Saturday, February 27, 2010

Cowboys!

Total-e-bound.com is issuing both my cowboy stories in print next month in one volume - to which I say - Yippee-eye-oh-kyay - or something equally corny! Title with be Ride 'em Cowboys! and the original cover (see right) will be used. I'll establish the link once I get the release date - until then, curb your enthusiasm. I know y'all can't wait for another taste of baccy and leather!

Friday, February 26, 2010

A year in the life

Life sometimes has a strange way of kicking you in the ass just when you think everything's going great. I don't usually write posts like this one, but recently I've felt the need to rant just a little. Last year -- 2009 -- sucked . Not professionally, you understand -- I did okay with writing and book sales etc. -- but I lost two very dear friends and it's been hard to reconcile their loss. We went back a long way together - Jimmy, Gee (short for Godfrey) and I worked together in show biz years ago.
Though time and distance kept us apart most of the time, we never lost touch, and when my partner Phil and I visited them in London they always made us feel so welcome and at home. Gee passed away after a long bout with cancer, and sad to say Jimmy never really recover from the loss. He visited us at our home in Nevada last April, but he was a shadow of his former self -- totally at sea without his safe haven.
Last December I received the sad news that Jimmy had died after falling down a flight of stairs at his home in Mitcham, Surrey. Phil and I attended his memorial service in London on Jan. 30th, his birthday. His and Gee's ashes were scattered together from a boat on the River Thames. I was glad I was there to say goodbye to both of them, but the crushing sadness I felt that day has taken a long time to dissipate. It's still there, and somehow I feel it always will be. Friends -- good friends -- are rare, and impossible to replace. The memories I have of them, the good times, the laughs we shared, will never die -- I will always hold them close to myheart. I just wish I could hold my dear friends there again too.