http://www.newwest.net/index.php/city/main/C95/L95/ New West Network: The Voice of the Rocky Mountains en info@newwest.net Copyright 2008 Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:46:27 MDT Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:46:27 MDT http://www.newwest.net/city/article/will_herbert_play_spoiler_in_wyoming_house_race/C95/L95/ Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:25:41 MDT On the eve of Tuesday's general election, it appears that a Libertarian may again be poised to play the spoiler's role in 2008. No stranger to running for office, W. David Herbert, of Riverton, ran against Michael Enzi and Kathy Karpan in 1996, competing to fill the seat of retiring Senator Alan Simpson. That means Herbert is also no stranger to defeat. This year, too, Herbert concedes that his chances of winning outright on November 4 are "not realistic at all." Herbert says his main reason for running is "to keep my party on the ballot." http://www.newwest.net/city/article/the_wyoming_petrocracy/C95/L95/ Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:26:33 MDT Sheridan -- The ancient Greeks had a word, καιρ?ς or kairos, which means an era of unique opportunity. It's an unspecified period of time ripe for taking advantage of changing circumstances. Wyoming and the energy-rich West have an opportunity to at least acknowledge such an era: we live in a time where change occurs at an unprecedented speed. Wyoming can either react to this acceleration or be dragged along by it, probably a little of both. But we ignore it at our peril. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/lummis_woos_wyoming_mormons/C95/L95/ Wed, 22 Oct 2008 08:50:41 MDT Republican congressional candidate Cynthia Lummis, a devout Lutheran, said that when she was growing up in Cheyenne many of her closest friends were Mormons, and during her college years she twice considered converting, taking all the introductory lessons for membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Locked in a tight race with Jackson Hole Democrat Gary Trauner for Wyoming's sole US House seat, Lummis is hoping Wyoming's Mormon population -- constituting at least one in ten voters -- will put her over the top against a formidable opponent. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/politicking_the_old_fashioned_way_in_wyoming/C95/L95/ Fri, 17 Oct 2008 06:34:19 MDT Charles Pelkey and Reese Jenniges have an in-depth and informative look at what might just shape up to be a major upset in the West next month--Dick Cheney's old House seat might very well flip to a Democrat. I'm going to trust a Wyomingite on a Wyoming race before my own gut feelings anytime, but my observations from a trip there last week confirm for me much of what they report. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/wyomings_trauner_might_have_a_chance/C95/L95/ Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:04:34 MDT Barbara Cubin is winding down a seven-term run in Congress and retiring in January, after surviving a squeaker of an election in 2006 against Teton County Democrat Gary Trauner. With the unpopular Cubin's departure, many expected Wyoming's at-large House seat to revert seamlessly to Republican hands. Ordinarily, the race is pretty much decided in the August Republican primary, an election to pick a GOP successor for a spot that hasn't been in Democratic hands for 30 years. Given the GOP's hold on the state, Wyoming's general election has been more coronation than an actual battle. So why does it look like we have another close one on our hands? http://www.newwest.net/city/article/ten_years_later_wyoming_murder_haunts_reporters/C95/L95/ Sun, 12 Oct 2008 10:19:01 MDT It's been 10 years since Matthew Shepard, a gay college student at the University of Wyoming, ran into two young men at a bar in Laramie who robbed him, drove him to the edge of town, tied him to a wooden fence and struck him 18 times in the head with a .357-caliber Magnum handgun before leaving him to die. This weekend National Public Radio looks back on how the murder turned Laramie into "the country's newest symbol of hate," and also how it deeply affected the journalists who covered it. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/senate_may_take_up_broad_public_lands_bill_in_november/C95/L95/ Sun, 05 Oct 2008 09:41:02 MDT A collection of bipartisan bills that would protect land and rivers and limit energy development around the West -- the Omnibus Public Land Management Act -- may make it to the Senate floor in November, the Jackson Hole News&Guide reports. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/an_interview_with_douglas_kurtz/C95/L95/ Fri, 26 Sep 2008 08:57:09 MDT Boulder-based writer and writing coach Douglas Kurtz recently published his first novel, Mosquito, an action-packed literary thriller set throughout the American West, including stops in Boulder, Moab, Rocky Mountain National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton National Park, where eco-tour guide protagonist Ben Baxter leads his group in and out of peril. Kurtz grew up in New York and Kansas, studied at the University of Delaware, and then at the University of Colorado, where he earned a master's degree in Creative Writing (and I met him ten years ago). Kurtz also earned his life coaching certification from the Coach Training Alliance, and specializes in working with writers through his business, Write Life Coaching. I recently interviewed Doug about how he blended thriller and literary fiction elements in Mosquito, his current novel, and how he helps other writers overcome "limiting thoughts and beliefs, self judgment, lack of direction, and anxiety." New West: I really liked the premise of Mosquito with this haunted leader of Outward Bound-type adventures as the protagonist. It allowed you to take the story to a lot of beautiful wilderness settings throughout the West, and to describe them in an active way that involved the plot. How did you come up with this idea? Douglas Kurtz: For a couple of years in my twenties I worked as a tour leader taking foreign travelers on trips around the US, Canada and Mexico. I knew when I started Mosquito that I wanted the story, or part of it at least, to revolve around this kind of travel, but I didn't know until I was well into the writing that a cross-country tour would become the vessel for the entire thing. Setting is very important to me, in fiction and in my life, so I wanted it to play a big role. Wilderness settings are full of opportunities for combining action and danger and beauty, and this was appealing to me--the idea that I could get a fast-paced plot happening in these scenic places, without using a lot of static description, which tends to bog down the pace. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/the_rise_of_wyoming_farmers_markets_but_not_its_bread/C95/L95/ Fri, 26 Sep 2008 07:15:44 MDT The leaves are turning. If you're in Sheridan and it's Thursday, it's time to hie yourself to the Farmers' Market. But Sheridan, luckily, is not alone in offering fresh produce. Wyoming has 27 farmers' markets. They're still small potatoes, so to speak, but they're starting to make a place for themselves among Wyoming's food options. Moreover, farmers' markets have caught the state's attention. The Wyoming Department of Agriculture website, under its, "Current News About Wyoming Agriculture," has a link to developments in Wyoming farmers' markets. Ten years ago, this would have been unthinkable. Angus and artichokes? Nah. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/oprah_picks_wroblewskis_sawtelle_brokeback_porn_aggrieves_proulx/C95/L95/ Wed, 24 Sep 2008 09:11:44 MDT It's getting to be all David Wroblewski all the time around here at the Roundup, but heck, this is big news: Oprah has named The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by the Westminster, Colo. writer as her next Book Club selection. Check out my interview with him, which I conducted a few weeks before the book was published, and my review of it for the Rocky Mountain News here. Patti Thorn, Books Editor at the Rocky, has the post-Oprah announcement scoop with Wroblewski. Earlier this month, Robert J Hughes of the Wall Street Journal interviewed Annie Proulx about her new story collection. Proulx said that this would be her final collection of Wyoming stories, because she wants to avoid the "regional-writer" label. She also remarked on how the film version of "Brokeback Mountain" affected her life: "'Brokeback Mountain' has had little effect on my writing life, but is the source of constant irritation in my private life." Also in the Roundup: Book news from Idaho's Joan Opyr and Kim Barnes and Oregon's Floyd Skloot, and Missoula mourns the death of crime novelist James Crumley.