Tag: Denver

Black Eye Cap Hill, Denver, Colorado

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denver-black-eye-coffee-shop-01Black Eye Cap Hill is one of my favorite shops in Denver and the USA. You take one part of just plain cool add inviting and then a seriousness about coffee, and you have the Black Eye Cap Hill. It is unique.

The furnishings, character, and atmosphere were enough to make me glad I was there. It has a dreamlike air about it. I could imagine it used as a movie set or backdrop. It just felt cool to pull up to a table, take out my laptop, and write. It has the feel of a world-class coffee shop that changes into a gorgeous bar at night.

A strange twist about the coffee house is the bathrooms have audio books playing in them. In a weird kind of way, that’s rather cool.

The coffee was great. If your hungry or just need a snack The Black Eye offers a delight menu that is moderately priced.

The next time I’m in Denver, I’ll be back. The coffee was great, the service above average, and the atmosphere world-class.

Jimmie Aaron Kepler is a novelist, poet, book reviewer, award-winning short story writer, and coffee house aficionado. His work has appeared in over twenty venues, including Bewildering Stories, Beyond Imagination, The Dead Mule School for Southern Literature, Poetry & Prose Magazine, and vox poetica. When not writing each morning at his favorite coffee house, he supports his literary habit working as an IT application support engineer. He is a former Captain in the US Army. Kepler’s Military History Book Reviews was named a 100 best blogs for history buffs.

The Crimson River

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Crimson-fr-cov-sm“The Crimson River” by Donna Westover Gallup is Book Four in the Mysterious Ways series. The publisher is Cladach Publishing.

Donna Westover Gallup does her usual great job of telling a spellbinding tale. It is what I have come to expect from this great storyteller. I was surprised the story went back and forth between the present and the 19th-Century Colorado Territory. While that caught me off guard, the use of flashbacks was a marvelous way to tell the story.

The author wasted no time getting right to the mysteries that kept me turning the pages. I feel she had a good balance of Christian faith without a forced insertion of “the plan of salvation” just to do it. God’s activity in the lives of the characters was apparent chapter after chapter. Well done!

The story progresses well. The inclusion of historically accurate events adds to the drama. The trip to Texas with the mesquite thorn poisoning and then to Missouri with the inclusion of the small pox story line was well told and frighteningly realistic.

The author did a nice job of wrapping up a lot of loose ends as the book concluded. Without spoiling the ending I will say it was more real life than some readers may have preferred. However, I felt it was right on the mark.

I hope Donna Westover Gallup has her next book in the works. I love the way she tells her story, how it includes the Almighty’s activity in everyday life and hope she has more stories to tell.

Read in October 2012 and reviewed in March 2013.

Note: I have read all four books in the series. I read The Crimson River the last week of October 2012, the same week the book was released. I did not have a review copy. I purchased my copy. I had a job change October 29th, a major car accident November 5th that put in in the emergency room via ambulance, and serious injuries after a very bad fall on ice just when I was recovering from the car wreck. All delayed the writing of this review as well as several other projects.