Saturday, November 3, 2012

A 30 DAY CHALLENGE DAY 2 WRITING A SURPRISE ENCOUNTER

Yesterday, I wrote of how I had always desired to be a writer, but lacked self confidence and skills to sell my work.  

Well it is strange how the universe acts at time.  Today I went to the Central Library here in Aurora and was in the usual process of looking for work online, when an announcement came over the P.A. system.

The announcement was an invitation to come to the main exebition room and meet nearly 40 plus local authors and see their latest works.

Well I decided I would go, after I finished my job hunt.  I intended to spend maybe thirty minutes all together, I didn't think there would be that many authors, nor did I expect them to be so open about the process they went through to get published.

I was wrong they were more than willing to discuss their process of how they got published, and what they have to do to get their books sold.

Many said that they had gone the self publishing route, one actually had to set up their own in home printing system and  then a company would handle the distribution to stores and ebay.  

For many they do both e-publications as well as the more traditional physical publications.

But what was extra special for me, was that I had the opportunity to meet two writers I admired for many years.

The first was a former reporter for the Rocky Mountain NEWS, he wrote both entertainment and sports commentary and in the 1980's he had a Sunday night talk show on KPPL, called Talk of the Town, the legendary Walter Dusty Saunders.

Dusty, and I had crossed paths a few times in the past, for I had won a few of his trivia challenges, and he was on occasion at the event.
And ironically Dusty Saunders is the only surviving personality of people from the 1980s' I had met.  Alan Berg, a talk show host on KHOW, radio was killed in 1984.  Early in 1984 at the White Spot on East Colfax Ave and Colorado Blvd.  I met both Allan Berg and Ken Hamblin, another Denver area talk show host of the time.

Allan Berg of KHOW Radio

Ken Hamblin of KHOW Radio

The other local personality was Gene Amole, a radio performer who hosted the morning show on KVOD, Denver's classical music station.

Every Friday, Gene Amole would close his morning show on KVOD with the Friday Morning Waltz, he would create vivid story telling of a fairy tale castle, where every Friday Princes, Princesses and others would come together and dance to Motzart, or Chopin.  The waltz would always begin with the arrival of a person via a carriage and end with the waltz in full swing.

The other writer who I have admired since 1999, was Bob Scott,  Bob Scott wrote a book that set the world on edge.  BLOOD AT SANDCREEK, debunked the hundred year old myth of the massacre that alegidly took place in 1863.  Bob Scotts' book revealed that there was political collusion that was behind the lie of what happened at Sand Creek, even though the President, Abraham Lincoln knew that there was no massacre he supported the lie to avoid a second front with the Native Americans in support of the Confederacy in the West.

Scott was as amazing to talk to, and has since published several other books on Colorado history that are as indepth and explosive in some ways as BLOOD AT SAND CREEK.

So, after two hours, I left re-energized to get back into writing and look at new possibilities.

Who knows what will happen next.
   

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