Coming Attraction.

How does a young man who fled Missouri fearing a murder charge make a new life in the West? How does a mountain man make a living when the fur trade dries up? How does a Ute boy on the verge of manhood prove his worth? How does a lovesick California vaquero learn to live in exile?

A Thousand Dead Horses asks these questions and more as it tells a story drawn from the history of the Old Spanish Trail. It’s coming soon in paperback and e-book editions from Speaking Volumes.

This novel was a joy to write as I delved deep into history and tried to see it through the eyes of a variety of characters facing myriad challenges, all built into the true story of a series of unprecedented and unequaled raids on California missions and ranchos to steal thousands of horses and mules. It’s a tough tale, both for the characters and the reader. But, as my friend and best-selling author Marc Cameron says, “Fire embers snap, saddle leather groans—and the richly drawn characters pull you along with them on their adventure.”

Watch for the release of the paperback and e-book editions of A Thousand Dead Horses. It’s the novel with the pretty cover shown above.

My Favorite Book, Part 10.

Mountain Man by Vardis Fisher is the story of Sam Minard, a young man who leaves the settled parts of America to make his way as a free trapper in the West. Borrowing from both fact and legend of the era, Minard is loosely based on John “Liver-Eating” Johnston, and Fisher includes the disturbed widow for whom Crazy Woman Creek was named in the story.

Minard takes a Flathead woman for a wife and fathers a child, but while he is away trapping, Crow Indian warriors kill his family. The mountain man turns Crow hunter, tracking down and killing every man of the tribe he finds, which results in his being hunted by his Crow foes in an ongoing and bloody feud.

All that is well and good, and for the most part the story the book tells is not much different from other mountain man and fur trapper tales. What I like best about Mountain Man is Fisher’s lyrical language and rich imagery. I get cold and hungry every time I read the book; at other times I feel well fed and comfortable. He writes a romantic version of life in the Old West, but he romanticizes it beautifully.

The book was the basis (along with other sources) for a fine movie, Jeremiah Johnson, starring Robert Redford.

It’s a good movie. But, as is usually the case, it’s a better book.