Journal Notes

So many of the visitors to this site over the last few months have been teachers, school librarians, and home school educators. School officials from Manchester, Massachusetts to Everett, Washington and points in between have dropped by to check out the books and ultimately added a few to their collection. I’ve had a lot of parents purchase the “Go West” series of books for their daughters and granddaughters and the feedback has been encouraging. My goal was to write material that would appeal to younger readers as well as the mature history buff. I had a wonderful high school history teacher and she made learning fun. Hope the “Go West” series is entertaining as well as educational. In the not too distant future a special section will be added to the site specifically for teachers and the like. It will provide more information about the titles and the great women who made their mark on the west. I’m heading to the plains tomorrow to launch Thunder Over the Prairie. I think it’s going to be a wonderful experience. As usual, no matter what good thing is on the horizon, I see my brother in my side view mirror. The situation that occurred to the male lead in the movie Doubt is reminiscent of what happened to Rick. In spite of Flynn’s insistence that he had not raped a child Sister Aloysius vigorously claimed he did. “You haven’t the slightest proof of anything,” Flynn tells her. “But I have my certainty?,” Sister Aloysius sneered. That’s all it took for Flynn to go down – all it took for me to lose my brother. Like Sister Aloysius I pray the mother and daughter who caused this tragedy are haunted daily by doubt. I miss my brother. I’ll be thinking of him when I’m at the Long Branch Saloon in Dodge. I’ll be thinking of Bat, Charlie, Bill, and Wyatt too. I’ll be back next month.

Although Thunder Over the Prairie doesn’t official debut in book stores until June 2, some readers have received advanced copies. The first review is great and I wanted to share. I pray the book gets more reviews like this one. “5.0 out of 5 stars A truly gripping story, May 21, 2009 by Christopher L. Frank “boater flier” (Penn Valley, CA United States) This true story reads like a thriller! From the first page I was hooked.I had been unaware of the potential odds against the posse before this book. The author brings to life the heros and villian of a real WILD WEST story. I missed an important call in order to finish a chapter, I was so engaged in the action. Take the time to start this book and you wont put it down.”

For all those planning to participate in the launch at Dodge City, I thought I’d include a schedule of events. Guests that made prior arrangements will be staying at the Dodge City Hotel and Convention Center. The address is 2408 W. Wyatt Earp Blvd. and the phone number for the hotel is 620/225-5012.
On Friday, June 5th the following events take place: Launch of book at the Dodge City Public Library from 5 -7 p.m.. Refreshments will be provided. News interviews will be conducted by local media both during and after the launch. Mayor Jim Sherer will be doing the introductions and will say a few words about the book before giving us a chance to share our experiences and sign copies of the book for guests. The bulk of the attendees will be local and regional politicians. The city of Dodge will be taking us to dinner at the Cowtown Steakhouse once the event ends at 7 p.m.. On Saturday, June 6th the following events take place: At 9:30 a.m. a trolley will pick all the guests up from the hotel and they will be given a personal tour of the town. The tour will end on Front Street where a special presentation will be made to Howard Kazanjian. The city officials will name him Honorary Marshal. The BIG launch of the book will take place in front of the Long Branch Saloon at 5 p.m. and continue for one hour. Guests will be treated to buffalo wings and the like, sarsaparilla or lemonade. Immediately following the launch, dinner will be served at the Boot Hill Museum for all invited guests.
If you need a ride from the airport for any reason please let me know and I will make those arrangements. The people of Dodge are very excited about our being there and have gone out of their way to make this special for us. I’m very excited about the event. Please let me know if you have any questions. In two weeks I’m going to be sitting in the same room Wyatt Earp, Bill Tilghman, Bat Masterson and Charlie Bassett put together the “most intrepid posse of the Old West.” That will be a moment I’ll never forget.

Since getting my license as a private investigator I’ve been able to delve a bit more deeply into the case involving my brother. Some well meaning people in my life have suggested that I just let it go, but I am wholly unable to do that. After all, it’s my fault he took a plea in the first place. He wanted to keep fighting, but I was scared. Computer pornography is such a complex issue and next to impossible to fully explain to a jury. One of the things the DA’s office accused my brother of was possession of child pornography. They said he had more than 2000 images. My brother was a police officer working on several child pornography cases for the local prosecuting attorney’s office. The former P-A has written a letter attesting to that fact and I will be picking it next month. The letter is great, but I wanted to keep digging. I hired a forensic computer specialist to further look into the images and the results I got back today were staggering. The majority of these awful sites require that a fee be paid to view. The fee ranges in cost from $19.95 to $35.00. If a person only viewed half of these paid sites at the low end of $19.95 a site, the cost would total more than $19,000. That was more than my brother earned in an entire year as a cop. Sites like that don’t take cash – just credit cards. Yet the DA’s office had no credit card records. This small portion of the case is only one that doesn’t track with any sense. I found out yesterday that one of the main instigators in all this sells adult sex toys and has made frequent visits to the sites they accused my brother of visiting. I’m going to deliver all this information to the media. Writing about my intentions is the only thing I can think of to force the cockroaches out of hiding and show themselves. I may lose my life in the process, but I’m going to keep digging into this until I prove my brother was set up.

I received five advanced copies of Thunder Over the Prairie and I’m eager to share the new book. If you’d like a copy send me an email with your name and address and I’ll make sure you get it. Globe Pequot Press did a wonderful job laying out the material. I can’t wait for everyone to see it!

More than 40 schools have visited this website in the last 14 days. I had always hoped that the books about women of the Old West would be attractive reading for junior high and high school students. The students who have used the material in class have reported that they like the books. One of the best things about writing on the subject matter I do is being able to participate in lectures at schools. I get to go out in costume and share stories about some of the most heroic women that ever lived. I couldn’t have been a pioneer. I like frequent showers and am vehemently opposed to using the out-of-doors as a restroom. The closest I ever came to that was an outhouse rural Missouri. I used to stay nights with my Aunt Bessie and she didn’t have an indoor restroom – just an outhouse and every summer is was filled with bees. Oh, the mysteries of nature. As I recall, the outhouse had side-by-side seating. Never understood that either. It’s not really a participatory event. No pioneer would waste time thinking about such things. Pioneers wore a lot of wool year round. I couldn’t do that either. I base most of what I wear on what doesn’t itch. I wouldn’t want to eat like pioneer did. I like fast food drive-thru. I’m waiting for a fast food drive-thru pizza place. As far as I know there are none on the horizon. I’m working on it though. With God’s help and my enormous weakness for pizza I’ll make it happen. I may not be a pioneer, but I do have that pioneering spirit.

My favorite movie is a western entitled Once Upon a Time in the West. Charles Bronson’s character spends the entire film tracking Henry Fonda’s character and it isn’t until the very end of the movie that he finds out why. Fonda’s character murders Bronson’s character’s brother. Just shooting Fonda down when Bronson meets up with him won’t do. He has to make him suffer like he’s suffered. An instant death is too good for Fonda’s bad guy. In the end Bronson enacts perfect western justice. Only at the point of dying does Fonda learn what he did and why he has to pay. It’s a brilliant story and for a brief moment satisfies the desire to see the villain get what’s coming to them. Real life isn’t like that. Evil flourishes and there’s nothing that can be done. No prayer, no polite words of tolerance can make it right. Yesterday I received an email that included a photograph of the interior of the home my brother once owned with the woman he used to be married to. The picture was of a party and my brother’s ex-wife and her new husband were standing where my brother stood at one time. It’s not enough that I lost my brother and live with the image of his broken, raped and beaten body in my mind everyday, but now I have another heartbreaking image to think on. I believe there are many cruel individuals involved in this scenario. People with malformed souls who think they?ve gotten away with sending an innocent man to prison. If the person who sent the email had hoped to hurt me again, congratulations. It worked. I’ll never get over it and you’ll never get caught. Things would be different if this were a Charles Bronson movie though.

I finished researching the life of Lucy Stone today. She is another Old West journalist that will be featured in the book Front Page. In addition to being a suffragette and a writer she was the mother of two children. She wanted them to have every advantage. As I was reading about how devoted she was to her kids I started thinking about mothers in general. Those tireless nurturers who, for better or worse, have formed us into who we are today. I’m talking about the woman who changed your diapers, kissed your boo-boos, sat up all night with you when you were sick, disapproved of your friends?. Those unshakable bastions of well-meaning dysfunction, somehow teach us about the world while protecting us from its dangers, encourage us to be independent while carefully rationing our freedom, and manage to instill in us the belief that we’re the best while simultaneously making us feel like we’re never good enough. Only a mother possesses the unique ability to envelop you in a soft, warm blanket of unconditional love at the exact some moment that she’s driving you crazy. When you’re a kid, basically your mother’s job is to make you look like a dork. I remember the mittens pinned to the jacket, the Elmer Fudd earflap hats my brothers wore, the rubber boots and the snow pants. There’s an outfit that just screams “Beat the crap out of me and take my lunch money.” And why did my mother insist on cutting my hair herself when I was in grade school. I distinctly remember the pink hair tape being stretched across my forehead so she could trim my bangs evenly. Some of those haircuts were just silly and would have only made sense if my school was doing a stage production of Sling Blade. It seems like mothers get under our skin more when we’re teenagers too. I remember the messages my mother would take if a friend called. They were garbled! “Jenooga called and said the mall can’t be bitten.” Okay. Thanks, Mom. I’ll get the code breakers on that. I doesn’t matter what our mothers do or have done we love them. Whether they are good women who wipe the vomit off the corners of their children’s mouths after they’ve thrown up from the chemotherapy treatments, work two jobs to support her brood when her husband abandons them, or they’re an awful women who has an affair with a coworker then lies to put a father in prison to get him out of the way, kids love their moms. I love my mom. Always will. And as soon as I find my snow pants I’m going to call and tell her.

Jim Sherer, former mayor of Dodge City and Director of the Kansas Heritage Center, graciously supplied the foreword for Thunder Over the Prairie. In anticipation of the upcoming launch festivities that will be going on in Dodge City, he has made arrangements for guests to get a tour through Dodge, special meals, visitors packets in each room, and making Howard Kazanjian an honorary marshal for the day. Dodge City Library Director Cathyrn Reeves has been instrumental in organizing the launch party at her branch on Friday. Everyone has been very generous with their time and I know the event will be a success because of their hard work. These two people didn’t have to go out of their way, but I’ve come to the conclusion that that’s they way they do things in Kansas. It’s a marvelous state to visit, not only for the scenery, but for the kind individuals you’ll meet as you travel through. It’s been a joy. Even though I am excited about all the upcoming doings, there is still a sadness that tugs at my heart and always will. Rick, my precious brother will never enjoy this with me. Oh, how I wish I’d done things differently. I told him to take a plea and I shouldn’t have done that. I don’t see a happy man in my mind’s eye anymore. I see a physically and emotionally dying man who was beaten. No matter what I do, the thought is there. It looms over me and reminds me of great loss. I believe it will haunt me forever. I miss his smile, his sense of humor, his laugh…I miss. The smile is there for a new book, but deep inside I’m crying out for justice for my brother. Help was never on the way.

The trip to Dodge City to launch Thunder Over the Prairie is a month away. I’m excited about the book being released, but nervous as well. What if it gets bad reviews? What if noone buys a copy? What if people are disappointed when they meet me? My name throws people off. I’m often mistaken for a guy…and that’s AFTER they meet me. The launch parties themselves will be the highlight of the Dodge City experience. Jim Sherer and Carolyn Reeves have been very supportive and kind. Howard Kazanjian, the coauthor of the book, is going to be named an Honorary Marshal. he deserves it. He is one of the finest individuals in the film industry and I’m glad I know him. I met many people during my visists to Kansas and they’ve all been wonderful. I feel blessed. The trip is going to be a great belated birthday present. I had almost forgotten I’d be 48 next week until JC Penneys reminded me earlier today. They sent me a 15% off coupon for the occasion. 48! I remember when I used to think that was so old. It works out to be 72,000 in frequent flyer miles. I have a lot of frequent flyer miles. There have been some new additions made to the website. Checkout the Media section and let me know your thoughts.