I’m back in Wyoming this week for my first Western Writers of America conference. I can’t say enough about the hospitality and good spirits of the members and leadership of the organization. With Trail Angel coming out in less than eight weeks, this has been a great opportunity to learn from people who’ve been there/done that many times over. Among the authors I met was Dusty Richards, a past president of the WWA who told me (in all humility) that he’s published more than 150 books.
This got me thinking, and the next time I saw him I told him I’d figured out how I might catch up to his output. Step one: live to be about 500. “So I took a vitamin this morning,” I told him.
The last time I was here, I was researching and writing. The photo on this page was taken from a balcony at the historic Occidental Hotel in Buffalo, Wyoming. In hopes that a little writerly magic would rub off, I stayed in the Owen Wister room, named for the author of The Virginian, one of the first great Westerns.