October Member News

Marsha Ward, The Complete Owen FamilySaga is a chronological box set of the five novels: Gone for a Soldier, The Man from Shenandoah, Spinster's Folly, Ride to Raton, and Trail of Storms. Join Rod and Julia Owen, their sons, daughters, and neighbors in Colorado Territory and beyond for action, adventure and romance in 19th Century America.

Louise Lenahan Wallace’s short story, “The Warning” is included in Chicken Soup for the Soul’s The Joy of Christmas under the section Holiday Miracles. And a miracle it was. I didn’t know where the overpowering feeling of dread was coming from that Christmas Eve afternoon, but I’m thankful to the depths of my soul that I heeded it.

AWARDS

Heidi M. Thomas, Dare to Dream and Cowgirl Up! A History of Rodeo Women have both received Finalist awards in the Book Excellence Awards contest, Dare in the Young Adult and Cowgirl Up in the non-fiction categories.

Gaby Pratt, Comanche And The Mex Girl is a finalist in the Book Excellence Awards contest, Young Adult category. It’s 1878. Fort Richardson closes. Feisty laundress, Elena Wade, a sixteen-year-old Anglo/Mexican seizes the moment, takes the gold coins found in the laundry sheets, lifts a brand new Army issue Colt from the supply room, buys a horse, and takes off for the Chisholm Trail in search of the American father she’s never known.

Jan Cleere's biography, Never Don't Pay Attention: The Life of Rodeo Photographer Louise L. Serpa, has been selected as a Finalist for the Indie Book Awards and as a Finalist for the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards.Louise Larocque Serpa often said she was born “in the wrong place, to the wrong woman, at the wrong time.” Born in 1925 and growing up in New York society with a mother who was never satisfied with her rather lanky, unpolished daughter, teenager Louise eventually found happiness when she spent a summer on a Wyoming dude ranch scrubbing toilets, waiting tables and wrangling cattle. Later in life, she settled in Tucson, Arizona, where her introduction to photographing rodeos came about after a friend invited her to watch his children participate in a junior rodeo competition.

July Member News

Congratulations to our members' new releases and for all the award nominations!

Marsha Ward, Faith and the Foreman. New Yorker Faith Bannister's circumstances force her to become a school teacher in faraway Arizona Territory. Harsh conditions don't seem so overwhelming when Faith meets lanky Slim McHenry. But menacing Rance Hunter stands in the way of Faith and Slim's happiness. Both must rally all their resources and act to overcome evil before it spreads. This standalone novella bundled with a Western short story, The Usual Game, which is set in early-day Jerome, Arizona.

Verl might not make it home to Phoenix this weekend. His landlord is stuck in Happy Sam's usual poker game, and it looks like he's losing his entire savings. High stakes action in early Arizona.

Susan D. Matley (writing as S. D. Matley), “Transformed,” a short story, is included in UnintendedConsequences, a new anthology from Colorado micro-press WolfSinger Publications. “Transformed” is the story of a lazy man who attempts to change his ways (and win back his estranged wife) by taking a miracle supplement. If you have the urge to read out-of-genre (male protagonist in a comic-horror tale), I hope you’ll give it a try! You can find the anthology here: 

Paty Jager, Brody: Letters of Fate, After receiving a letter, Brody Yates finds himself escorted across the country to work on a ranch rather than entering prison, but a revenge driven criminal, the Oregon high desert, and his grandfather’s beautiful ward may prove more dangerous than anything he’d faced on the New York docks.

2016 Will Rogers Medallion Award Finalists

Western Fiction --

* W. Michael Farmer - “Killer of Witches”

* Tammy Hinton - “The Judas Steer”

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Western Romance --

* Linda Shuler - “Dark Shadows”

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Inspirational Fiction --

* Jane Kirkpatrick - “The Memory Weaver”

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Biographies & Memoirs --

* Roni McFadden - “The Longest Trail”

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Short Stories --

* Deanna Dickinson McCall - “Rough Patches”

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Cookbooks --

* Sherry Monahan - “The Cowboy’s Cookbook"

Roni McFadden, The Longest Trail, also made the short-list for the Journey Award.
"The Longest Trail carries readers through a spellbinding work by Willits, CA author Roni McFadden. As a young teen, McFadden left behind the confusion and pain of her unhappy preteen years. She tells of how she went up ~ up onto horses, up the road to a man who could help her, and up the mountain, to where she could see clearly and breathe deeply. And, finally, up to another place where only some can go."

April Member News

Andrea Downing’s novella, Bad Boy, Big Heart has been included in an anthology, Come Love a Cowboy. New Yorker K.C. Daniels feels the strain of being her overbearing parents’ daughter. Chay Ridgway feels the strain of being his father’s sole support. As these two find their way in the world during three months in Wyoming, will it be a summer romance or a love that will last for years?   

  

Shanna Hatfield, Bertie (Pendleton Petticoats Book 6). She needs an adventure. He needs the warmth of her smile... Riley Walsh had no plans to fall in love… then he met vivacious Bertie Hawkins. A sweet romance that embraces the trials and triumphs of yesteryear, BERTIE blends laugh-out-loud adventures with heartwarming moments. 

Paty Jager, Killer Descent (Windtree Press, Book five in the Shandra Higheagle Mysteries) Once again Shandra Higheagle finds herself a suspect in a murder investigation when an ex-lover is found murdered on a Huckleberry ski run. A past she’d planned to never divulge now must be shared with the first man she’s trusted, Detective Ryan Greer. 

Gail Jenner, Historic Redwood National and StateParks, (Lyons Press, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield). The book is conversational in style -- not a typical "history" -- but a series of essay-formatted chapters. The book brings alive the trees that are unique and timeless, from ancient times to pre-contact and tribal histories, through the gold rush and settlement periods, to the era of big logging and then to the present development of the state and national park, in addition to sidebars of interest and personages of importance. 

 

Joyce Lohse, Spencer Penrose: Builder and Benefactor (Filter Press). Entrepreneur. Mining Magnate. Showman. Philanthropist. This biography tells the story of Spencer Penrose who came to Colorado in 1892 to partner with his boyhood friend, Charles L. Tutt, and became wealthy from real estate and mining investments. Penrose was a builder and a benefactor to Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak region, and his legacy includes The Broadmoor, a world-class resort in the foothills the Rockies, as well as the Pikes Peak Highway, and the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. 

AWARDS

Leslie Poling-Kempes, Ladies of the Canyons: a League of Extraordinary Women & Their Adventures in the American Southwest, was awarded Spur Finalist for Historical Nonfiction from Western Writers of America, and also received a silver medal in US History, 2016 IPPY Awards.

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Linda Jacobs, Summer of Fire, Rain of Fire, and Lake of Fire are all finalists in the Foreword Magazine Indiefab Book Awards—Summer and Rain in the General Fiction category and Lake of Fire in Historical Fiction. The trilogy was republished in 2015. 

 

Marsha Ward has been selected as the recipient of the 2015 Whitney LifetimeAchievement Award. The Award is given to individuals who have demonstrated extraordinary achievement and/or who have made significant contributions to the LDS writing community.The Whitneys are an awards program for novels written by LDS authors.