James D. Best

Water Source for San Francisco San Francisco supports denying water to the Central Valley so a tiny fish called the Delta Smelt has a p...

In 1862, a sixty-five day downpour pummeled the western United States. California suffered the brunt of the storm. Almost a third of ...

I took a break from social media for about four months. Fatigue, I guess. I wanted to write, enjoy my family, and surf.  The writing and fa...

I had a pleasant surprise today when I received notice of a new book review for the Steve Dancy Tales. Diane Scearce at Examiner.com revie...

January Magazine publishes a series titled “Five of a Kind," and one of the articles in the series is Bill Crider's, “Sl...

It is time to move on.  We've  sold our Arizona house and start our trek to Nebraska today. Actually, the house closed a week ago and w...

Steve Dancy has had a rocky romantic life in the first three novels. His mother pushed him to marry a young lady who would enhance the fa...

 Reading Cowboy Statue, Azle, Texas American Cowboy  magazine has listed the top 10 Western Books , plus a few also-rans from the s...

My wife has flown to Omaha to do some tasks that have to do with spa colors, soothing music, and aromatherapy.  She’s helping my daughter op...

Ron Scheer at Buddies in the Saddle has reviewed The Shopkeeper and published a companion  interview with me. "This is an ...

The Return , A Steve Dancy Tale is  an unusual Western because Dancy and his friends go to New York City to make a business call on Thom...

I like Tarantino movies and Westerns, so I expected to love Django Unchained .  I only liked it. It wasn’t bad; it just didn’t live up t...

The popularity of eReaders has decimated the mass paperback market, and several publishers have even abandoned the format. An eReader can ...

I haven't read a Stephen King book in a couple decades.   11/22/63  reminded me why I used to read King’s books as soon as they were p...

As a writer of a western series, I don’t read a lot of Western fiction. In the past, I devoured Owen Wister, Zane Grey, Louis L’Amour, Lar...

Last Friday, I received my annual statement from my large-print publisher. When I entered the sales into my ledger, the total copies of my b...

I have been asked by several readers if the image on the cover of The Shopkeeper is authentic.  It is.  L. A. Huffman was a famous fron...

The difference between reality and imagination is an important distinction for me. Especially since I make my living writing fiction. ...

"The Shopkeeper did not disappoint. It's well written with deep characters (that we care about) and a swift plot that keeps th...

The Shut Mouth Society  by   James D. Best is the kind of book I like best. It starts with a rich collector who has discovered an earl...