SKYE KEEP: A Quirkish Novel About a Haunted House, a Charming Cat, Romance in the Rockies, the Georgetown Loop Railroad, and Small-Town Politics with a lengthy subtitle is entirely suggestive. Thus, a multifaceted novel and human interest narrative. (Some readers have also suggested it's a literary & veritable soap opera based on real events and real people, the latter names changed for obvious reasons.)
Abstract: The storyline takes place in a quaint Rocky Mountain Victoria hamlet due west of Denver. The year is 1983, which marks the time Lux Carey, the principal of the story, returns to Denver after living in Paris, France for over a year. Due to an unexpected breakup with his girlfriend, Shannon, who is a University of Colorado med student, unexpectedly announced she had fallen in love with one of her professors. Consequently, Lux was devastated, and one might also say, he became the proverbial lost and disenfranchised soul. Dismayed & perplexed given the present and the future, Lux wasn't sure where he would find his missing pieces, except he returned to Denver without knowing how and where to find his missing persona. Fortunately, he reached out to a trusted friend, Ailis Finnin, the mother of Lux's former classical guitar students. Hearing his disconsolate story, as well as the emotional turmoil that comes with the loss of a lover, Ailis invites Lux to visit Georgetown where she and her husband own a Victorian mansion that serves as the family's vacation residence. She also thinks getting Lux out of Denver and offering what amounts to asylum in the Rockies will be an ideal cure for his troubled emotions and hopelessness. After visiting that hamlet and the late-18th-century domicile replete with ornate and antique furnishings, Lux is inspired. Thus, he realizes Georgetown is the best option he has, as well as living in a former ghost town turned tourist settlement, all of which he thinks is fitting given the way he feels--ghostly. Realizing it will take Lux time to heal and return to his former vibrant and venturesome demeanor, privately and discretely Ailis has other ideas to help restore and boost Lux's morale.
Meanwhile, Lux moves to Georgetown and moves into the Victorian mansion Ailis had named "Skye Keep. He will serve in the role of a caretaker and is soon sharing his adopted home with a charming fat cat he names, "GT." Thus, an abbreviation for his new adopted hometown. As for Ailis' wanting not only to help Lux with his ongoing woes about the breakup with Shannon, she has furtive and passionate desires for him--both as a caretaker and a potential paramour. Despite the fact she is happily married (her portrayal of the marriage), early on, she lets Lux know she has always had an interest in his persona, both as a friend and imaginary lover. Hearing that frank confession, at first, Lux is reluctant to get involved on a personal and romantic level, but only because Ailis is married, as well as the landlady. Therefore, he feels uncomfortable as her suitor, undisclosed or otherwise. This news does not surprise Ailis but she respects his reasons. Eventually, her trusted friend becomes a potential lover. Adding to Lux's compromise (his word for being her lover), another 'townie' sets her beguiling trap for the 'newbie' Georgetown resident, and, in time, Lux is, once again, compromised, yet awkwardly complacent with his ménage à trois affairs; at least, until Shannon one day shows up unexpectedly. Referring to the subtitle, again, this romantic novel is indeed convoluted, yet somehow this wordy adventuresome narrative is resolved and, eventually, Lux resolves his dilemmas. Ergo, a compromise and a more or less happy ending.
(672-pages 7 x 10 format)
About the Author: After being Honorably Discharged from the Navy (submarine service), Rich Holtzin has lived in the West and Southwest for over four decades. Earning three academic degrees in Eastern and Western Philosophy, for some thirty years, he made a living as an outdoors educator and interpreter teaching a variety of geosciences, human, and natural history geared to the Colorado Plateau Province. Additionally, Rich was a professional studio and stage musician and taught guitar and music theory, including composing two soundtracks for the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Parks; a high school Educational Assistant and Substitute Teacher; a Commercial Pilot flying a variety of aircraft; a professional Photographer; a GPS surveyor and Topographical Mapper for the U. S. Forest Service; a Planetarium Control Room operator; a museum docent; and the Coconino County Sheriff's Office. What Rich is more enthused about, however, is serving in the role of an Interpretive Guide and Educator for the Grand Canyon Field Institute (a National Park Service endorsed outreach program (http: //bit.ly/1D6YS1u). He was also an instructor at Northern Arizona University and Yavapai College (respectively, Flagstaff and Prescott), as well as the owner of a Southwest eco and cultural tourism enterprise. Fairly recently, he became the Executive Director of a think tank in Albuquerque, based on astronautics and aerospace S.T.E.M. classroom projects (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), including the co-author of a math-lab book based on rocketry (www.stemfortheclassroom). For more of RICH HOLTZIN'S backstory, peruse his website under his legal name: www.richholtzin.com He also writes books under the nom de plume, RK ALLEMAN, as published on his other Amazon Author's Page.
