June 2011 Blog Posts (46)

O’Folliard

The skinny Texas kid

Thin-lipped and

glass bottle feminine

Sucked marbles with a stupid grin

Kept a pocket full of Lone Star sand.

Spatter dashed across his broken nose

Was freckle dust and old pox scabs

“I’d like to sometime see the coast

Throw coins to all the fish

And crabs

Wrestle with a giant squid

Collect what washes on the shore

Lick the fingers of a Chinese whore

And tell my…

Getting closer to my publication date, these excerpts are intended to be more scatter-shot.  This wholly fictional passage, occurring in the story's third act, involves Tom Horn ambushed by a group of Cattle Rustlers in a Ravine, at night and in the rain -- and includes an optional YouTube link to music that inspired the chapter.

If you happen to take a look, let me know what you think.

 …

June 29, 2011

   When we were at the Brian Lebel Old West Show & Auction last weekend, Ken Amorosano brought along his video equipment so we could shoot and post the bidding and share the excitement of the auction.

   Before the auction started we were given instructions on what we could shoot and what we could not. We were told to be respectful of the bidders and shoot them from the back and not to get in front of them.

Ken set up…

It looks to me like James Drury is wearing a toupee.  Wonder if anybody knows the answer to that?

June 28, 2011

   We got a new book in "The Western: The greatest Texas Cattle Trail, 1874-1886" by Gary and Margaret Kraisinger and I was engrossed by the cowboy diary entries about how scary stampedes were, running at night, gopher holes, horn hooking, etc.

   Well, just got this live video footage of a cow-horse wreck at Don Endsley's Great American Wild West Show. Check this out:

 …

June 28, 2011

   Taped my narrator part for a Cave Creek doc all morning. Started in the cave that Cave Creek is named for and ended on Saguaro Hill behind the library. Had lunch at Bryan's BBQ and had the tomato summer sando and it was fantastic.

Here are the Bell kids in Mexico (Deena and Thomas), getting ready to enjoy a lunch at La Roca in Nogales. The whole family is hooked on great Mexican food south of the border (see next…

June 27, 2011

   Several years ago, we got caught up in a dust up with a strange woman from Santa Fe named Gale Cooper. She contacted me through Bob McCubbin, and sent me her expose on what she claimed was a plot to get Bill Richardson elected president of the United States. It was filled with some pretty bizarre accusations and when I told Ms. Cooper we couldn't run her claims without having the opposing side comment she immediately demanded the manuscript back,…

Just finished reading Mary Doria Russell's novel, Doc. While a murder mystery runs through this novel about Doc Holliday, the main story focuses on John Henry Holliday's time spent in Dodge City and his growing friendship with the Earp brothers. Russell's research provides a detailed view of Dodge City as it was during the cattle drive era. Mid-Nineteenth century dental practices, Kansas politics, and lifestyles in general round out Russell's personality descriptions of Doc, Wyatt, Morgan,…

June 27, 2011

   Ken Amorosano has been editing our video footage of the Brian Lebel Old West Auction since 5 this morning. As you probably know by now, the Billy the Kid photo went for a record $2 million (with buyer's premium it comes to $2.3 million). As you watch this exclusive video, notice how quickly the price goes above the one million mark. Also notice how the excitement level visibly goes sky high when the price approaches the $2 mil mark.

 …

   Sure would like to see a story for those brave men in Company "E" of the Arizona Volunteers who,

according to record, fought and dismantled the Apaches, to some degree, with General George Crook.

Yes, there is a personal reason, it seems as though one of the Members of "E" company was family. I

know that True West did a story years back, but what about an update ?   All thoughts and comments

are welcome !    Andres, for you…

     Got a Billy the Kid auction hangover? Feeling the pain of loss? A lack of success? Help is here.

     The James Preservation Trust will accept your spare change to publish the only documented, non-fiction history ever to be written about the family of Frank & Jesse James.

     Drawing upon long sequestered…

June 25, 2011

    On the anniversary of General George Armstrong Custer's bad haircut day, and after 278 other auction items came and went, the only known photo of Billy the Kid hammered in at a cool $2 million, beating most pre-show estimates by about $800,000.

   It became obvious to me this morning that the final price on the Billy photo was going to go a bit higher than expected when I talked with two of the biggest contenders. Jim Earle, the…

June 25, 2011

   Ken and I video-taped this report yesterday at the Denver Merchandise Mart:

June 25, 2011

   Ken Amorosano and I flew to Denver yesterday morning. Got an Avis rental car and drove downtown Denver for a meeting with longtime True West ambassador Rob B. We were meeting him at Ted's Montana Steakhouse (yes, Ted Turner's concept restaurant) and as we waded into the downtown area Ken mentioned that parking in that area of downtown Denver is really a beech. Lots of construction and tons of lunchtime traffic. We decided to bite the bullet and park…

June 23, 2011

   Our Westerns editor, Henry Beck often sends me updates on new Westerns and discussions about old ones. Case in point, an English dude has compiled the 50 Greatest Westerns and it has some lively commentary, like this:

"This is one of the absolute peaks of pure narrative cinema: a story which spans many months, hundreds of miles and armies of extras, all of it dedicated to keeping an audience engrossed. Sure, there’s meaning here if you…

New blog post featuring a brief Excerpt from my forthcoming novel, "Western Legend."  Let me know what you think.

http://jamesallder.wordpress.com/

Also, posted a Photo Gallery of pics I referenced while writing the book.

June 23, 2011

   A controversy has broken out in my family about the film "Biutiful" with Javier Bardem. It seems my daughter Deena attended a screening with her boyfriend and a cousin of his who is in the biz, primarily doing indie work. In a couple of scenes the microphones worn by the actors picks up the crush of clothing and the cousin-indie-person thought this was a mistake and they left it in the film.

Thanks to T. Charles and a Redbox at the…

Howdy All!   

   Finished my shift at work the other day, came home and made my way to the recliner to unwind a little and do some channel surfing. Being a Saturday morning, I can usually find some old west related programming. I found, Billy The Kid: The True Story, on Discovery and settled in. This documentary seemed to be from around the 80's.

Well, as the show progresses, the scene transitions to the expert's…

June 22, 2011

   Getting ready to fly to Denver on Friday to meet with the Westerns Channel to pitch an idea we are excited about. While there, our publisher Ken Amorosano and I will be video taping the Brian Lebel Billy the Kid photo auction. I will be reporting on how much money it goes for and hopefully I'll get to talk to the person or entity that snags the image.

  The original photo is expected to bring somewhere north of $400,000. By the way,…