FOOTLIGHTS UPDATE

Author Talk, November 12, 2011, Saturday, 1:30 pm, Tapetes de Lana Weaving Center, Mora, New Mexico, presented as part of a Visiting Scholar Lecture Series funded by the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs Centennial Grant in support of the new book (in progress), Boomtown on the Western Frontier, and the Friends of the Las Vegas City Museum and Rough Rider Memorial Collection.

The talk will provide an overview of the plays, players, and venues of amateur theatricals in Las Vegas and Fort Union, NM, 1871-1899 with a focus on the Fort's performing companies and rivalries. Slide show of related historical photographs will be available.

Editing

Fort Union, New Mexico Territory, 1884
setting of Prairie Madness


I write by re-writing. Editing is as much an art as creating and composing. When I edit, I delve into the dream-world of words and explore the many possible ways to "say" the image I
see until I find le mot juste (Gustave Flaubert) . . . the absolute right word.


I am completely re-writing Prairie Madness by changing the tense of the verbs from present to past. In doing this, I discovered things unsaid in the present tense and many things I am able to expand upon when writing in the past tense--the tense of storytelling. I originally chose the present tense to imitate stage directions, but the narrative took an unexpected turn in the road.