I woke up this morning thinking about old-school historical potboilers. Yeah, I know. But you all know by now that my mind functions this way... Actually, there’s a straightforward explanation for why I roused from my slumbers with visions of F. van Wyck Mason dancing through my head. I hit the pillow after scrolling through a Kindle series of … [Read more...] about Lusty, Tumultuous Sagas

Last weekend, Marilyn and Ceili and I trekked over the Misty Mountains cold in the teeth of a potent winter storm. We made it through the Redhorn Gate without having to result to a detour through the Mines of Moria, and all missions on this 500-mile loop from Sisters to Portland to Eugene and back to Sisters in 48 hours were accomplished — though … [Read more...] about The Hunt For The White Whirlwind

I had planned to craft a post for December 29 on the anniversary of the daring, reckless and disastrous Jameson Raid into the Transvaal in 1895. I have decided to defer for a very good reason... * Strange to say, the Raid — which had enormous domestic and international political and strategic consequences — has not been all that deeply explored. … [Read more...] about Jameson Raid

Perhaps I was moving too fast along the trail and failed to cut the sign. Maybe it was over-tracked by other critters. Somehow I missed the 2018 publication of Unsettling the West Violence and State Building in the Ohio Valley. Well, I’m hot on its trail now. Given the near fifty-plew price tag, I ordered it up through interlibrary loan. … [Read more...] about Unsettling The West

The weather turned cold and wet over the weekend, with the snow level dropping down to about 4,000 feet. The wind whipped the rain into stinging needles, occasionally breaking up the cloud cover to allow a glorious rainbow to arch over golden meadows. In other words, it was an ideal weekend for surrounding yourself with books. The inaugural … [Read more...] about A Feast Of Books

This looks like fun. At least Emily Blunt in early 20th century adventuress kit is quite charming... Getting a Mummy vibe? Me, too. That’s no bad thing. Ceili and I have watched that movie about a thousand times. “I’m a... librarian...” Always up for a pulp adventure, so we are. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydnzilTiBcY From The … [Read more...] about Welcome To The Jungle

I mean, hell: In the song “Copperhead Road,” Steve Earle tells the story of three generations of the Pettimore family in less than five minutes. A writer doing the same thing would need hundreds of pages. That’s sorcery. — Alex Bledsoe * Sisters Folk Festival 2019 is in the books — and a fine one it was. As I anticipated, the highlight of the … [Read more...] about Shiver And Hum

I don’t read a whole lot of frontier fiction. As deeply immersed as I am in this stuff, it’s all too easy to get thrown out of the story by anachronism, historical errors and the like. A good Mountain Man novel is surprisingly hard to come by. The Big Sky and Fair Land, Fair Land by A.B. Guthrie; Mountain Man by Vardis Fisher; Lord Grizzly, by … [Read more...] about A Fine Fandango

It is an axiom of frontier backcountry travel that it is wise to pause now and then to study your backtrail. Hostiles may be trailing you. And you might have to traverse in reverse, and the terrain always looks different going that way. I didn’t set out to take a scout down the backtrail last week; it just happened. Blame a $1 sale at my … [Read more...] about Scouting The Backtrail