Fictional Short Story By Tripp Stanford
Published on Amazon Kindle Publishing, and can be found here, Coloma Gold-New Mexico Whispers.

Part one of three of a fictional short story set in New Mexico in the early 1850′s. The story follows the lives of three teenagers as they set out alone for California to get their share of the California gold rush.

“Coloma Gold – New Mexico Whispers” is the author’s first publishing of a fictional short story series. Previously his works included books related to starting businesses, and finding franchise ideas and financing. His first attempt at fiction is a very nice deviation from his normal style, and an energizing look at how edgy life in the old west must have been for teenagers and how thrilling the California gold rush must have been.

Adventure and love for old west teens

The story centers around the young 17 year-old main character Franklin and his best friend. About a year after the initial gold rush hit in California, the news finally reaches the small town where Franklin lives. His best friend is intrigued by the idea and convinces Franklin to travel with him to California to Coloma, one of the first centers of the gold strike. Descriptions of the early New Mexico ranch life of Franklin’s family is very deeply painted and the motivation for the characters to strike gold develops early on in the piece. There is a clear-cut reason for Franklin, his best friend, and his girlfriend, who tags along, to make this journey. It is very representative of the responsibilities that teens faced during the old west and a very realistic look at how love and adventure would have blossomed for young adventurers.

Overall Impression – Fans of old west stories will find this book appealing

The author promises that this is the first part of three of the series and has promised to release the second part of the story soon, “Coloma Gold – Dreams Are For The Young.” All in all it was interesting and exciting to read, it is really worth a read. It does lack in character development in some parts of the story, but the overall plot and idea are solid and intriguing. I expect that the story will develop and a better understanding of the outlying characters will be better explained in later parts of the series. Readers who are fans of Old West fiction and are familiar with authors like Sam Bass (“The Diezmo”) will find this story catchy and appealing.

The author provides a fresh setting and engaging characters that are enough to keep readers attention and the short story format is a good start for this series. When faced with the harsh realities of frontier life, and life expectancy of less than forty years, motivation to leave home and follow a dream is sometimes the best passage to adulthood.

This book can be purchased at this link: Coloma Gold-New Mexico Whispers.

I have been trying to get published on associated content and Yahoo! contributor network for a couple weeks now.  I had my first break through today, as one of my poems has been published.  It can be found by following this link, Arlington Our Freedom Sleeps.  Just a little poem for Memorial Day to remember the soldiers who fought for our freedom.  I was inspired a while ago to write lots of poetry, and I am debating whether or not to publish a copy of my early poetry.  I have about 15 good poems and about 30 song lyrics that have never been published, and I will hopefully get around to publishing them sometime soon.  I do need to get my music on this blog for download, if I can ever find a good widget.

Current Side Projects:

I am steadily writing my first novel.  It is a fiction and it has to do with drugs.  That is all I can say about it right now.  I just don’t want to give too much away.  I’ve also started developing a concept for a second book.  If I can just keep myself focused on the first book, and get it finished, then I will be happy. 

To My Health

I have lost about 15 pounds in the last seven weeks thanks to my awesome personal trainer.  I am also on the verge of attempting one of my long time life goals.  I’m not at liberty to say just yet, but I will write a little more about just what I have been up to when I feel like I have a better grasp on the sport.  That said, I made the phone call and spoke to a trainer last night, and I will be starting tomorrow at 6:30 a.m. 

Movies/Television

I got a phone call last week from a new casting company here in Dallas.  Even though the pilot was recently finished for the remake of the famous “Dallas” television series, there is a good chance I will get an opportunity to be a featured extra.  That may not sound like much, but hopefully I can get an on set upgrade to a small speaking role.  I’m going to keep my fingers crossed.

I wrote a short book, more like a directory about a year and a half ago that detailed my research into franchise opportunities for individuals with $5,000.00 or less to invest.  One other filter for the research was that most of the franchises had to offer the ability for the franchisee to set up their business at home before setting up for an actual store front.  You can see my book on Amazon by following this link: Simple Business Franchises And Legitimate Home Based Businesses.

No more television roles to speak of at the moment.  I will probably try to finish a second book this summer about how to make money as an extra in the television business.  I might make an effort to get on a couple more shows.  Right now, my connections are telling me there isn’t much going on in Dallas right now, but that things might be picking up in the summer.

I shot an episode of the new show on NBC called “Chase” a couple months ago, and I haven’t been able to post anything until the episode actually aired.  Well, my episode finally aired this past Monday night and guess who was front and center and in clear focus, ME!  I was in the background for most of the scene where the main bad guy is getting served some tea in the airport while waiting on his private jet.  Later in the scene, when the main characters walk in, I am right there.  Bam!!!!  Now life has changed dramatically.  I can’t go anywhere without being asked for an autograph.  It is hard being the Brad Pitt of extras! JK.

Me Front And Center

I was actually in two scenes, and unfortunately one of the scenes that I would have also been featured in was re-shot a few weeks ago.  Technically the episode I am in is episode number 104, but it actually didn’t air until the 5th week due to the re-shoots.  Who knows, maybe I’ll end up in the cut scenes on the DVD of the series when it is released.  That part of the scene is when the main bad guy is trying to steal a car from the valet of the airport to escape.  What happened is I was told to walk down the sidewalk in a certain direction.  On the first take, me and the main bad guy got mixed up and he ended up running smack into me and then getting in the car and driving off.  The crew members and the production assistants were all yelling at me and getting really mad.  Then out of nowhere the director says, “Wait, what is going on.  You mean the guy he ran into?  Well, it looked good to me.  I liked it.”  Just like that, the same people that were smoking mad at me were saying, “Okay, well do the same thing again.  Good Job.”  Isn’t that funny.  I went from hate, to good job, in like two seconds.  I owe that director one for saving my butt.  They had also used my car in the scene that was cut involving the valet.  Oh well, I got paid so it is all good.  I have more pictures from the set, but I will upload them in the next post.

Side Note – I was offered a full time spot on the Fox show “The Good Guys” to be a photo double for the main character Dan, played by Bradley Whitford.  The time commitment was impossible to mix with my regular job schedule.  It would have been a blast, and I have been offered other parts since, just not as good as that one. 

Next up will be the final episode of Friday Night Lights.

Well, I guess it is time to get started blogging for myself, about things I would like to share with people in my life and welcome those who are not acquainted with my awesomeness.  JK. 

Lately I have been hanging with the wife and kids and we are getting ready to head out on a small vacation.  My Dad and I have been busy trying to get extra roles on TV shows being filmed here in Big-D.  We had our first luck with Fox’s new show, “The Good Guys” (Links and Video of our episode below).  We both made it onto episode 7 of season one.  I was called back for a photo double role as a redneck on episode 8, but my scene got cut.  Good thing I took pictures!!!

I was stoked to get a call back from the casting company, On Location Casting, after a couple weeks and they asked if I could do a photo double role as a redneck.  I was born to play a redneck on TV!  Well, after about 45 minutes in make-up chatting it up with Collin Hanks (cough…cough name drop), I was driven down to the set.  15 minutes of shooting later I was done.  Easiest money I ever made.  I only found out recently that my scene was cut.   It’s all good, I’ll try to get on the show again when they pick up shooting for next season in late August.  Just in case you were wondering, those are not real tattoos, those are movie magic tattoos.

This site is under construction and will be available soon with new music, old music, videos, and more.  Check back soon!