Peacemaker Nominee: Christmas for Evangeline by C. Courtney Joyner #western

Christmas for Evangeline

by

C. Courtney Joyner

Peacemaker nominee for Best Short Story

RTW: All the stories in Six-guns and Slay Bells are excellent, but your story was especially chilling — and enthralling.  How did the concept of Christmas for Evangeline come about?

CCJ: When I heard that the concept behind Six-guns and Slay Bells: A Creepy Cowboy Christmas, a great title, was going to be westerns with a Christmas theme, I was very excited. And then, it was going to be Christmas but with a supernatural or horror element. That sounded great, since I am a huge horror fan, and then my heart sank, because I realized I would have to write one – and had no idea what to do.

C. Courtney Joyner, Author

For me, the holiday means Dickens’ Christmas Carol, in every incarnation, from the novella to Mr. Magoo. At its center, it’s a story of past sins catching up with us, and our own conscience determining what we can and can’t live with, which Scrooge certainly finds out.

After a lot of head scratching, I thought there might be a way to transpose that idea into a Christmas western with a dark stripe running through it.

As we know, Scrooge is visited by the three spirits, and then re-makes his life to compensate for his wrongs. In a traditional western, wrongs are taken care of with a gun, so “personal growth” might be a little tough here. Old Ebenezer wouldn’t have the chance to accuse the Ghost of Christmas Past of being a piece of undigested potato before being blown away, so I shifted gears to focus on the power of guilt. After all, it’s Scrooge’s deeply hidden feelings of guilt that trigger his nightmare.

But what about those ghosts?

This was a true wrestling match; I’ve written western horror for comics and other anthologies, with outlaws facing down vampires, shape-shifters and even a succubus. Since I’ve had that freedom to go as wild as I wanted before, I shifted gears, and made the imagination of the main character his demon.

In practical terms, if someone were becoming mentally unhinged because of the guilt of their past, couldn’t you play with that person, and convince them of things that weren’t real? God knows, it worked on Mission: Impossible about a zillion times, and so, with Mr. Dickens spinning in his grave, that was the jumping off point for my little story.

Elmore Leonard’s 3:10 To Yuma is about as perfect a western short story as one’s going to find, and so much of it is strictly a conversation between the farmer and the outlaw, sitting in a rented room. I thought an interesting way to bring out all of the elements of the Christmas story was to do it the same way, through a conversation between two characters on Christmas Eve, which was the anniversary of their shared crime.

And, of course, things go very wrong from there.

My mental mash-up of inspiration from all of these great authors produced this little story, and I’m very pleased, and proud, that it made the cut for Six-guns and Slay Bells. To be included in this anthology, alongside all the other terrific writers, is a Christmas gift indeed.

RTW: Tell us everything there is to know about C. Courtney Joyner.  Okay, only what you want us to know.

I’m primarily a screenwriter and sometimes book author, I do make the distinction, and live in Los Angeles. I’ve written more than 25 films, including The Offspring starring Vincent Price and Prison starring Viggo Mortensen, both of which have been newly released in special Blu-ray editions (plug!). My writing journeys have taken me from the movies to comics to prose, with equal time spent with horror and westerns. My most recent short story is included in the anthology Hell Comes to Hollywood from Big Time Books. I created the new series Shotgun for Pinnacle, and the first installment will be published in December. Another love is film journalism, and besides writing several movie books, I’ve been fortunate enough to do commentaries on DVDs and documentaries. I currently have regular columns in both True West and The Round-Up magazines, and I am very, very proud of this second Peacemaker nomination.  To find out more about my stories, please visit my website.

Congratulations for your nomination, Courtney!

The Lifetime Achievement Peacemaker will be presented to Robert Vaughan

2013 BEST WESTERN NOVEL:

• City of Rocks (Five Star Publishing — Cengage) by Michael Zimmer
• Unbroke Horses (Goldminds Publishing, LLC) by D.B. Jackson
• Apache Lawman (AmazonEncore) by Phil Dunlap
• Wide Open (Berkley Publishing Group) by Larry Bjornson

2013 BEST WESTERN SHORT STORY:

• “Christmas Comes to Freedom Hill” (Christmas Campfire Companion — Port Yonder Press) by Troy Smith
• “Christmas For Evangeline” (Slay Bells and Six Guns — WF ) by C. Courtney Joyner
• “Keepers of Camelot” (Slay Bells and Six Guns — WF) by Cheryl Pierson
• “The Toys” (Slay Bells and Six Guns — WF) by James J. Griffin
• “Adeline” (Protectors: Stories to Benefit PROTECT — Goombah Gumbo Press ) by Wayne Dundee

2013 BEST WESTERN FIRST NOVEL:

• High Stakes (Musa Publishing) by Chad Strong
• Wide Open (Berkley Publishing Group) by Larry Bjornson
• Red Lands Outlaw, the Ballad of Henry Starr (AWOC.com Publishing) by Phil Truman
• Last Stand At Bitter Creek (Western Trail Blazer) by Tom Rizzo
• Sipping Whiskey in a Shallow Grave (Sunbury Press) by Mark Mitten

Winners will be announced on June 1, 2013 

on the Western Fictioneers website. 

Peacemaker Nominee: Christmas Comes to Freedom Hill by Troy D Smith #western

Christmas Comes 

to Freedom Hill

by

Troy D. Smith

Peacemaker Finalist, 

Best Short Story

First published in Christmas Campfire Companion, Jan. 2012

Released as an e-book single, Nov. 2012

Blurb:

Little Danny Jordan and his family joined a wagon train headed West after the Civil War... they were Exodusters, ex-slaves banded together to establish their own town, which they named Freedom Hill. But a greedy cattle baron wants the town gone, and threatens to bring an army to burn it down if the Exodusters aren't gone by Christmas. Danny prays for a miracle for his town, but especially for his pa --a Union veteran who is now the marshal of Freedom Hill...

A touching story of faith, hope, and love by award-winning author Troy D. Smith

About Troy:

Troy D. Smith, Author

Troy D. Smith is a past winner of the Peacemaker Award, as well as a winner and three-time nominee for Western Writers of America’s Spur Award. A native of the Upper Cumberland region of Tennessee, he received his doctorate from the University of Illinois and is currently Assistant Professor of History at Tennessee Tech University, where he teaches U.S., American Indian, and Japanese history. Smith is currently the president of Western Fictioneers, and is also president of the TTU chapter of the American Association of University Professors. To learn more about Troy, visit his website, Twitter, or Facebook.

Troy talks about the story:

This is actually a story I had wanted to write for a long time. I’d had it tucked away in my brain, percolating, for years. All I really had was the setting: I wanted to write a story about the “Exodusters,” a movement in the 1870s in which thousands of ex-slaves took their families westward, often in wagon trains, to start a new life away from the hazards and indignities of the Reconstruction South. These groups often started their own towns, at first in Kansas and later in Oklahoma.

I wanted to write about one of those towns. Early on I decided it was going to be on the Kansas Prairie, and be called “Freedom Hill” even though there was no hill anywhere in sight. And I wanted it to be about a little boy, now grown, remembering the courage of his father.

Then a friend of mine, Terry Burns (literary agent and an excellent writer), told several of us western writers who kept in close contact about a new project. An independent publisher, Port Yonder Press, wanted to release an anthology of western-themed Christmas stories. I was onboard immediately. As I was trying to think of something appropriately heart-warming and inspirational about the West and Christmas, it dawned on me that I could turn that long-gestating Exoduster story into a holiday tale.

I framed the story in the 1930s, with a WPA field agent interviewing my narrator, an old man in Kansas. During the Depression, the Roosevelt administration started several public works projects designed to put unemployed people to work –there were a lot of building projects, for example. One of the agencies created for this purpose was the Works Progress Administration. One of WPA’s projects, designed to put jobless teachers and journalists to work, was to hire people to travel all through the South and Midwest and interview every living ex-slave they could find. The resulting collection of slave narratives has proven invaluable to scholars. In Oklahoma, by the way, they went further and interviewed all the elderly people in general they could find, black, white or Indian, which resulted in the Indian-Pioneer Papers, also a treasured resource for historians of the West (there are 80,000 entries in the Indian-Pioneer Papers alone.) I have used both of these archives extensively over the years, both for my historical fiction and my dissertation.

Christmas Comes to Freedom Hill, then, is a story told by an elderly black man in the 1930s about his childhood, his brave father, and the magic of Christmas.

Excerpt of

Christmas Comes to Freedom Hill

by Troy D. Smith

I was eight or nine years old when we got on that wagon train headed West. It was one of those Singleton expeditions. Pap Singleton, he was an old colored fellow from Nashville, used to be a slave when he was young but ran off and made a good bit of money. Things was hard down South in those days—of course, they always have been for folks shaded like I am, but in some ways those days were even harder than slave times had been. The Union soldiers had all went home by then, you see, and the same folks were in charge again that had been running things before the war. And they were none too happy with colored folks, no sir. The U.S. government had promised us forty acres and a mule, but it was just empty air—and them old Confederates weren’t aiming to give us even bright promises. Singleton started putting together his expeditions, talking colored folks into coming West with him for a new start. And a good many of them did. Exodusters, they were called. On account of they were leaving the land of slavery, just like the old-time Israelites left Egypt, and heading toward a promised land—a land that was more dust than milk and honey, but sweet to their souls just the same.

My daddy, he liked the sound of that. Painting it with Bible words made it even prettier to him, because he was always partial to the Good Book. His mama gave him a Bible name, Gabriel. During the war, he ran away from his old master and swam across the river to where the Yankee soldiers were. He joined the Union Army, and then it came time for him to choose another name for himself, a family name. A lot of those old slaves named themselves after their masters, but Daddy didn’t want any slave name. So he called himself after the River Jordan; he was born again, in freedom, just like being baptized, when he swum that river to the Yankee lines.

I remember the day he first set me up in that wagon next to my mama, and we commenced to roll away from the only world we had ever known.

“You remember them stories I told you, Danny, about the baby Jesus?”

I nodded.

“Them wise men,” he continued, “they followed that star a far piece. One of them was black as we are, at least I’ve heard it told that way. Anyways, freedom is a star, boy. It used to be the North Star, but I reckon we’re fixing to follow one that leads West. So say goodbye to Egypt, son. The Lord is out yonder, waiting for us to find him.”

Singleton planted colonies all over Kansas and Indian Territory, and others like him did the same. Our little group, I reckon there was about fifty or sixty of us all together, we stopped at a spot near the banks of the Neosho River. We got the land off the government—it used to be part of an Indian reservation. We filed to homestead it, all according to law. It was my daddy’s notion to name our little town Freedom Hill; right away, several people pointed out that there isn’t any hill there. Shoot, there’s not even a rise.

“Elevation don’t mean nothing,” Daddy said. “It’ll be a hill, once we get it built. We’ll be a city on a hill, just like the Good Book says, shining for the whole world to see.”

There was a chorus of amens, and we all set to work building. It takes more than buildings to make a town, though, so after awhile we set to work voting as well. We elected ourselves a mayor, and a council; everybody agreed that to be a real town we needed a marshal, too, and everybody agreed it ought to be Gabriel Jordan, one-time company sergeant in the 13th United States Colored Infantry and hero of the Battle of Nashville. Daddy still had his old cap-and-ball revolver—he didn’t have a holster for it, so he kept it stuck in his belt. The town blacksmith made him a crude tin star. Daddy kept the badge in his pocket, since everybody knew who the marshal was. He never did go in much for what you might call symbols of authority, he didn’t like to draw undue attention to himself. My daddy was the most dignified man I ever knew, but he wasn’t burdened by a lot of false pride. Besides, it was mostly a ceremonial office. Freedom Hill never had much call for an actual lawman.

Leastways, not until Bob Horner and his bunch rode into town.

# # #

Christmas Comes to Freedom Hill

is available at:

Amazon, BN.com, Smashwords 

Congratulations for your nomination, Troy!

The Lifetime Achievement Peacemaker will be presented to Robert Vaughan

2013 BEST WESTERN NOVEL:

• City of Rocks (Five Star Publishing — Cengage) by Michael Zimmer
• Unbroke Horses (Goldminds Publishing, LLC) by D.B. Jackson
• Apache Lawman (AmazonEncore) by Phil Dunlap
• Wide Open (Berkley Publishing Group) by Larry Bjornson

2013 BEST WESTERN SHORT STORY:

• “Christmas Comes to Freedom Hill” (Christmas Campfire Companion — Port Yonder Press) by Troy Smith
• “Christmas For Evangeline” (Slay Bells and Six Guns — WF ) by C. Courtney Joyner
• “Keepers of Camelot” (Slay Bells and Six Guns — WF) by Cheryl Pierson
• “The Toys” (Slay Bells and Six Guns — WF) by James J. Griffin
• “Adeline” (Protectors: Stories to Benefit PROTECT — Goombah Gumbo Press ) by Wayne Dundee

2013 BEST WESTERN FIRST NOVEL:

• High Stakes (Musa Publishing) by Chad Strong
• Wide Open (Berkley Publishing Group) by Larry Bjornson
• Red Lands Outlaw, the Ballad of Henry Starr (AWOC.com Publishing) by Phil Truman
• Last Stand At Bitter Creek (Western Trail Blazer) by Tom Rizzo
• Sipping Whiskey in a Shallow Grave (Sunbury Press) by Mark Mitten

Winners will be announced on June 1, 2013 

on the Western Fictioneers website. 

Peacemaker Award Nominee: The Toys by James J. Griffin #western

Author James J. Griffin
Photo credit: Susanne Hall

The Toys
by 
James J. Griffin

Romancing The West is honored to feature nominees for the Peacemaker Awards this week.

The Peacemaker Awards are sponsored by the Western Fictioneers, a group of some of the most talented and prolific Western authors of our time.  On Friday, we showcased Peacemaker Lifetime Achievement Winner Robert Vaughan.  

Today, we're featuring James. J. Griffin.  His short story, The Toys, published in Six-guns and Slay Bells: A Creepy Cowboy Christmas, was nominated for Best Short Story.

About the story:

The Toys is based on actual events which took place during the Johnson County War in Wyoming in the 1890s. Two homesteaders were ambushed and shot in the back by an unknown gunman, who would have been in the employ of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, the organization of large ranchers who wanted to drive out all the homesteaders in the region. 

One of the homesteaders, John Tisdale, was killed while on the way home with Christmas presents for his family. 

In The Toys, Tisdale is killed by a gunslinger named Harlan Stoddard. When Stoddard examines Tisdale's body, he notices several toys scattered about, including a doll which seems to be staring at him. Tisdale takes his rifle and blasts the doll's head to bits. Little did he know what that action would lead to.

The Toys is a short story done much as if Stephen King had written a Western. Tension builds as Stoddard is pursued, and attempts to flee Wyoming and his fate.

About the author:  

James J. Griffin is a lifelong horseman, western enthusiast, and amateur historian of the Texas Rangers. His extensive collection of Texas Ranger artifacts is now in the collections of the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco. Jim has written a series of Texas Ranger novels, traditional Westerns in the best sense of the term. His books are suitable for almost all ages. Jim is also a contributor to the Western Fictioneers Wolf Creek and West of the Big River series.

Learn more about Jim and his books at his website.

Congratulations for your nomination, Jim!

The Lifetime Achievement Peacemaker will be presented to Robert Vaughan

2013 BEST WESTERN NOVEL:

• City of Rocks (Five Star Publishing — Cengage) by Michael Zimmer
• Unbroke Horses (Goldminds Publishing, LLC) by D.B. Jackson
• Apache Lawman (AmazonEncore) by Phil Dunlap
• Wide Open (Berkley Publishing Group) by Larry Bjornson

2013 BEST WESTERN SHORT STORY:

• “Christmas Comes to Freedom Hill” (Christmas Campfire Companion — Port Yonder Press) by Troy Smith
• “Christmas For Evangeline” (Slay Bells and Six Guns — WF ) by C. Courtney Joyner
• “Keepers of Camelot” (Slay Bells and Six Guns — WF) by Cheryl Pierson
• “The Toys” (Slay Bells and Six Guns — WF) by James J. Griffin
• “Adeline” (Protectors: Stories to Benefit PROTECT — Goombah Gumbo Press ) by Wayne Dundee

2013 BEST WESTERN FIRST NOVEL:

• High Stakes (Musa Publishing) by Chad Strong
• Wide Open (Berkley Publishing Group) by Larry Bjornson
• Red Lands Outlaw, the Ballad of Henry Starr (AWOC.com Publishing) by Phil Truman
• Last Stand At Bitter Creek (Western Trail Blazer) by Tom Rizzo
• Sipping Whiskey in a Shallow Grave (Sunbury Press) by Mark Mitten

Winners will be announced on June 1, 2013 

on the Western Fictioneers website. 

Robert Vaughan: Peacemaker Lifetime Achievement Award Winner! #western

Robert Vaughn, author
and
Charley, Muse

A Few Words From 

Robert Vaughan

on the

Peacemaker

Lifetime Achievement Award

So, I’ve won the Lifetime Achievement Award. When I first read that I had won, I was thrilled. That’s quite an honor.

Then I began to think about it. Lifetime? Whoa…that’s pretty absolute, isn’t it? I mean, I only have one lifetime, and I’m not finished with it yet. I hope that I have at least a few more years left.

But, I’ve already been given a lifetime award. “Here you go, Dick, here’s your lifetime award. We’re through with you now. Time for you to go to the Old Soldiers’ Home, or The Villages, or ride off into the sunset . . . whatever it is that old soldiers and Western writers do.

All right, maybe I have done a lifetime of writing — almost five hundred books, at least 200 of which are Westerns. But wait…200 Western novels with Robert Vaughan’s name? Well, not quite. I have fallen into the great Sargasso Sea of literature. I have written under almost 50 pseudonym, many of them names that I’m sworn to secrecy never to reveal. Were I to reveal all of my pseudonyms, a curse would fall upon the Alabama Crimson Tide, and the St. Louis Cardinals, and neither team would ever win another championship — all because they are my favorite teams and I had, by violating my agreement, jinxed them for the next 100 years.

I could never do that . . . I would not want to face Bear Bryant and Stan Musial up in heaven and try to explain to them what I had done. So, these great and respected, best-selling names, will forever remain a secret. All right, I won the SPUR from that “other” organization, writing as KC McKenna. and I can at least say that, though I have despite repeated attempts over the last 20 years, been unable to get that “other” organization to put an addendum on their history page, crediting me with “writing as.”

Ah, but good news! I have a Western coming out from Simon and Schuster this June — UNDER MY OWN NAME!  HOORAY! It is called When Hell came to Texas. It would really be nice to see a book, under my own name, match the sales of some of my ghost projects. Maybe if you would all tell ten friends, and they would tell ten friends and . . . well . . . you know how it goes. [RTW Note: you can pre-order now!]

My heartiest congratulations to the Peacemaker recipients who won with their own names. I have met many of you, but consider all, even those of you I’ve never met in person, to be friends.

Congratulations to Robert Vaughan, a wonderful and talented writer no matter what name his titles are under.

Dawn Luedecke: To Tame a Montana Heart #western #romance

To Tame a 
Montana Heart
by Dawn Luedecke

Romancing The West welcomes Dawn Luedecke, a country girl born and bred, who has spent most of her life surrounded by horses, country folk, and the wild terrain of Nevada, Idaho and Montana. As a child she would spend many afternoons reading books, watching western classics, and Rogers and Hammerstein movies. When she grew up she decided to leave the quiet country life for a chance to find adventure by serving a successful tour in the United States Coast Guard. During that time she found her soul mate (and alpha male) and started a family and writing career. She enjoys writing historical and paranormal romance and spends as much time as she can working on her current manuscript.

RTW: Thanks for visiting today, Dawn!  You have a new book out, To Tame a Montana Heart.  First, so we know a little more about it, please give us the blurb.

DL: Running from a past of privilege, deceit, and danger, Travis Simms is ready to settle down. What better place to forget all he left behind than the quiet little Montana town of Lolo Hot Springs? His goal is clear — build a hotel and his own destiny without complications — until one of the town's most troublesome women captures his attention. Dusty Larson is hell bent on independence, helping her sister run the Triple D Ranch. The only problem is she seems to attract bad luck and danger... and Travis. Can he tame her wild ways and keep his bachelor status intact — or does he risk losing his heart?

Dawn's running several contests on her month long tour. Stop by her facebook events page for all the contest information.  

RTW: Why do you write Westerns? What aspect of life in the Old West intrigues you the most? Did you work that into To Tame a Montana Heart?

Dawn Luedecke, author

DL:  I write westerns because not only do I love the genre (it’s one of my faves), but I grew up a country girl. The west is an important part of who I am, and I am extremely interested in history. So combining the two just made sense when I decided which genre to dip into.

The old west just seems romantic to me. I love the serene life of the country, but combine that with the simplicity of the old west and you have yourself the perfect setting for a romance. In To Tame a Montana Heart, I tried to capture that feeling.

RTW: If you lived in 1890 what would you visit first? Is there something you’ve been curious about that you can’t find in your research sources?

DL: I would love to visit Lolo Hot Springs when it was in its natural state. Now, it is a resort perfect for the modern day traveler.

RTW: If a person who had never read a Western asked you for a recommendation, what novel or movie would you recommend and why? What did the author do to bring the story alive for you?

DL:  Lonesome Dove, Tombstone, or Young Guns. Lonesome Dove is a classic cowboy movie, and Tombstone and Young Guns are based on real people and real events in history. 

Excerpt of
To Tame a Montana Heart
by Dawn Luedecke

She watched him with care. “I don’t know if I love you. I like you, a lot, but I don’t have the slightest idea what love feels like.” 

Travis’ smile grew slowly across his face. “I understand. I’m not sure if I love you or not, but I also don’t think I could live without you. So you will always have that.” His voice was almost a whisper when he said the last. 

“Truly?” Her voice cracked and she had to force herself to breathe easy. 

“Truly.” 

She inclined her head and took two brisk steps toward him. She leaned over and kissed him with all the fever of a thousand fires. He reached up and intertwined his hand through her hair to hold her still as he plundered her mouth. 

She released him with a shaky breath and jumped back to turn on her heels. “Put something nice on. I’ll be back with a preacher man.” 

“You know, I heard you only have to say ‘I marry you’ three times and then you’re hitched.” 

She threw him a sassy look and slammed the door shut. 

♥ ♥ ♥

Purchase information for 

To Tame a Montana Heart 

Amazon Kindle, Print

BN.com Nook

The Wild Rose Press Ebook, Print

RTW: What’s next? Is To Tame a Montana Heart a part of a series?

DL: Yes! In fact, I am currently working with my publisher to perfect the second book in the Montana Girl Series, titled Big Sky Brazen. It takes off where DeEtte exited To Tame a Montana Heart.

RTW: Anything else you’d like to add?

DL: I am currently on a virtual tour and have several stops and contests along the way. For more information you can always stop by my website or facebook page.

Here is one of the several contests I am doing during my tour. Have fun!

I am featured in an online magazine (pages 26-29), where I give a free sample chapter of the third book in the Montana Girl series!!! I'll give away one free signed book to anyone who can tell me what Daylene (or Justine as she's known in To Tame a Montana Heart) sings.

Click here for a free download of the magazine.

Thanks, Dawn!

James J. Griffin: Death Stalks the Rangers #western

Death Stalks 
the Rangers
by James J. Griffin

When a Texas Ranger is murdered, his fellow Rangers will stop at nothing to find his killer! Lone Star lawmen Sean Kennedy and Levi Mallory follow a cold trail across Texas to track down the man who shot Ranger Thad Dutton, and neither vicious outlaws nor a ruthless town boss will keep them from settling the score for their fallen comrade. Acclaimed Western author James J. Griffin returns with another action-packed, gunsmoke-laced tale of the Texas Rangers with Death Stalks the Rangers.

Review:

James J. Griffin provides another exciting Western adventure in Death Stalks the Rangers, as new hero Sean Kennedy uses fast guns and fists, along with a keen intellect, to solve the mystery of a fellow Texas Ranger's murder. As always, Griffin gives the reader plenty of action, colorful characters, and a vivid sense of the Texas frontier.

-- James Reasoner

   Barnes & Noble

Frank Roderus: Reaching Colorado #western

Reaching Colorado
by Frank Roderus

The reluctant protagonist of Frank Roderus's award-winning Leaving Kansas returns in Reaching Colorado, the second volume in the Harrison Wilke Trilogy. Searching for his destiny in Colorado, Harrison finds himself caught up in a wild chase involving a fortune in stolen gold. But just who stole the gold, and will Harrison survive to set things right? Reaching Colorado is an exciting tale filled with action, humor, and colorful characters, all from Frank Roderus, one of the most popular and admired modern authors of Western fiction.

Review:

When we last saw Harrison Wilke, he was leaving his home in Kansas after a near-tragedy made him no longer welcome there, in the award-winning and aptly titled Leaving Kansas. The second novel in the Harrison Wilke Trilogy, Reaching Colorado  finds him on his way to Colorado Springs, which he has heard is a bastion of the Eastern-style civilization he craves so badly.

Unfortunately for Harrison, who is about as far from a typical Western hero as you can find, he gets mixed up with what appears to be a gang of outlaws on the run with a small fortune in gold coins. When Harrison winds up in possession of the money, he just wants to turn it in to the law before the outlaws can catch up to him and kill him. As it always happens, though, doing the right thing, or at least what Harrison perceives to be the right thing, turns out to be a lot more difficult and dangerous than the young man expects. Riding the rails with hobos, consorting with soiled doves, and falling down a mine shaft are just some of the adventures Harrison has to survive along the way.

As usual, author Frank Roderus spins this picaresque yarn with great verve, making Harrison a thoroughly unsympathetic character in most respects while still rendering him likeable enough for the reader to root for him. Reaching Colorado is great entertainment, and I'm looking forward to the concluding volume of the trilogy, coming soon from the Western Fictioneers Library.

-- James Reasoner

  Barnes & Noble