July 6th, 2010

The first draft of the Elizabeth Custer book goes out to my brilliant editor today. I spent part of the long weekend working on the manuscript while watching a John Wayne movie marathon. The Cowboys is a wonderful film. I had forgotten just how wonderful. Red River and The Searchers remain my favorite Wayne films. Speaking of the Duke, I submitted an article to American Cowboy about the actor. The magazine is dedicating an entire issue to Wayne. I think it’s a brilliant idea. While waiting for the first edits on the Custer book to be given and returned, the funds for Thunder Over the Prairie film to be released, and the Wayne article to be approved, I’ll turn my attention to the next book, The Life and Times of Sam Sixkiller. Jeff Galpin, the graphic artist in charge of designing the cover of the book about my brother, sent a copy of the cover to me on Friday. I’m excited about The Plea’s future release. I continue to have a hard time reconciling the damage done to Rick by the scoundrel he was married to and her offspring. There’s a line from the movie Fort Apache that best sums up my feelings about these two curs, “You’re blackguards, liars, hypocrites, and a stench in the nostrils of honest men.” It’s righteous anger I feel. That’s why it never fades away. A lot happened on this day more than 130 years ago. In 1871, John Wesley Hardin got into a quarrel with Charles Cougar in Abilene, Kansas with his usual aplomb in such affairs he simply pulled out his gun and shot Cougar to death. On July 6. 1900, Warren Earp, always a surly drunk had been looking for a fight for several days with cowhand, Johnny Boyet. Johnny finally gave it to him and when the smoke cleared Warren lay riddled with bullets on the floor of a saloon in Wilcox, Arizona. Warren got what was coming to him. If only that happened more often.