My next novel is on the way. Here is a taste.
Alone, Jonathan Thomas buries his family along
the Oregon Trail. In Twisted Cross Jonathan encounters
hopeful emigrants and abused Indians facing a plague of cholera. The
hardships of life on the frontier are intensified by encounters with scurrilous
opportunists and profiteers with murderous intent. Victimized and stalked,
Jonathan struggles to survive. Potawatomi Indians who own the trading posts,
ferries, and sawmills at Uniontown give him work, and Clara, a French
half-breed girl living in both worlds, gives him reason to return. He
earns a living with the Army on the Oregon Trail and with missionaries building
Indian missions on the Santa Fe Trail all the while haunted and hunted by those
who would kill him.
Watch this blog for more information about this and other projects.
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Western Writers of America conference followup
I just returned from a week in Sacramento at the Western Writers of America annual meeting. I am a new member and a first time attendee of the conference but in the true fashion of our American West I was treated like an old friend. This is the same organization where giants of western literature including Louis L'amore, Tony Hillerman and Don Coldsmith welcomed today's luminaries of western writing.
Dusty Richards with 145 books published presided over the group with gracious good humor. Chris Enss, an authority on women of the west was a whirlwind volunteer and instructed on the finer points of book marketing. Johnny D. Boggs demonstrated the energy it takes to be the editor of the Roundup Magazine in addition to authoring his own novels. I enjoyed interacting with historians Rod Miller and Will Bagley both of whom publish important non-fiction histories.
It was heartwarming to find publishers who were generous with their time. Anyone who writes a book should appreciate how difficult it is to be a publisher in today's business environment. I found my conversations with Tiffany Schofield from Five Star Publishing and Gary Goldstein from Kensington Publishing to be enjoyable and illuminating.
This is a fun bunch of folks to be around. The WWA is a group of authentic, friendly, helpful and fun-loving people who make the serious and solitary business of writing and publishing appear effortless. I suspect the WWA convention will become an annual pilgrimage.
Dusty Richards with 145 books published presided over the group with gracious good humor. Chris Enss, an authority on women of the west was a whirlwind volunteer and instructed on the finer points of book marketing. Johnny D. Boggs demonstrated the energy it takes to be the editor of the Roundup Magazine in addition to authoring his own novels. I enjoyed interacting with historians Rod Miller and Will Bagley both of whom publish important non-fiction histories.
It was heartwarming to find publishers who were generous with their time. Anyone who writes a book should appreciate how difficult it is to be a publisher in today's business environment. I found my conversations with Tiffany Schofield from Five Star Publishing and Gary Goldstein from Kensington Publishing to be enjoyable and illuminating.
This is a fun bunch of folks to be around. The WWA is a group of authentic, friendly, helpful and fun-loving people who make the serious and solitary business of writing and publishing appear effortless. I suspect the WWA convention will become an annual pilgrimage.
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