Hello to Joy, Linda, George, and all! Sorry, I can't remember who replied to that original query. I really do apologize for being such an absentee in here. I have been on vacation since December 22nd, but I know I hadn't written in quite some time before that. I have no good excuse. Just life. My website is badly flagging, and I need to get it updated in the worst way. My "bio" section only has photos of me and the family from six years back and before. Pretty pathetic, I know.
To update you all, I do have a book sitting in completed manuscript form. It's called The Secret of Two Hawks. It was initially started, I believe, back in about 1984, but needless to say did not get very far. I had a lot of ideas back then, but in the rush of a hormone-tormented teenage boy's life I didn't put very many of them into book form. haha. Not that I was dating, either. I guess I mostly just had no idea how to go about the initial stages of writing and didn't have the research tools I do now, so I spent forever on my first book instead of moving on to others. I guess that's how I got it into what I considered at the time to be perfect form. Of course I've decided since then that it was very far from perfect, but that's another story.
So the Secret of Two Hawks, with main characters "Vegas," a recently resigned Mexican lawman from the gold mining country of central Idaho who is chasing his ex best friend and murderer of his wife and infant daughter, and Austin Everett, a much-abused boy who is chasing the murderer of his abusive father. Both Vegas and Austin believe they are possibly chasing the same gang, so they, along with the one-eyed, one-armed Ignacio Diaz, set out on a desperate trail of revenge to their final destination, the boomtown of Helena, Montana. I tell you all this not completely to tease you in a mean way but because I believe I will have this book out in print before too long and can actually get back to filling orders.
I am also working, slowly, on the first of my long series of novels about Robert McAllister, the secondary character from Death of an Eagle, but I believe I will have to go after the national market with those books, with a real publisher and all of that fun stuff. I am storing all of the other books in my in-laws' basement, and it is getting so full of unsold books that I have to re-think my business approach. The days of being a small publisher, at least for this so-called company, have changed drastically with the loss of most our local Waldenbooks and B Dalton bookstores. The blow these losses handed our business were almost surmountable, but particularly in regards to my inertia as a salesman. I never liked the sales side of running a publishing company, and when all of my hard work disappeared in the smoke of September 11th and I was forced to contemplate the notion of starting my publicity campaign over from "Ground Zero," so to speak, I basically lost my motivation in the sales department. I will try to continue putting out a few of my own version of each book, perhaps 500, but my main drive is going to be landing a big publisher because I simply cannot keep up the pace of trying to write AND publicize all of my planned 100-some novels on my own.
Christmas treated my family well, as I hope it did all of yours. We had plenty of snow here in Southeast Idaho, but here in Pocatello it has largely melted off with the arrival of several 40-plus degree days, another of which has begun today. I am not a skier, snowmobiler, snow shoer, sledder, or any admirer of being in the stuff. I love to admire it, and there was a time I liked being out in it, but because of poor circulation in my feet I am constantly fighting frost bite in them when I'm out, even with the best-insulated boots. So I don't mind one bit having the snow vanish from around my house. The only thing I wanted to use it for was a possible cushion in case my horse decided to dump me during his training sessions, but he's been a pretty good boy so far, and I haven't needed that cushion yet. My 300 pound colt, by the way, has grown up to suddenly bull his way onto the scales around 1200 pounds, and I'm not quite sure when this happened. It just seemed like one day he was 800, and I could hop onto his back with ease, and the next he was a slab of granite that stood far higher at the shoulder than any 43 year old should be forced to jump onto bareback. I still do, but should he ever decide to start bucking at that critical moment he will find me pretty easy to put in the snow, mud or dirt.
If any of you out there have any ideas for a good new start to my website, or any updates you'd particularly like to see, please don't hesitate to send them on to me. I will try to motivate myself into putting them together and sending them on to the webmaster. I am embarrassed at how long it's been since any updates have been seen on this site. Thank you for your patience, though, and please, if you don't see anything from me on this board and you want to, don't hesitate to email me and prod me into action. I just get out of the habit of checking in here sometimes.
I hope you are all starting out with a great new year.