THE VALLEY
By Samuel Marquis ‘79
#1 Denver Post Bestselling, Award-Winning Author
Check out the full article of how this naughty cowpoke from Colorado launched his fledgling career as an author, beginning in high school at the Fountain Valley School in Colorado Springs. This locale has served as the setting for many of his suspense novels, including Blind Thrust, The Coalition, and Bodyguard of Deception. The article starts on page 40 of 60 in the PDF.
Fountain Valley Article PDF misc_127629
Here is an introductory excerpt:
“I wrote my first novel at Fountain Valley. It has to rank as one of the most stunning examples of juvenile incompetence in the annals of the literary world.”
In 1977, when I tumbled out of my parent’s Jeep onto the Fountain Valley School campus, I had no inkling that “the Valley” (as the Western preparatory school would soon become known to me) and its encompassing geographic area would one day have such a lasting impact on my life. True, I was a wide-eyed teenager with a penchant for troublemaking at the time; but all the same, I would never have predicted that the school, its inspiring English teachers, and the surrounding prairie and rugged backdrop of Pikes Peak would serve as the framework for a career as a novelist. In fact, they provided critical fodder for a series of Colorado-based suspense novels—four suspense novels to be exact, each unique except for one recurring feature. All the books have included several of my real-life FVS cohorts as quirky fictionalized characters and/or Colorado Springs as the featured setting. But it goes deeper than that. You see, I began my career as a writer at Fountain Valley…
