Family Tale
One of pleasures of doing genealogy in addition to learning about your forebears is that you come across such interesting family stories. One of those family legends provided the genesis for a short story I wrote for The Spoilt Quilt and Other Frontier Stories: Pioneering Women of the West, a Five-Star anthology scheduled for release […]
Lomax to Ride Again
Good news for the fans of H.H. Lomax as the fifth volume in the series should be out in the spring of 2020. Last month I sent off the manuscript to the publisher, Wild Horse Media, and the next volume in The Memoirs of H.H. Lomax has been added to the publication schedule. First Herd […]
The Writing Trail
In the life of a writer certain moments are particularly rewarding, such as seeing the cover art for the first time, getting your author’s copies or receiving a royalty check. For me the most gratifying event of them all is completing the first draft. Without it none of the other moments will follow and, most […]
A Taste of ‘Moonshine’
Over the holidays, I was pleased to receive the proof/review copies of Contention and Other Frontier Stories, which includes my short story “A Grave Too Many.” It is always a thrill to get something published, but to be included in an anthology with so many fine writers and Spur Award winners is indeed a great […]
Western Humor
The September issue of True West has a review of my latest novel by Spur Award-winning author Rod Miller. Of Bluster’s Last Stand, Rod says “if there’s one thing missing from most western bookshelves, it’s humor.” He goes on to praise me for filling the gap with my protagonist H.H. Lomax. He concludes the review by […]
Two-Thirds There
An old adage has it that everyone has at least one book in them and a few people can come up with two, but it takes three published books to be considered a legitimate author. So, I was pleased when New Mexico Showdown first appeared in print. Pinnacle published New Mexico Showdown in 1989 and […]
Stealing History
We just returned from a trip to Ruidoso and the obligatory visit to Lincoln, N.M., where Billy the Kid rode into legend. I’ve been there many times over the years to walk what President Rutherford B. Hayes once called “the most dangerous street in America.” I’ve climbed the stairs where Billy the Kid made his last […]
Back in the Saddle Again
Writing is a creative, yet solitary endeavor. What makes it worse is that writers, unlike painters or sculptors, don’t really have anything to frame or display when they are done other than a thick stack of typing paper, which is not very glamorous. That’s why it’s always fun to get a new book cover of […]
Not Killing Custer
My favorite fiction genre is the historical novel. I’ve always loved history and have enjoyed reading and writing novels that insert fictional characters into historical events. One of my favorite western historical novels of all time is The Court Martial of George Armstrong Custer by Douglas C. Jones. When I started writing westerns, one of […]
Bluster’s Dozen
In researching Bluster’s Last Stand, I read close to a hundred books on Custer and the Little Bighorn in search of historical details and odd facts I could use in my novel. The nice thing about writing fiction is that you can use the accounts that serve your story best without having to confirm their […]