In 2013, I received a call from my friend Allen Barra who said there was an opportunity at True West: Western Books editor. I thanked him and called Executive Editor Bob Boze Bell. The rest is history and ever since I have had the pleasure of managing the Western Books department for True West magazine. Pre-COVID, I was receiving well over 600 books a year for review. Fiction, nonfiction, biography, environmental, autobiography, military, essay, reprints, self-published, ancient, natural, cultural, you name the topic, I was receiving hard copy books, advanced reader copies, even bound final drafts for review. Authors and publicists have reached out to me at every one of my emails, social media accounts and phone numbers. What a wild ride it has been. And while I have stepped aside as the editor of True West, with my new position as executive director of Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott, Arizona, I will continue as books and travel editor, with the new title of editor-at-large.
This past October, I was one of three keynote speakers at the Ozark Creative Writers Conference in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. The wonderful gathering of authors, like the annual Western Writers Conference I attended in Tulsa, Oklahoma, earlier in the year in June, was affirming, promising and hopeful.
Thanks to the success of Yellowstone and Dark Winds, below, a slew of new Western novels-Old, Traditional and Modern, have been published utilizing the basic themes and production to achieve almost a cottage industry around the themes popularized on television.
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Denne historien er fra January - February 2025-utgaven av True West.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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FIREARMS COLT WALKER 47
THE LEGENDARY HANDGUN THAT REALLY WON THE WEST
HERITAGE TRAVE
THE AMERICAN WEST IN ALL ITS GLORY OUR ANNUAL FAVORITES LIST CELEBRATES DESTINATIONS ACROSS THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.
Wild Turkey, and Not the Drinkin' Kind
The actual bird was a favorite of pioneers.
THE PASSION PROJECTS OF THE MODERN WESTERN
A YEAR OF UNDERRATED EXCELLENCE
WESTERN BOOKS THEN AND NOW
THE STATE OF WESTERN HISTORY AND FICTION PUBLISHING IN 2024 IS ONE OF GRIT AND DETERMINATION.
SAMUEL WALKER VALIANT WARRIOR
While a prisoner at the castle of Perote, Walker was put to work raising a flagpole. At the bottom of the hole, Walker placed a Yankee dime, vowing to someday come back and retrieve it, at the same time exacting revenge on his Mexican captors. In the summer of 1847, when Walker's mounted riflemen returned and routed Santa Anna's guerillas, the young captain kept his promise and got his dime back.
THE BATTLE OF CENTRALIA
ON September 27, 1864, Bloody Bill Anderson and about 80 men took over the small railroad village of Centralia, looting stores and discovering a barrel of whiskey that they hauled out into the street. Wild enough when sober, they soon were roaring drunk.
THE MAN WHO SHOOTS THE WEST
Jay Dusard is a living American photographer who has made Arizona his home for over 60 years, seeing it first in 1960 on a visit, moving here for good in 1963.
A TRUE WESTERNER INDEED PHIL SPANGENBERGER 1940-2024
Spangenberger had Nevada trained to bow by the legendary horse trainer, Glenn Randall, who trained Roy Rogers' Trigger, Gene Autry's Champion, Rex Allen's Koko and the Ben Hur chariot horses, among other great equines.
Where Did the Loot Go? - This is one of those find the money stories. And it's one that has attracted treasure hunters for more than 150 years.
Whatever happened to the $97,000 from the Reno Gang's last heist? Up to a dozen members of the Reno Gang stopped a Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis train at a watering station in southern Indiana. The outlaws had prior intelligence about its main load: express car safes held about $97,000 in government bonds and notes. In the process of the job, one of the crew was killed and two others hurt. The gang made a clean getaway with the loot.
