The Narrow Gauge Book Cooperative is pleased to welcome Rick Wertz for the release of his book, Coyotes, Gods, and Other Critters. Rick will be in store on November 1st at 6pm for a reading, discussion, and book signing. The book is out in print and available for purchase at the Narrow Gauge Book Cooperative, and online.
About the Author:
Rick Wertz was born in Las Vegas, New Mexico a few decades ago, moving to Colorado when he attended Ft. Lewis College in Durango. After what he calls an “All-American boyhood” he turned into a hippie in the 70s, and he and his wife opened a natural foods store in Gunnison after he finished college. 5 years later, he and his wife and son moved to Alamosa to start a self-sufficient farm. Beginning with a tiny-home they moved onto a foundation, Rick expanded the home gradually over the years. With no electricity in this tiny home, their entertainment came from reading books.
As a child, Rick had a stutter, and had always retreated to the world of books, reading sports stories about Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth, then Agatha Christie and Rex Stout mysteries like his mother, and Ian Fleming like his father. When he was a parent himself, reading aloud in the kerosene-lit farmhouse in the San Luis Valley, he learned to speak without his stutter.
Throughout his life, Rick returned to books, writing stories as a child and getting them published in the paper as an adult. The place of books in his life led, naturally, to writing books himself.
About the book:
One night, while living in Crestone and working in Alamosa, Rick was driving home and struck a coyote on the highway. That moment, and his beloved Aunt Dorothy getting a walker, inspired his first Gurranny Coyote story, of which there are many more.
Rick writes, “Where I live, there is a bounty on Coyotes. You can get five bucks for a pair of ears. Coyotes are cunning, conniving, crafty, creative, and cruel. They play games to wile away the time. Coyotes are moon critters. They wax and wane to a symphony of tides. They are shrewd, and wild, and devious. Coyotes answer to no one except moon agitation. Native Americans call Coyotes tricksters. Imported American Aliens call Coyotes sinister. Coyotes are secretive and silent unless agitated by the moon.
There is always a bounty on Gods. A verifiable (literal?) picture of one would be worth millions. They are cunning, conniving, crafty, creative, and cruel as well. They play games to wile away their timelessness. Gods are sun critters. God’s laws wax and wane to a symphony of cultures. They are wily, wild, and untamed. Gods answer to no one except yin and yang. Native American Indians call everything God. Imported American Aliens call God in his distant sanctuary. Gods are secretive and silent unless provoked by another critter.
The other critters are along for the ride. Bunny rabbits, pixies, poodles, centaurs, humans and all the others roam the space between Coyotes and Gods. They are earth critters. They worship the sun and the heavens. They fear Coyotes and Gods.
I am just another critter. I have DNA of both Coyote and God. I have DNA of all the other critters, porcupine, squid, elf, and a myriad of other manifestations of star dust.
The lives of Coyotes, Gods, and other critters are interwoven. They are the triad that makes existence entertaining and challenging in a life and death sort of way.”
We’re excited to have Rick in store to talk about and read from his book, and we hope to see you there!
Also check out other Sports events in Alamosa, Arts events in Alamosa, Literary Art events in Alamosa.
