Enter now for a chance to win a copy of

The Will Rogers Medallion Award Winning book

The Trials of Annie Oakley

Say the name Annie Oakley and the image of a young woman who could shoot targets out of the sky without a miss and rode across the frontier with Wild West showman Buffalo Bill Cody comes to mind. Annie Oakley was a champion rifle shot and did perform alongside well-known riders, ropers, and Indian chiefs in Colonel Cody’s vaudevillian tour, but there was more to Annie Oakley’s fame than her skill with a gun. The diminutive weapons wonder was a strong proponent of the right to bear arms, a noted philanthropist, and warrior against libel who fought the most powerful man in publishing and won.

The native Ohioan astonished the world with her almost unbelievable feats of rifle marksmanship. She could pepper a playing card sailing through the air, puncture dimes tossed into the sky, and break flying balls with her rifle held high above her head. She once shot steadily for nine hours, using three sixteen-gauge hammer shotguns which she loaded herself, breaking 4,772 out of 5,000 balls.

Annie Oakley fell in love with and married the first man she defeated in a rifle match. Frank E. Butler was one of the most noted marksmen in the West and he and Annie were married for more than fifty years. The couple never had any children of their own. The reasons they were childless are varied and speculative at best. What is not without question is how Annie helped fund the care and education of orphaned children from coast to coast.

Annie Oakley was a combination of dainty, feminine charm, and lead bullets, adorned in fringed handmade fineries and topped with a halo of powder blue smoke. She had a reputation for being humble, true, and law abiding and was careful with her character at all times. When powerful, newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst challenged her honor and questioned her respectability in his publication in 1903, Annie filed a lawsuit against him that’s still discussed at universities today.

To learn more about the famous sure shot read

The Trials of Annie Oakley

Enter the Blizzard of Books Giveaway

12 Signed Books for 1 Very Lucky Winner!

You could win a copy of

Soldier, Sister, Spy, Scout:  Women Soldiers and Patriots on the Western Frontier

From the earliest days of storytelling, the courageous man has been celebrated in myth and legend. Every culture develops stories about dauntless adventurers, valiant patriots, fearless warriors, and heroic leaders. These stories teach as well as entertain and set up positive role models to inspire future generations. Sometimes, these dauntless, valiant, fearless, and heroic individuals are women.

The true stories you’ll find in this book about women in the American West illustrate the depth of courage, the physical bravery, and the commitment to a cause that impelled them to throw off the constraints of nineteenth-century conventions and plunge into situations that many men of their era would not, and did not, face.

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, the US Army battled western Native American tribes over territorial rights, resources, and culture. Each side had its motives, its victories, its defeats, its victims, and its heroes. Among those heroes, on both sides, were women—wives, mothers, interpreters, laundresses, soldiers, and shamans—who willingly headed into the unknown, into a land fraught with danger and hardship. Courageous defines the character of the thousands of women who left the towns and cities of the East for the unknown dangers of the western territories. Setting up housekeeping in wild, unsettled lands, risking their lives on the journey, and bearing children under primitive conditions tested their courage daily. The stories selected for this book describe some who went two or three steps beyond the ordinary, everyday courage of women in the West.

Enter now for a chance to win

Soldier, Sister, Scout, Spy:

Women Patriots and Soldiers on the Western Frontier.

Enter the Blizzard of Books Giveaway

12 Signed Books for 1 Very Lucky Winner!

You could win a copy of

The Pinks:

The First Women Detectives, Operatives, and Spies with the

Pinkerton National Detective Agency

The Pinks is the true story of Kate Warne and the other women who served as Pinkertons, fulfilling the adage, “Well-behaved Women Seldom Make History.”

Most students of the Old West and American law enforcement history know the story of the notorious and ruthless Pinkerton Detective Agency and the legends behind their role in establishing the Secret Service and tangling with Old West Outlaws. But the true story of Kate Warne, an operative of the Pinkerton Agency and the first woman detective in America—and the stories of the other women who served their country as part of the storied crew of crime fighters—are not well known. For the first time, the stories of these intrepid women are collected here and richly illustrated throughout with numerous historical photographs. From Kate Warne’s probable affair with Allan Pinkerton, and her part in saving the life of Abraham Lincoln in 1861 to the lives and careers of the other women who broke out of the Cult of True Womanhood in pursuit of justice, these true stories add another dimension to our understanding of American history.

Enter now for a chance to win a copy of The Pinks.

Enter the Blizzard of Books Giveaway

12 Signed Books for 1 Very Lucky Winner!

You could win a copy of Cowboys, Creatures, and Classics:

The Story of Republic Pictures

“Exploding onto the movie scene in 1935, Republic Pictures brought the pop culture of the 1930’s & 40’s to neighborhood movie houses. AWARD-WINNING screenwriter Chris Enss along with AWARD-WINNING producer & entertainment executive Howard Kazanjian have put together a BEAUTIFUL coffee table presentation on, in “my” opinion, one of the coolest movie studios ever. The book is, “Cowboys, Creatures, and Classics; The Story of Republic Pictures.” Movie buffs & readers alike will be treated to the inside story of the “little studio” that John Wayne, the Duke himself, built. In fact, Republic Pictures was home to Mr. Wayne for some 33 films & featured the west’s FIRST singing cowboy. Republic promised & delivered action, adventure, & escape. “Cowboys, Creatures, and Classics: The Story of Republic Pictures is for anyone who likes B movies magic. I submit that this spectacular presentation is the honest account of an extraordinary production house. I encourage you to check out one of the coolest, if not THE coolest book I’ve ever read pertaining to the film industry, from Lyons Press, An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. at LyonsPress.com. And, next weekend when you kick back to one of your favorite all time classic movies on the Turner Movie Channel (TMC,) check to see if it’s a REPUBLIC picture!”

Jerry Puffer, Townsquare Media KSEN/KZIN

Enter now for a chance to win

Cowboys, Creatures, and Classics:  The Story of Republic Pictures.

Enter the Blizzard of Books Giveaway

12 Signed Books for 1 Very Lucky Winner!

You could win a copy of The Doctor Wore Petticoats.

Visit www.chrisenss.com now to enter to win.

“No women need apply.” Western towns looking for a local doctor during the frontier era often concluded their advertisements in just that manner. Yet apply they did. And in small towns all over the west, highly trained women from medical colleges in the East took on the post of local doctor to great acclaim. These women changed the lives of the patients they came in contact with, as well as their own lives, and helped write the history of the West. In this new book, author Chris Enss offers a glimpse into the fascinating lives of ten of these amazing women.

Enter now to win!