Tag: standalone western (Page 1 of 2)

Riders of the Skull Author Commentary

January 24, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Riders of the Skull is my thirty-fifth western/frontier novel. I wrote it in the spring of 2023, and it was published in December 2024 as a large print original (first edition) by Thorndike Press.

This novel is unlike most of my others in that it does not follow the point of view of one main character but includes a couple of other sub-plots that converge with the main character’s story in the town of Guest. The main character is Jord Blaine, a rider for the Skull ranch who falls out of favor when he does not want to participate in the persecution of Creole (non-white) homesteaders. In one of the sub-plots, a detective named Motte is assigned, along with his amiable colleague Lorna, to try to find a girl who was abducted from an Indian boarding school. In the other sub-plot, Tyler McBroom, a traveling salesman of farm and ranch equipment, runs off with the mistress of a shady businessman in Billings, Montana.

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Rose of Greenwood Author Commentary

December 29, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Rose of Greenwood is my thirty-third western/frontier novel. I wrote it in the spring of 2022, when the Five Star western/frontier line was still going, but submission of the manuscript was delayed, and when Five Star discontinued its western line later in 2022, this novel went in search of a home. Thanks to the efforts of my agent, Cherry Weiner, the novel was accepted by Speaking Volumes and was published in October of 2023.

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Justice at Redwillow Commentary

May 14, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Justice at Redwillow is my twenty-third western/frontier novel and my fourth with Five Star in its hardcover frontier line. It was published in August of 2015.

I began working on ideas for this story line in 2011, but I struggled quite a bit with some of the elements. I think some of my uncertainties may have come from my status, as this was the period between the time when Dorchester ended its western line and the time when Five Star began its frontier line. As mentioned in other commentaries, I had begun working with an agent, but the various commercial publishing companies were wary of taking on new writers, and some of them had a rather narrow idea of what kinds of stories they wanted. I came to appreciate Dorchester, who, in spite of wanting things to be recognizable traditional westerns, was willing to accept stories that were a bit atypical and varied.

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Gather My Horses Commentary

April 18, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Gather My Horses is my nineteenth traditional western novel and the last one I did with my great editor Don D’Auria before he left Dorchester Publishing. The book was supposed to come out as a mass-market paperback in October of 2010, but because of changes at the publishing house, the book came out simultaneously in trade paperback and e-book in June of 2011.

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