Thursday, December 22, 2011
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah
Once again, we are in Omaha to celebrate the holidays with our daughter and her family. After Christmas we all fly to Orlando to meet up with our son and his family. All six grandkids together at Disney World ... won't that be grand.
My wife and I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a fantastic 2012.
Monday, December 19, 2011
The Shopkeeper #1 Bestselling Western on Amazon
The Kindle version of The Shopkeeper has moved to the Number 1 bestselling Western on Amazon for print or eBook formats. The print version of The Shopkeeper has taken the 34th position. The Shopkeeper is also 23rd bestselling Action/Adventure book and the 27th bestselling Historical. Thanks to everyone who is buying the book. It encourages me to get working on the 4th novel in the Steve Dancy Tales series.
Amazon Western Bestseller List
Sunday, December 18, 2011
5-Star Books Selects Tempest at Dawn
5-Star Books has showcased Tempest at Dawn in their Historical Novel category.
From the 5-Star Website: "How do we pick the novels featured on 5-Star Books? First, the book must have predominantly 5-Star reviews on Amazon.com. After that qualification, we look at the cover design, the number of reviews, what readers are saying in those reviews, when the book was published, and other subjective factors."
From the 5-Star Website: "How do we pick the novels featured on 5-Star Books? First, the book must have predominantly 5-Star reviews on Amazon.com. After that qualification, we look at the cover design, the number of reviews, what readers are saying in those reviews, when the book was published, and other subjective factors."
Fifty-five
men came to Philadelphia May of 1787with a congressional charter to revise the
Articles of Confederation. Instead they founded the longest lasting
republic in world history. Tempest at Dawn tells their story.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Learning About the Constitution
In order to
preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, we need to understand it.
Luckily, there are some great learning tools available to every American. These
include an online course at James Madison’s Montpelier Center for the
Constitution, the webcast series Introduction to the Constitution from
Hillsdale College, and several good books, including The Heritage Guide to theConstitution, Tempest at Dawn, and Decision in Philadelphia.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
The ideal life
“Good friends, good
books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” — Mark Twain
“Knowing you have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable of sensations.” — Vladimir Nabokov
“Thou shalt not is
soon forgotten, but Once upon a time lasts forever.” — Philip Pullman
“Reading is the sole
means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin,
another’s voice, another’s soul.” — Joyce Carol Oates
“There is no friend
as loyal as a book.” – Ernest Hemingway
“I am simply a ‘book
drunkard.’ Books have the same irresistible temptation for me that liquor has
for its devotee. I cannot withstand them.” — L.M. Montgomery
“It is what you read
when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help
it.” — Oscar Wilde
“Be awesome! Be a
book nut!” — Dr. Seuss
“Good books, like
good friends, are few and chosen; the more select, the more enjoyable.” —
Louisa May Alcott
“The one way of
tolerating existence is to lose oneself in literature as in a perpetual orgy.”
— Gustave Flaubert
“I cannot remember
the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have
made me.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
“I owe everything I
am and everything I will ever be to books.” — Gary Paulsen
“Books are a
uniquely portable magic.” — Stephen King
“Picking five
favorite books is like picking the five body parts you’d most like not to
lose.” — Neil Gaiman
“Reading brings us
unknown friends.” — HonorĂ© de Balzac
“When the Day of
Judgment dawns and people, great and small, come marching in to receive their
heavenly rewards, the Almighty will gaze upon the mere bookworms and say to
Peter, “Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them. They have
loved reading.” — Virginia Woolf
“Our favorite book
is always the book that speaks most directly to us at a particular stage in our
lives. And our lives change. We have other favorites that give us what we most
need at that particular time. But we never lose the old favorites. They’re always
with us.” — Lloyd Alexander
“There are perhaps
no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we believe we left without
having lived them, those we spent with a favorite book.” — Marcel Proust
“I have always
imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” — Jorge Luis Borges
“It was books that
taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that
connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.” —
James Baldwin
“It is so
unsatisfactory to read a noble passage and have no one you love at hand to
share the happiness with you.” Mark Twain
“I cannot live
without books.” — Thomas Jefferson
Monday, December 5, 2011
Books are a perfect gift.
Some
people can be hard to buy for—unless you give them a book that matches their
special interest or taste in fiction. Suddenly, your thoughtfulness becomes
part of the gift. Whether your relatives or friends are interested in the Civil
War, romance novels, Westerns, railroads, guns, cooking, collecting old comic
books, or some hobby, there's always a book around that will bring a smile to
their face.
Books
are the best entertainment value around. They provide hour after hour of
personal pleasure, and then they can be passed on to another person. I also
like that when I give a book as a gift, I can write a personal note that won't
get tossed out like last year's Christmas card.
Children's
books are great gifts. We always search for autographed storybooks for our
grandkids. A great find is when the author and the illustrator both sign the
book. We've done this for several years, so now our grandkids' bedrooms have
dedicated shelves for signed books. The icing on the cake is that we get to
read them a story from one of these books whenever we visit.
Here are
links to bestselling books in a few categories. There are many categories a click away, but you can also search for books on a specific subject.
By the
way, if you're thinking about a gift for me, I collect vintage Western books
from the first half of the twentieth century. I especially like the ones with
great illustrations on the dust cover. But if you give me one of these, do me a
favor and write your personal note on a Post-It.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Custer’s Last Stand at the Little Bighorn
About a month ago,
my wife and I took a road trip with some good friends through many of the
Westerns states. We visited Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South
Dakota, and Nebraska. One of the highlights was a visit to the Little
Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.
Every
time I visit a historic site, I end up buying at least one book about the
events that took place at the location. I wanted to buy only one book
about the battle because we had already visited so many sites that I was
weighing down the motorhome. The store at the National Monument had
dozens upon dozens of books on Custer, the battle, Crazy Horse, and Sitting
Bull. I spent some time going through them and ended up taking two to the
clerk for a recommendation. The two books were The Last Stand, Custer, Sitting Bull, and The Battle
of Little Bighorn, by Nathaniel Philbrick, and Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two
American Warriors, by Stephen E. Ambrose.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Guest Appearance on the Glenn Beck Show
On Tuesday, November 22, 2011, I had the opportunity to be a guest on the Glenn Beck Show. This was my second appearance, which made me feel good because it meant they didn't think I was really terrible the first time. The show launched Beck's new book, Being George Washington. I was invited onto the program because I had helped with research. I had loads of fun, and Glenn Beck is is a great guy. No surprises...he's just as he seems on his radio and television programs. Being George Washington is an accurate portrayal of the Father of our Country, but told with a more personal touch than other written portraits.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Candelaria, a.k.a. Pickhandle Gulch
Candelaria Slide Show by Warren Willis
Caldelaria Circa 1880 |
Caldelaria Today, Author Photo |
Steve Dancy Tales Honest Westerns filled with dishonest characters. |
Friday, November 11, 2011
Three Days at a Dude Ranch
Although I'm a
western writer, I've never stayed at a dude ranch. At least not until this
week, when my wife and I spent time at the White Stallion Ranch outside of
Tucson, Arizona. I discovered I had missed out on a lot of fun.
I had always assumed
dude ranches were for Easterners who wanted to experience a controlled Old
West. To a degree that's true. We found ourselves riding, eating, and drinking
with people from all over the nation, as well as from England, Germany, Sweden,
and Japan. Some were novices, but most were experienced riders who loved horses
and beautiful, wide open landscape.
It surprised me how many had been coming
back year after year. One reason many
returned to White Stallion was the ranch staff. They were always gracious and
at your elbow whenever you needed something. The ranch hands' politeness seemed
contagious. All of the guests were in a holiday mood and eager for the next adventure.
This was resort living, seasoned with bit of adrenalin. What a combination.
And the biggest
surprise … the adventures seemed genuine. This was especially true for the
popular riding lessons. The lesson occurred in a huge corral, and focused on
pushing skills to the next level. I had ridden a horse many times, but never
had a wrangler give me a private lesson. It made a world of difference, and I'm
sure my horse appreciated it.
It was a great stay.
We relaxed, ate too much, met interesting people, and became much better
riders. We intend to be back in the spring with friends. Maybe we can even get
the grandkids out here to race around the corral on a pony. It never too early
to help them become Western enthusiasts.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
Western History, Breathtaking Monuments, and Great Balls of Twine
A Friend with a gas station horse. He couldn't find the quarter slot. |
Families don't travel across country by car
anymore. I wouldn't even do it with my kids. The trend was already leaning
toward flying to vacation, and then the Griswolds ruined the
family road trip forever.
Except … a few ol' timers still want to see
fly-over country from ground level at a comfortable speed. We just did, and we
had a blast. With a couple of good friends, we toured Nevada, Utah, Idaho,
Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska. When you slow down to a
leisurely pace, you discover a great country filled with great people. Pioneer
and Western History reminds you what it means to be an American. Monuments like
Mount Rushmore and the Dakota Badlands are more impressive than the latest
iPhone app. Really. And if you have a taste for Great American tacky, you can still
find plenty of it along the road. The thirty-foot dinosaurs may be gone, but
you can still sidle up to a six-foot garishly painted horse.
A road trip across the country still
presents hardships. I think we ran out of ice once for our evening cocktails.
It surprised me that a thirty-eight foot diesel-pusher wouldn't have an
automatic icemaker. It had everything else, including a satellite entertainment
system that could pull in countless radio and television stations. I don't
believe there was a roll of wax paper either. The motorhome did have a full
kitchen, with an endless supply of wholesome and unwholesome food, but we used zip-lock baggies to store leftovers. Our roomy vehicle leveled itself,
kept the temperature perfect, and had a sound system that would make a concert
hall envious. We did have to make our beds in the morning. What we didn't have to do
was cruise up and down the main boulevard looking for a place to eat or park
for the night. A pair of iPads made researching the options for the next few
hours or days an enjoyable pastime.
The trip was reminiscent of my youth, but
somehow better. We had fun, relaxed, enjoyed good company, and learned a lot
about our country. If you get the chance, hit the road.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
What Would the Founders Think? Reviews Murder at Thumb Butte
Best does a great
job of weaving historic Prescott into the story with accurate depictions of
well-known features like Whiskey Row, the court house, Gurley Street, and other
famous locales in the historic town.
It’s clear he’s been there and mapped out his story accordingly. The great thing about this is that this part
of Prescott looks much the same as it did then. The story itself is
as good, if not better than the first two books in the series.
Book Page at Amazon
Book Page at Barnes & Noble
Book Page at Amazon
Book Page at Barnes & Noble
Read the entire Review
Friday, October 28, 2011
Rejected Books that Became Bestsellers
Jill Harness reports at Flavorwire that these are ten huge bestsellers that were originally rejected numerous times. She writes, "Anyone who has ever wanted to work in a creative field, be it writing, painting or playing music has been told they better develop thick skin. After all, it doesn't matter how good you are, someone will always be there to tear you down. It's hard to think of a better example of this than to look at some rejected books that would later become some of the best-selling titles in the world."
Read her complete article
Read her complete article
Thursday, October 27, 2011
What Would the Founders Think? reviews Leadville
What fun! It’s no wonder that Jim is as popular as he is on
Amazon and that readers clamor for him to release his next installment of his
Steve Dancy western series. I recently had a business trip to the east
coast and downloaded Leadville and Murder at Thumb
Butte to
read on the trip. On the way out, I read another book, which, while entertaining,
wasn’t nearly as good. On the way back, a 5.5 hour flight, I read this
fast-paced, fun book and half of Murder at Thumb
Butte. I
was almost wishing that the flight were longer!
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Mr. Madison Writes a Letter to Mr. Jefferson
Prior to championing a Bill of Rights in the First Congress, James Madison wrote a revealing letter to Thomas Jefferson in October of 1788. Interestingly, much of the letter was written in a secret code only the two of them shared. The following extract from the letter gives insight into Madison's mindset and the thinking of many of the Founders.
Read the full article
Read the full article
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Western Fiction Review reviews The Shopkeeper
"With all the plot developments the story has a natural fast pace and before I knew it I had reached the end, leaving me wanting to read the next in the series."
Read Full Review
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Saddle Up ! Denver Post article on resurgence of Westerns on TV
Joanne Ostrow writes a article summarizing television networks new fascination with the Western genre.
"The rugged individualism of myth, the challenge of uncharted territory, the bad sanitation and awful racial stereotypes ... the TV Western is back in the saddle."
Read more ...
Read related article on popularity of Westerns
"The rugged individualism of myth, the challenge of uncharted territory, the bad sanitation and awful racial stereotypes ... the TV Western is back in the saddle."
Read more ...
Read related article on popularity of Westerns
Thursday, October 6, 2011
2nd Annual Avondale Writers Conference
I will be presenting at the 2nd Annual Avondale Writers Conference in Avondale, Arizona. The title of my talk is How to Get Your Book Published: No Nonsense Advice. The all-day conference is on Saturday October 29th, starting with registration at 8:00 AM. I'm refining my presentation during down moments on my road trip. We've driven from Las Vegas to Salt Lake. City. Great country, great company. Next stop, Butte, Mo.
Conference Link
Conference Link
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Road Trip!
On Tuesday, my wife and I fly to Las Vegas to meet friends with a diesel pusher. From there, we'll drive through Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Nebraska, and then we'll fly home from Omaha at the end of the month. No agenda, no wake-up calls, and only occasional peeks at email. Good friends and the open road in my favorite part of the country. This is gonna be fun. Film at eleven.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
The Founders’ Fear
We often hear laments that our politicians no longer honor their pledge to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. This is backward. The Constitution was never written for politicians. Our political leaders have no motivation to abide by a two hundred year old restraining order. Americans must enforce the supreme law of the land. The first outsized words of the Constitution read We the People. It’s our document. It was always meant to be ours, not the government’s. It is each and every American’s obligation to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Constitution Day -- Celebrated this year on Sept. 16
To commemorate Constitution Day, the blog What would the Founders think? is posting articles all week on the Constitution.
Constitutional Speed Bumps, by James D. Best
“The powers of government should be so divided and balanced among several bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits, without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.” Thomas Jefferson
To a degree, each branch of the national government operates in slight fear that another branch will chastise or even overrule its actions. This was an intended consequence of the design. Madison wrote in Federalist 51, “the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others. The provision for defense must in this, as in all other cases, be made commensurate to the danger of attack. Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.”
Monday, August 29, 2011
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Friday, August 12, 2011
New Cover for The Shut Mouth Society
For a long time, I've wanted to change the cover of The Shut Mouth Society. Although the story has strong historical elements, it's a contemporary thriller. The old cover looked like a historical novel, or even a non-fiction book on Lincoln. With the completion of Murder at Thumb Butte, I was able to dedicate some time to work with a designer on a new cover.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
A Capacity to Annoy or Injure
During the Constitutional Convention and state ratification conventions, the judiciary was the least discussed branch of the national government. From a design perspective, almost all of the debate and alarm seemed to have been focused on the executive and the legislature. The simplest explanation is that the judiciary was familiar and non-controversial. Hamilton wrote in Federalist 78, “[T]he judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution; because it will be least in a capacity to annoy or injure them.”
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Murder at Thumb Butte print edition is now available
I want to thank all the readers who have bought Murder At Thumb Butte in an eBook format ... and thanks for all the kind comments. I'm glad you're enjoying the story.
From the Publisher
In the spring of 1880, Steve Dancy travels to Prescott, Arizona to gain control of a remarkable invention. But on his first night in the territorial capital, his friend, Jeff Sharp is arrested for a midnight murder at Thumb Butte. Dancy launches a personal investigation to find the real murderer, only to discover the whole town wanted the victim dead. For help, he turns to another old friend and associate, Captain Joseph McAllen of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.
Can Dancy discover the true killer before his friend stretches a rope on the courthouse square?
Friday, July 29, 2011
Hollywood—Get Real
Hollywood must believe that the only way to draw us into a theater is to give Sherlock Holmes the glitter of James Bond, portray the Three Musketeers as superheroes, and pit cowboys against ghastly aliens. If the script is really weak, they shove it in our face by releasing the movie in 3-D. Are there no real writers left in Hollywood? Are kids the only ones that can gin up box office? Flash and dash is great when it’s integral to a story, but a bore when it consumes the entire one hundred and ten minutes. Storytelling is an art. It seems Hollywood commits all of is creative talents to bookkeeping. It’s hard to believe that they’re still is an Academy Award for Best Screenplay.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Good Book
Just finished The Dirty Dozen, How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government and Eroded Freedom. I barely got a B in my only law course, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
Read my review at What Would the Founders Think?
Read my review at What Would the Founders Think?
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