Articles


A little Christmas Gift: “Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary”, a short western story
This story was included in the Five Star’s 2019 anthology “Contention and Other Frontier Stories” and I was proud to be included with some well-known wonderful authors. Hope you enjoy it. Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary Kansas, 1876 If they came back tonight, I’d kill them both. I brushed the hair off my face, dirt mingling


Long Hot (Chilling) Summer Reading
Most of us have gotten pretty familiar with our back yards this year, along with the interiors of our dwellings, especially if you live in Arizona where a hammock comes into play only until June unless you’ve a dedicated interest in sunstroke. Besides the worry and paranoia and being in quarantine, we’ve had the hottest


Book Review: The Sons of Philo Gaines by Michael R. Ritt
Every once in a while, you pick up a book and within a few pages, you realize you’re in the hands of a master. Your worries disappear. You settle in, get comfortable and don’t have to do a thing but immerse yourself in the world he’s created, just read and enjoy. So it is with


Book Review: Where the Wildflowers Dance by Phil Mills, Jr.
Something very special happens when a writer clearly loves the place he writes about, weaving his characters from the very fabric of the land — crystal streams, majestic mountains, trees that whisper in the breeze, and wildflowers and prairie grasses that do, indeed, dance in the wind. Phil Mills, Jr. is a master of description


Review: The Great Texas Dance by Mark C. Jackson
Mark C. Jackson’s done it again. The Great Texas Dance (The Tales of Zebadiah Creed, Book Two) continues the saga of Zebadiah Creed and we find our hero at the Alamo aside Jim Bowie, William Travis and Davy Crockett in the last days before the fall.


Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award Finalist: The Lily of the West
I was surprised and thrilled to be named a Finalist for my book The Lily of the West for the Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award, not only as Best Historical Novel, but Best First Novel as well. This is a great honor and I’m humbled to be in the company of authors I admire and respect. The path that led me to write about Katherine Haroney, “Big Nose Kate” was a long one.