I had no idea how many anti-Earp people were in the world until Thunder Over the Prairie came out. The bulk of the book is about the “most intrepid posse” of the Old West. I spent years researching the material and made sure the book included was a comprehensive bibliography, as well as numerous end-notes, and a foreword by the Director of the Kansas Heritage Center, explaining where the information came from. Even with all that, there are still a handful of people who insist the story is fabricated. The one that is making the biggest noise is very upset about a quote used in the book from an 1881 edition of the Dodge City Globe about Wyatt’s vendetta ride. The report from the paper notes that Earp and his men killed 150 men in that ride. The outraged critic insists I made that up. Without bothering to check the facts for himself or contact the Director of the Kansas Heritage Center himself, he has taken to openly blasting me on a website dedicated to complaining and knocking various authors. Dealing with that individual consumed a big portion of my work day. I passed his complaints on to my editor. His hope is to get the book taken off the shelves. He’s furious that it’s been optioned for a screenplay too. There are those days when writing isn’t everything I dreamed it would be. People who say you lied never have to back it up. They only have to say it. I happen to believe if Wyatt Earp was alive he would have called this guy out. That’s the way they settled things in the Old West. I’m a fan of frontier justice. I’m also a fan of truth. I don’t see frontier justice making a come back, but I’d certainly like to see truth become commonplace. I’ve often wondered what happened to truth. How did it become so unaccepted. I read a quote that explains it better than I ever could. It’s from Joan Beck of the Chicago Tribune. “Lying is commonplace in our society – government, courts, churches, and homes. Sometimes for what may seem the best of reasons, often for personal gain, almost routinely for social or business convenience (?Tell him I’m in a meeting.’) We cannot assume that honesty is a way of life in our country – or the world. The forces of society have subtly squeezed us into new definitions of honest and morality. Absolutes of right and wrong have largely disapproved and have been replaced by a fuzzy, gray fog of inconsistent moral choice.”
Excellent quote! If anyone would stop to contemplate the notion perhaps things would change. But I guess to a lot of people it’s easier just to call someone a liar without having to prove your case. Someone like Earp wouldn’t have bothered to wait for the motive behind the lie to come to light. I like to think he would have stared him down the barrel of a gun and just before he turned the coward’s head into a canoe told him, “You’re a blackguard, a hypocrite, and a stench in the nostrils of honest men.” It’s extreme, I know. Guess you can’t get rid of all the dogs just because one has fleas.
I’m sure I’ll hear from this same flea invested dog when the book about Elizabeth Custer comes out. What else does he have to do?

Sales for Thunder Over the Prairie continue to drop off aas quickly as visits to this site. And talks with Walter Hill have stalled while the remaining funds to make the film are being raised. We have partial funding, but getting another entity to committ to additional money is slow going. We are told quite often that “Western movies don’t sell.” If you can’t open a picture with the kind of revenue a film like Harry Potter makes it isn’t worth the studio’s time. It’s exhausting. This pneumonia I’ve had since July 14 continues to drag on. My condition was further aggrevated yesterday by a close family member who insists I “let go of the past.” She was referring to my brother. It is a past event to her and those around her. Her investment in the tragedy is a letter to Rick every now and then. There is no real emotional tie and no respect for the devotion I have for him. My brother is not gone yet. He languishes in a prison, hurt, with broken teeth the prison will not allow me to help fix. Since his beating his teeth have been broken and all efforts to get him dentures have failed. In fact, the prison dentist told Rick that she “would confiscate the teeth he has remaining if he didn’t shut-up about it.” That kind of treatment makes it hard for me to put this “in the past.” Of course, my loving family don’t get the calls about such hardships and hurts. I believe when she says “let go of the past” what she is really saying is “don’t mention this situation to me anymore because it interferes with my life.” The situation with my brother is my past, present, and future. His continued care is my responsibility. Where he lives, if he lives, is of utmost concern to me. I won’t let him be tossed out onto the street to be thrown into the gutter. And so we learn that aunts, neices, cousins, grandmothers, do not want to be bothered with your hurts. Their motto is “Don’t deal, forget,” and their family crest is a drawing of several people sitting around a television, never dealing with what is. So I shall leave them to themselves. I think I’ll make a trip to Custer’s Last Stand next month. I have more research I need to do on the book about Elizabeth Custer. For a little while maybe I can surround myself with people who know how difficult it is to leave things in the past. At the very least I have that in common with Libbie.

According to Amazon.com, sales for Thunder Over the Prairie have begun to slip a bit. Perhaps things will pick up once everything is in place for the film. Award winning director, screenwriter Walter Hill will be writing the screenplay. He does westerns better than anyone I know. I loved the Long Riders, Broken Trail, and Geronimo. While I wait for all that to come to pass, I’m focused on the Elizabeth Custer book and lining up more speaking engagements. I thought I’d pass on an email I’ve received about one of the other books. Thunder, however, is my favorite book that Howard and I have been able to write and I hope it has a long shelf life. “Hi Chris, I met you last year when you came to speak to a 7/8 grade Social Studies class. My daughter was in that class and really enjoyed your presentation. At the end of the school year one of my students gave me a gift certificate to the Book Seller, so my daughter and I picked out one of your books, A Beautiful Mine. I wanted you to know how much I enjoyed reading the book and look forward to purchasing more that you have written. I think it would make a nice gift for girls heading out on their own in the world to encourage them to work to achieve their goals. Thank you for such well written books on a fascinating era! Helen
Cope” Thank you, Helen. You’ve made a pneumonia ridden gal very happy.