Writing the Rockies
Mario here:
I just got back from my first stint as a visiting professor in creative writing. I was invited by
Western State College to serve on the faculty of the
Writing the Rockies writing conference. WSC is in the scenic mountain town of Gunnison (Colorado, of course). Here's a shot overlooking the campus and the valley:
People tend to refer to the area as Gunnison/Crested Butte as if the two towns are conjoined. Crested Butte, or as the local cognoscente say, CB, is a half hour up the hill. It's a beautiful drive but 30 minutes nonetheless unless you drive real fast and then it's only 28 minutes. I drove up to CB for breakfast on Saturday but the cloud gods were on parade and this is the best shot I could get:
Proof of Gunnison's vitality as the urban center in the mountains is this:
The best part of any conference is meeting new people. From left to right are authors
Mark and
Kym Todd, who invited me to the conference. At far right,
Laurie Wagner Buyer, extraordinary poet. The tall reprobate-looking character is
W.C. Jameson, poet, MULTI-published author, song writer, and teller of more, "No bullshit, there I was, me and Waylon Jennings," stories than anyone else west of Austin, TX.
As a special treat, during the screen-writing workshop, we had guest lecturer,
Ted Bayouth, screen name
Ted White, who was a stunt double for Clark Gable and John Wayne, among others. He was also the "toes" double for Rock Hudson, whose feet were too gnarly for a bed scene. More recently Ted was a stunt driver in
Tokyo Drift and
The Fast and the Furious. Check out him out on
IMDB.
And what would a writers conference be without booze? Nothing! Here is Lauren at
The Brick Celler Wine and Martini Bar keeping our brains properly lubricated and protected against writers block.