What Did You Say?

Earlier my daughter said she was going to cut her nails on the porch.  Now my hearing isn't awful, but it's certainly not what it used to be.  I heard that she was going to go cut her nails with a fork.  I honestly sat there pondering how in the world she was going to do that, when I realized she'd gone out on the porch.  Then did the mental smack of the head.


I'm presently working on one of our older westerns.  I scanned it last week and I'm formatting and editing it for the Kindle. So my brain is in western mode.


Hearing her wrong got me to thinking. I know . . . not always a good thing.  But, I can't help but wonder how many of the battles, gunfights, brawls, etc. from history, were caused by a good ol' misunderstanding.  Someone just hearing something a little wrong.  Of course this lead to me thinking about a new character to come to Wind River, a town we wrote a 6 book series about.  This summer might be a good time to revisit Wind River, if we can just find the time.

Growing Up Watching Westerns

I’m sure some of you have wondered how I got into western writing.  I grew up watching Gunsmoke, Paladin, Bonanza, etc.  My dad loved westerns.  Top this with the fact I enjoy reading about history.  I didn’t mind having to read the history textbooks in school, in fact I may have been the only kid that read the whole books.  Now that math textbook was a different matter.

My first toe into western writing came with writing Hallam.  The first Lucas Hallam story which was published as a mystery, but it had western touches.  Lucas was a riding extra/PI in the first stories which were set during the 1920’s in Hollywood.  That story is available as an ebook on Amazon and Barnes and Noble along with 3 other stories I had saved on a usb drive I carried with me the day our house burned down.  This past week I have been collecting our missing stories.  The ones published in Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and various anthologies.  I’m hoping I can scan them and make them available by this fall.  There are many Hallam stories and he is my favorite ol’ cowboy, but my favorite town would have to be Wind River.  James and I worked on this series together.  We had all six books plotted before the first book had even sold.  The publisher insisted on one name for the author on the paperbacks, so we decided to use James’.  When we republished them as ebooks, we used both of our names.  We were told that they wouldn’t sell with two names.  This time, the publisher was wrong.  They are selling very nicely with both our names.  While Wind River seems like a just a western, we planned a long running mystery to be solved in book six.  If you’ve read the books, you know how much fun we had writing them.  If you’ve only read a book or two, we wrote it where you would never know you missed anything.  But if you read all 6, you'll see what I mean.  Lately I’ve been trying to decide if we should revisit Wind River.  I wonder if there are six more books in the town . . .  The first book is still only 99 cents for the Kindle and Nook.

Two More L.J. Washburn Westerns Now Available

On Amazon
 
 On Barnes and Noble for the Nook EPITAPH coming soon
 
Epitaph is the first appearance of Hank Littleton, Buffalo Newcomb, and his possum Stink.  Buffalo and Stink reappear in Riders of the Monte.  Hank Littleton shows back up in Bandera Pass.
                               Not sure why Barnes and Noble has the old cover for the link. If you follow the link on the cover, it shows the new cover on the Nook page.


The three western novels were originally published as M. Evans hardbacks in the late 80's and early 90's.

Twice As Deadly by Livia J. Washburn

Laura Bailey is a young woman struggling to establish herself as a private detective following the death of her father, a veteran PI who established the agency where she works. Set in a vividly depicted Dallas during the 1980s, the two novellas collected in this volume are action-packed private eye stories by one of the top authors in the genre, L.J. Washburn, the creator of the iconic PI character Lucas Hallam.

"Ancient and Deadly" originally appeared in THE BLACK MOON, published by Lynx Books. This is the first publication of "Deadly Performance".

Includes a new afterword. 45,000 words. Available for Kindle and Nook.

Hallam Now 99 Cents on Kindle

Hallam is now 99 cents but I've added another story. It still has "Hallam", a 10,000 word story is the first appearance of Lucas Hallam, a cowboy who has outlived the days of the old west to become a gun-toting private eye and stuntman in the early days of motion pictures in California. Originally published in The Eye's Have It, 1984. Now it also has "Hollywood Flesh", a 7000 word story was published in The Book of all Flesh 2001. It's a good thing Lucas Hallam is a hard-headed old cowboy and doesn't believe in such nonsense as Zombies, or this case might give him nightmares.

All Three Lucas Hallam Novels Are Now Available on Kindle

WILD NIGHT
Winner of The American Mystery Award and The Private Eye Writers Of America's Best Original Paperback Award. Here's the real Hollywood of the studio days . . . glamour, glitz, and an underside of dark and dangerous secrets.

WILD NIGHT has been recently reviewed by Ed Gorman and Cap'n Bob.

DEAD STICK Set in the 1920s, this intriguing mystery marks the return of likable Lucas Hallam. A stuntman and former Texas Ranger, Hallam is hired by Hollywood producer Carl McGinley to find out who is trying to sabotage his current film, set during World War I. Dead-Stick is on target. True-to-life characters with a dash of 1920s seasoning contribute to a satisfying read. -- Publishers Weekly Cap'n Bob also recently reviewed Dead Stick.

DOG HEAVIES
A novel set in the glory days of the Hollywood western. One actor is an ex-gunslinger, a former Texas Ranger, and tough private detective. He is hired by a film studio to take a spoiled New York actor to a ranch in Texas and turn him into a credible cowboy star. Once at the ranch in Texas, the situation is complicated when a ranch hand turns up dead. The local sheriff suspects a Native American actor and so the tough-guy detective takes on the case.

"There is more tension than in a barbed-wire fence." --The Los Angeles Times
"A striking original detective set against a lush, fascinating narrative backdrop." --The Dallas Morning News