Out in Colorado : Blog Hop

May 26, 2013 by Pip

“Out in Colorado” with Caitlin Ricci

Hey, I’m Caitlin Ricci, and today I’ll be talking about my new anthology, Out in Colorado. Thanks for spending a bit of time with me, and I hope you take a moment to check out the book.

Last year, Marie Sexton conceived the idea of bringing together all of the M/M authors living in Colorado that she could find. So far, there are eleven of us in the group, and it’s been great to be able to connect with them and help each other out through blog hops and promotion. I had no idea so many of us lived in this state.

After our blog hop last summer, I started wondering what else we could do as a group, and the idea for this anthology was born. The only rule when those of us writing for this anthology started was that it had to take place largely in Colorado. Other than that, anything was allowed, so there is a mix of contemporary and paranormal stories here.

What I like the most about this anthology is that we all wrote about the places that we enjoy in Colorado, and there are elements of our own lives in it. Though I no longer live downtown, I still visit the 16th Street Mall as often as I can, and that area is a key spot in my story, “Take a Bow”. Though the buildings our characters go to may be fictional, you can visit the area and get a feel for their lives surrounded by the people and culture of each area we chose to write about. Whether its the mountains or downtown Denver, we each drew on something that we love about the state we live in. That’s what I think makes this anthology so unique.

While I was writing “Take a Bow”, I went downtown and walked around. I people-watched, which isn’t out of the ordinary for me at all, since I enjoy doing that anyway. It’s different as an author, though, when I have characters in my head that have voices and needs already and simply want me to fill them out a bit. I saw young men dancing, a woman eating a cupcake, and a girl splashing in a puddle, all normal activities for people… but when focused on from a storyteller’s perspective, they become so much more.

It’s as if I’m taking snapshots of different elements of people that I like and forming them into one idea. A woman’s smile, the color of a dress, or the smell coming from a burrito place on the corner all get worked into one central Idea, and though there may not be that character in this story, there are elements of each person in one character. Like a collage, only the difference is that I actually get to interact with these pictures. The problem with people-watching, though, is that in that afternoon, where I was working on “Take a Bow”, I found inspiration for at least a dozen more stories. The writer’s mind is never at rest, I suppose, and I enjoy every minute of it. Even if sometimes it does seem to be a little chaotic inside my brain.

“Take a Bow” is a short story about a man trying not to embarrass his daughter on her wedding day by not knowing how to dance. The father-daughter dance is an important tradition for many brides, and Brandon knows his little girl is looking forward to her big day. In the course of trying to learn the steps, he finds himself growing far more attracted to his dance instructor than he wants to be. Crispin is charismatic, handsome, and parades around in tight pants that leave nothing to Brandon’s imagination. It’s all this older man can do to keep his hands off him.

I hope you’ll read along with Brandon and Crispin as well as everyone else in this anthology. Though spearheading this project was a learning experience on many levels, I’m very pleased to see it in completion, and I hope that we come together to do many more projects in the future. We have a strong group of M/M authors here in Colorado, and I am very pleased to be a part of it.

Thanks for reading!

Caitlin Ricci was fortunate growing up to be surrounded by family and teachers that encouraged her love of reading. She has always been a voracious reader and that love of the written word easily morphed into a passion for writing. If she isn’t writing, she can usually be found studying as she works toward her counseling degree. Her belief that there is no one true path to happily ever after runs deeply through all of her stories. You can find Caitlin at CaitlinRicci.com

Her most recent short story, “Take a Bow”, can be found in Storm Moon Press’ Out in Colorado anthology, on sale now!

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