I've only read the beginning sections of the thread because i don't want to know too much about what's coming. Actually i don't want to know ANYthing about what's coming, I'm midway through A Second Chance. Crazy about it. So I hope this doesn't bore the devil out of everybody <g>
Louise you are one prolific writer, can't believe how often you update. TWO, THREE, SOMETIMES 4 CHAPTERS A DAY! Some of the things my fellow readers wrote in the beginning pages of the thread have me on the floor--that first fey and skinny 20 year old who some thought was Ellery had me falling out a my chair. Your own vision came very close to what was in my head. Did you use the picture as a model, or find it after? The picture you posted really is the Ellery you write about!
And the floor plan of the house! That had me getting out my measuring tape and pad, figuring out the spacing of the blown out windows.
I hope some of the really off base fan misconceptions have gotten cleared up though. I was speechless when somebody went to realestate.com or something and looked at what was supposedly the housing stock.It's Wyoming, not Prince Georges County. roflmao! Laramie has , I think 28,000 people, it's the most traditionally liberal place in a republican state. It's a small town proud of it's university and Museum, a small town where you would starve if food couldn't be imported, as absolutely nothing grows there. As in Nothing lol.
It's a small town in a republican state which has a good DEMOCRATIC governor ["Dave"], a state where you find hardcore bikers who rant about the stupidity of George Bush while church ladies plan the next social at the adjacent truck stop table. One night, two 20 year olds behind us--one with a GF who god help me reminded me of Alma--thrashed out the devastation caused to their love ['a love we started in the 2nd grade...'] by booze. As in love. We thought it was a rewrite of Brokeback--the dark haired kid was confronting his blonde haired buddy, who'd been so drunk that he had fallen out of his saddle 4 days before. And indeed, he was very drunk as he was reminded of this. At which point the GF mumbled 'I can't handle this!' and ran to the ladies room. Typical evening at the truckstop roflmao. Wyo i's not your usual State lol.
The whole thing about real estate prices in Wyoming was hilarious. I mean it's WYOMING, where 20,000 acre ranches have a 'nice' house. Nothing more then NICE. Massapequa,on the south shore of Long Island nice. Ordinary. A split level that costs 600,000.00+ in NJ and is just as ordinary would go for maybe 250,000.00 and have land with it. If it had a mountain view it would go for a million or 2 or yes, 3 and nobody would talk to you.
People live in Wyomig to be RURAL in the Cowboy State. You have something like 98,000 miles with less then half a million people living in them, you can stand on a hill in the most developed part of the state down by Cheyenne and Laramie and see 1 structure visible in the 20+ miles your gaze takes you.
To understand what all this means, and what Louisev is describing, The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland--England, Wales, Scotland, the province of Ulster across the Irish sea and all the outlying areas such as Man and the Channel Islands, the Orkneys--have approximately the SAME land area with [2005] SIXTY MILLION, TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND PEOPLE. Wyoming has about 450,000 inhabitants in the same land area. The vast loneliness of the High Plains DOES roll over you.
We went to a banquet 2 weeks ago. When my fiance called to ask what to wear the reply was a baffled: 'It's WYOMING. Nobody will care what you wear.' The voice on the telephone continued: ' Nobody cares. You will find gowns, ranchwear and probably jeans and tshirts at the banquet. Wear whatever you feel like wearing. ' Which is exactly what she did [dark blouse, pearls, skirt, all Western], and what we found at the keynote banquet to what was one of the best literary events it's ever been my privelage to attend. A banquet where one of the countries best writers read her work --in plain dark slacks and a blouse for you fashionistas--and the audience went wild.
Unless you have experienced Wyoming, it's almost impossible to do it justice--the poverty-which-isn't-poverty because urban and eastern standards do not apply and never have; the wealth; the 'normal' standards of the vast majority; the actual poverty by WYOMING standards; the strangeness; the openness of the people and real friendliness; the Native American nations; the feeling of ' us rural cowboys against the rest who don't get it and the lawyer who wears my hat'; the abnormal normality, the normal abnormality--like Cheyenne, living literally on TOP of 40% of the worlds nuclear bombs { i'm serious--got a friend who has some off the backyard. He's very proud of 'his' nuclear bomb silo roflmao, says he kept NY and Berlin alive: 'Come on, let me show you ma nuclear weapons ' roflmaooooo}
And no i don't live there. Yet. I'm just another guy who is in love with the High Plains just to the north of me, and the people who inhabit them. Most of my state of thinks Wyoming is waaay wierd. It is. But then so am i lol.
Hope I didn't bore the hell out of the entire thread...just wanted to add my 12 cents. <g>
Jack
Topic: Taking Chances, by E. L. Van Hine and L.H. Nicoll (Read 3185047 times)