In 1973 my husband and I moved from Dallas, Texas to the sleepy fishing village of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It didn’t sleep very long because the world had already discovered the beauty and charm of the place through John Huston’s film, Night of the Iguana, produced in 1964.

Reporters flocked to Puerto Vallarta to get a glimpse of the hot, scandalous romance of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Many years later, Huston mused about how he had needlessly worried about protecting the innocence of young Sue Lyons while Ava Gardner was chasing brown beach boys through the jungle.

It was party-time Mexico for several years, although I did find time to teach English in public and private schools. I also taught in Mexican government offices and banks. Finally, I opened a language school where we offered classes in Spanish and English.

My playtime came to an abrupt halt when I was appointed consular agent by the U. S. Department of State in 1982. I served in that position fourteen years. I mixed and mingled with genuine royalty, statesmen, drug barons, murderers, thieves, drunks, beggars and politicians from both sides of the border.

I retired in 1996 to what we thought was another sleepy village, Talpa de Allende, which is about a three-hour drive from Puerto Vallarta. A new road from the coast up to our 4,000 feet mountain home brings tourists and natives alike. Talpa is widely known for its shrine to Virgin Mary and we have people from all over Mexico walking to pay homage to the little image throughout the year.

It’s rare today to find an author who does nothing but write for a living. Do you have a ‘real’ job other than writing, and if so, what is it? What are some other jobs you’ve had in your life?

Jenny McGill: I’m a so-called retired person, but I’m not retired from the real life. I write for various publications in Mexico and I promote young Mexicans who are struggling with their artistic endeavors.

What compelled you to write your first book?

Jenny McGill: I think I wrote it as a catharsis to release some of my negative pent up emotions about some of the grim tragedies I dealt with as a consular agent.

Have you always wanted to be a writer?

Jenny McGill: To be truthful, I think I probably was a writer in another life. As a child, I wrote my dreams – when I could remember them. As I grew older, I dabbled in writing, but other jobs and passions devoured my time.

Tell us a little bit about your book/s.

Jenny McGill: The developing years of Puerto Vallarta and my work as a consular officer in a not-so-distant-neighboring country is the ‘meat’ of my book, Drama & Diplomacy: In Sultry Puerto Vallarta. The State Department referred to my work as dealing with the four Ds: Detentions, Destitutes, Disappearance and Death. In D&D, I have covered these and added a few choice ones of my own such as, Dope, Dames on my Path and Dirty Old Men. The book is an anecdotal vignette of all these years. It is an eye-opener to people who wonder about the lives of our government employees on foreign soil. I’ve been told it a fun, informative read. Drama & Diplomacy is my first published book and it is a true story, although I have changed some of the characters names.

Are you currently working on any writing projects our readers should watch for release soon?

Jenny McGill: I’m working on a manuscript I hope to have published in the late spring of 2009. Its working title is The Woman in the Trunk. It is a historical novel based on fact and it came about because I saw an antique wooden trunk in a rancher friend’s corral. Its lid was open for airing and showed a portrait of a beautiful woman painted on the inside of the lid. I am fortunate to have been able to trace some of the history of this woman to a German miner who came to Mexico in the mid 1880s, made a fortune and left a legacy.

Have you ever won any writing awards? If so, what?

Jenny McGill: Never.

How did you feel the day you held the copy of your first book in your hands?

Jenny McGill: Wow! I felt ten feet tall! I almost could not touch it, but I knew it was something I had wanted to accomplish and I had done it!

What type of music, if any, do you listen to while you write?

Jenny McGill: I don’t listen to music while I’m writing. Although not strictly disciplined, I usually write in the wee hours of the morning. Where I live, roosters crow, dogs bark, donkeys bray and children cry as the town wakes up to the day. If the weather is nice, I open the windows to hear the birds singing in the big tree in my back garden.

What about your family? Do you have children, married, siblings, parents? Has your family been supportive of your writing?

Jenny McGill: I am married to a wonderful man who supports and encourages my writing. God willing, we will celebrate fifty years of matrimony in April 2009. We have no children. I am the youngest in a family of fifteen. I have one half-sister still living in Mississippi who will soon celebrate her ninety-fifth birthday. I have so many great-great nieces and nephews, I can’t begin to count them; and yes, they are very supportive of my writing.

The main characters of your stories – do you find that you put a little of yourself into each of them or do you create them to be completely different from you?

Jenny McGill: The characters in Drama & Diplomacy are real live people. Some of their names have been changed, but they exist/existed. I still socialize with many of them. The characters in the manuscript I am working on now were real live people too. I have to do considerable more research on them, but that is fun also.

Is there an established writer you admire and emulate in your own writing? Do you have a writing mentor?

Jenny McGill: I would not dare to compare my writing with any established writer I know, but yes, I have been influenced by some. I like the humor of Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume, the mysteries of Mary Higgins Clark and the early guidance of Allen Drury, Pulitzer Prize winner with his book, Advise and Consent.

When growing up, did you have a favorite author, book series, or book?

Jenny McGill: I still remember how I loved Little Women by Louisa Mae Alcott. My favorite non-fiction authors were Catherine Marshall and Norman Vincent Peale. I was hooked on Daphne du Maurier, loved James Michener’s travels and today I wonder if Taylor Caldwell should still be classified as a fiction writer.

What about now: who is your favorite author and what is your favorite genre to read?

Jenny McGill: I don’t think I have a special genre. I enjoyed Jean M. Auel’s Clan series. Danielle Steele, Sidney Sheldon and Stephen King are good companions. I read anything that John Grisham or Tom Clancy write. My non-fiction favorites are Marianne Williamson, Deepak Chopra and Neale Donald Walsch.

Hey, let’s get morbid. When they write your obituary, what do you hope they will say about your book/s and writing? What do you hope they will say about you?

Jenny McGill: On my tombstone, which I hope I never have, would be written: “A job well done.”

Location and life experience can sprinkle their influence in your writing. Tell us about where you grew up and a little about where you live now. If you could live anywhere you want to live, where would that be?

Jenny McGill: I grew up on a farm in the Deep South. Now I live on a hillside in a small village in Mexico. I was born in red clay country surrounded by pine trees and I’m still in red clay country surrounded by pine trees. I’ve seen the world and lived a good life, but I look forward to many more miles to go.

Do you have any pets? What are they? Tell us about them.

Jenny McGill: Pets are a great responsibility I never wanted to accept. Traveling with an animal is difficult and I never wanted to rely on kennels or animal-sitters.

Bring us into your home and set the scene for us when you are writing. What does it look like? On the couch, laptop, desk? Music? Lighting, handwriting?

Jenny McGill: Oh, how I love this! You are a welcome guest in my home that sits on the side of a mountain overlooking the valley of our chosen village. You have your guest quarters on the top floor completely furnished with its own quasi-kitchen and private entrance. Come downstairs with me and enjoy my wide open kitchen and terrace that looks out onto the valley surrounded by lush green mountains. At this time of the year, it’s a bit chilly in the early morning, but come have a cup of tea with me as we huddle in our warm ponchos. Shortly, we will start our baking for the holidays.

Do you watch television? If so, what are your favorite shows? Does television influence of inspire your writing?

Jenny McGill: Television is available in the village where I live, but we choose not to be connected.

What about movies? Same as above.

Jenny McGill: Same as above.

Focusing on your most recent (or first) book, tell our readers what genre your book is and what popular author you think your writing style in this book is most like.

Jenny McGill: Drama & Diplomacy, my first and most recent book turned out to be a memoir, although it was never intended to be such. It seems that I have my own unique style, bad or good, and it cannot be compared with others. I enjoy reading and admire many authors. Currently, I belong to a few writers groups and they are extremely versatile. I am one among many and hope to become a major writer.

How long did it take you to write your most recent (or first) book? When you started writing, did you think it would take that long (or short)?

Jenny McGill: It took me six months and I dilly-dallied, but I always knew I would finish and publish the book. It was a MUST with me.

Is there anyone you’d like to specifically acknowledge who has inspired, motivated, encouraged or supported your writing?

Jenny McGill: Yes, Drama & Diplomacy is dedicated ‘To the man who always knew I would….’ The Editor-in-Chief of www.mexconnect.com who edited the second edition of D & D has always encouraged me in my writing. Sally Conley, a retired literary agent in Puerto Vallarta prodded me when I faltered in the first writing. I appreciate each of them.

Now, use this space to tell us more about who you. Anything you want your readers to know?

Drama & Diplomacy: In Sultry Puerto Vallarta by Jenny McGill is available on www.amazon.com.

I’m new at blogging, but I have a blog spot http://wwwjennymcgill.blogspot.com

I have a website http://mjmcgill.com, which shows my picture and gives some reviews Drama & Diplomacy has received in Mexico.

For about two years I have been published monthly by http://www.mexconnect.com which is Mexico’s largest English e-zine.

Beside my writing, I like to encourage the young Mexicans to express themselves in a positive way through the arts. Be it writing, singing, dancing, playing a musical instrument or whatever it happens to be, do THAT and don’t do drugs.

The manuscript I have in the oven now will include recipes. I invite all readers to contribute your favorite Mexican or German recipes, especially those with ingredients that might have been found in Mexico in the 1860s. You will be credited with that recipe in my next book.

Thank you for this interview, Michy. Come sit on my mountainside with me and enjoy a cup of tea.

I’ve been writing seriously since I was a teenager … first songs, and then I got hooked on prose while attending university … thanks in part to one of the greatest teachers I ever had, Prof. Frank Ledwell of the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada, who mentored innumerable young writers during his distinguished career there. After completing undergraduate studies in Canada, I spent many years living and working overseas, particularly in Japan. Somewhere along the way I earned graduate degrees at Columbia and the University of Iowa, and I continued to write … getting some short plays published, along with articles and a nonfiction book titled RAISING A CHILD TO BE BILINGUAL AND BICULTURAL, based on my and my Japanese wife’s experience raising our children to be fluent in both parents’ native languages and cultures.

More recently I’ve been concentrating on fiction, and my first novel, TOUGH LOVE, TENDER HEART, was released by Saga Books earlier this year. A second novel, PLAN B, will be published by Saga Books in 2009.

It’s rare today to find an author who does nothing but write for a living. Do you have a ‘real’ job other than writing, and if so, what is it? What are some other jobs you’ve had in your life?

Steven Verrier: What job haven’t I done? Overseas, I worked mainly as an ESL teacher and college instructor. I’ve done a little of this and a little of that. I’ve been an editor, a laborer, a fundraiser … you name it. Currently I’m working as a high school English teacher.

Have you always wanted to be a writer?

Steven Verrier: Pretty much … at least since I was a teenager. I’d say it was less a case of wanting to be a writer than discovering I was a writer and had better follow through.

Tell us a little bit about your book/s.

Steven Verrier: TOUGH LOVE, TENDER HEART, though not my first published book, is my first published novel. It’s the story of Don Fisher, a middle-aged misfit—just about everything has gone wrong in his life—who finally meets the sort of woman he’s given up on ever meeting. This happens while he’s on vacation in Venezuela. The woman, Ana, is Colombian, working as a waitress in Caracas, and while the two don’t exactly have a storybook romance, a child is conceived during Don’s vacation. He doesn’t learn this until he’s back in the States, but from that point on his energy is directed toward marrying Ana and bringing her to live in the US. Little does he realize the obstacles US Immigration is about to put in his path. As the back cover of the book says, “TOUGH LOVE, TENDER HEART is a stirring, fast-flowing depiction of love trying to take root in an impossible situation, and a tale of unsurpassed relevance to our cross-cultural and post-9/11 age.” I’ve worked very hard to try to make the book live up to that.

Are you currently working on any writing projects our readers should watch for release soon?

Steven Verrier: PLAN B is a story about a teenager who’s—pardon the language—screwed by the public education system but doesn’t take being screwed lying down. Saga Books will release this second novel of mine in 2009.

What type of music, if any, do you listen to while you write?

Steven Verrier: My favorite is country music, though I write in silence. The good songs out of Nashville—unfortunately, not the majority of songs on country radio—are the best-crafted music around. I’m talking about songs like “Friends in Low Places” and “Bless the Broken Road.” I’m a huge fan of real craftsmanship. I write songs, too, and you can listen to a few of them on my myspace page (accessible through stevenverrier.com).

What one thing are you the most proud of in your life?

Steven Verrier: For sure, my children. It’s a messed up world out there, but my four sons are on their way to making a positive contribution.

Location and life experience can sprinkle their influence in your writing. Tell us about where you grew up and a little about where you live now.

Steven Verrier: I was born in Michigan and raised in a small Canadian town. I hold US and Canadian nationalities, and maintain a footing in Japan as well, as my wife and two of my sons were born there. Currently I’m living in San Antonio. I’ve lived here and there … in New York, Tokyo, Mexico, Toronto, Vancouver, and other places … and prefer to have one foot in the city and another in the country. Tokyo and New York are particularly special places, and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to find myself living in one or both of those cities again.

Bring us into your home and set the scene for us when you are writing. What does it look like? On the couch, laptop, desk? Music? Lighting, handwriting?

Steven Verrier: Out of necessity, I write wherever I can. With small children climbing over me and a million other activities going on when I try to write at home, I often carry my things to whichever part of the house seems the most writer-friendly at that moment. And I write out every first draft in longhand.

Do you watch television? If so, what are your favorite shows? Does television influence of inspire your writing?

Steven Verrier: It comes down to craftsmanship. If a program is well-crafted and has compelling characters—shows like “Seinfeld,” “Cheers,” and “Hill Street Blues” come to mind—it can influence my work. For sheer entertainment I like the Chef Ramsay cooking shows. And I loved the concept of “American Inventor.” I wonder what happened to that show.

What is your main goal or purpose you would like to see accomplished by your writing?

Steven Verrier: My aim is to establish a significant career … to entertain, challenge, and inspire readers. I hope to hook up with a larger publisher down the road, and I’d love to see some of my stories put to film.

Have you ever had a character take over a story and move it in a different direction than you had originally intended? How did you handle it?

Steven Verrier: This happens all the time. Once a character has a mind of his own the writer has two choices: let the character go or prepare to engage in a battle of wills. The most compelling characters, I’m sure, are those who lead their writers along, and not vice versa. Watching your characters develop is a lot like raising your kids, and you don’t want to turn things sour by holding on too tight.

It’s said that the editing process of publishing a novel with a publisher is can be grueling and often more difficult than actually writing the story. Do you think this is true for you? How did you feel about editing your masterpiece?

Steven Verrier: This was a bit of a strain. Along the way my manuscript came back with a lot of “corrections” I didn’t see as improvements at all, so much of my final proofing just consisted of putting certain passages back in their original form. I use an economical style, and I’d already done enough editing—cutting out a lot of pages—that I thought pretty much every word that remained was the best one.

Now, use this space to tell us more about who you. Anything you want your readers to know?

I’ll be around for the long haul trying to carve out a significant writing career. I appreciate every little step along the way, and I appreciate every little bit of support I get. For information about TOUGH LOVE, TENDER HEART or about Steven Verrier, visit stevenverrier.com, and drop me a line telling me what you think about this book!

Thanks so much for this opportunity to introduce myself and my work.

More:
http://virtualbooktoursforauthors.blogspot.com/2008/11/tough-love-tender-heart-virtual-blog.html

Dianne Ascroft: Like most writers, my favorite pastime has never been my primary occupation. I’ve always held a day job and written in my spare time. For several years now I’ve been employed on temporary clerical contracts – at a local newspaper and then at a local government office.

In Canada, after I graduated from university, my jobs focused on the information management field – a library clerk in a corporate library and an archives clerk in the public sector.

When I moved to Britain, in 1990, I landed every booklover’s dream job – an assistant in a bookshop. I’ve also worked as a call centre operator for BT, Britain’s largest telephone company, reporting and testing telephone line faults; a care assistant at a nursing home and an Avon representative.

Dianne Ascroft: Hitler and Mars Bars is my first novel. Before I began the book, I thought about writing fiction but I procrastinated for ages. I didn’t begin until I found a story that I wanted to tell. It was hearing the tale of a German man’s unusual childhood that finally compelled me to put pen to paper. This man had been part of the Red Cross initiative, Operation Shamrock, which helped German children recuperate from the terrible conditions in Germany after World War II. He was brought to Ireland and fostered by an Irish family. His life story opened up a new aspect of German and Irish history for me – one that has been overlooked in history books. I was very curious about this piece of history, delved into it and then had to write about what I’d discovered.

Dianne Ascroft: Hitler and Mars Bars is the story of a German boy growing up in war-torn Germany and post war rural Ireland. Set against the backdrop of Operation Shamrock, a little known Irish Red Cross project which helped German children after World War II, my novel explores a previously hidden slice of Irish and German history.

Erich, growing up in Germany’s embattled Ruhr area during World War II, knows only war and deprivation. His mother disappears after a heavy bombing raid, leaving him responsible for his younger brother, Hans. After the war the Red Cross initiative, Operation Shamrock, transports the boys to Ireland, along with hundreds of other children, to recuperate from the devastating conditions in their homeland. During the next few years Erich moves around Ireland through a string of foster families. He experiences the best and worst of Irish life, enduring indifference and brutality and sometimes finding love and acceptance. Plucky and resilient, Erich confronts every challenge he meets and never loses hope. The novel follows Erich’s life until he leaves school at fourteen.

Dianne Ascroft: Hitler and Mars Bars was the overall winner in Ireland’s Own magazine and Trafford Publishing’s Book Deal Contest in 2004. I submitted the synopsis and one sample chapter. I was delighted when I won as the prize was a free publishing package.

My short story, The Contest, was shortlisted and read on air for Belfast Downtown Radio’s Annual Short Story contest in 1998.

Dianne Ascroft: Amazement and disbelief are the first words that come to mind. After spending such a long time working on it, I could scarcely believe it really was finished. There was also a tinge of sadness too as my mother died a couple months before I completed the final edit so she never saw the finished book.

Dianne Ascroft: I don’t think I can pin it down to just one author! I enjoy contemporary and historical fiction. I think the characters have to move me – that’s what inspires me to read a book. Writers who capture the humanity of their characters definitely have the greatest impact on me. Some of these authors and books include Maeve Binchy’s Light A Penny Candle, Adriana Trigiani’s Big Stone Gap, Jodi Picoult’s Plain Truth and Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. These authors create believable characters who I would like to meet in real life.

Dianne Ascroft: As I was growing up I never imagined I would live anywhere else – or anywhere so different from where I was. I lived in a quiet suburb, close to a huge wooded park, when I was growing up in Toronto, one of Canada’s major cities. So I had peace and tranquillity as well as all the advantages of city life right outside my door.

I moved to Britain in 1990 and I’ve been downsizing ever since. I lived in small cities and towns until five years ago we moved to a farm about 100 miles from Belfast, the nearest major city. The farm is wonderful. I have a view of fields and rolling hills from my front window and keep pets that wouldn’t be allowed in a city garden.

I love where I live but I also enjoy a city’s liveliness and its almost endless choice of activities. So my ideal location would be in the country within easy reach of a large city.

Dianne Ascroft: My ‘office’ is the spare bedroom. The computer is set up on the desk in one corner of the room and there is an old sofa against the opposite wall – I write at the computer and stretch out on the sofa to edit a paper copy. I type faster than I can handwrite (and much more legibly…) so it’s easier to get my ideas onto the computer screen than to handwrite. I play classic rock and folk ballads, turned down low on a cd player. I can’t concentrate if the music is above a murmur; I would just hum along. The window is beside the sofa and there’s a lovely view of rolling hills and fields. Hares, pheasants and foxes sometimes wander past. It’s just as well that I can’t see the view from my chair at the computer, without leaning over and craning my neck, or I would never be able to concentrate. I save the view for the moments when I get up, stretch and take a break. There’s a photo of my working space on my website at www.geocities.com/dianne_ascroft/excerpts.

Dianne Ascroft: Hitler and Mars Bars is an historical fiction. I think my style is similar to John Boyne’s in The Boy In The Striped Pajamas. Although his style, unlike mine, is stripped bare of any embellishment, I think my style is still a simple one that conveys a child’s perception of events.

Dianne Ascroft: I spent 3 years working on it. Researching the period occupied the first year then I began writing and editing. I finished the first draft in a few months but then I spent quite a while honing it until I was satisfied. That combined process took longer than I expected. Initially I thought I would have completed the book in just over a year. But writing while juggling the rest of my life slowed me down a bit.

Dianne Ascroft: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. It’s an enthralling story with so much detail. I totally lost myself in it. Tolkien brings his mythical characters to life and I found myself caring what happened to them.

Dianne Ascroft: Since my novel is an historical fiction the names had to be suitable for the era. I chose names from a list of common German boys’ names in the 1940s for my main character, Erich, and his brother, Hans. Lists of Irish first names, for the same period, provided names for the rest of the characters. I scanned the lists and chose names I liked – or ones I didn’t like for villainous characters.

Dianne Ascroft: I didn’t set out to convey a lesson or moral but I think the book is inspiring. Erich’s triumphs offer the reader reassurance that no matter what hardships we endure the human spirit can overcome them without losing our hopes and dreams.

Dianne Ascroft: The only personal appearances I have currently planned are at the Donegal Book Fair in Donegal, Ireland on November 30 and at the Fermanagh Authors Association Book Sale in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland in December (date to be confirmed). Details will be listed on my website at www.geocities.com/dianne_ascroft.

Readers can follow my Virtual Book Tour until December 24. Full tour details are on my blog, Ascroft, eh?, at www.dianneascroft.wordpress.com.

Summary:

Unbridled Cowboy is a riveting firsthand account of a defiant hell-raiser in the wild and tumultuous American Southwest in the late 1800s. At the age of fourteen, Joe Fussell hopped trains to escape from school and the authority he scorned. Joe became a roving cowpuncher across the Texas territory, tilling the land, wrangling cattle, and working in livery stables, moving on whenever his feet began to itch. In a time and place with no law, the young cowboy exacted revenge on those who trespassed him or those who abused authority. Joe recounts tales of cowboy adventures, narrow escapes, and undercover work as a Texas Ranger and life on the railroads. A spark of his wild cowboy spirit remained even after he went to work on the railroads and rose to the position of yardmaster.

Joe’s unadorned prose is as exposed and simple as the wide open Texas plains. His unpretentious, unique voice embodies the spirit of the old West.

Author’s Biography:

Joseph B. Fussell was born in Tyler, Texas, in 1879, the son of a cowboy and buffalo hunter. Fussell trekked most of the Southwest and worked as a cowboy, livery stable operator, and at other jobs. When he was a ranch hand in northern Mexico, he barely escaped the fate of his American friend who died at the bottom of a well. Fussell worked as an undercover Texas ranger before beginning his railroad career. With little formal training, Fussell wrote his riveting memoir about real life in the West at the turn of the century. He died in 1957.

Editor’s Biography:

E. R. Fussell was born in Peru to American citizens and moved back to the United States at the age of five. He received his law degree from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and began practicing law in California. Since 1972, he has practiced law in his hometown of LeRoy, New York.

Remarks of Bob Fussell, author’s grandson & editor of Joe Fussell’s Unbridled Cowboy:

I remember my grandfather, Joe Fussell, as a rather tall, skinny old man who rolled his own cigarettes, wore Stetsons, never sat with his back to a window, and told exciting stories about the Old West. A riveting speaker and very loving man, he gave me books about the West of his father’s time which I still own. While he and my grandmother lived in Alhambra California and I lived in Western New York State we visited each other from time to time. Joe died when I was fifteen.

Gramps wrote his autobiography in 1948 when he was 68 years old. My father never told me about the book, but I learned about it when Aunt Helen, my father’s sister, gave me a copy in 1966. At that time I was 23 and making a trip around the United States, stopping to visit her and my uncle Johnny at their home in Idaho. For decades I had hoped to edit and publish the book, but nothing happened with the manuscript until 2002 when my admin entered it onto computer. By this time, I had written a novel and taken classes in writing at Writers & Books in Rochester.

After editing was complete, I met Dr. Gary Ostrower through a mutual friend. The History Professor from New York’s Alfred University was very impressed with the book and urged me to attend the Western History Association’s annual meeting in Saint Louis in October 2006 to meet with publishers. I spent several days in Saint Louis while presenting the manuscript.

Soon after my return to New York, I was contacted by Truman State University Press who distributed copies to advance readers who reviewed the book.

A few months later, Truman State sent me the excellent reviews from their anonymous readers. I subsequently learned that two of the readers were Texas historian & author Mike Cox and US historian Alfred Runte. Based upon their reviews, Truman State offered to publish my grandfather’s memoir.

I believe the story is totally accurate, as do Truman State’s readers, and partly for the same reasons. Dr. Runte said, “There is no reason for this manuscript to be a hoax. The investment in this amount of material would be substantial, and in some cases hard to glean…The point is that all of the factual materials fall effortlessly into place. The nuances are not strained. Perhaps a Larry McMurtry could have ‘faked’ this manuscript, but it would have taken someone of his knowledge and skills to do so.”

Mr. Cox said, “There are plenty of clues in Fussell’s character as he reveals it (like the time he walked off from the locomotive fireman’s job) that demonstrate his having had the potential for doing what he claims.”

I provided a copy of Unbridled Cowboy to a woman I met in Lubbock last September when I attended the Cowboy Symposium. She wrote recently and told me that she, her father and her grandfather had all worked for the Santa Fe Railroad, and that my grandfather’s descriptions of that company were totally accurate. Based upon the veracity of his description of life at the Santa Fe, she assumed the rest of Gramps’ stories were also true.

Before publishing the book I tried to verify the murderous events in Mexico, but got nowhere. A Mexican priest told me that any records that may have existed were almost certainly destroyed during the Mexican revolution. Furthermore, my father and grandfather were both scrupulously honest, very intelligent men with excellent memories.

On the inside cover of his autobiography my grandfather, in a handwritten note to family members, expressed his hope that many of his, “experiences during childhood, adolescence and early manhood will be accepted with all the tolerance they are able to muster.” Those are not the words of a man who made up his stories.

Find Unbridled Cowboy Online:

Amazon.com

BookZillion