April 7th, 2010

One of the framed movie posters I have hanging in my home is for the film The Long Riders. It’s a smart western directed by a brilliant director named Walter Hill. Hill also directed several other fine westerns such as Wild Bill, Deadwood, and Broken Trail. Hill will be writing and directing Thunder Over the Prairie. I spoke with him yesterday to give him an update on the project and we spent some time talking about Elizabeth Custer. He’s interested in writing the screenplay based on the book Howard and I are writing. Walter knows westerns and it will be a pleasure to work with him. The release of the book seems so far away. I’m still writing chapter 8. I’ve have two more chapters to write after that, a bibliography, an introduction, photos to gather, and captions to write. My deadline is September 1, 2010. That seems like such a short time away. I am very grateful to be able to write for a living and I love this subject. I’m doing some part-time work for a PI firm. I’m helping to investigate a murder. I primarily go through the records doing the same kind of research I do for the books I write. One of the things I find most interesting about the case I’m working on now is how the statements from two of the principles involved are almost identical. They might be a word or two off, but they say the exact same thing in the same way. I find that odd. It seems scripted and rehearsed. I’m going to dig a little further. Something about this doesn’t seem right. More than 130 years ago at this time, Dodge City was still talking about a shooting that took place at the Long Branch Saloon. In 1879, Cockeyed Frank Loving and Levi Richardson got in a bitter fight over a woman in the saloon. When the smoke cleared Richardson lay dead on the floor and Cockeyed Frank went on to love another day. I hope to be heading back to Dodge in September. It’s one of my favorite places. Lots of open space, history galore, and some of the finest people I’ve ever met. At 8:21 a.m. my website was visited by an employee at the New Liberty Hospital District of Clay County, Missouri. I know who you are, but not sure what you want. Why don’t you come out of hiding and show yourself?