Future Cowboy

This little fella dreamed of nothing else growing up, than to be a real cowboy. This is his picture at the age of six, and you can tell how serious he is. If you know the name of this cowboy, I'll send you a copy of our brand new anthology, Cactus Country Anthology Volume III.

We've waited a long time for this book, and we're proud to say it was worth the wait. Read Matt Braun, Dusty Richards, Jory Sherman, Brett Cogburn, Eddie Owens, John Nesbitt, Johnny Boggs, and many more authors who've written about the west their entire lives. We're especially excited about  Matt Braun's Dead Man's Hand, it's the opening story in a new collection from Matt titled WesternLore due to be launched at the Western Writers of America convention in June. Check out WWA and plan to join us this year for their 60th convention in Las Vegas. Western Writers of America And remember, send me the name of the cute cowboy and I'll send you a copy of Cactus Country III. Cactus Country 

Cactus Country Anthology Volume III

Cactus Country Anthology Volume III is in the works! It will contain works by authors such as the cowboy Dusty Richards, the prolific Matt Braun, the award-winning John Nesbitt, and the grandson of the real Rooster Cogburn, Brett Cogburn. As you can see, some of the best Western writers of the era have been chosen by Lou Turner and Dusty Richards for this anthology, including many past Spur Award winners.

Dusty Richards has published over a hundred books in addition to many short stories and articles. He's been the recipient of many awards, including two Spur Awards in 2007: His novel The Horse Creek Incident received the award for Best Original Paperback Novel, and Comanche Moon won for Best Original Short Fiction. 

Brett Cogburn is the great-grandson of the real Rooster Cogburn, who inspired True Grit. Speaking of which, if you haven’t read the book or seen either of the movies, clear your schedule and do yourself a favor. I think the Coen brothers’ rendition was particularly well done. Hailee Steinfeld might be one of my favorite up-and-coming actresses based solely on that movie. Sorry for the tangent--I just watched that movie again.

John Nesbitt, author of twenty books and winner of three Spur Awards, is also featured in this new anthology. Some of his most recent work includes a novella, Dead for the Last Time;  a novel, Poacher's Moon; and a traditional Western, Not a Rustler. 

Also included is Matt Braun, considered by some to be the best and most authentic current Western writer in the country. Born in Oklahoma to a long line of ranchers, Braun writes what he knows—the West—and his stories are often based on reality. Braun was raised among the Cherokee and Osage tribes, where he gained respect for Indians, and he learned their philosophy that each man has the right to choose his own path. Braun has spent the majority of his life wandering the West, and has won a Spur Award and the Festival of the West Cowboy Spirit Award, among others.

Braun currently has 40 million books in print and his book, Black Fox, was made into a mini-series by CBS. His short story collection, WesternLore, is set to be published by High Hill Press this June. The book’s launch, which Braun will be attending, will be at Western Writers of America Convention.

With this new anthology comes yet more proof that Western writing is far from dead—amazing, authentic stories are still being produced by those for whom the West is still the great frontier.

Old Western Movies



George Gabby Hayes



I've been watching old western movies on my computer while I work. I have a little picture in picture in the upper right hand corner, and I play the sound. What I've noticed lately is that I'm picking up the dialogue. Well, I didn't actually notice it myself.  It has been rudely pointed out to me over the past couple of weeks. When I'm shopping, when I'm at the bank, at the gym, a restaurant, everywhere. People have started asking me to repeat myself when I asked for the goll durned check, or when I say, by jiminy ya think it'll rain. Or like yesterday at the car wash when I told the kid to give it a good goin' over and I better not catch him puttin' a lazy hand out when he went to scrubbin' the dadburned foot pads I just put in. By jiminy. The topper was last night when I told my husband he'd goll durn better get his duds down them steps if'n he wanted 'em scrubbed by mornin'.  That's when he and my son sat me down to have a serious talk about my behavior.

But all this western dialogue has made me think about the old westerns, and the people who wrote them. Sure it might have been a little over the top, but compared to the language in today's movies, it's a blessing to listen to Gabby Hayes growl and durn his way through a sentence. I think I've mentioned this before, but a couple of years ago I printed the screenplay of The Searchers and sat with it on the table in front of me while I watched the movie. Not only is the dialogue wonderful, the movie followed the script down to the last word. I think there were two places in the whole film that veered away from what was written on the page, and both of those were mainly in the action, not in the actual dialogue.

There are still people who enjoy good language, and interesting banter between characters whether it be in a book or a movie. And I catch myself watching black and white films more and more. Not only do I think they're better movies, as a writer I find the dialogue much more interesting. And with that, I think I'll search for a good Glen Ford movie. I met his son Peter at a Western Writers of America convention in Albuquerque last June, where I was one of the publishers there to sit on a panel and take pitches. He gave an interesting presentation about growing up in Hollywood with a superstar like Glen Ford for a father. Visit Peter's website, and be sure and pick up a copy of his book.

There is one thing for sure, I wreckin' Glen Ford was one goll durned good lookin' cowpuncher, that's for dang gone sure.

Devil's Hoofprints

Brett Cogburn has hit the world of western writers like a steam engine coming down a mountain path. Brett has two other books out besides High Hill's, The Devil's Hoofprints. In September Rooster, by Kennsington, was released and it's doing well. In October, Brett's fiction novel, Panhandle, was released by Pinnacle and we just heard they've sold out of the first printing and are doing another print run. Yeah, Brett!.  Make sure to pick up a copy of one or all three of Brett's books. You won't be sorry you did. Although we're a little biased, we truly believe that Brett is going to be a huge name in western writing and we're excited that High Hill has been privileged to witness the beginning of his career. Be sure and pick up a copy of both Cactus Country Anthologies too. And Cactus Country Volume III will be out later this week. We should have the cover on here tomorrow. So see you then. Lou

 

Visit Brett Cogburn and say Hi!

John Wayne

I was piddling around on the web the other day and found out that if you google western movies you'll find a ton of them you can watch right on your computer. Many are on Youtube. Check them out. I watched an old 1933 movie featuring Sandy the Singing Cowboy. You know who that was? John Wayne. I have old vhs tapes of these early John Wayne movies, but hadn't watched one in probably 25 years. He wasn't a real good singer, but even in those old reels you can see the true cowboy lurking there. Thank God for John Wayne!

Riders of Destiny

And again I apologize for not posting more often. I pledge to do better. See you tomorrow.
Lou

Watch for Blue Roan Colt



New From
Dusty Richards
Blue Roan Colt
due out on November 16th.

 Check out the new book from Dusty Richards, author of more than 110 western novels. Dusty is the recipient of two Spur Awards, the Wrangler Award from the Cowboy Museum and Hall of Fame, and the Will Rogers Medallion. You can check Dusty out at www.dustyrichards.com
And ask your local bookstore to carry Blue Roan Colt. Check our website for more information.  www.highhillpress.com

Dusty Richards talks about how he got started in the book business!

Dusty with an Indian friend in
Nevada several years ago.

           Somewhere in the before life I wanted to be a writer.  Lots of folks do the wanna be thing, but few follow through and even less of them end up published. I laugh about it now, but in the typewriter days we didn’t have spell checker or any real correction method.  I wrote a column for three rural weekly magazines and each was about two pages double-spaced.  Writing a column teaches you to be ready and write on a deadline. One week, a particular job hung over my head.  The story line was about the spit tobacco in the box gang of farmers who hung around a general store’s stove and told yarns, commented on events, and settled the world’s problems.

          People would comment and laugh about their tall tales often called current news.  I recall one about calves to big for their cows to have, a problem that often resulted in the death of the cow.

      This one old farmer in front of the stove said. “Yeah my neighbor has one of those bulls gets small calves, but he has to keep the calves in the barn for weeks to grow up enough so the hawks don’t get them.”

           So even after several years of writing a successful local column, I couldn’t get a spot in a big magazine that paid nor get my column syndicated. So skip the newspaper business.  Meanwhile if I couldn’t find a western book to read, I wrote them in long hand on a loose leaf note book like Zane Grey did.  Only I didn’t have his wife Dolly to later type and to edit them.  But my girls found them as teens and read them—then cornered me up.  Dad why don’t you sell your westerns—they’re good?

            “Girls, they have Louie and lots more good writers. I figure selling western books would be like writing songs in Nashville.  Do you know how to get a songwriter off your porch?”

            “No.”

            “Pay him for the pizza.”

         But I’d written imaginary book reports in high school—English teachers never read western.  Texas Ranger Sam Brown comes to Low Gap, he captures the rustlers, marries Mary Ann and cleans up the whole place.  Lots of fist fighting and shooting—great book to read.  I charged a dollar for each book report when teenage wages were still fifty cents an hour. I sold some every week for spending money.  Boys were dumb about not reading books.

            I then got into chicken doctoring for Tyson, I was over about thirty large farms. One day I met a farmer’s wife who could type. Her neighbor had a registered Angus operation and an expensive big electric typewriter for typing registrations papers. She borrowed it in turn agreeing to type in his small needs.  I had found my Dolly.  Linda was such a busy woman even without my books to do, and I felt guilty, but I wrote and she typed and soon I sold some books.  I still give her my books each year in payment and each time she says, “I told you you’d be famous.”

            Famous or not she and my wife Pat pushed me along on this road to publication. Next the computer age came on the scene and I bought two huge Commodores.  I had written most of my books in legible long hand, but I knew to get the books written that I had in my head, I’d have to learn to create on that monster machine.  It wasn’t an easy switch but I did it. You had to type a header on a page along with the page number, then reprint the page.  Oh it was draggy compared to today.

            But to show how much my wife Pat supported me, quite a few years ago we went on a Saturday and shopped around for a computer.  I wasn’t going to spend the money for real computer until I sold a major book, but we were looking. 

            We ended up at Mac and a guy had me sit down to type.  He said they had a half dozen sales people there every day and I could call even on weekends if I had a problem.  The price was high for a typewriter and I started to walk away when Pat caught my arm. “Aren’t you going to buy it?”

            “I want to think on it.”

            She shook her head. “If it had been a dang tractor, you’d already had it loaded on the trailer.  Buy it.”  I did of course.

            Thanks, I’ll tell you more about my start in this business in the future. Check out my website www.dustyrichards.com  I answer email  too dustyrichards@cox.net

            Also check out the growing number of great books we have at Cactus Country Publishing while you’re here.