Bad Girls of the Midwest

After more than a year waiting to hear back on a book proposal submitted to FarCountry Press I finally got a call about the work. Bedside Book of Bad Girls: Outlaw Women of the Midwest will be released in mid-2012. I’m excited about this title and the women I can begin investigating. One of the ladies was a serial killer in the late 1880s. She murdered several men and buried them on her family’s farm. Too bad the focus of this title is limited to the frontier days. I know a pair of female murderers that would be perfect for the volume. I suppose I’ll have leave those bad girls for the Kansas City Star to write about – I predict their fate will be played out in the news in the not too distant future. New evidence has been uncovered that will be changing the course of their lives. Lies will be revealed and proven. Perhaps visitors to this site from the Southwest Baptist University or the University of Missouri are hoping to find just that. Who knows? I do know they’re watching. Feel how still the air is? Like just before a cyclone, or a storm, or an arrest. Most people do not associate women with outlawry in the Old West, but there were a high number of female bandits and killers. I enjoy the research portion of writing so much more than the actual writing and I enjoy traveling through the Midwest finding the items I need to use in the book. I’ll be making a trip through the area in February and then again in May. The special edition of the American Cowboy magazine about John Wayne is doing very well from what I hear. I’ve noticed an increase in the sales of The Young Duke so I believe the statement to be true. John Wayne is one of my favorite actors – always has been. My office is covered with posters from the movies he starred in. I’ve always been inspired by the character he portrayed in The Searchers. I admired the character’s determination and conviction to right a wrong. That’s how I feel about the wrong that was done to my brother. A new movie set to be released next month features another determined character worth admiring. Hilary Swank plays a woman who spends her life working to prove her brother is innocent of murder. Based on a true story the movie is called Conviction. The movie trailer alone is stirring. Visit www.conviction.com. I hope the film is huge success.