Reviewing Rawhide Robinson.

Rawhide Robinson is riding high in my new novel, Rawhide Robinson Rides the Tabby Trail.

“Best of the West” reviewer Rick Huff says, in part, “Hope yer hankerin’ fer another of award-winning poet/author Rod Miller’s tall tales…or should that be ‘tails’? If anyone could be up to actually herdin’ cats, who better than Miller’s redoubtable creation Rawhide Robinson…. Along the way we get more of the kind of campfire wild ragging from Rawhide we discovered in his previous volume…. The plot gets deeper (well, somethin’ sure does) as we pussyfoot down the trail.”

Rick Huff’s reviews appear in Western Way magazine, on CowboyPoetry.com, and in various other places around the globe and throughout the universe.

Give Rawhide Robinson Rides the Tabby Trail a read—it’s good for a grin. Check your local library. Or, you can order the book from any bookstore or online.

Watch the 38-second video for some burning questions about the book and our cowboy hero on YouTube or my Amazon Author Page.

Hall of Famers I have known.

While I have read the work of many members of the Western Writers Hall of Fame, most lived and many died before my time, so I never knew, or even met them.

Until now.

Last year, Western Writers of America inducted recipients of the Owen Wister Award—and its predecessor, the Saddleman Award—honors recognizing lifetime achievement—into the Western Writers Hall of Fame. Many so honored have passed on. But some are still among us, and still writing.

So, I have now met several Hall of Famers. I know (or knew) some fairly well. And I have had the pleasure of working with a couple of them, as editors.

In no particular order the Hall of Famers I have known to some extent are Judy Alter, Win Blevins, Don Coldsmith, Robert Conley, Jim Crutchfield, David Dary, Loren Estleman, Max Evans, Bill Gulick, Elmer Kelton, Leon Metz, Jory Sherman, Robert Utley, and Dale Walker.

A fine group of writers, and every one worthy of the recognition they have received and then some. I admire their work and I admire (or admired) them personally. Knowing them is as close to greatness as I will come as a writer.

Stuart Rosebrook and I wrote an article profiling these and other Hall of Fame inductees for the current issue of Ranch & Reata magazine. You’ll want a copy. (http://www.ranchandreata.com/)

(The Hall of Fame induction ceremony photo belongs to future Hall-of-Famer Johnny Boggs.)

Checking the books for 2015.

It’s the beginning of a new year, which is a good time for an accounting. All things considered, 2015 was a pretty good year for books with my name on the cover.

Rawhide Robinson Rides the Range won the Spur Award from Western Writers of America, which was quite an honor.

 In May, TwoDot/Globe Pequot/Rowman & Littlefield released The Lost Frontier: Momentous Moments in the Old West You May Have Missed. It’s a nonfiction book, a collection of events and people in Western history that are not well known.

 In November, Pen-L Publishing released The Death of Delgado and Other Stories. This one is fiction, a collection of short stories. Some are seeing print for the first time in the collection, most have appeared over the years in Western anthologies.

My publishing year ended December 16 with the release by Five Star of Rawhide Robinson Rides the Tabby Trail: The True Tale of a Wild West CATastrophe. This hardcover novel is the account of a trail drive—of a herd of cats—to Tombstone, Arizona, with a bunch of campfire tall tales woven into the story. Adults and young adults alike should get a grin out of it.

These books—and others I have written—can be ordered at your local bookstore or are available through online booksellers. ( Try amazon.com/author/rodmiller ) You’ll get the best deal on The Death of Delgado by ordering directly from Pen-L Publishing.  

Happy New Year, and may you spend it reading.