Exploring the San Luis Valley: A Guide inspired by my Novels.

One of the things that creative writing courses harp on when creating a series is World Building. Makes sense. If you want to write a series of stories, go out and make a world that is consistent with them.

Writers do that all the time. George Lucas did it with Star Wars. Gene Roddenberry and a host of writers did it for Star Trek. C.S. Lewis and the world of Narnia. And of course, Tolkien did it for Middle Earth.

I reckon, compared to them, I’ve got it easy. My novels happen in the real world. Conejos County and the San Luis Valley actually exist. There is such a place as Antonito, Colorado and Adams State College (now Adams State University). None of these places were made up.

In many ways, that makes writing easier and harder at the same time. First, I don’t have to invent anything. But violate any of it, and I’ll probably hear all about it. So, I’m really doing my homework. Despite being raised there and having been a peace officer in the area I’m not an authority on the location. Every time I turn around, I’m learning something new about the place I called home.

I’ve taken a crack at this once before. It turned out to be a blog post longer than some novels. That’s a lot to look at. I’ll point out places mentioned in the books and hopefully make it better ride. I’m also doing some general house cleaning..

I’m doing things a little different this time.

I’ll start with the thirty-thousand-foot view and then zoom in a talk about towns and events.

But rather than one long blog post, I’m going to break it into links.

So, consider this a page in progress.

The San Luis Valley – The view from afar.

Antonito/Conejos and surrounding area

La Jara/Capulin and surrounding area

Under Construction – Manassa/Romeo

Sanford/Las Sauces

Under Construction – Platoro/Osier/and the San Juans of Conejos County

AROUND THE VALLEY

Alamosa/ City of Alamosa/Adams State University