You know how sometimes you pick up a book and within five pages you begin to savor every word because it’s so damn good you don’t want it to end? Whiskey When We’re Dry and Savage Country are two prime examples.

While writing “The Lily of the West”, I was invited to spend time and write at a friend’s ranch in southern Arizona, San Ignacio del Babacomari. Incredibly inspiring, in fact the McLaury brothers had an outpost on land they leased there back in the 1870s. Being there opened semi-hidden doorways and let me follow paths into the past, where much of the Old West is still alive and touchable. 

If you’re into country, bluegrass, western, appalachian or roots music, you’ve heard many a murder ballad, even if you weren’t sure what that was. It was the haunting one, usually minor keyed, that sort of stuck in your mind, with just a guitar or banjo, sometimes a steel guitar. And yeah, somebody gets killed, for the usual reasons: love, vengeance or money. Good listening, and great inspiration for writers. Well, me anyway, ’cause the box of life isn’t always full of the good chocolates, sometimes you get coconut. 

From time to time, I will publish posts about what I’m writing, excerpts from finished work, perhaps an essay or a short story, words that will hopefully pique your interest or just be entertaining.