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.