Stephen Burckhardt's Blog: My Blog Ramblings, page 35

Whatever Wednesday: Sleep-Deprived

Hello, Posse!

I hope you are having a great Wednesday. I am mostly awake for this blog. I have been working until the wee hours of the morning for a few weeks now to get everything set in the same formatting program and get a new set of hardcovers available. I wanted everything to gel together in a cohesive serial in time for the last book to come out. I plan to start writing the final book either this weekend or next week.

I want to spend the rest of this week making a companion fun book I want to release this Christmas to my Members Only group. It's going to be just a pdf book with games and puzzles and maybe a few holiday crafts and recipes from the Into the West Saga Serial's time period. Basically I'm doing it just because I want to, which is usually why I do anything I do.

After all this hard work, I think I can safely say I have everything updated that I wanted to update. I am going to do one final check once everything has had a chance to update on Amazon, that will take a few days, but then I should be good to go. I also am learning to add A+ content to my Amazon pages which I hope will draw more interest to the book series. We will see. I need to learn how to do SEO better too. If I had a budget for such things, I would just pay someone qualified to do it for me, but since I don't it's time to find a how to video and get to it myself.

Besides working, I am enjoying fall when I can. I love this time of year. If you know me, you know I LOVE Halloween. I love watching scary movies, decorating the house, making costumes, giving out candy, it's just fun! In this spirit, I have been thinking about making my next writing project a cozy mystery kind of story.

For years I read a very popular cozy mystery series, this is until the writer who had always had an established love triangle in her books suddenly brought in a character from the woman's past and she just forgot about the two men she had been going back and forth with for years. Then when she upped and married the new character, I was done. Made me so mad I never read another one of her books. I figured, I'm a writer, I'll just write my own cozy mystery, one I would want to read. With any luck, other people will want to read them too. Plus, I would actually write this book as Dianne Burckhardt and will not need to watch my pronouns like I do when writing as Stephen.

Well, Posse, I think this is enough rambling for now. I'll leave you with a few great Halloween DIY ideas from Bargain Bethany to get your creative juices going as we get closer to Halloween. She has a great YouTube channel. If you like crafting, you should really follow her. She has some great ideas that work for just about any budget.

Have a great week, Posse!

DianneBargain BethanyDollar Tree Halloween DIYs That You'll Love 2020https://youtu.be/TKD5DQGkrT8

Monday Movie Madness: Belle Starr

Hello, Posse!

I am starting this blog very late in the day for me here. I was up working until about 5 am this morning, but I think I am finally finished with all the updates for the Into the West Saga Serial books! Yee and HAW!! I am so happy. It has been two weeks of basically non-stop work to get everything looking the same. I have to wait until Amazon has time to process all the changes before I can do one more check to make sure everything is alike across all the webpages for ebooks, paperback, and hardcovers and make sure they match what is on my own website too.

This was a much bigger project than I expected it to be, but I'm so glad I did it. I want everything looking perfect leading up to the release of the last installment in this serial, Into the West: Family Ties. I am determined to have that ready for Christmas!

I still need to order one copy of all the print books to make sure they all look good in reality. They look great on the computer, but that does not always carry over to the printed version. I hope to get those ordered this week and can do a final check on them be the first of November. I should be well into writing Into the West: Family Ties by then. The book is already set up and ready to go, now I just have to write it.

In the meantime, how about a great western movie to keep us entertained?

Today's flick is Belle Starr, The Bandit Queen! Belle Starr's story has been told a few times on the big screen and at least once on the small screen. Elizabeth Montgomery (Best known for starring in Bewitched) played Belle in a made for TV version in 1980. Today, we are focusing on the 1941 version starring Gene Tierney and Randolph Scott (Who doesn't like a Randolph Scott western?).

This American Western also features Dana Andrews and Sheppard Strudwick with a supporting cast of familiar character actors from the time period. The story is based on the life of Belle Starr, a notorious American outlaw from the 19th century. By the time this movie came out in 1941, Belle's story had been used as a basis for four movies including one silent movie titled Court Martial starring Betty Compson in a 1928. The success of this film is credited with why more films were made based on her life.

The story follow the live of Belle Shirley (Tirerney) starting efore she became the outlaw Belle Starr. Belle hides a rebel leader, Captain Sam Starr (Scott) in her home. When Yankees discover her deception, they burn her family home to the ground. Belle vows to keep fighting against the Yankees, even as she is put in jail for her transgressions. Sam is grateful for everything Belle tried to do for him and breaks her out of jail.

With no where to go, Belle joins Sam and his group of rebel fighters. The gang does their best to thwart Yankee interests in the South. The gang begins a campaign of raids against enemy troops as well as banks, railroads, and anyone else who they consider against their cause.

Belle begins to become known as the queen of the bandits and not only earns recognition from the gang, but from Sam as well. The couple marry, but their honeymoon does not last long. Belle is a firm believer in the Southern cause, but Sam begins to change his ways and Belle starts to question his real motivation.

The real Belle Starr lived her life with very little attention until her story was featured in a novel in 1889, Belle Starr, the Bandit Queen, or the Female Jesse James. 1889 was also the year Belle was murdered. Her death is considered an unsolved mystery. Many stories have been told over the years about who could have killed Belle Starr with suspects ranging from her own son to an intoxicated man who was offended because Belle refused to dance with him. Her death will remain a mystery, but her life will undoubtedly continue to inspire western stories.

Movie Snack Recipe

Since Belle is such an interesting and unusual character from the old west, I thought it only fitting to find a snack recipe that would just as interesting and unusual (and hopefully, tasty as I haven't personally tried it yet). We can thank Better Homes & Gardens for their Deep-Fried Deviled Eggs recipe (. I think we will be trying this later in the week. I want to make Tempura tomorrow and do not want to be too heavy on fried foods this week. But I have to say, this looks amazing! I can't wait to try it.

But for now, I need to get bak to work on the Into the west Saga Serial books! I am working on creating a companion puzzle book that will be a free download this Christmas for my website members. If you haven't joined up, it's easy and FREE to join. Just click on Exclusives in the menu on the top of any page of my website. Then select Members Only int he drop down menu. Then sign up when prompted. There are no strings attached, you can quit at any time. You've got nothing to lose and free stuff to gain!

But right now, you know what time it is, Posse! It's time to grab your snacks and settle in for another great western movie.

Enjoy!

Stephen Scene from Belle Starr (1941)https://youtu.be/-Y3GdrOctGUWho was Belle Starr? (Jerry Skinner Documentary)

Note: you can tell the captions must have been autogenerated and the program does not do well with some American accents. Some of them are quite funny.

https://youtu.be/ih28QebFu5s

Friday Funnies: Mistakes . . .

Hello, Posse!

I hope you have had a wonderful week and have great things planned for the weekend. I did have some plans for tomorrow, but we are postponing everything for two weeks. Poor P.R. has been feeling under the weather the last few days, so we are taking precautions and staying in for a few weeks and not doing anything unnecessary.

I haven't been feeling 100% either, but that is because I have been working on 3-4 hours sleep a night for more than a week. I can usually do that for a week, no problems, but more than that and I start getting run down. I did finally sleep in today and feel better, but I think I need to do that a few more nights to really feel back to myself.

The good news is, I have gotten a LOT accomplished. The books in the Into the West Saga Serial are all in the same formatting program. All of the books it the serial have to same set up for the interiors. I am almost finished with all the updated covers so they all have the same logos and contact information. And I just have a few more covers to layout for the hardcover versions and I will be all done updating the collection.

It is a good thing I decided to do this. I have always been very honest that when I started doing this serial I knew zero, zip, zilch, nada about how to self-publish books. It has been a learn as you go experience. I have made mistakes along the way . . . many in fact.

One such mistake, I just found as I was updating the covers for the serial. I'm not going to mention what it is at this time (and it was s doozy), because I am considering making it a contest. It might be fun to have people who have the paperback books look them over and see if they can spot the mistake and whoever finds it, gets a free copy of the updated book cover.

Honestly, I am so shocked no one over the years has ever written to me about it. I get messages pretty quick if I miss a typo, so the fact that this mistake has slipped by for years just amuses the heck out of me. It is corrected now, but if you have any of the paperbacks versions of the first few books, you just might have your own copy of my "blooper".

Because of this mistake, I thought it would be a fun time to share some famous bloopers. It makes me feel better watching these highly successful people making their own mistakes, we all make them after all. It just shows that making mistakes does not mean you can't still be very successful in your field. Check out the videos below to watch some of my favorites.

Keep watching my social media for all the great things We have planned to come out between now and Christmas.

Have a great weekend, Posse!

StephenFriends Bloopershttps://youtu.be/rQfEedl2fLIThe Big Bang Theory Season 6 Bloopershttps://youtu.be/KF5gdofOO2k

And of course whenever we have bloopers, we always have to have something from Carol Burnett

Carol Burnett Mama Outtakeshttps://youtu.be/Mf84vaHD64k

Whatever Wednesday: Technical Difficulties . . .

Hello, Posse!

I hope you are all having a wonderful week. I would like to start out by telling you that if you bought copies of the ebooks in my Into the West Saga Serial, I am sorry if you got tons of notices about new updates this week. The good news is, I should be done with that.

When I first started writing the Into the West Saga Serial, I was writing it in Word. I had to go through a lot of steps to get the stories formatted correctly for printing. Later, I bought a formatting program, Vellum for Mac, which made everything so much easier. Seriously, I love that program!

I always thought one day I would sit down and get all the books loaded into the Vellum program and reissue the first books so everything would have the same look and layout. That day finally came. I had to get everything set up for the new hardcover editions, so I thought I might as well reset all the books in the process.

I spent this last week getting everything updated so the books contain most of the same things. All the books except part one, Into the West: The Orphan Train have recaps for the books previously released, naturally book one would not have that. A few of the books have glossaries in them, but not all. I do not use German or archaic English in all of them for which you would need a translation or definition. And Last, the first few books did not offer a sneak peek at the first chapter of the next book if you answered a trivia question about the books serial. Since those books are already published, I did not see a reason to go back and create sneak peeks for them when you can just read the whole book now. Other than these minor differences, the books are now all the same. I wanted to have this ready while I look into issuing a boxed set for Christmas. If I can figure out how to do this, they would all need to be formatted the same.

I think I am being very ambitious right now. I still have the last book to write, a companion fun book I want to create, a box set to figure out how to do, all set for Christmas. This only gives me basically a month and a half to get every thing created and ready to go while I keep up with the usual blogs, ads, etc. No pressure!

Luckily, things are working out in my personal life to help give me the time I need to work on everything. My husband, Pedro, has been incredibly supportive and has taken over most of the household chores the last week and a half so I can spend all my time devoted to getting all the books set up. I think it helps that I promised to get him Bugatti if I ever make money from writing.

I would be much farther ahead right now if I hadn't over estimated how well the Kindle publishing programs worked. Do not get me wrong, they work great just very, VERY slow! I was about to throw the computer last night. I would upload a cover image and it would take anywhere from 10-15 minutes or more for the image to load. Then, I would click to open previewer and it would take another 10-15 minutes to load into that to view. If I had something that needed correcting, I would have to make the corrections, upload again, preview again and by that time more than an hour had passed. It was maddening. This morning about 4 am I was trying to load up what I thought would be the last version for a cover and it took so long, I just gave up and went to bed. I left the computer on so it could finish and this morning I was finally able to see it.

As incredibly frustrating as this process has been, I am really happy with how everything is turning out. Going forward when I do the next book in the Territories Saga Serials, I can start out with this set up and everything will match from the beginning. It will all be so much easier!

I was trying to think of something I could do to get rid of some of the old versions of books I have. I decided to go around to the free libraries in my town and put books in them. I am also going to offer some local libraries or independent bookstores a gift bag to give away at Christmas. So much planning going on, but I really want this book serial to finally get some attention. I've been working on it since 2015 and I finally feel like I'm figuring out how to do this all well.

In other news . . . sort of, it's October (you're shocked, I know), the month of my favorite holiday!!! Be sure to watch my blogs for a special treat I am working on for everyone on my mailing list. If you are not on it, join today. It is always free and I never spam with a lot of stuff. My mailing plan only allows me three mass emails a month, so you will never get more than that. Plus, you can quit at anytime, no strings attached! You have nothing to lose, and free stuff to gain!

In the spirit of Halloween, I wanted to share a great DIY Halloween decoration video I found. I will be heading out this weekend to pick up a few things to finally decorate a bit here. Halloween is not big in our neighborhood. We only ever get about two trick-or-treaters every year. That is so weird to me. When I lived in Kansas, I was known as the house to go to for Halloween and I would often get more than 200 kids in a few hours. I miss that! It was always so much fun. Here is hoping we can get four kids here this year!

Watch for more news coming Friday.

Have a great week, Posse!

Dianne

P.S. don't forget, the entire Into the West Saga Serial is now free to read in Kindle Unlimited! I would love it if you would read the books, leave a review, tell your friends or just share this blog on social media. Every bit of exposure helps me in ways you can never imagine.

Thank you!

https://youtu.be/e-f7zMUocmg

Monday Movie Madness: Night Passage

Hello, Posse!

I have been hard at work this last week getting all of the books in the Into the West Saga Serial uploaded into the same formatting program. When I started writing this serial I had no idea if things would work out to allow me to continue it for as long as I have. Honestly, if it weren't for my incredible "better half", P.R., none of this would be possible.

In fact, everything I was able to get accomplished this past week is due in large part to P.R.. P.R. took over everything in the house for several days so I could focus on doing nothing but working on the books. Even with P.R.'s help, I was up until 4 or 5 am almost every day and then back up around 10 am to get at it again. I'm pooped, but I got so much done.

With a little luck I should be able to finish this hardcover book set up today and get things loaded up this week for them all to go live. Then I plan to start writing part seven, Into the West: Family Ties. The final novella in t the Into the West Saga Serial. I do nave plans to write more serials which will all be part of the Territories Saga Serials which will take place in different U.S. territories.

For now, the plan is to take a break from writing books next year to learn how to create audiobooks. I have most of my studio equipment ready to go, I just need to work on some soundproofing. I also, want to create more merchandise including a companion fun book I hope to have ready for Christmas.

So that is enough news for today, I have got a lot of work to get finished tonight so let's get to today's movie. Night Passage starring James Stewart and Audie Murphy. This film was released by Universal Pictures in 1957 and was directed by James Neilson. The supporting cast is filled with many character actors from the time. You may not know them by name, but if you watch many western movies, you will surely recognize the faces.

This movie centers on a former railroad employee, Grant McLaine (Stewart). He is hired to help deliver the railroad's payroll. The railroad company has been having trouble with bandits and has been robbed many times. Ben Kimball (Jay C. Flippen) works for the railroad and hires McLaine in hopes he can deliver the payroll safely to its destination. Unfortunately for everyone involved, it turns out McLaine has a tie one of the bandits causing trouble for the company. He finds out his brother has joined the bandits and is now known as the Utica Kid (Murphy). When the brothers come at odds to one another, things get a might complicated.

Movie Snack Recipe

Normally I pick recipes I can in somehow tie in to the movie one way or another, but today I'm sharing a recipe I just personally want to make. I have been thinking about this for a while now, craving it actually. I think it just might make it into the dinner menu tomorrow night.

This is Vegetable Tempura by Just One Cookbook . Be sure to check out their other recipes on their website. Not only do they give you great recipes but they also give you tips and tricks to get the best results from them too.

This dish would be great with a dipping sauce or just as it is. If you are not a "fan" of vegetables, you should give this a try. While deep frying is not "healthy," it can be a way to get more vegetables in your diet once in a while. Just suffering through salads everyday can get boring. I may be a vegetarian, but I have never been fond of salads.

So that is it, posse. It's time for me to get back to work on the books. Keep watching my social media for more news and updates coming between now and Christmas. I have a lot of things planned and I hope to have loads of surprises!

Great Westerns

Remember, many great western movies started out as great western books. If you haven't already, why not read my Into the West Saga Serial Collection (. Parts one through six are available now on Amazon.com and BN.com. I'm currently writing the final chapter of this saga, part seven, Into the West: Family Ties. It is currently set for a Christmas release.

Don't forget, you can join my mailing list and never miss out on news or upcoming release dates. Just go to our subscribers page (Into the West: The Orphan Train for free. If you haven't read my books this is a great way to try them out with no risk to you or if you have Kindle Unlimited the entire Into the West Saga Serial is available to read free with your subscription. The mailing list is free to join, quit anytime, no strings attached . . . ever! What have you got to lose? Join us today and start reading!

You know what time it is now, posse! It's time to grab your snacks and settle in for another great western movie!

Enjoy,

Stephenhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4gCFpP2aWQ

Friday Funnies: Dad Jokes Ride Again!

Hello, Posse!

I have been had at work this week getting everything set up to get the hardcover versions set to go live here soon for all the books in The Into the West Saga Serial Collection. I have been so focused on the books, I even forgot today was Friday and I have a blog to do. Oops.

This is going to be very short and sweet so I can get back to the hardcover formatting. I need to get this done by tomorrow so I can have Sunday to finish up the new covers for the hardcover editions. They will look the same as the paperbacks, but of course the layout has to be completely different because of the different printing methods. I no longer have the program I used to create the first books with, so I am having to figure out a work around in the program I am using now. It worked okay for part five, Into the West: To Save Them All so I have hopes that Sunday will be enough time to finish this all.

I want to get this all done and set ASAP so I can jump into writing part seven, Into the West: Family Ties. It is going to be a serious push for me to finish this last book in a month and a half. I have never written a book this fast, but I really want to have this done for Christmas so I am hoping my determination will be enough to help me get through it all. Cross your fingers, posse!

I also want to finish the puzzle pages and maybe create a Fun Book to go with the book serial that can be downloaded for free as a bonus this Christmas, create some new post cards and bookmarks, and even Into the West Christmas cards. Yeah, I'm dreaming big this year.

So to get this all done, I need to get back at it. Before I do that, I wanted to share some great Dad Joke from an incredible family of social media influencers. If you are not following them on Facebook or on their podcasts, you need to do so! I'm talking about the Holderness Family.

They have their Facebook page, Instagram, their own website, and a line of merchandise that includes a book they have written on how to have productive "fights" with your spouse. Click the underlined words to find their pages and the book. They currently have more than 4 million followers on Facebook alone. You know they are doing something right to have that kind of a following. I am still under 400 on Facebook. Maybe I should ask them to mentor me.

If you like to laugh, you really need to check out their videos. Below I linked their latest Dad Jokes video for you to check out.

So that is it for today, posse!

I hope you have a great weekend and this video starts it off with a laugh!

Enjoy,

Stephenhttps://www.facebook.com/TheHoldernessfamily/videos/202369945255862

Whatever Wednesday: Changes!

Hello, Posse!

I have been working like mad this week on new things that will be coming soon! I have so much news for you! The most important thing I want to stress is that new editions of all of these books will be coming out soon. Do not panic! The actual text of the stories are not changing, except for two typos I found. What is going on is a reformatting to make them all the same. That is all.

I have been very honest about the fact that this series has been a learning experience for me. When I started out, I wanted to use this serial as a "practice" serial for me to learn how to do this all well. When I started this self-publishing adventure, I knew exactly zero about what I was doing (which is part of the reason I wrote them under a pen name, in case I sucked at this). I had been a writer and designer for years, but I just wrote the pieces or designed the art and handed it all off to someone else to put things together. I didn't know how to format things, how to set up book cover art for printing, I was not even really involved in social media other than Facebook to keep up with my family and friends after I moved away from my home state. I was a total newbie at self-publishing.

I have learned how to do most of the things I need to do to produce the books (and pay people to do the things I can't), and as I learn, things changed over the years. I started out writing these books in a word program and had to go through a lot of steps to get the books formatted correctly to work in the publishing platforms. I have since bought a formatting program (Vellum) which sets up everything for me as I write. I am sure if you read the paperbacks, you noticed a shift in how the layout of the books have looked. Now that I have time, I am going back and reformatting the first few books so that going forward all installments will have the same look.

If you have the ebooks, you will get an alert telling you there are updates you can download. If you have the paperbacks, do not worry, there is nothing in the new editions that you are missing. The stories are the same, the books will now just have the recaps in the front for previous books, the 1859 U.S. Map (which is also on the Members Only page), praise for Stephen Burckhardt books, also by Stephen Burckhardt, there will be a glossary if I have used German or "antiquated" English expressions, etc. All the things that were in part six, Into the West: Last Showdown.

Going forward we are also listing the publisher as Burckhardt Books just so we can keep all Stephen Burckhardt and Dianne Burckhardt books tied together once we get Dianne Burckhardt books going here after this serial is finished.

Also, this week, I am setting up all the books in the Into the West Saga Serial to publish them in hardcover formats. This was basically the catalyst for why I decided to reformat the entire serial to match, because I had to reformat them all anyway to set up the hardcovers. I had tried out the hardcover for part six, Into the West: Last Showdown and they look so good I personally want to have a whole set of them in hardcover, even if no one else ever buys them.

I have already noticed a nice trend since I put the entire Into the West Saga Serial in the Kindle Unlimited program. I believe this will help bring more readers to my serial. I will keep checking with other platforms to see if it will ever be financially beneficial to spread the ebooks out again or not. However, for the foreseeable future, we are sticking with Kindle Unlimited's exclusive program so subscribers can read this serial for free under their subscription.

New Things Coming to Members Only Page

I am getting ready this week to add a lot of fun stuff to the Members Only page. I found a great site that makes puzzles for you. You type in all the information and select the kind of puzzle you want and hit create and you have a puzzle.

There will be crosswords, word search, cryptograms, and more. I also hope to add some more coloring book pages and dot-to-dot. The puzzles will all be tied specifically to one of the books in my serial or to historical information from the era the books are set in. I have the first set for Into the West: The Orphan Train puzzles ready to go and will get them uploaded later this week.

If you have not joined my Members Only page, it is quick and easy to do and 100% FREE! You can quit any time, no strings attached. Just go to the Members Only (

If there is anything you think I need to add to this website to make it more user friendly, more engaging, or more entertaining, do not hesitate to drop me a line. I love hearing suggestions.

For now I am going back to work because I only have this week set aside to work on all of these kinds of things. Starting next week, I will be writing the final installment in the Into the West Saga Serial, Into the West: Family Ties! I really want to have this ready for a Christmas release this year. The people of Sharon Springs will be celebrating Christmas in the story and I think this will be a wonderful tie-in.

If you have already read part six, you know things are brewing that could turn Elizabeth and Conner's lives upside down, not to mention the lives of just about everyone in Sharon Springs. The final installment will have a lot of surprises I think will really bring the whole serial to a fantastic end . . . but then, do things ever really end? We will find out.

Keep watching my social media for more updates.

Have a great week, posse!

Dianne

Monday Movie Madness: Concrete Cowboy

Hello, Posse!

It is good to be back from my vacation and I am ready to dive back into the world of Stephen Burckhardt Books. While I may not have been keeping up with my social media this week, I was doing a lot of other things. Taking time off from the social media upkeep really freed up a lot of my time to focus on some projects that have been neglected since I started posting regularly. This blog will be a bit long, I have a lot of news for you.

Going forward we are going to be publishing everything under Burckhardt Books so this will cover all the Stephen Burckhardt books and the books that will be coming soon by Dianne Burckhardt. You will see an update in all of the books publisher lines.

This week, I am taking vacation from everything else to focus on my books. I have a few things planned that I think will help to expand our audience. The first thing, I have already done. Until now, I have had ebooks on Amazon and on Barnes & Noble Booksellers (B&N). I have been wondering if it would be more profitable for me to just go exclusively with Amazon so my books can be part of the Kindle Unlimited program.

I was really hesitant to do this, in part because I worked for B&N for 13.5 years and I liked having my books available with them. Even though I have no worked for them in over a decade, I still have fond memories of that job and am still friends with many of the people I was blessed to have worked with there.

However, this last week I went to check on my books on BN.com and found that somehow the system had "lost" the uploads for all but two of my ebooks. I would have to start all over and upload everything with them again if i wanted to continue offering my ebooks there. I have had other trouble with their self-publishing program and just took this as a sign that I should go with Amazon. While I am keeping all of my paperback books available with B&N, my ebooks are now exclusively on Amazon and free to read if you have Kindle Unlimited. My books can all be found on my author page on Amazon.com (

New Logos are coming! I finally had time to sit down and watch a tutorial on how to do certain things on my design program. While I was a designer when I was in my 20s, the programs today are much different than the ones I used back then. In fact the one I have now is actually more complicated than the one I used to use. It was so simple, I miss it! But I was able to finally clean up the logo for Stephen Burckhardt, Western Author. You might have already noticed this on the StephenBurckhardt.com. I still need to clean up the logo for Dianne Burckhardt and create one for Burckhardt Books, but those will get done this week.

Hardcovers are coming! Amazon has finally made hardcover books an option for self-published books. I have already uploaded the first one for part 6, Into the West: Last Showdown. I got a proof of this and I have to say I am pretty happy with how they look. The spine on this is wide enough I can put a title on the spine. I am going to redo the cover today and see if I can get it to work. Right now it just looks like the paperbacks with no title on the spine. I plan to send out an email alert when I have all the hardcovers uploaded and ready. I was going to un-publish this hardcover until I have a chance to see if I can get the spine title to work but the program showed that it would still be live to third parties even if I did so I'm just sharing will all of you, if you have any interest in hardcover books, hold off until the email announcement. When that goes out, the covers will all be sent in the final edition. The hardcovers really look nice. they are the same size as the paperbacks and the cover is printed on the book, no dust jackets. Even if no one else ever wants the hardcover editions, I'm getting a full set for myself.

This week is going to be all about creating support items for my books that I never have time to get done normally. Creating new, fun things for my Members Only page, updating some of my promotional material, redesigning my books bags I give away in contests sometimes, and so much more. I am also writing some query letters to a few places about getting my books on shelves in some places. Keep watching my social media for updates at they happen.

The final book is coming! I am not writing on the book this week, but next week I am diving hard into the last book of the Into the West Saga Serial. I have a plan to write several books in the US territories of this time period. The first saga got us into the west. Now, I plan to take those characters and expand on their world. In the next saga, some of the characters you already know and love will move on to the Colorado territory and start a new life for themselves. I plan to start bringing in more true American history starting with a character based on ,Bass Reeves. (

I have been completely fascinated about Bass Reeves since the day I learned about him. I was always such a fan of the Lone Ranger growing up and Bass Reeves is probably the closest real life Lone Ranger that the West ever had. He lived with Natives in Oklahoma and could even speak a few of their languages. I have been dying to work him into a series, but he wasn't a lawman until after the Civil War so I have been waiting to get him in there when it lines up more with actual history.

I also want to bring in more Natives and black cowboys/girls. These groups do not always get representation in historical fiction and I want to change that. Being Cherokee, it is extremely important to me to give accurate representations.

Well, this blog is getting a bit long so I think I should save some things for Wednesday. But we still have to get to our movie!

I had been posting that I would share The Searchers today but when I started to write that, I was sure I have covered that movie before so I decided to go to a modern cowboy movie made for Netflix staring Idris Elba Concrete Cowboy.

Concrete Cowboy was released in 2020 and is a fascinating story which plays right into my desire to bring in more factual information about black cowboys in history. This movie is based on a real group of cowboys/girls who were fighting to keep their way fo life in an urban setting in Philadelphia. Like with many good western movies, Concrete Cowboy is based a novel. Ghetto Cowboy by Greg Neri inspired this movie. While the story is fiction, it is based on real riding groups from the area, specifically the Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club.

The film stars Elba with a great supporting cast that includes some of the real life members of the riding club. Other actors include: Caleb McLaughlin, Lorraine Toussaint, Byron Bowers, Jharrel Jerome, and Clifford "Method Man" Smith.

Fifteen-year-old Cole (McLaughlin) is becoming a rebellious teen and starting to go down the wrong path in life. In a last attempt to help her son, his mother takes him to live with his estranged father in Philadelphia. His father happens to be a serious urban cowboy and centers his life around the animals he loves and the people who share that passion. Cole tries to fight to continue his rebellious ways but when he gets involved with some dangerous people and sees his friend get gunned down, he starts to reach out and begin to connect with some members of the riding club and one horse in particular. The movie is well worth the time and the end has a few interviews with some of the actual members of the riding club. It is fascinating to say the least!

Movie Snack Recipe

Seeing as how today is National Taco Day, I thought, what could be better than a taco recipe for today's movie snack recipe? Who would be better to get that recipe from, than a cowboy to tie into today's movie? Check out this Authentic Tacos with Homemade Corn Tortillas by Cowboy Kent Rollins. (KentRollins.com. Be sure to check out his cooking videos on his YouTube Channel (

I have got a lot of projects to complete this week and want to spend some time in the kitchen myself making a few things I have had to pass on this summer because I just didn't have the time. I plan to make some homemade (Eastern) Indian food tonight including Samosas with a homemade Chutney dipping sauce. Tomorrow will be Chinese with my favorite recipe, Di San Xian or The Three Treasures. Plus, I need to made some more vegan rice paper bacon. It is crazy good (so good in fact, my seriously carnivorous spouse will eat it all if I don't hide it in the fridge), P.R. is going to be happy about this. Not to mention one of P.R.'s favorites things, banana bread with cranberries. It's going to be a fun week!

So now you know what time it is, posse! Time to grab your snacks and settle in for another great western movie! Don't forget to sign up for my Members Only page for some great new free downloads that are coming soon!

Have a great week, Posse!

StephenConcrete Cowboy - Trailer - Netflix https://youtu.be/WZ3dgHqaw8UKent Rollins Cowboy Cooking Channelhttps://youtu.be/YXBLcf7BTgs

Friday Funnies: More Vacation Days!

Hello, Posse!

I hope you have had a great week and are looking forward to us getting back to our blogs next week. In the mean time, how about a great comedy video from one of my favorite TV stars from my childhood, Carol Burnett. I never missed her show, The Carol Burnett Show. It is still great after all these years. Their bloopers are classic in more ways than one!

But don't forget to leave time to read a book, I suggest mine for that.

Have a great weekend, posse. We will be back next week!

Enjoy,

Stephen The Carol Burnett Show with guest star: Tim Conway. https://youtu.be/LoMOqEsufEsBest Carol Burnett Show Bloopershttps://youtu.be/2b5C6Xp3pwA

Whatever Wednesday: The Book Lady!

Hello, Posse!

We are on vacation this week so we thought we would share a great video about the Imagination Library and their book lady, Dolly Parton. If you or someone you know is about to have a baby or have a child under school age, you should check out the Imagination Library. If you living one of the delivery areas in many countries around the world, you can sign up to have a free book sent to your child every month from birth to age 5.

Don't forget to pick up part six of the Into the West Saga Serial, Into the West: Last Showdown. On Sale Now.

Enjoy,

Dianne

PBS News Hour: Book Lady, Dolly Parton

https://youtu.be/ZHNCLyvqoQw