I continue to work on the book about schoolmarms of the Old West. I’ve been writing on a chapter about a 66 year-old woman who traveled to Oregon from Independence in 1846. She weighed 108 pounds and walked with a cane. After she arrived in the Oregon territory she went to work teaching school and caring for orphans. The strength of character in the women from back then is amazing. I have four wonderful neices and hope they grow up to have the same courage as the ladies I’ve had the honor to write about. My neices are Taylor and Jordan Parry and Melissa and Amanda Enss. What a delight they’ve been.

I’m going to be working on an article for True West Magazine on what’s it’s like to live in Grass Valley, California. There is a great deal of history in the Gold Rush town and I’m proud to get a chance to write about it. Sixteen years ago when I moved here I didn’t think I was going to like it. It was cold and snowing and I had spent so much of my time in Arizona…I had my doubts. But it turns out that this place is home to me now and I can’t imagine living anywhere else. Maybe Kansas, or Tombstone, or Deming, New Mexico…

One of my next projects is going to be a story of frontier justice. I’m am fixated on bad people getting their come-upings. I haven’t personally experienced that. I don’t know that a lot of people have. Most of the bad people I’ve been personally acquainted with have never gotten what’s coming to them. Maybe that’s why stories like The Unforgiven, The Quick and the Dead, or Once Upon a Time in the West are so popular. I haven’t really been passionate about writing much else. Perhaps writing a story like that would do me a world of good.

I was only in Dodge City for a short time, but I miss it. The people, the history. It was a delightful place and I look forward to going back when the book is released. I heard from the producers of the film project I’m working on. The screenwriter finished the rewrite and they are heading out to the studios soon. Wish I could have been the one to rewrite the piece, but they needed a name writer and that ain’t me.

I’m pinning a lot of hope on this book I’m writing entitled Thunder Over the Prairie. I am working very hard to make sure it’s accurate and I have every source listed. I want this western to open the door to other writing opportunities. Lately, I don’t have the passion I used to…for anything. A personal crisis has left me drained. Bad things happen and the hurt that accompanies it is overwhelming. The hurt should kill you, but you keep going. Sometimes the only thing that keeps me going is the story, the next writing project. Don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t write.

I’m disappointed in the sales for Tales Behind the Tombstones. I thought it would do better than what it has. Maybe it needs to be out there a bit longer. The Lady Was a Gambler comes out in October. I think that will do well. I always thought writing books would look like it did for Kathleen Turner’s character in Romancing the Stone. The words would pour out of her fingers onto the typewriter. She’d celebrate the completion of the book with her cat, deliver it to her publisher, who would read it right then and who loved the work, and would put the promotional staff at the publishing house to work promoting the book. Few things are as good as they appear in the movies.

I’ll be running an ad for the book about women gamblers of the Old West in the Nov/Dec edition of the magazine American Cowboy. From what I understand the magazine will be distributed to guests at the upcoming NFR conference in Las Vegas. The ad should be well received. I hope. Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing the ad in the publication.

It’s my dad’s birthday today. He recently went with me to Dodge City, Kansas on a research trip for the book I’m writing about the “most intrepid posse.” My real father left my brothers and I when I was about eight and never looked back. How blessed I am that I have someone in my life that wanted to be a dad and hung in there. It’s made all the difference in the world.

I just had to post the following note from a kind person who read Tales Behind the Tombstones.

Dear Chris,
Congratulations on the publication of your book Tales Behind The Tombstones. I just received a copy (complimentary) today. Thank you for thinking of us. It will be displayed in a prominent place in our Archives and lent to the many avid readers we have in our Community.
You have chosen many interesting people to write about and I find it fascinating reading. it prompts me to do more research on many of the subjects of your book.
It is very readable and written in an easy-reading style.
Again, many thanks for the book. Good luck in your future ventures.

Sincerely,
Sister Kathleen Padden
Archivist, Ursuline Convent of the Sacred Heart
Toledo, OH 43606

At times I think I like having written more than writing. I am always amazed at the finished product – the cover, the typesetting. It seems like the real work starts after that, however. Lots of promotion. I’m looking forward to getting the posse book done and promoting that work. Thought I’d include a bit of the new book today. Let me know what you think.

All at once the hard thud of a pair of bullets charging through the wall of the tiny room cut through the routine noises of the cattle town with an uneven, gusty violence. The first bullet was halted by the dense plaster partition leading into the bed chambers. The second struck Dora on the right side under her arm. There was no time for her to object to the injury, no moment for her to cry out or recoil in pain. The slug killed her instantly.

More to come later…