Lying in a hospital room gave Allie Shaw plenty of time to think.
While alone in the dark, waiting for her next procedure, she was inspired to change her life.
Shaw, a restaurant manager, decided to start a music magazine that would cover local and national bands.
Now the 30-year-old is the owner and publisher of Hyperactive Music Magazine. She has a small staff of dedicated workers who helped get the first issue off the ground.
"We figure we'd have a national artist on the cover, and then inside, readers can learn about local bands," she said.
The magazine not only keeps her incredibly busy, but it revived her soul and gave her a reason to live, she said.
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In January, Shaw was in Colorado Springs helping the managers of Il Vicino upgrade their restaurant. She was downstairs in the office when a former employee snuck through the back door with the intentions of robbing the store.
He said "Give me the money," she said. "I thought it was a practical joke. Then he pulled a gun out of his backpack. I took a step forward. He took two steps forward and had the gun pointed at my head the entire time."
Still, she thought maybe it was a practical joke.
"He shrugged and took the gun from my head down to my stomach and shot me," she said.
As the room began to spin, Shaw realized she had been hit. In the hospital, she stopped breathing for about 20 minutes. When she finally came to, she found out she may never be able to run again or have kids.
In April, after countless operations, Shaw realized she needed something to keep her mind off what had happened to her.
"Il Vicino was a great job, but I wasn't supposed to be there," she said.
Before Shaw got caught up in the security of a nine-to-five restaurant job, she was a music journalist. The first big act she interviewed was Boyz II Men. She worked for the Daily Lobo, was a stringer for MTV's Web site and started several local music magazines.
"Eventually, I couldn't fly off and interview rock stars," she said. "It just became too much after awhile, and I fell into a work humdrum."
After the shooting, Shaw took her vast store of music trivia and put it to good use.
"We're this invisible region," she said. "They go from A to C but skip over B, which was us."
The first issue of Hyperactive Music Magazine features interviews with Linkin Park, Lisa Loeb and Ghostface, among others. A launch party for the magazine will be at El Rey Theatre this weekend with live music, giveaways and opportunities for bands to meet with major record labels.
"I'm hoping we've hit on a good formula," she said.
Shaw is happy with her lifestyle change, although short-term memory loss from the incident sometimes makes it difficult for her to run a magazine.
"Ever since the accident, I'll admit I'm probably not the best writer anymore," she said.
Shaw is too busy to think about her shooter or his upcoming trial.
"I just feel sorry for him mostly, because he finds human life to be expendable," she said. "I am at a point right now where I just don't want him to hurt anybody else."
Shaw is excited about the next edition of the magazine, which will be released Jan. 2. She said she wants everyone who is passionate about music to be involved.
Shaw said anybody is welcome if they can believe in some crazy kid that got shot in January and decided her new goal in life was to make a music magazine.
