the so-called post-modern, minimalist, theme-driven novels—or whatever tag may be current in literary circles—because, too often, they abandon story. And story is what we live by, what connects us to other human beings and helps us make sense of our own lives. All great novels tell great stories.

Only when The Perfect Suspect was safely tucked inside my computer could I allow myself to start thinking about the other aspects of my novel. At that point, I could step out of the story, observe Catherine as she moves through the events, as if I were in the audience, and launch into the rewriting, editing, cutting, polishing and other feats of craftsmanship that will make the story live. Hemingway told about rewriting a story as many as thirty times. "What were you trying to do?" an interviewer asked. "Get the words right," he said.

So that’s what I try to do. I start with the story. And when I know what the story is, what it came out of and where it has to go, what it allows the characters to say about themselves, their history and their destiny, and what makes everything matter—once I have the story in hand, then and only then do I start rewriting. Because the story is there, buried under the detritus of unnecessary words, twisted sentences, paragraphs that meander and go nowhere. Begging to be freed. I rewrite and rewrite some more. I delete and move whole sections around. I slash and shape and keep at it until I’m satisfied that I’ve got the words right.

And there is the story, shining through. It is all that matters.

Margaret Coel is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty novels set among the Arapahos on the Wind River Reservation, including Winter’s Child and The Man Who Fell From the Sky. She is also the author of novels set in Denver, including The Perfect Suspect.

Each month, one will share his or her "why" they are involved with the Hall. In the words of Director Richard Rieman, CEO of Imagination Storybooks, audiobook wizard, and author of the award-winning The Author's Guide to Audiobook Creation:

I learned during a long career in journalism that being "famous" and actually being deserving of fame are two very different things. Some wonderful authors deserve much more recognition for their books than they will ever receive. I joined the Board of the Colorado Authors Hall of Fame to make sure authors from all backgrounds and ethnicities are honored for their work.

Yes, there are some famous authors who have been honored by the Hall, including Steven King, James Michener, and Robert Heinlein. The important work we do is to recognize those authors who also deserve praise for the quality and impact of their words like Dom Testa, Sandra Dallas, and John Dunning. And, for their service to readers everywhere. A great example is the late Sue Lubeck of "The Bookies" bookstore in Denver who was recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award. So many toddlers had stories read to them there. So many teachers used the valuable Bookies resources.

Author and Narrator Neil Gaiman wrote,

I suspect that most authors don’t really want criticism, not even constructive criticism. They want straight-out, unabashed, unashamed, fulsome, informed, naked praise, arriving by the shipload every fifteen minutes or so.

The Colorado Authors Hall of Fame does not have a ship, but we can provide the recognition and praise so many authors deserve who are not instantly recognized by the masses.

Support the Hall

The Colorado Authors' Hall of Fame celebrates the accomplishments of living and passed 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.

Support the Hall for this year going forward.