June 4th, 2010

I’ll be traveling to Missouri this coming week. Given the spiritual and emotional climate in that area, it feels a great deal like going back into the lion’s den. I’ll be visiting Fort Leavenworth where George and Elizabeth Custer were stationed during the time of his court martial. I hope to gather key information about their lives to use in the last chapter of the book. The book is tentatively titled The Soldier’s Widow: Elizabeth Custer’s Life With and Without George. My Deadline is August 1st. I’m going to be cutting it close. A new ad promoting the books I’ve written about the women entertainers of the Old West will appear in the August issue of True West Magazine. I’ve teamed up with the western clothing store Cattle Kate’s in this ½ page ad. Anyone who purchases a wedding dress from Cattle Kate’s gets a discounted copy of Hearts West: Mail Order Brides of the Old West. I’d like to team up with other western type businesses for the next few ads and see what kind of response the book gets. Hearts West is an old title, but it does fairly well. In addition to researching the Custer book, I was going back to Missouri to attend my nieces wedding. I anticipated watching my brother Rick’s oldest daughter getting married without him there to have been very difficult. Due to the threats made on my life I won’t be going. Which is too bad because Nikki really is a treasure. But it’s better for her to have a day without drama. After reporting the threats I received at the beginning of the year the authorities responded by putting a tracing application on my computer. The threats were easily traced. I’m not happy Big Brother has invaded my privacy, but I do want the threats stopped. I haven’t had any trouble with that kind of vile act since I informed the people that I could see it was them doing the deed. I could even see their mother checking on her baby’s progress from where she works at New Liberty Hospital in Clay County, MO. The Freedom of Information Act was very helpful in acquiring that information. They can’t lie their way out of this one this time. In addition to watching out for lions while in the Show Me State, I’ll have to be mindful of snakes as well. I won’t be updating this site until I return. If I return. Turmoil is not new to that area of the country. In 1873, several cavalrymen had a quarrel with a prostitute named Emma Stanely at Red Beard’s Dancehall in Delano, Kansas. One of the troopers shot her in the thigh. Red Beard charged into the troopers with guns blazing and wounded two of them. I admire the way they handled trouble in the Old West. I hope to return in a week with tales of the research I did at the various Kansas Forts. Until then, Happy Trails.