Hometown USA, Las Vegas, NM

Lights, Camera, Action!

Filming on Bridge Street, Las Vegas, NM

Once again our little town is undergoing a transformation. One area is being recreated into a '50s version of the other Las Vegas, the one with glitz and glamour, at least on the surface. In the '50s there was a dark force in control of gaming, and prostitution was a way of life for women whose dreams of stardom ended in disillusionment and sorrow. The old-style mob influence is long gone. Corporate flamboyance drives the economy now, but it can still be a tawdry business with gambling addiction stealing people's futures. 

The transformation on Bridge Street in Las Vegas, N.M., is for a television pilot about the '50s in the town that never sleeps. I have no idea what the plot line is, but I don't imagine it is about the sunny side of life.

The bright side – and the down side – for the only Las Vegas that counts for people in business for themselves, is what it does to the bottom line. Some benefit greatly; others wonder if they can survive the unfortunate interruptions in business access. As a small business it is difficult to take a hit of any kind.

Still, there is spin-off from the movie industry that cannot be denied. It opens the doors of Las Vegas, N.M. to people who have never been here before. It brings exposure and opportunity in unexpected ways.

If you are reading this and live in Las Vegas or in the area, make a special trip to Bridge Street/Plaza and see what's going on. It is a fascinating process to watch. While you’re there, pop into one of the stores and drop a few dollars. Restaurants, clothing and shoes stores, book stores, galleries and more, they're all open ready to serve you.

If you are reading this and you don't live in the area, come on down! It's the sweetest little town around, loaded with history and great things to see and do. Las Vegas, New Mexico may not have glitz and glamour, but it does have down-home hospitality, northern New Mexico chic, and many unique shopping experiences, including those which feature local artists.

Aging Gracefully

Old Chick Oh So Chic 

Old Chick Oh So Chic

I don’t think I’m old. In fact I’m pretty sure I’m not, until I see a candid picture of myself and then I’m horrified. A friend’s grandson took a photo of me at Christmas all bundled up in my warmest coat. I was behind the wheel of my car on my way to a residential care center to deliver gifts to the residents. The Deacons of our church do this every year and I was among several taking this precarious journey on the coldest, snowiest day of the year. Hence the coat and look of grim determination on my face.

We arrived safe and sound, the recipients of the gifts had a high old time and I was happy to have participated. And then I saw THE photo posted on my Facebook page a couple of days later, a thoughtful gift from my good friend Art Trujillo, copy editor at the local paper and a regular columnist. To say the least I was surprised; mostly I was shocked at the deep wrinkles around my lips in contrast to the rich dark color of my hair. Who was I kidding? That hair? Those wrinkles? Get a grip.

Thank you, Arthur (the photographer), for this reminder that no matter how much I would like to look young, at 67 I’m NOT young and the road map of my face shows that. Oddly enough that visual reminder of the march of time didn’t depress me. For an old chick I’m healthy, thank the good Lord, and have the energy of women half my age, or perhaps stubborn determination would be a better description. 

Active Life Keeps You Lively

True Colors

I have a radio program, Writers' Block, on KFUN/KLVF, I’m involved in my church, I’m part of the planning team for a big gala at New Mexico Highlands University celebrating the tenure of the current president, Jim Fries, with a major scholarship fund raising component tied in, I maintain three blogs and a website, and I’m working on a couple of books. 

My husband is convinced I’m working too hard. I’ve been on the other side of that following my retirement from my last full time job, doing little more than playing computer games or reading endlessly and that’s no fun. I’d rather be busy.

My mission is to remind people that wrinkles and age do not mean you no longer have value. Getting old isn’t the end of life; it’s the beginning of a different kind of freedom. You can make choices you couldn’t have made when you were younger.  You can work or volunteer as much or as little as you want to. 

Getting older is a blessing, especially when you consider the alternative. But I’m not terribly worried about that either. I know that when this life is over whatever is next is mine to claim.

So despite wrinkles and days when I’m a little out of breath from running too fast, I’m pleased to say that every day is a great day, even when it isn’t. I’m not that much of a Pollyanna! Life’s little surprises just make getting up in the morning a little more interesting.

Writing

Help! Writers Come to the Rescue
I read this wonderful post today by blogger Robert Lee Brewer entitled 25 Ways to Increase Blog Traffic. It was written back in January but it was linked to his latest post, Tech-Empowered Writers: How to Use Blogs and Social Media to Find Success. Justifiably for two years in a row his blog, My Name Is Not Bob, was listed as one of the 101 best blogs for writers by Writer's Digest.

My blogging bump-in-the-road is being consistent, especially since my interests shoot all over the place. I spent two days this week giving my website a makeover, and working at giving my blogs a similar look. Branding for a writer, or for any entrepreneur, is a way of setting yourself apart from the crowd. Being able to identify for yourself what does set you apart is the biggest, and perhaps the most difficult, step.

The competition for people’s eyes is staggering. In 2009 (the latest numbers I could find) more than 280,000 books were published in the US. That doesn’t take into account e-books, blogs and information websites looking for readers. Creating your unique brand is all the more important. Some refer to this as building a platform based on experience, publication credits and contacts. I confess to not being quite there yet.

Confidence is crucial. Writers must have monumental belief that what they’ve written is the best thing ever put to page, and then be willing to get out there and sell it. Whether you have a relationship with a traditional publisher or go out on your own and self-publish the first person you must convince that the work is exceptional is yourself. I’m not there yet. I look at my self-published books and think of all the ways they could have been better. I want to fix them, which takes up a lot of time and energy. I fret and stew when I should be creating new work or optimizing my blogging experience.

I read again Stephen King’s essay on the writing life, which appeared in the Washington Post in 2006. Now here is a fellow whose brand is easily identified. I wonder in the early years of his career if it was so evident? What struggles did he undergo to reach a level of acceptance so he didn’t have to constantly prove his worth? If you are a fan of the genre, you know that Stephen King is, well… king of horror and suspense. There are contenders but he continues to be a phenomenon. Now that’s branding. Of course it helps that he's one heck of a good writer.

There is so much more to writing than coming up with a great idea and creating a great story. I love to write and I have no problem working at it. To get that work published I have to work at that too. I’ve been rejected by the best of them and usually on a form letter so bland it cracked my heart. I turned to self-publishing because as a person who is easily crushed by rejection, I wanted absolute control of my work, and nobody could tell me my work didn’t “fit in with their book list at this time.”  

What I didn’t take into account was that the self-publisher has one goal in mind and that is to up-sell you to the point that if you’re not careful you will never make back the money you’ve invested. I’m not saying there are no successful self-published authors out there. What I can tell you is that their success came from believing in themselves, working at their craft with diligence and persevering against the odds to get their work published.

Heart breaking as it may be, as a writer you may never find an audience.Your book may be the best tome ever written. You can have the best website on the planet and fantastic blogs. If no one ever reads them, you are up the river of desperation in a paper boat. My suggestions for getting off that boat before it sinks include finding writing helps at every level, from project development and fine tuning of your book, to building your platform or brand and getting your work into the markeplace. The list below represents some of the best writers' blogs out there. These folks share their experiences and knowledge to help others with the dream of getting published and selling their work.

My Name is Not Bob

Mystery Writing Is Murder
hiveword.com/blog
www.writersdigest.com

And here are the top ten sites selected by Write to Done, unmissable articles on writing, a website geared toward helping writers find their way.

Jeff Goins Writer
The Write Practice
Jane Friedman
Creative Penn
Bookshelf Muse
Romance University
Courage2 Create
Terrible minds
Artist’s Road
Word Play

As Stephen King points out in his 2006 essay, there is no easy way to become a successful writer. It’s work. Hard work. And perhaps the hardest part of all is selling your masterpiece once it is written. There is help out there, but ultimately, you – the writer – must put pen to pad and write, and then you – the book marketer – must get out there and work some more at selling it, either to an agent or to the public.

Is it worth? Absolutely!

Is that love?

I’m sorry Whitney Houston is dead. It’s sad that someone so talented got swept up in whatever brought her down. Like Billie Holliday, a jazz diva from the 1930s, Houston had it all, and yet could not resist the temptations or handle the stress of success. It is beyond me or anyone else to know what these women endured that led to their downfall; it is enough to know that for them success was not a guarantee of happy ever after.

Christian writer Joyce Meyer, who came from an abusive background, says that women are by nature dependent. We have been brought up to believe that being loved by someone is more important than anything and that once we are loved we will be forever after taken care of. As Meyer points out, that's a dangerous road to go down. Women in abusive relationships stay in them for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is they convince themselves the man who is abusing them actually does love them. They make countless excuses for his behavior. 

“He’s stressed.”

“He’s out of work.”

“I’m too demanding.”

“The kids are too loud.”

“I was nagging.”

I’ve read that some women in abusive relationships feel protective of the very person who is slapping them around or verbally degrading them. Is that love? By their definition, it is. The passion of violence is for some an indication of passion in the bedroom, but on a much more basic level, they are more afraid of the unknown than of the situation in which they are living. For the abuser it is less about love and more about power. Abusers are often men who feel powerless in other areas of their lives and exert it in the only place they can, at home.

Whitney Houston and Billie Holliday both experienced manipulation from men who wanted to have power over them. Did that lead them to find some way to “feel good” even if the end result was self-degradation to the worst degree? What seems apparent is that they became what other people turned them into, robbing them of their talent, their sense of self, and their lives.

It happens every day to ordinary women and no one pays a bit of attention, because these women are not celebrities. Their pain goes unnoticed, or in most cases ignored. Many know it’s there, they recognize the symptoms, yet do nothing. After all, who wants to get in the middle of someone else’s family drama?

There is a television program on the air now called, “What Would You Do?” We watched a segment the other night about what observers would do if they saw a woman in a store being verbally bullied by her son. The participants were actors, but the observers were not. Of the several who watched the uncomfortable scene play out, only two of the observers tried to intervene. One was a mother with a daughter who chided the male actor (who was a tall beefy guy) for treating his mother that way. The other was an older woman who had counseled abused women. She didn’t say much to the “son”; what she did is offer the mother sanctuary.

Safety. It is perhaps the most important first step in helping women break loose from domestic violence.

Healing. Many of these women are physically and emotionally damaged. They get caught up in “feel good” methods of survival: drugs, alcohol or addictive behaviors. They need treatment and counseling.

Hope. There is a tomorrow. Many abused women feel so trapped they don’t know if tomorrow will come or whether they should care if it does.

Opportunity. To start over women who may be marginally skilled or emotionally fragile need training and jobs.

If you or someone you know is caught up in an abusive relationship, in Las Vegas, N.M. call 1- 505-425-1048, or contact the Tri-County Family Justice Center. The national domestic violence hotline number is 1-800-799-7233.

Pitiful Politics

Are you sick of politics and 24/7 campaign BS (bellicose speechifying)? I am. The time to look at political and campaign reform is long past. At best politics in America has reached a pitiful state. From smug Mr. Obama, who likely will be re-elected, to the bevy of emerging candidates who will go head to head at the August GOP convention in Tampa.

A friend recently expressed her opinion that if everyone would vote for the new kid on the block instead of the incumbent, in three election cycles we would have a new bunch in charge. A bunch of what is the question.

I believe seventy-five percent of those who run for office for the first time are in the race for all the right reasons. They want to make a difference. They believe their fantastic ideas will change the world for the better. And then they show up on their first day on the job after being sworn in and get hit with an ice-cold dose of political reality. Their initiatives won’t even be listened to until they have established their credentials and credibility, which for most national leaders doesn’t happen for years, decades if they last that long.

Local and state office holders face the same challenges. They spend so much time (and money) getting into office, they aren’t fully prepared for reality, which includes listening to constituents, attempting to be progressive in sometimes regressive administrations, wanting  to start something new rather than ensuring the good ideas of the people who came before them are completed successfully, being so honed in on the districts or areas where their supporters live they are unable to see the big picture, and trying to get something done with pennies when dollars – and lots of them – are needed.

We do need to have a system of governance, no doubt about that, but it would be nice if governance was the focus, not partisan politics and getting reelected. No candidate should hold office for more than two consecutive terms, no matter who they are, or what office they hold.  

The cost of campaigns is staggering. If even a portion of that money would be dedicated to encouraging the development of independent businesses, the economy could make a nearly magical turn around. Everyone seems to forget that small business is the backbone of the economy and entrepreneurship drives innovation.

The shock value of campaigning makes most of us gag. Do you really want to hear not just once but countless times that our potential leaders are as flawed as we are? Campaigning should be limited to the six months prior to the primary/caucus (and there should ONLY BE ONE, not one in every state), and targeted on issues not personalities. Candidate spending should be a limited. And get rid of super packs. Good grief, who thought of that? It’s one more way to get around the expectation that reasonable people will behave in reasonable ways.

Political campaigning in the modern age is a sad and destructive joke on all of us. All the wannabes seeking to be the Republican candidate in November should be ashamed of themselves. Little or nothing is being said about the monumental issues facing America and the world, and a lot about what one candidate thinks is wrong with the others. I don’t care what Newt thinks of Mitt, or Rick thinks of Ron, I just want to know they are thinking, which at the moment doesn’t seem to be the case.

Happy Holidays!

Normally it takes me one day to get through my Christmas decorating, or perhaps I should say “holiday” decorating. This year it took three days and I still have one box in the kitchen I’m not entirely sure what to do with. It’s fake greenery and one strand of greenery w/lights that I must have used somewhere at some time, but right now it’s simply sitting there calling to me: “Put me somewhere! Put me somewhere!” The question is, “Where?”

I’m not sure why it has taken me so long this year to get everything up. It looks terrific, by the way, very festive. I love everything about the holidays, and despite the uphill battle of getting the decorations up this year I enjoyed every minute of it.

I thought about why doing a favorite and enjoyable task took so much longer this year. Age? Maybe. Probably. As a world-class multi-tasker I’ve never had a problem getting more than one thing done at a time, but as I get older it isn’t as easy as it used to be. As I write I’m creating and printing Christmas cards and starting supper, while planning my radio program for Tuesday morning. So what slowed me down with decorating?

It could be because when we got ready to decorate the church for the holidays we were reminded by our pastor that Christmas isn’t until Dec. 24. Right now Christian churches are in Advent, the waiting period before the blessed birth. It is also the beginning of the church year, a time of preparation and renewal. In the hustle and bustle of secular holiday planning the birth of Christ has become an endnote rather than the whole story.

I began to think my dithering and getting ready for Christmas might be misguided, that I was focusing on the wrong things. It also gave me an excuse to put off what turns out to be hard work. My 67-year-old bones and muscles are, well, 67 years old!

And then I realized I was misunderstanding the point. The point isn’t about decorating or not decorating, it’s about doing the right things for the right reasons. I know that's simplistic, but it puts everything up to Dec. 24 into perspective for me. I decorate, make candy, bake goodies and have friends over because I enjoy it and I hope it makes other people smile. I hope it makes Jesus smile a little too. Celebrating His birth and life the whole of December has become a tradition. As believers we have a choice whether that celebration will be about excess and overspending, or reaching out to other people and giving thanks for all the ways our lives are blessed.

I’m glad at our church we have been reminded to focus our attention on Advent. We need this time to reflect and understand the Light that overshadows the darkness. Our task in this life is not to point out what we think is wrong with everyone else, but to celebrate God’s love. On Dec. 24 we will celebrate the gift that outshines all others.

Keeping up

Keeping up. Keeping UP. KEEPING UP.

Technology is advancing so quickly you hardly purchase one new device before there's a new and improved version already on the market. Keeping up is nearly impossible. Worse yet it seems to be creating a divide few think about.

The other day I heard a prominent educator in a large city commenting on the fact that all the children in his school system would now have computers. I mentally applauded that. Technology is wonderful. And then he said, "Before this (acquisition of all the computers) there were some children in the district who knew where Australia was and others who didn't."

Excuse me? Don't schools have maps? Books? Teachers who teach?

Okay, I'm old school, as well as being old...er, but there was something about this man's statement that made me stop and think. The younger generation is becoming more and more dependent on developing technology while many older folks are isolated from the worldwide web either by choice or circumstances.

In my husband's case he flat out doesn't want to learn how to use a computer and is perfectly happy devouring three newspapers every day supplemented by news magazines like the Economist, Time, Scientific American... I won't go on, but he is an information vacuum. He is better informed than I, a graying geek who gets most of her information online. I read at the shallow level and he reads in depth.

So my question is this: Does access to technology mean we are better informed or better educated?

Clearly the answer is, no. What makes us better informed is the desire to learn. Technology is a tool — not more important than books, or maps, or teachers, but certainly necessary in this ever-changing world.

It's hard to keep up without it.