Billy the Kidder
Some 135 years after his demise, Billy the Kid has made me a published poet, proving once again the long reach of the buck-toothed New Mexico outlaw. My trail to writing poetry began in October 2015 with a National Geographic documentary narrated by Kevin Costner and claiming to have found a new tintype of Billy playing […]
Killing Custer
I have just sent to my publisher, Wild Horse Press, the manuscript for the fourth book in The Memoirs of H.H. Lomax series. This book explores Custer and the Little Bighorn with Lomax right in the middle of things. In fact, if Custer had only listened to Lomax, things might have turned out differently that […]
The Times It Never Rained
I have a long history with True West so it is always nice to get a byline in the magazine. The October issue carries my story “The Deadliest Enemy” on how Texas ranchers survived the two major droughts of the late 19th century. It was a fun story to research and shows how serious droughts […]
Lottie’s Luck
Since June I’ve been researching and writing a screenplay based on one of my early books, The Lady and Doc Holliday. The timing has been good because Lady is returning to print with a superb cover, unlike the original. I re-read the book twice in the process of adapting it to a screenplay, my first. […]
Western Sting
My latest comic western The Fleecing of Fort Griffin is now available in trade paperback and e-book formats through online retailers. Set in 1878 on the West Texas frontier, the novel begins when Baron Jerome Manchester Paget arrives in Fort Griffin with a satchel-full of money intent on starting a buffalo ranch and finding a […]
Tie-In Writer
It seems I was a wanted man for almost two decades, and I didn’t even know it. Besides that, in the end I wound up outing myself and getting fingered for writing three books. As a result, I am now a new member of the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers (IAMTI). This story began […]
Holliday Road
Of all the Old West characters I have encountered in my readings over the years, Billy the Kid and Doc Holliday remain my two favorite, so I was excited to learn that Karen Holliday Tanner, the closest living relative to Doc Holliday, was attending the recent Wild West History Association meeting in Oklahoma City. Karen […]
A Fan with Connections
Over the years I have learned that being an author has its flattering moments, none more so for me than at my first Wild West History Association (WWHA) meeting this month in Oklahoma City. We went at the encouragement of Mike Cox, a longtime writer friend, Texas Rangers expert and editor of the association’s journal. […]
A Fickle Mistress
History can be a fickle mistress, especially when you learn it wasn’t so! Years ago, I fell in love with the photograph and story of Lottie Deno, a mysterious yet virtuous female gambler who maintained her purity as she traveled to some of the roughest towns in frontier Texas. Then she just disappeared from Texas. […]
History on the House
We spent this past weekend attending the Lone Star History Conference at the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco. I’ve attended a lot of history programs over the years but this would rank at the top in terms of entertaining programs and, more importantly, the concept of taking history to the public. […]