When I was in my impressionable youth, I lived for the
weekends. Every Saturday was another double-feature at the movies. The Western
movies. I’d get popcorn and a Coke and scoot down in the middle row and take up
residence for the next two or three hours. All my heroes were cowboys or
sheriffs or gunslingers or, well, you get the picture. As I got older, and
finished high school, went to college, got my first real job, I just naturally
figured I’d just move on and adopt a new set of heroes.
Problem was that it didn’t happen that way. I was somehow
unable to mentally separate myself from the dusty trails and boulder-laden
desert of the southwest. Oh I had other interests, of course: illustrating,
flying, graphic design, all of which I immersed myself in to one degree or
another. And I seemed to be sailing along quite well, until I actually went out
west and walked among those very same boulders, cacti, and hot, dry sands that
had held my interest for so long. And the mountains, those incredible
mountains. The renewal of all those wonderful dreams of being on the streets of
Tombstone or hunkered down behind a rise to await the inevitable ambush from
Apaches, or riding a horse up and down the arroyos and across dry riverbeds in
pursuit of outlaws. There’s even a smell of something that lingers just out of
reach, it’s the smell of life and death, and it whisks you off to a time when
good and evil clashed so demonstrably that you couldn’t escape the clarity of
its presence. And maybe just a hint of fear that it might catch up to you.
So, today I write Western novels. Why? Maybe I’m
still just a cowboy at heart. If that’s true, I know I need to reach out to all
the other cowboys to share what I love about the West. Wouldn’t I like everyone
to read my books and get caught up in the excitement of the early gunfighters,
Indians, ranchers, and railroaders? You bet. And that’s why I’m here. Because,
while to some it may seem a stretch, I think we’re all cowboys. We all
love to ride in a convertible with the top down, race along on a motorcycle, or
jog on a mountain trail in the cool morning air. Almost just like cowboys. Therefore,
In my mind, every single one of us is a cowboy at heart. I know I am.
And that brings us to the National Day of the Cowboy, which
will be celebrated July 28, 2012. Yep, just around the corner. It’s a
celebration of all that’s the old West, but it’s also about the spirit that
lingers in us all. It’s the spirit that drove men to do marvelous things in the
most dangerous conditions imaginable in an effort to accomplish a dream: to
build a nation. And they did. Those hardy pioneers–the cowboys, ranchers,
farmers, railroaders and merchants–all worked tirelessly together to build what
we enjoy today: the greatest nation in the world. And, by golly, we’re still
doing it.
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