James D. Best

A character and dialogue driven western,  Godless   presents a traditional plot with some fresh twists, served up with an appropriate ba...

I write westerns partly because I want to preserve our frontier heritage. (I also write them for fun and profit.) Recently, I encou...

Rod Pennington writes that "Sunday's Oscars ceremony takes place during one of the gloomiest times for the film industry in rec...

NYU teaches a class in storytelling the Tisch School of the Arts. On the first day of class, Professor Liotti invited Trey Parker and Matt S...

Hollywood doesn’t like Westerns. They keep trying to make them into something else. If a traditional Western is a success, like Unfo...

I was never a fan of signing cowboys. Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and lesser lights were too goody two-shoes for me. I categorize heroes as w...

I watched the final episode of Justified last night. A little tardy you might think. Not to my way of thinking. I never watch any TV ...

I read that railroad construction is all the rage in Western novels. I suppose Hell on Wheels spiked the popularity of trains, but I ...

Historic U.S. Route 395 For my birthday we ran up from San Diego to Gardnerville, Nevada. We stopped overnight in Santa Clarita to pi...

The Return, A Steve Dancy Tale is now available in audio. Jim Tedder has done an exceptional job in narrating this fourth book in the St...

Still From John Ford's Stagecoach In the Old West, stage travel took patience and stamina. Wells Fargo published a set of rules f...

Coming Soon in Audio Jim Tedder has agreed to narrate The Return, A Steve Dancy Tale and has already completed 6 chapters. This is exc...

The western fast draw setup is as well known as the title sequence for Gunsmoke. Two men face off in the street, settle their stance, flex t...

My last posting was about Hollywood remaking The Magnificent Seven , one of my favorite western movies. No sooner did it go to press ...

Hollywood is remaking The Magnificent Seven , one of my favorite westerns. (Darn, I wished they had asked. I could have sold them mat...

Denver & Rio Grande Railway I started the next book in the Steve Dancy Tales . When I say started, I mean barely begun. I have a ...

I moved to Omaha last year, so I found this 1877 article from the Omaha Herald interesting. For those who loath TSA, tiny seats,...

Will Rogers died at fifty-five in an airplane crash 80 years ago (August 15, 1935). A real Oklahoma cowboy who parlayed dead pan humor i...

I like  Quentin Tarantino films, especially the Kill Bill  duple. I wasn't over-enthusiastic for Django Unchained (I prefer my  ...

Honest westerns filled with dishonest characters. My son reads magazines and listens to books. He doesn’t have a lot of time for...