Award for "Haunted Border"

My novel "Haunted Border" has just received the Elmer Kelton Award of West Texas Historical Association.
The citation, which includes a cash prize, was announced in Lubbock, Texas at WTHA's 97th conference. The award recognizes the best creative work on West Texas, a region that dwarfs most states.
"This is a wonderful achievement on your part," said executive director Tai Kreidler upon informing me. "We are so pleased to have had such a book be a part of the Review."
It's a special honor to receive an award named for the late Elmer Kelton, who was a personal friend and one of the finest novelists--and men--the West has produced. I'm grateful to WTHA and to my publisher, Five Star.
Set on the Texas-Mexico border during the Mexican Revolution, "Haunted Border" is based in part on the Brite Ranch Raid of Christmas Day, 1917, when 45 bandits on horseback attacked Brite headquarters and killed three men. The novel also explores the Mexican legend of tlehuelpuchi, a shape-shifting agent of evil.
In crafting "Haunted Border," I drew upon the taped recollections of an actual survivor of the Brite Ranch Raid.