ction novel pub

lished by Avon. He has worked as a journalist, writer and editor in New Mexico and Texas for the past 21 years, including stints at newspapers in Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Tucumari and Amarillo. The first movie to play on the state's science angle wasn't science fiction. The Atomic City (1952) stars Gene Barry as a top scientist at the then-Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, whose son is kidnapped by spies wa

nting the formula for the atomic bomb. Although purporting to take place within the secret city itself, a lab spokesman says there are no records of scenes being shot in Los Alamos. A couple of scenes obviously were shot at the then-main gate, but an industrial complex of some sort apparently filled in for the main lab. Some scenes were shot in Santa Fe, including one of the scientist's wife, played by Lydia Clarke, getting a phone call from the kidnappers at a pay phone across the street from St. Francis Cathedral. The rescue of the boy from the clutches of the spie