In the good ol' summertime, we hear about The Great War and Scott Joplin ragtime

Last time I was in Casper, I could walk on my own. August 21, 2017, the total solar eclipse cut across a swath of Wyoming that ran from Jackson, across Casper, and on to Torrington and a slice of Nebraska and into Kansas and beyond. My first total eclipse and maybe my last as they rarely take the same path. On April 8, 2024, you’ll have to travel to Dallas for totality. In 2033, a slice of Alaska will have totality, and in 2044, it’s northern Montana. On Aug. 12, 2045, your best bet will be Colorado Springs or somewhere in central Utah. In 2045 I will be 94. I may not see it in person although my spirit will be floating around the Rocky Mountains.  

Casper staged a big downtown party with vendors, food trucks, and live music. My wife Chris and I drove up to `stay with our friend Lori. We watched the eclipse from Lori’s backyard, looking through special glasses you could buy anywhere that summer. It was magnificent. I blogged about it here. 

Monday night, my daughter Annie and I traveled to Casper for Poetry & Music, a summer series sponsored by Artcore that features music interspersed with a writer’s reading. I was the writer that night. Music and writing share some commonalities but some obvious differences. Both stir our souls, when done well, and that’s always the case.

The setting is the Bluebird Café at the Historic Cheese Barrel. The brick building dates from post-World War 1 with first the Bluebird Mercantile and then the Bluebird Grocery. The latter served as one of Casper’s corner groceries, of which there were many but only one remains as a grocer. The Cheese Barrel was a restaurant serving fantastic breakfasts and lunches. I ate there many times. The breakfasts, when you could get a seat, were divine. Catered lunches made their way to many Casper College events such as the annual literary conference that I helped organize. 

Owner Jacquie Anderson has rehabbed the place to look like the grocery store of the 1940s and it is charming. Tables are scattered through the main room. For the Artcore series, Jacquie and her staff line up 50-some chairs facing a small stage. There’s a lights-and-sound tech on hand to make it cozy. This was especially important Monday. On my way in, I noticed the Primrose Retirement Center van. “My people,” I joked with Annie. Sure enough, the place was packed with people my age. This is a challenge for me – acting my age. I can’t quite get that I’m 72 and disabled. My spiffy red rollator walker reminds me daily as does my drop left foot and back pain. Neuropathy tingles my hands and feet. My mind is active as ever although I sometimes can’t remember an actor’s name in an old movie and have to dredge the info up from the Internet.

The reading went well. Some acknowledged they also had grandparents from that time, some of them serving overseas during WWI. One was a retired nurse. People our age really seem to like historical fiction maybe because they’ve lived through so much history and it connects to their past. Wasn’t sure how all of these white folks would take to the relationship between Frannie and African-American character Joe Junior or the sex references but they seemed to take them in stride. They laughed in the right places. We took an intermission right before Frannie goes up for her speech, one woman even asking me to give a clue about it but I just said, “Cake first.” Annie says I should read before more people of an advanced age because they connect with it in different ways than some of the younger folks in the room. Carolyn Deuel and Artcore, sponsors of the event, said her grandmother’s card-playing club volunteered on the home front during WWI and even rolled bandages for the soldiers overseas. All these people from previous generations are gone now and people our age may be the last generation that actually knew the grandparents with connections of The Great War.

The night’s bill began with a classical music performance by woodwinds quartet Rara Avis. In then read the first section. Then came the cake break (the chocolate was chocolicious). I then read the second part of the story and took a few questions. Rara Avis closed the night with performances of some American classics such as Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer” and “In the Good Ol’ Summertime.”

Keep in mind that all events like this take a lot of time and energy to set up. Funding, too, as writers and performers get paid. Supporting the arts has never been more important. Writing, in particular, has been under fire by the MAGA-inspired Moms for Liberty who attack books and librarians. They are fascists and must be stymied in their bid to transform us into bobblehead dolls.

I will let you know when my book is ready to be read and/or banned.

On stage in Casper: Historical fiction and woodwinds with a Baroque emphasis

So excited to be featured at the Artcore Music & Poetry Series on Monday, Aug. 14, 7:30 p.m., at The Bluebird at the Historic Cheese Barrel, 544 S. Center St., Casper. I'll be on stage with Rara Avis, a quartet of musicians that "explores music for woodwinds with an emphasis on the Baroque." I will be reading a chapter from my newly completed novel, "Zeppelins Over Denver" that explores life in post-World-War-1 Colorado. Here's a bit of a teaser:

Nurse Lee Speaks to the Garden Club

Nurse Frannie Lee clutched the pages of her speech as she sat at a round table with her mother and two sisters at The Old Line State Garden Club in Baltimore. Her mother had talked her into this. As March 1919 stretched into April and then into May, Frannie’s home-bound boredom was showing. As the spring days grew longer, she saw no end in sight for her ennui.  The Army had mustered out its civilian wartime nurses and now she didn’t know what came next. One day her mother suggested a speech to “the girls” at the garden club. This struck Frannie as hilarious since most of the club’s members hadn’t been girls for decades. She and her sisters once referred to them as The Stale Old Ladies Gabbing Club. Now her married sisters both were members.

To be continued...

For info and tickets ($8): https://artcorewy.com/mec-events/music-poetry-rara-avis-michael-shay/

Pandemic tip: You can view most Wyoming public art from the comfort and safety of your car

I was noodling around on my PC and I clicked on the Cheyenne Arts web site. I was pleased to see an upgraded site now includes a Cheyenne Arts Public Art Tour. Kudos to Bill Lindstrom and the tech-savvy people who compiled the tour. Open the site and find a portfolio of the 82 registered public artworks. Click on the photo to go to the page to find more photos and some background on the piece. Location is listed at the bottom of the page. There's a link to a Google Maps which takes you to the map and lists the public art's latitude and longitude. This assists those touring with the help of GPS and also geocaching aficionados. When I was at the Wyoming Arts Council, I was part of many discussions for online tours in Cheyenne, other communities, and statewide. Locally, it never happened until Arts Cheyenne took it on. 

Sheridan Public Arts has been around since 1992. Its permanent collection boasts 59 pieces. Artists and museums loan pieces to exhibit on Grinnell Plaza and downtown. One of the latest is a sculpture by the late Native American artist Allan Houser. No better way to spend a summer day -- tour the art and wrap it up at Black Tooth Brewing Company for craft beers and discussion. 

Not sure if Casper has an online public art tour but the city has many pieces of representational and non-representational artwork. One of my faves is on the Casper College campus. It's "Man and Energy" by Robert Russin. Its somber nature flashed me back to my duck-and-cover nuke drill days. The artist, who died in 2007 was a New York transplant who taught at UW for almost four decades. He is best known for his massive bronze Lincoln head perched at the top of Sherman Hill. Visit Casper is developing an Arts & Culture Pass. Not many offerings yet but these things take time. 

Russin also is known for the playful family sculpture installed in 1983 on UW's Prexy's Pasture. "The University Family" represents a nuclear family of three in white marble. Recently, it has been criticized because it doesn't represent a broader range of UW students and family. One proposal is to move it indoors to protect it and replace it with a more monumental sculpture, such as a bronze of graduating students or a bucking horse and rider. As if the UW campus doesn't already have bucking horses and riders aplenty.

Here's the thing about public art: it's easy to criticize because it's so public. In our bitterly divided country, artwork can be attacked from many sides. And is. The coal/oil/gas lobby that pours millions into UW objected to a public artwork called "Carbon Sink: What Goes Around Comes Around" by Chris Drury. UW decided to spirit it away in the dead of night and allegedly burned its beetle-killed logs and chunks of coal in the campus furnace. Many art students were kept warm that night by a funeral pyre of public art.

Russin's "Fountainhead" sculpture outside of the Casper City Hall came under fire for its water feature. The sculpture shows three stylized red oilfield workers surrounding a pole that represents an oil well. Water once shot out of the top to represent oil but had the bad manners to dampen city bureaucrats on Casper's many windy days. Now the water feature ponds peacefully below the artwork.   

Get more on the Casper arts scene via the ARTCORE site. 

The best-known public art program in Wyoming is in Jackson. 

When I started making work trips to Teton County in 1991, the town's library was in a log cabin. A sleek new library replaced it and is now home to a unique public artwork, "Filament Mind." It's indoors so it's a bit less visible than most public art. But it's worth a visit. A short description:

Installed in January 2013, the sculpture is visually arresting: nearly 1,000 thread-like filaments cascade from a mainframe column. Transcending its technological sophistication, the sculpture exudes a life-like aesthetic, at times resembling a bird in flight, a waterfall, a mountain, a crater, even the willows that whistle around the valley. Each filament flows from the column to the wall and an anchor point tagged by a Dewey Decimal System section title.

 

When a visitor begins a search on WyldCat – the online inventory of the library organized by the Dewey Decimal System – a LED light glows on the filament corresponding with that Dewey Decimal section title – say “International Relations” – and related topics glow as well – like “Political Science.”

 

Filament Mind is designed to be the visual brain of the library and by extension, the community.

Wyomingites from less scenic parts of the state pick on Jackson Hole for its chi-chi attributes. See "Billionaire Wilderness: The Ultra-Wealthy and the Remaking of the American West" by Justin Farrell and Tim Sandlin's "The Pyms: Unauthorized Tales of Jackson Hole." I've made my share of smart-ass remarks on the subject. 

But Teton County boosts Wyoming's stature as an arts-friendly state. Rich residents are arts patrons and assist arts orgs and facilities with generous donations. The annual Old Bill's Fun Run is a Teton County tradition and raises a ton of money for local orgs. Local, state, and federal funds are a part of the mix.

The Hole is home to the National Museum of Wildlife Art and its amazing collections. It hosts tours of its outdoor sculpture. Many artists and writers I know came to Jackson in the good ol' days of cheap, crowded housing (think ski bum) and many short-term service-industry jobs. Many fled as prices climbed but those creative people who stayed are a stubborn lot. 

For insight on the Teton County art scene, go to Tammy Christel's Jackson Hole Art Blog and Jackson Hole Public Art. 

The Wyoming Arts Council supervises the state's public art initiative. Go to https://wyoarts.state.wy.us for more info and calls for entries.

As the pandemic winds down (we hope), summer visitors may be feeling a bit skittish about touring Wyoming (see "Least Vaccinated U.S. Counties Have Something in Common: Trump Voters"). It may be tough to feel safe at a jam-packed music festival or brewfest. 

But no worries, as most public art can be viewed from the comfort and safety of your vehicle. My high-risk family and I cruised Cheyenne's Paint Slingers Art Festival last July. We watched many of the muralists at work, even shouted out questions to the artists and they shouted their answers. We also attended movies and concerts at the Terry Ranch's Chinook Drive-in. We viewed from our car and listened via a dedicated FM station. 

Covid-19 changed so much. We felt the absence of people gathering to enjoy music, dance, and theatre. It also showed us that creativity can bloom in hard times. 

Curiosity can lead an artist down exciting and dangerous paths

WyoFile's Studio Wyoming Review posted my review Friday of Georgia Rowswell's exhibit, "Crazy," at the Nicolaysen Art Museum in Casper.

Here's the opener:

The “Crazy” exhibit at The Nic sent me to my room to find out where my clothes come from.   

Dress shirts from the Dominican Republic. Pants from Cambodia. Sweaters from China. I have drawers filled with T-shirts: Made in Haiti; Fabrique au Vietnam; Hecho en Bangladesh. There are blue jeans from Mexico and sweatpants from Guatemala. I look at clothes labels when I shop. I hope one will read “Made in USA.” It’s a rare find in the 21st century. Our apparel industry went offshore decades ago and is not coming back. 

“Crazy – A Contemporary Quilt about Fashion’s Pressing Problems” opened at Casper’s Nicolaysen Art Museum in September and will be up through Dec. 27. It is one section of a solo exhibit, “Layer, Fold, Unfold,” that features Georgia Rowswell’s fabric art pieces made from thrift-store clothes. Also on display are her “Hot Yellowstone” series and several Wyoming landscapes in “found drawers and boxes.” 

The exhibit asks that opening question: Where do your clothes come from? Instead of a stern lecture, Georgia displays the answer across a wall at the Nic. A good question, one that sparked the Cheyenne artist's interest in finding origins for the many clothing items she collects at thrift shops to make her fabric art. Clothes have labels and Georgia collected items from 36 countries for what some might call a tapestry but the artist calls an embroidery. 

Read the rest of the story at WyoFile's Contemporary fiber art show tackles fashion's pressing problems. And then you can find out your clothing's origins. 

Georgia's curiosity about the origins of her clothes mirrors a similar question asked by author Katherine Standefer. After surgeons implanted a defibrillator in her chest at 24, she wondered about the origins of the materials that go into making this life-saving device. Her book, Lightning Flowers: My Journey to Uncover the Cost of Saving a Life, explores the author's quest to find out where the titanium, cobalt and other crucial elements and metals are mined. It's a dirty business. She also visited another part of the supply chain: the steel-and-glass "clean rooms" at the L.A. plant that made her device. 

I read the book and attended a writing workshop (sponsored by Jackson Hole Writers) conducted online by Katherine. I was curious about the same things Katherine was because I also have an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator in my chest. A 2013 heart attack damaged my heart and the ICD is there in case I experience an out of control atrial fibrillation (afib) that could stop my heart. I rarely think about it these days but Katherine's book piqued my curiosity and taught me a few things that I didn't know. Part of her book is set in Jackson, Wyo., which brings her story even closer to home.

Curiosity prompted creation of some magnificent artwork and an exciting nonfiction book that reads like a thriller. We all should have such curious minds. 

The subject may be roaches but, if you look closely, you see so much more

My latest piece for Wyofile's Studio Wyoming Review has the header "The subject is roaches," a review of Laramie artist Shelby Shadwell's exhibit at Blue Door Arts in Cheyenne. Pretty good header for an arts review as cockroaches and bugs in general don't come up that often. For good reason -- nobody likes a roach, at least the kind in the animal world (none of the other kind in WYO, at least not legally). I have never seen a roach of any type in WYO. Bugs prefer the hot sweltering climes of the South.

I grew up in the South and have seen hundreds of cockroaches. You turn on the kitchen light at 2 a.m. for a snack, and you hear them skittering back to their hideouts -- you might even catch a quick glimpse of one. You can wake up on a sunny Florida morning and see one staring at you across the pillow. You might be driving along and see one riding shotgun in your rusty 1972 Ford Torino. It's not merely bad housekeeping, although I have been guilty of that. Roaches will inherit the earth. It's not too much to imagine that roaches and their pals in the insect world will be running the show in the year 5020. Of course, we may be living in Kevin Kostner's Waterworld by then. But if I know my roaches, they will find ways to backstroke their way into your giant catamaran or floating fortress or wherever our soggy future relatives live.

Shadwell's show is a small one in a relatively small gallery. The art is big. Blue Door Arts proprietor Terry Kreuzer cracked me up when I asked her how she got a rising star such as Shadwell to show in her gallery in Cheyenne's most famous downtown building that would be deserted if it weren't for the enterprising artists on the ground floor.

"I asked him," she said.

Later, I was puzzled by the fact that the artist has shown rarely in Wyoming. He's been at The Nic in Casper and at the Jackson Art Center. Never in Cheyenne, according to his artist resume. Ironic since I note in my SWR piece that he has received two visual arts fellowships from the Wyoming Arts Council headquartered right here in Capital City. It just shows there are few exhibit spaces for contemporary artists in Cheyenne and Wyoming. You might say that is fitting in a state where artists are more interested in quaking aspen and the Grand Tetons than in abstractions and gigantic roaches. Au contraire, I say. I worked at the Wyoming Arts Council for 25 years and came to know plenty of artists who walk on the wild side in their work. For artists, it makes it tough to survive in an already tough place if there are no places to show your work,

It's not all about artists and galleries. It's never been more important to express yourself. That goes for everybody. Members of the ruling junta, Trump and his cronies, have no aesthetics. Art is just a commodity to them, like a yacht or a 50-room garish Shangri-la on the beach (any roaches at Mar-A-Lago?). It's no accident that Trump wants to review all government architecture, make sure it is "classical" instead of some crazy-quilt modern architecture that doesn't imitate the Parthenon. Trump and his GOP pals are working to defund the arts, humanities, and museums. The creative world is what threatens their destructive impulses. No accident that artists have worked to transform Trump's No Brown People border wall into something artistic. The odds are stacked against them as they are up against the monoliths of power and money. But you gotta try.

Their daily assault on our democracy is also an assault on our senses. It's important to create to counter that. It doesn't have to be a direct blast at No-Nothingness. The creative act itself is a blow against negativity.

Go make something. And vote. Get involved. Participate in your community. Be kind. And get out and view some art. It might inspire you to do all of these other life-affirming acts.

The Good Doctor from Wyoming: Trumpcare bears no resemblance to healthcare

Driftglass blogged about the Trump and Roy Moore connection yesterday (and cross-posted by Meteor Blades on Daily Kos). An excerpt:

Donald Trump is a petty, vindictive, racist ignoramus and pathological liar who resonates powerfully with the base of the Republican party for the simple reason that they are, in the main, petty, vindictive ignorami who have been trained by decades of conditioning via Fox News and Hate Radio to mindlessly accept as gospel any comforting bullshit that comes from the mouths of pathological Republican liars. 

I don't know how many different ways we can say it........

Trump is the Party and the Party is Trump.......... 

How about this? Moore is the Party and the Party is Moore. 

Our Wyoming delegation is a telling sample of Republican lawmakers: Sen. Barrasso, Sen. Enzi, Rep. Cheney. These otherwise intelligent people have lost their minds under the sway of Donald Trump. Sen./Dr. Barrasso's resume includes stints at RPI, Georgetown and Yale Medical School. He once replaced people's busted knees for a living in Casper. He was the spokesperson for TV's Wyoming Health Minute. He led the Wyoming Medical Society. A Catholic high school grad, he must have been absent on the days social justice doctrine was discussed. He now somehow believes in Trumpcare, which is no health care at all. In an MSNBC interview with Katy Tur this week, this was the following exchange:

Tur: “There are not protections for essential healthcare benefits in this bill.” 

Barrasso: “And there shouldn’t be!” 

Barrasso, a well-educated ignoramus. Or an opportunist. Or a narcissist like Trump. Or all three. Wyomingites, normally people who will stop to offer aid if they see you stranded on a snowy highway, keep voting for Barrasso. They may help you change a tire. But they also are OK if you just get sick and die. Hard to fathom. In the same post, Driftglass included a screen shot of a tweet by Randi Lawson:

Never could've guessed in our country's divorce, that the left would get custody of football.

How did that happen? That head-smashin', rip-roarin' American religion has been subverted by ethnic activists. So, people who wear nothing but shorts and paint themselves orange and blue for a January Broncos playoff game, now say they will burn their season tickets if black athletes don't stop their uppity behavior. We lefties cheer on the athletes and fellow travelers (including fat-cat owners such as Jerry Jones) as they link arms in solidarity during the anthem. Theirs is a protest against racial injustice.

Strange bedfellows indeed.

So where are we? The United States of America 2017 seems like a banana republic on steroids.

And the doctor offers no cure.

Music, fiction-out-loud, and the company of friends add to Eclipse Day 2017 in Casper

I joined a million-plus people watching the eclipse in Wyoming on Aug. 21.

I almost missed it. In 2015, when Casper began promoting Eclipse 2017, I thought it silly to plan so far ahead for an event that lasted two minutes.

I see now that Casper had the right idea. Wyoming’s “Second City” was right in the path of totality. Cheyenne, the Capital City, was not. When the eclipse passed my house in north Cheyenne, it would be 97 percent of full. As it turns out, that three percent meant a lot.

On Memorial Day weekend, Chris, Annie and I journeyed up to Guernsey State Park to find a good spot to view the eclipse. Campsites were already booked for eclipse weekend. We got on the waiting list. We also bought a day pass for Aug. 21. That was enough, I thought.

In June, Carolyn Deuel of Casper’s ARTCORE called and asked me to participate in the Music and Poetry series held at Metro Coffee Company. I was set to appear with a young musician, Ethan Hopkins, known around town as The Ukulele Kid. That sounded fun. I planned to read a chapter from my new novel set in 1919 Colorado. The Roaring Twenties was a boom time for ukuleles. Maybe Ethan would know a song from the era. Then Carolyn dropped the bomb, asking me to come up for the evening of Aug. 21. A new opportunity presented itself.

ARTCORE would put me up in a hotel as it always did. The bad news was there was no room at the inn. No room anywhere. She suggested that I arrange a home stay with one of my old pals in the arts world. I made many trips to Casper in the past 15 years. Many were planning sessions for the Casper College Literary Conference and the Equality State Book Festival that grew out of it. I grew close to many fine people in Casper who loved the book and the written word and an occasional beer at the old Wonder Bar. It takes a village, as a noble Democrat once said. It also takes a village to plan a big event such as a literary conference or book festival. I knew that, which was why it was such a treat to find a group who wanted to launch an event that would involve years of planning and last for only a few days. You know, something like an eclipse festival only with books.

This story has a happy ending. Chris and I stayed with our old friend, Liberal Twit of Casper. That’s not her real name, but one we use because she is a private person who spent most of her career at a college library and now spends retirement reading, studying history, and cooking.

I am Liberal Twit of Cheyenne. A Republican librarian gave us both that name when we objected to Lynne Cheney headlining our first book festival in 2006. Lynne is a Casper native who writes children’s books. She once ran the National Endowment for the Humanities in the noted swampland that Donald Trump threatened to drain. Dick also is from Casper. I think he wrote a book, “Into the Quagmire,” or something like that. The federal building in Casper is named after his federal self. So is the playing field of his old high school. We should name Iraq War Two after him too.

We two liberal twits have been causing trouble almost as long as the Iraq War has lasted. We believe we have worked in the fields of the Lord while Dick & Co. labored in one – or maybe all -- of the circles of Hell. That’s just the kind of thing you would expect a Liberal Twit to say.

Chris and I watched the eclipse in Liberal Twit’s backyard. It was very quiet. The moon gobbled the sun bit by bit. We watched through our ISO-approved eclipse glasses. The morning grew quieter as it grew darker. When the moon blotted out the sun we knew it was a cosmic event and not some sign of God’s wrath.  That’s what you get from working in libraries and arts councils and reading lots and lots of books. I am not a better than anyone else because of it, just different. I value that difference.

After the eclipse passed, we were all a bit bedazzled. It was cosmic, yes, but also spiritual.

That afternoon, I set out for downtown. My goal was to buy a Zak Pullen eclipse T-shirt. The festival was still humming downtown. I parked blocks away and walked to the new Daniel Street Plaza. A band played. Vendors vended. Beer purveyors purveyed (it was too early for me). I found Zak’s T-shirt but the vendor only had small sizes. Someone told me to go to the Nicolaysen Art Museum’s gift shop. I walked the six blocks on a hot afternoon. The Nick was closed for a private party – it’s usually closed on Mondays anyway. I returned to my car by way of the Second Street festival. The new plaza is a great spot for concerts and gatherings. Designers put in artificial turf instead of grass. It’s comfortable enough, but doesn’t the artificial stuff absorb heat during hot summer days? People were having a good time – that’s all that matters.

A band played at the Yellowstone Garage, a restaurant bar that I’ve never been in. This area is called the Yellowstone District. Old warehouses are now sites of bistros and ART 321, among other venues. Casper seems to be making more headway with its downtown than Cheyenne is with ours. Its work-in-progress seems further along than the one we got going on.

Ethan and I drew a good crowd for that night’s performance. Ethan’s entire family was on hand. They are a lively bunch and gave the show a jolt of energy. Ethan’s original music is wonderful – he’s already blazing a trail as a songwriter. He did some covers too.

All the chairs were filled by the time I got to the stage. Thirsty people wandered off the street and stuck around for music and poetry. Or prose, in my case. I read the first chapter of my novel-in-progress. The chapter has been worked over by me, my writing group, a writing friend, and me again. I even timed the delivery on my smartphone which, indeed, is very smart. People paid attention – that’s what you want, and all you can ask for.

After a beverage break, in which the espresso machine got rolling again, I read a short story from the anthology, “Blood, Water, Wind, and Stone: An anthology of Wyoming Writers.” The story, “George Running Poles,” is set in Riverton and features two Rez teens skipping school. One of them has a dark secret. You can find the anthology at your local bookstore or order it online from Sastrugi Press in Jackson.

The next morning, I dropped Chris off at the YMCA for a workout and I proceeded to The Nic to get my Pullen T-shirt. I got the last extra-large size. I then saw Aaron and Jenny Wuerker's exhibit of landscapes. I got a chance to meet them, too, as they were on hand to take down the show. Some of the big canvasses were going to exhibits in Denver; others return to the Wuerker's studio in Buffalo. 

It was a long drive home, but at least we avoided the gridlock on Eclipse Day. These were mostly day trippers from points south (Colorado) and many had to get back to their routines on Tuesday, which I did not. Over the course of the last week, I’ve heard tales of people taking eight to ten hours for what usually is a three-to-five-hour drive. Even those folks said that the eclipse was worth it.

And it was. 

I do not believe Sen./Dr. Barrasso when he says he is "passionate about ensuring that patients are able to get the care they need"

Wyomingites call John Barrasso a U.S. Senator.

Before turning to politics, he was Dr. John Barrasso in Casper. An orthopedic surgeon, like the very capable docs in Cheyenne who replaced both of my knees, operations covered by Medicare and my supplemental insurer, CIGNA. I give a lot of credit to CIGNA for its service. I also pay the company more than half of my retirement income to provide necessary coverage for me, my diabetic wife, and my mentally challenged daughter. My knee docs are not in the Senate. Not yet, anyway. They may have noted how much money Barrasso is raking in as as pal of the Koch Brothers and other right-wing funders. And the senator has great hours and plenty of vacation days. He hardly works at all! 

I'm not sure what to call Barrasso. A physician would not demean his profession the way he does. Lately, he's been up to no good in the U.S. Senate, working to deny health care to thousands of Wyomingites. 

So I write letters and postcards. They are cordial but insistent. I do no name calling or cursing. I don't want to get on the Senate's Shit List, which I hear is getting longer by the day.  

My senators write me back. This afternoon I received an e-mail response from Sen. Barrasso. A laugher, if you're into dark humor. Read it and weep or laugh, the choice is yours. You can get your own response, suitable for framing, by writing to Sen. John Barrasso, 307 Dirksen Office Building, Washington, DC, 20510. Get a full list of his mailing addresses and phone numbers in Wyoming by going to http://www.barrasso.senate.gov

Dear Michael,  

Thank you for taking the time to contact me. It is good to hear from you. 

There are serious challenges facing health care in our nation. As a doctor, who practiced in Wyoming for over twenty years, I am passionate about ensuring that patients are able to get the care they need. Right now, Congress is in the middle of an important debate about the future of Obamacare.  

For the past seven years, patients have experienced the impact of this law. The people I talk to in Wyoming tell me they are facing higher premiums and fewer choices. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, premiums in Wyoming are up 107% since 2013. We also have just one single insurance company willing to sell Obamacare policies.  

This law cannot continue in Wyoming or across the country. This is why I voted to repeal Obamacare and will continue to support this effort. Patients need relief from the law’s mandates and taxes that are making health insurance unaffordable for so many families. Importantly, we can do this while still ensuring that people with serious medical conditions continue to have access to insurance coverage.  

The repeal of Obamacare is just the first step. We need to make changes that ultimately lower costs and improve quality of care received by all patients. In particular, this means letting states decide what works best in their local communities. This is especially important so places like Wyoming can meet the needs of residents in our rural communities.  

Michael, thank you for contacting me. I appreciate hearing your thoughts and comments about this important issue. 

John Barrasso, M.D.
United States Senator

Looking for some post-ecliptic music and prose in Casper on Aug. 21?

Musician Ethan Hopkins and writer Mike Shay

I will be on stage with musician Ethan Hopkins on Eclipse Day, Aug. 21, 7:30 p.m., at Metro Coffee in Casper. This is the final outing of the summer for the "Music and Poetry" series sponsored by ARTCORE, Casper's vibrant local arts agency. The title is slightly misleading. I will be reading prose, not poetry, as I need many more words to express myself than the average (even above-average) poet. I will be reading from my novel-in-progress, "Zeppelins Over Denver," which has Wyoming characters in it but takes place in the Denver of 1919. I will share some excerpts here in the month or so leading up to the event. I also want to give you some tastes of Ethan's music. Take a look and listen of this vid clip from Ethan's web site: https://www.facebook.com/ethanhopkinsmusic/videos/1824071751243851/

Casper will be in the cone of totality for the solar eclipse. During the day, I will be somewhere in that cone of totality. But at night, I will be in the spotlight at Metro.

To get tix to the ARTCORE event, go to http://www.artcorewy.com/tickets.php. Also check out ARTCORE's upcoming season. Excellent, as always.

Nothing like a literary weekend, or two, or three...

I attended two literary conferences the past two weeks. The Casper College/ARTCORE Literary Conference is a long-running affair that stretches back into the last century. I first attended in October/November 1991. I drove to Casper in the teeth of a raging snowstorm and, if you think that's easy, try it sometime. An excellent slate of presenters, including Utah's Terry Tempest Williams and Colorado's Lorna Dee Cervantes, led workshops, gave presentations and read their work. I was a greenhorn at the job back then, coordinator of the Arts Council's literary program, and knew few people in the state. Bruce Richardson, a UW/CC English prof, introduced me around. I was a writer who worked with other writers and I thought that was a pretty cool job to have. I was still learning about the state's literary community. At the time, I'd only published a few short stories in journals and had several unpublished (and probably unpublishable) novels in my bottom desk drawer. I knew next to nothing about the arts bureaucracy but was getting a crash course in Cheyenne.

Fast forward to the 29^th annual CC/ARTCORE Literary Conference. The arts landscape has shifted and so have I. Bruce Richardson is a familiar presence. Recently retired from UW/CC, his arts instincts are as voracious as ever. He served as moderator of the panel discussion, the panel comprised of poets, visual artists, authors and scientists. We are omnivores now, the conference morphing into a forum for the arts and sciences which is as it should be. I'm still a writer, with lots of published stories and one book to my credit, but my job no longer is focused on the literary field. I still supervise literary fellowships but now my charge is communications, both print and online. I coordinate the annual fellowship reading at the conference, a collaboration that goes back at least a decade. But now I'm mainly here to document the proceedings, get those important Facebook and Twitter feeds that help boost the WAC's presence statewide and planetary-wide. To do this, I carry my Samsung Note 4 with its 16 mega-pixel camera and note-taking app. I also carry my black-and-white speckled composition book. I've been jotting notes and journaling and brainstorming stories in these comp books for decades. There is just no substitute for pen on paper.

My journal provides quotes and observations that I draw on later, for my own edification, for blogging, for the ages. Here are some notes from the CasColLitCon:

High Plains Press’s Nancy Curtis – court case definition of a publisher (1988): “An entity in the business of making books and written material available and one that makes a good faith effort to distribute those books to bookstores.” Ancient history now.

Jessica Robinson (aka fiction writer Pembroke Sinclair) – “Life Lessons from Slasher Films.” Slasher films trying to get rid of old conservative ideal of men saving women… Women fight slasher – only successful some of the time.”

Emilene Ostlind, editor of Western Confluence magazine at UW. “Narrative is the crux of good science writing.” For all writing.

Rebecca Foust (at Q&A panel): “Sometimes research involves being alive to the world, noticing it and writing it down.”

Joseph Campbell (pen name: J. Warren). Talks about transgressive fiction. Title: Lost Boi by Sassafras Lowry from Arsenal Pulp Press. Desc.: “BDSM sex-positive, BDSM-positive retelling of Peter Pan.” “These books get us to a place of extreme discomfort, take the safeties off. They undo pattern of traditional fiction.”

Katie Smith, creative writing fellowship winner: “I write poetry in unusual places. One of those is my barn.”

Funny what you pick up by just noticing things. That’s what journals are for. 

This past Friday and Saturday, I attended the 11th year of the Literary Connection sponsored by Laramie County Community College and its foundation. This event started when a local book club attended the Literary Sojourn, the legendary gathering of authors and readers in Steamboat Springs, Colo. That event takes place Oct. 10. Looking at its web site, I see it has some amazing writers such as Jim Shepard, whose 1998 novel "Nosferatu" knocked my socks off. It arose out of a short story from Shepard's great collection, "Batting against Castro." Short story maestro Diane Ackerman will be there, as well as novelist Richard Russo. Ethiopian-American novelist Dinaw Mengestu also is on the program. I ask myself: why am I not going to Steamboat next weekend? Three weekends in a row may be a bit much, even for us literary types. Next year, I plan to skip the other two events and spend the weekend with Chris and five authors in Steamboat.

Literary Connection featured two very different writers. They conduct free workshops on Friday and get into the nitty-gritty over talks and lunch on Saturday.

Allen Kurzweil is a “novelist, journalist, teacher and inventor” from Providence, R.I. His latest book is an investigative memoir into the life of a 12-year-old boy who bullied him when he was a ten-year-old at a Swiss boarding school in 1971-72. The kid grew into a drug dealer and con man. Allen told us his story in the course of two days, but I am looking forward to reading the book. I’ve read some hair-raising memoirs and have brought their authors to Wyoming. Nick Flynn and Connie May Fowler come to mind. Honest to the point of this reader blushing. Allen said that he approached his story – and his subject -- with a minimum of commentary. “When you’re in the presence of sociopathic behavior, it’s better to record what happens rather than trying to psycho-analyze.”  

Poet George Bilgere was the second author. As he spoke, I picked up many of the references, probably because he’s a fellow Baby Boomer. His work has been featured on Garrison Keillor’s poetry show on NPR. One was "Problem" which was based on an incident in George's favorite café. A retired gentleman named Jerry was writing a sci-fi novel and was having trouble with the question of how to tell time on a world with three suns. George said that his characters could wear three watches. George thought was funny but the sci-fi writer did not. George went to his usual table and wrote a poem about the incident. When  he got home, he called up Garrison Keillor at Writer’s Almanac. He’d been on “Prairie Home Companion” a few times and Keillor had featured many of his poems. He told George to send along the poem. The next Monday, it was on Writer’s Almanac. “Things don’t usually happen that way,” George said. Poetry usually takes a lot longer, with some poems making the rounds for years before they are accepted – if they are. As for sci-fi, well, he prefers real life. “Poetry discovers the strangeness and mystery of everyday life,” he said. 

Discovering the strangeness and mystery of everyday life. That also applies to us short fiction writers.

"Depression is a beast that no one should have to face alone"

I've written about my own depression on these pages. I've written about my daughter's struggle with depression and borderline personality disorder. I've written about the suicides of veterans and family friends. I've discussed Wyoming's alarming teen suicide rate and the predilection of boys and men in The Cowboy State to turn a weapon on themselves when things go bad.

Philanthropist and arts patron Mick McMurry of Casper committed suicide this week. He was 69, five years older than me. I saw him most recently at the Governor's Arts Awards Gala in Cheyenne two weeks ago. We knew each other from afar, as people who saw each other occasionally at arts events and other gatherings. In Wyoming (pop. 580,000), many of us are acquainted. It is sad when one of those acquaintances is suffering and we don't know about it and can't do a thing about it.

This story by Tom Morton appeared Friday on the K2 Radio web site with the headline: ‘Depression Is A Beast’: McMurry Family Vows Greater Mental Health Awareness After Mick’s Death:

Mick McMurry’s mental health rapidly declined after back surgery in February, which led to his suicide earlier this week, his daughter and a family spokesman said Friday.  

“This is somebody who’d never been sick and never had taken much medicine, and it had an after-effect of some depression,” George Bryce said at a news conference at the home of Susie and Mick McMurry.  

“Depression manifests itself in many different ways, and can sneak up on you,” Bryce said. “Some people that suffer from depression have a way of hiding it. And we knew that something wasn’t quite right, and we were kind of saying, ‘is that really Mick?,’ and then the next day it was really Mick,” he said.

 --clip --  

“Depression is a beast that no one should have to face alone,” Trudi McMurry Holthouse said. 

Holthouse said her father’s decline was quick after the surgery. Her father would refer to a gathering “black cloud,” yet he hid the symptoms well, she said. 

“He’s so poised about himself and handling people,” Holthouse said. “The way I looked at it was just a change of heart like an enlightening was happening and he was coming to us with deep sorrow and grief,” Holthouse said. 

The family supported him, but that apparently wasn’t enough, she said. 

“It just got to be such a burden, he couldn’t bear it anymore, Holthouse said. “His body had never failed him like this before. He had never not had a clarity of mind, and his heart was just so heavy, but you know, we didn’t know, we didn’t know how heavy it was.” 

Bryce, a trustee with the the McMurry Foundation, said mental health long has been the step-child of the overall health care system and people need to be more aware and aware of what’s happening in others’ lives. 

The McMurry Foundation has supported mental health and depression awareness, but her father’s death will sharply change that because she wouldn’t wish that on anyone, Holthouse said. 

“You can bet there will be some things that we will now be more focused on and take note to help more people. You just never know when someone is as desperate and destitute as that,” she said. “It will be a priority.”

Read more here: Family: Post-Surgery Depression Lead to McMurry's Suicide

Let's all make a vow to improve mental health care in Wyoming. As I write this, my daughter is a patient at Wyoming Behavioral Institute (WBI) in Mick McMurry's home town of Casper. She is at WBI after spending four months at the Wyoming State Hospital and then a week at a group home in Douglas. She's been in and out of treatment centers since she was 14. She's made several suicide attempts. We want to keep her safe. We want her to get the correct treatment for her smorgasbord of mental health impairments. Not too much to ask, right?

In Wyoming, it may be.

Casper gathering planned for Wyoming Vietnam vets who've written about their experiences

Author Starley Talbott Thompson posted this item on the Wyoming Writers, Inc., Facebook page:

Lee Alley, Wyoming veteran and author of "Back From War: Finding Hope and Understanding in Life after Combat," is part of an effort to put together an event for veterans of the Vietnam War next year in Casper. He is looking for other Wyoming authors who have written about their experiences in Vietnam. For more details contact Lee Alley at leeballey@yahoo.com or Linda Fabian at linda@wyshs.org

Find out more about Lee Alley on the Wyoming Authors' Wiki.

2014 Equality State Book Festival showcases the art of the book

The Equality State Book Festival marks its fifth anniversary Sept. 11-13 in Casper. It offers a great line-up of authors, as always. Nina McConigley of Casper (now Laramie) will deliver the keynote on Saturday. Nina's book of short stories, Cowboys and East Indians, is getting rave reviews and earned her the 2014 PEN Open Book Award. Other presenters: include best-selling author Joshilyn Jackson (gods in Alabama, A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty), flash-fiction writer and social media guru Meg Pokrass, writer and founder/curator of the Handmade/Homemade book exhibit Deborah Poe, Jackson poet Matt Daly and many others. One of the themes of this year's bookfest is book arts. Poe's book arts exhibit will be on display at the Casper College Visual Arts Building and the University of Utah Book Arts group will be conducting a workshop on Saturday. Make your own book! You still have to write the innards, though. Can't get away from that.

This is the fifth statewide book festival (held during even years) and it gets better with age. I'm a bit biased as I serve on the planning committee, the only non-Casperite in the bunch. Kudos to the committee's co-directors: Laurie Lye and Joseph Campbell. Laurie came out of retirement to help out this year when former co-director Holly Wendt decamped to a new teaching job in her home state of Pennsylvania. Thanks to Laurie. Have you ever organized a three-day arts event? It takes time and effort and attention to a dazzling array of details. Think about all of the fairs and festivals held throughout Wyoming each year. Your friends and neighbors do that work, often for no pay but for the joy of putting on a show.

Get more info at http://www.equalitystatebookfest.com/

Who out-crazied who -- or whom -- in last night's Wyoming gubernatorial debate?

I was pleased to see 40-some people last night at Music & Poetry at Metro Coffee Company in downtown Casper. They had so many other choices: Sharknado II reruns, bicycling, drinking, canoodlling, riding the rapids on the North Platte, napping, The Internet, etc. Perhaps the biggest conflict took place last night in Riverton, where the three Republican gubernatorial candidates were duking it out. The debate was aired on Wyoming Public Radio.

I listened to none of the debate.  I was preparing my work to be read aloud in public. And we had a fine time right there at Metro, with Chad Lore performing his own humorous songs and then cutting loose with with some Dylan and a rollicking version of "St. James Infirmary Blues."

According to WyPols, two of the three Repub Gub candidates did their best to out-crazy one another. Who won?  

So who out-crazied who in this debate? It’s tough to call a winner, because both Haynes and Hill both worked so hard for the title. But our money is on the superintendent, if only for this nonsensical answer she gave about whether she would ever support same-sex marriage: 

“Marriage is between a man and a woman, period. We have sisters and brothers, moms and dads, and aunts and uncles, and sons and daughters, and we all have to work together and live together, and it’s critical. Marriage is between a man and a woman.”

Huh?

See you at the Music & Poetry Series in Casper Monday night

Each summer, ARTCORE in Casper sponsors the Music & Poetry Series. It features a performance by a musician or music group and a reading/performance by a poet or prose writer. On Monday, Aug. 11, at 7:30 p.m., at Metro Coffee Company, 241 S. David, the series features Chad Lore on guitar and vocals and me as the prose writer. Usually, the musician takes turns with the writer -- 20 minutes of deathless prose followed by 20 minutes of fine music. Intermission for caffeinated beverages. Then 20 more minutes or prose and the warm summer night wraps up with music, as it should.

Get a preview of Chad's music by going here and here. You can preview my writing by reading many years worth of blogging on this site. That consists mainly of snatches of memoir and humor interspersed with liberal political musings. I rarely include fiction on my blog because I still am skittish about publishing my work online before it is published in book form. I published my first book of short stories with a small publisher and, for the past two years, I have been pitching my second book to small and medium-sized publishers with no success. Short stories are not always welcome fare at the offices of publishers. I sit down to chat with industry professionals at writing conferences to discuss my work. The conversation usually goes something like this:

Me: "I write short stories."

Publisher gives me a look usually reserved for poets, English majors and plague victims -- a combination of pity and boredom. Their response usually is this: "We don't do short stories" or "Short short collections don't sell."

Me: "Oh."

Publisher: "Do you have a novel?"

Me (lying): "Yes."

Publisher smiles: "Send me a synopsis and a couple of chapters."

I don't. I could, I suppose, as I have several novel manuscripts propping open doors and serving as foot rests. But they are ancient history, written when I was learning how to write and then abandoned for other projects. I don't even have electronic versions, as they were written on ancient mechanical devices, such as the Smith-Corona portable typewriter and the first of many electronic typewriter/word processors. I could scan them and then proof them with my eagle-eyed editing. But I'd rather write.

What will I bee reading Monday night? Come to Metro Coffee and find out. It will be short, as in short story. If you see me carrying in a huge manuscript, don't worry -- I like to prop up my feet while listening to music.

How you gonna keep 'em down on the farm after they've seen Portland?

Thoughtful column by Adbay's Shawn Houck on today's wyofile. He argues that Wyoming needs to change its economic and social policies to attract and keep young workers, especially those graduating from UW and our state's community colleges. Bright young people in Houck's line of work -- marketing -- look to Denver and Chicago and L.A. for opportunities that don't exist in their home state.

But it's more than just jobs. As Houck points out, people 18-29 are much more accepting than their elders of progressive ideas such as marriage equality. They advocate for alternative energy, smart cars, lively downtowns, local foods and the arts. Sure, they sometimes seem like a horde of craft-beer-swilling, kale-chomping, smartphone-wielding ingrates, but you can't impugn their passion and imagination. They push hard for their ideas and sometimes we just have to get out of their way -- or see how we can help.

Houck graduated with an English degree from UW. He could be in a happening big city but he founded a biz in his hometown of Casper. He and his Adbay team are now renovating a warehouse in Casper's Old Yellowstone District and will soon move in. According to the Adbay web site, the new space will include "a theatre, pub, basketball court and collaborative studio spaces." A pub! I'm going to float that idea by my boss tomorrow.

Do you know what's going on in Casper? Besides its tendency to elect loons to the state legislature? Downtown is booming. New businesses opening up and people swarming around on weekday nights when they should be home watching soccer from Brazil. It's exciting to see. I wasn't able to get to last weekend's Brazil-themed NicFest sponsored by the fine folks at the Nicolaysen Art Museum. Heard it was great, though. The Nic is a real treasure, one I wish we had in downtown Cheyenne.

Still, I'm an old guy so what do I know? What seems exciting to me may be ho-hum to a 22-year-old college graduate who's seen what's happening in Portland and Miami. Cities are in and the best and brightest are flocking there. And, surprisingly, so are retirees. A lot of my peers are chucking their jobs and the suburbs and moving into urban condos close to museums and bistros and light rail and good medical care. Seems funny that two such different demographic cohorts have the same destination. It's possible that the gray wave may panic the youngsters, causing them to flee back to Wheatland and Meeteetse. But I don't think so. Cities have that heady mix of all ages and ethnicities that makes America such a wonderful place. Sure, you can be afraid of it and lock yourself into a gated golf community in Arizona. But what will that get you? Paranoia and skin cancer and death by golf ball. Fore!

Houck proposes some good ideas on moving Wyoming forward. Go read the column and see. You might see it as pie in the sky dreams. But what is youth without dreams?

Summertime in WYO

I spent the weekend with writers.

On purpose.

It was the 40th anniversary conference for Wyoming Writers, Inc., in Sheridan. Let's take stock. How many arts organizations do you know that are still alive after 40 years? I've been meeting with the same writing group in Cheyenne since the previous century. We used to gather annually at the Retreat of the Rockies with other regional writing groups from Laramie, Fort Collins and Scottsbluff. How many of those groups are extant? Ours, which we nicknamed Cheyenne Area Writers Group (CAWG) a long time ago. Both Laramie groups are gone, but there may be others. Only one of the FoCo groups are around and I hear that hellbound twisters got the Nebraskans.

Each summer, I do a summer events calendar for the Arts Council. There are always events that existed last summer that have done an el foldo for various reasons. The organizer moves to Arizona. The arts organization "has gone in other directions." Sponsors dry up and blow away.

That's OK. Not everything is meant to last forever. We happen to be living in a renaissance of outdoor music festivals and downtown gatherings of all kinds. I read in today's Casper Star-Tribune that the DDA/Main Street group in Casper traveled to Rapid City to get a look at its downtown plaza. They liked what they saw. Kids playing in the water park during the day and bands performing at night with local food and beverages being consumed. Ever been to the Firehouse Brewery in downtown Rapid City? It sits on the edge of the plaza and serves great beers and pretty good food. In March, the last time I was there, you can sip beers while warming your tootsies by the fire. You can also drink beer after the annual St. Patrick's Day parade, which may be one of the shortest in the nation.

The Star-Trib reported that the delegation was impressed with Rapid's downtown space and guessed that Casper would like one too if they can only keep the Know Nothings away from the planning meetings. You know the people I'm talking about, Seniors Wildly Indignant about Nearly Everything or SWINE (tip of the hat to Al Capp). We don't want to spend our precious taxes (Wyoming -- lowest tax rates in the USA!) on an outdoor plaza! Next thing you know you'll be taking away our cars and making us live in Hobbit houses! Freedom! Something! Something! Freedom!

BTW, I'm a senior at 63. Not with the Social Security Administration or Medicare. But I do get the senior discount at Wendy's.

I'm a little off topic. We have wonderful summer events. If you don't believe me, check out this calendar. It offers hundreds of concerts, art fairs, writers conferences, quilt shows, rodeos, brewfests, children's art camps, etc. Here's a sampler of events happening this weekend:

June 13-14 — Fourth annual Chris LeDoux Days in Kaycee
13-15 -- Celtic Musical Arts Festival in Cheyenne
13-27 — John Kirlin’s Wild West Mu-Cycle Tour, Jackson to Rapid City, S.D.
13-28 — Stage III Community Theatre presents “Lysistrata” in Casper
14 — Tina Welling leads Writers in the Park workshop in Grand Teton National Park in Jackson Hole
14 –- Chugwater Chili Cook-Off in Chugwater
14 — Butch Cassidy Festival in Laramie
14 — Juneteenth in Cheyenne
14 — Takin’ it to the Streets in Douglas
14 — Jackson Hole Crawfish Boil in Jackson
14-15 — Hi Country Ranch Rodeo in Pinedale
14-15 — Pioneer Days at the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center in Casper

I'm heading out to the Celtic Festival and Juneteenth this weekend. You might call both of these ethnic festivals. Juneteenth is an African-American celebration that marks the belated end of the Civil War. The Celtic Festival celebrates the music and art and brewmaking skills of the offspring of the Celtic tribes of northern Europe and the British Isles plus Ireland. That includes the Scots-Irish of Appalachia, the former convicts of the Aussie Outback and a whole bunch of other white people who freckle easily. I'm one of them. So is my wife Chris, who will spend Saturday staffing the YMCA booth at Juneteenth while I distribute subversive literature for the Laramie County Democrats. Later we will go over to the Depot Plaza to hang with the Cummings clan (that's Chris's tribe) and various ne'er-do-well Irish-Americans, some of whom I may be related to. We will quaff Guinness and dance (badly) to Celtic music groups.

So what did we writers do last weekend in Sheridan? Wrote. Listened to encouraging talks by writers and agents and editors. We had an awards ceremony and an annual dinner. Bought a few books. I saw old friends and they saw me. We drank a few cocktails.

Writers need to come out of their holes once in awhile to see what else is going on in the world.

Comic book writers are writers by any other name

I spent last weekend hobnobbing with writers and poets and editors.

One of the most intriguing ones was Kelly Sue DeConnick. She writes for Marvel Comics. Once upon a time I would have said that wasn't real writing. Comic books? Nah!

I've changed my mind. Not because I've read a bunch of recently-published comic books. I will, I swear, just as soon as I get over to the local comic book store. But it was DeConnick's talk at the Casper College Literary Conference that got me thinking about the comics and the literary world.

The literary world is M.F.A./fiction workshops/writers' retreats/coffee house poetry readings/small presses/chapbooks/NEA/grants/fellowships. Maybe some graphic novels based on cool books or short stories. But not comic books. 

The non-literary world is blockbuster best-sellers/romance/hobby writers/agents/New York Times Book Review/hard-boiled mysteries/big publishers/Barnes & Noble/advertising/marketing/film rights. And comic books.

We turn comic book superheroes into special effects-laden films. Batman/Superman/Spiderman/Avengers/The Incredible Hulk. And so on.

Kelly Sue DeConnick told a literary conference audience on Friday that she got her first jobs in comic books "by being a loudmouth on social media."

DeConnick is not only is on Facebook and Twitter (with 20,000 followers). She has a cool Tumblr site at kellysue.tumblr.com and her stand-alone western, "Pretty Deadly," which is set for an Oct. 23 release, is at pretty-deadly.com.

DeConnick, 43, grew up on military bases. "Very much a part of military culture to have comic books," she said. "It makes sense that people who sign up to give their lives for their country might see themselves in the heroic themes of comic books."

She loved "Wonder Woman" comics, although she noted that "Wonder Woman spent a lot of time in chains in the '70s."

Which brings us to the gender issue. Male writers and illustrators might feel compelled to portray a female superhero in bondage. DeConnick, now a member of the Comic Book Boys Club, has no such inclinations.

She writes Captain Marvel and Avengers Assemble for Marvel Comics. The Captain is now a woman, Carol Danvers. DeConnick wanted Danvers to be a real woman, one with flaws and good female friends, one who could also set right the universe when necessary.

This Captain Marvel in a long line of Captain Marvels began to gain a following. A group of fans called the "Carol Corps" grew with each issue. They submitted fan art based on the character, and they began to send Carol Danvers stories to DeConnick.

Then came the merch, such a Carol hoodies and dogtags.

"I got a letter from a civil rights attorney who wears Captain Marvel dogtags under her clothes every time she goes to court," DeConnick said. "I've heard from a doctor who wears dogtags when she goes into surgery."

The Carol Corps raised $2,000 online for the Red Cross after Hurricane Sandy. And it appears that a CarolCon-style ComicCon is in the works.

Issue No. 15 is out and DeConnick is working on the next installments. "The Internet doesn't know this, but she [Carol Danvers] gets her first kiss in issue 17."

DeConnick said that she works hard to present real women in her comics. She tries to avoid the Smurfette Principle -- the lone female character must represent all female traits. To avoid stereotyping, she applies the Sexy Lamp Test to her stories: "If I can replace one of my female characters with a sexy lamp and the plot still functions, I might need another draft."

DeConnick seems to enjoy her role as one of the few female comic book writers. Of the top 300 books produced in June, 6 percent were produced by women. Some of them were written by the same women, so DeConnick estimates that women might make up 2 percent of her industry.

However, when Marvel Comics asked her in 2009 to write the next saga of Norman Osborn, a.k.a. the Green Goblin, she was "proud to have been asked to pitch on a boy book." The result was "Osborn: Evil Incarcerated."

Still, it gets a bit old always being asked the same question: "What does it feel like to be a woman writing in a man's field?"

"I used to joke -- 'I write through my vagina'."

She's married to another comic book writer, Matt Fraction. who's never asked similar questions.

"I don't want to be He-Hulk," she said, "I want to be She-Hulk."

As is the case with most writers, DeConnick wrote a lot before getting published. She said that she may leave the comic book world behind some day in favor of novel-writing.

She often gets letters from young writers who ask how to get started in the biz."I ask them what they're written and they'll say 'nothing.' Nobody is going to ask you to fix a sink if you've only washed your hands."

Isn't The Equality State the proper place for civil rights activists and racists to meet?

The weekend's summit meeting in Casper between the NAACP and the KKK is kicking up a fuss.

The Independent in the UK gave it big play as did a slew of my fellow bloggers (go here and here).

Adding to the drama is the fact that NAACP higher-ups apparently did not approve of the meeting, which seems silly to me. My colleagues at the NAACP Casper branch came off looking cordial and knowledgeable in Jeremy Fugleberg's excellent Casper Star-Tribune article. KKK Kleagle John Abarr seemed a bit cluelesss, but redeemed himself by joining the NAACP and even kicking in an additional $20 donation. This is a good thing for an organization that has a tough time recruiting members and raising funds in a place that's subtitled "The Equality State" and often falls short of living up to that vaunted title.

The CST's Fugleberg is following the continuing drama on Twitter. You can too.

Lest you think that the KKK is the quaint little Christian social organization portrayed by Abarr, read deeper into the many media articles.

Not quite sure about the KKK's history in Wyoming (little help here, Phil Roberts!). But I do know a bit about the Klan in Colorado. It was a powerful organization in Denver during the 1920s. Unable to find enough blacks to torment, the KKK picked on Irish and Italians and Chicanos -- all Catholics targeted by the Nativist "100% American" elements in the KKK. Hooded Klansmen burned crosses in my Irish grandfather's South Denver neighborhood, in Italian Pueblo and throughout the state. Hipsters in Denver's pricey Wash Park may not know this, but people who once occupied their renovated houses used to avoid walking around their own neighborhood. My mom and her brother and sister were chased home from their Catholic school by protestant kids from South High. They threw rocks at them and called them "rednecks" because the Irish tended to have sunburned necks from working out in the sun all day. They labored on the railroad and on construction projects and on farms east of town.

The Klan elected a Governor and had the Denver mayor and a passel of Republican legislators in their pocket. But their power waned as people grew tired of their hateful, regressive agenda.

Hard to imagine solidly Democratic Denver as a Klan bastion. It's hard to believe that the Klan still exists in 2013. Let's hope the dialogue that started in Casper continues.

Hope.

Spider-Man's nemesis, steampunk fiction, edgy poetry and hair-raising memoirs all part of Casper literary conference

For a sparsely populated state, we have an amazing amount of arts events. Casper College and ARTCORE have been putting on their fine literary conference for 27 years. This time out, organizers have seized on the college's 2013 theme of "Powerful Women!" and have planned presenters that embody that theme in some interesting ways. Kelly Sue DeConnick, for instance is the top woman writer at Marvel Comics. She is thriving in this male-dominated world with “Osborn: Evil Incarcerated,” featuring Spider Man’s arch-enemy, and a series of Japanese manga adapted into English. Tiffany Trent is best known for her steampunk novel, “The Unnaturalists.” that gives new meaning to "alternative energy." Connie May Fowler writes fantastic novels but will talk at the conference about memoir writing. She’s brought her own experience with an abusive relationship into a powerful memoir and support for orgs that support abused women. Annette Chaudet runs her own successful small press out of small-town Wyoming and Layli Long Soldier transforms her experience on a South Dakota Reservation into edgy poetry.

Quite a line-up.

The 2013 Casper College/ARTCORE Literary Conference will be held Sept. 13-14 in Casper. The events are free and open to the public.

Here's the schedule:

Friday, September 13

Craft Talks:  Second floor, Gateway Building

9–10  AM: Annette Chaudet  Session

10–11 AM: Kelly Sue DeConnick  Session

11–12  AM: Tiffany Trent Session

11-12 AM: Layli Long Soldier Session

Lunch on your own

2–4 PM: WAC creative writing fellowship winners Mary Beth Baptiste, Chad Hanson and Heather Jensen join fellowship judge Connie May Fowler for a reading, Second floor, Gateway Building. FMI: Michael Shay at 307-777-5234 or mike.shay@wyo.gov

7 PM: Tiffany Trent event at the Natrona County Public Library

8 PM: Poetry Slam MC’d by George Vlastos at Metro Coffee downtown

Saturday, September 14

Workshops:  10 AM to Noon, Second Floor, Gateway building. Workshops are free, but space is limited. Please contact jcampbell@caspercollege.edu to sign up for workshop in poetry (Layli Long Soldier) or fiction (Tiffany Trent or Kelly Sue DeConnick).

Participants can sign up to take a workshop with one of the following authors:

Tiffany Trent  (fiction):  Author of YA novel, The Unnaturalists, from Simon & Schuster

Kelly Sue DeConnick (fiction/scripting):  Writer of Marvel Comics’ “Captain Marvel,” “Avengers Assemble” and creator-owned comic, “Pretty Deadly.”

Layli Long Soldier (poetry):  Postmodern Poet, author of the chapbook Chromosomory (Q Ave Press, 2010)

Noon-2 PM:  Artist Talk by Jeanne Stern, “Book Art,”  with reception-style lunch in the Goodstein Gallery

2–3:30 PM: Young Authors award ceremony and reading w/George Vlastos at the Star Lane Center

4-5 PM: Connie May Fowler Master class, “Lifewriting,” Second Floor, Gateway Building