Aspen Peak Cellars at Clifton House Inn

Need a nice place to go have a good meal, great wine, marvelous atmosphere and just a lovely time? Go to Aspen Peak Cellars at Clifton House Inn in Conifer. I have an article coming out next week about the place, and I think it's obvious I really liked what I saw. Check it out sometime. The restaurant, not the article.

Thought for the day

A thesaurus is only as good as the good words you already know.

Pre-Story Definition

I was sent a request for a pre-story, and not knowing exactly what that was, I asked Deb Hurley. This is what she sent me using the concept of Emily's Ride that's coming up soon. Here's her explanation and an example of what a pre-story should look like:

A pre-story (or an advance as I would call it) is a story telling people about what is to come. That's the focus. Afterward, usually the reporter has covered the event and writes the story about what transpired.

For example, last week you wrote a pre-story/advance about the meeting looking at the trails in Conifer on Sept. 23. In all likelihood you will cover the meeting on Sept. 23 and write a story about what happened.

So for the Emily's Parade/Ride, you will find out: what it is, when it is, where it is, what's new this year if anything, why it exists, etc.

In this case, the lead will be something like:

Hundreds of motorcycles will travel down U.S. Highway 285 on Sept. 26 as part of Emily's Ride. The third-annual ride and parade will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, beginning at Columbine High School and going along U.S. Highway 285 to Platte Canyon High School. The event commemorates Sept. 27, 2006, when a gunman entered Platte Canyon High School, held seven girls hostage and utimately shot and killed Emily Keyes.
etc., etc., etc.,

--more about what's going on
-- more about how people can get involved

This is one of the ways I learn best. I ask a question and I get an explanation and an example. Then I post it to a blog so anyone who's interested can see it. It seems to me this is an apprenticeship-type relationship, where someone who has the knowledge passes it on to someone who is learning in a one-to-one setting. I have always learned best that way, not sitting in a class suffering from a case of Deer In The Headlights Syndrome.

Some people are happy with this kind of learning arrangement, others are uncomfortable and think that learning should happen by trial and error. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

Now both you and I know what a pre-story is and how to prepare it. I'm looking forward to doing both a pre-story and the follow-up article for Emily's Ride. Despite the tragic circumstances and I hope the perpetrator rots in hell, I love motorcycles and the spirit of people on bikes. "Hang loose" is their motto. That and "Keep the rubber side down."

It's About Time

The AP Stylebook elaborates on the appropriate dispensation of time.

I never saw this in the stylebook, but it's succinct and to the point:

"They will meet at 10 a.m. Wednesday in the Courier office"

Time, Day, Place----Remember that, it's very important

Today's Editing Tips

Keep paragraphs short. Usually a paragraph in a story for a newspaper
is no more than a couple sentences.

In the opening of a story, identify the location and make sure you identify the people in the story with their relevance.
"...store owners Bona Jordan and Bob Adams..."

After the Who, Why, Where, When are taken care of in those first few paragraphs, toss in a good quote.

Here are your style/mechanics tips for the day:

The word "each" always takes a singular verb.

Highway is spelled out with the number.

----Courtesy of Deb Hurley and the story about the Pine Emporium

Barbie and the art of Robert Best

Decades ago, my mother told me that Barbie Dolls were designed just for me.

I had dozens of them, starting with the original red-lipped, black-haired Barbie in a black and white bathing suit. The Bubble Head Barbie came next, with her perfect do that to this day is still perfect, though she has laid in a box with her sorority of plastic.

Robert Best is an artist who renders images of Barbie fashions both past and current, and these 11 x 14 drawings are numbered, framed and sold.

I came across several of the images in a small woodsy shop with lots of elegant smelling lotions and greeting cards with hand pressed flowers on the front. Long swags of thick branches and intertwined flowers drape from the ceiling, and soft music mixes with the sound of small water fountains. The images are back in the corner in the children's section and they hold court with their heads held elegantly high just above the terry-teddy bears and books with frantic drawings. Barbie reigns over all, quietly and fashionably.

I go into that store occasionally and look at the dwindling fashion parade that lined the walls of the children's section and lament that my favorite image is gone. Barbie in the blue/violet floral gown that trails with sash and color, a dreamy elegance to unreal for a girl who grew up in stretch pants and rode horses.

At only $159, I could have taken her home and placed her on my wall, as a token of all the Barbies' wrapped and stashed in a fashion show held in a Roughneck Tuppeware container.

It wasn't that I knew I could dress like Barbie; I couldn't pull off sophistication even if wanted to. Her life didn't really inspire. She had the clothes, but not the anima, and she couldn't make up in wardrobe what she lacked in breath. Still, she was an escape, a kind of control in an uncontrollable world.

I was probably 12 when I bought my last Barbie, a last stroll down the pink aisle, and I lied to the checkout lady at the House of Values and told her it was for my little sister. She seemed somehow strange and wrong, like waking up and trying to remember a dream that was great while you were having it, but faded in the light of day.

In the end, I was realized that Barbies' weren't designed for me, that I was just a molded consumer of packaged fashion, but I didn't care.

My mother then came clean with the true origin of my fame and told me that she named me after the nicest person she knew: herself.

The Process

You can always tell when the honeymoon is over when you start getting down to the business of figuring out the parameters of any situation.

Here's some things I've learned this week about newspapers, writing and photography:

1) Don't lose art.

2) As soon as your art is done, work it up, label it correctly, upload it and know where you've put everything.

3) If you have a very strong lead, let it stand as a paragraph all by itself. When you have this type of situation, stair step important information in the next couple paragraphs. When you have a real strong lead, chances are you don't have the four "W"'s in the first paragraph.

4) The four "W"s are: who, why, where, when. "What" is the rest of the story.

5) Get the four "W"s in the first paragraph of a story but make it really interesting.

6) Subheads in an article are used in a printed story when the transitions between sentences aren't real smooth or there is no other way.

7) It takes time to acclimate to a new news climate, but you'd better put a wiggle in it and get it done.

8) When given re-direction, write it down, make a note of it. If you don't understand it, ask for an example so you can see what it looks like.

9) Read the papers. Obvious, but read good writing and start to understand what bad writing is. Pay attention to what the writing you're reading is saying to you.

10) Keep a spreadsheet of your contacts and their phone numbers. Keep it up to date.

11) Get to know the people at the post office.

12) Always have a business card.

13) Keep your story information in folders and organized on your computer. Don't delete anything until you are SURE you don't need anything at the last second.

14) Reformat your cards as soon as you put them back in the camera. Don't wait or else you'll be looking like an idiot, standing there deleting 340 images of school kids. Then people at the tattoo parlor will be waiting for you and there will be new photos you've taken that you can't delete, so you have to scroll through and delete the old ones one at a time.

15) Five words are better than 17 when used in a story and space is limited.

16) Don't get too discouraged. Chin up.