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Michael R. Ritt

Goodreads Author

Born

in Chicago, The United States

Website

https://rittwesterns.com/

Twitter

MRRittAuthor

Genre

Historical Fiction, History, Fiction

Member Since

April 2012

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/mikeritt

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Michael R. Ritt is a Wisconsin author who primarily writes in the Western genre. His short stories have appeared in many anthologies, including Contention: and Other Frontier Stories and The Trading Post: and Other Frontier Stories, both published by Five Star, as well as Rough Country and Showdown, published by High Hill Press. His latest book, The Sons of Philo Gaines, is his first novel and was released by Five Star in November 2020.

Ritt was born in Chicago but moved with his family to Wisconsin when he was nine years old. “My dad was an avid fisherman,” says Ritt. “I guess he finally got to the point where he had caught all of the fish in the lakes and rivers in Illinois, so he started going north to Wisconsin every weekend to fish in t Michael R. Ritt is a Wisconsin author who primarily writes in the Western genre. His short stories have appeared in many anthologies, including Contention: and Other Frontier Stories and The Trading Post: and Other Frontier Stories, both published by Five Star, as well as Rough Country and Showdown, published by High Hill Press. His latest book, The Sons of Philo Gaines, is his first novel and was released by Five Star in November 2020.

Ritt was born in Chicago but moved with his family to Wisconsin when he was nine years old. “My dad was an avid fisherman,” says Ritt. “I guess he finally got to the point where he had caught all of the fish in the lakes and rivers in Illinois, so he started going north to Wisconsin every weekend to fish in the Wisconsin River. Eventually, he figured out it would be a lot cheaper if we just moved there.”

He graduated from high school in Wisconsin and attended Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Afterwards, he moved back to Wisconsin, where he met his wife, Tami. They were married in 1989. “My redheaded sweetheart was a widow with two young boys and a teenage daughter when we married. We became an instant family. Then, a year later, we had a son of our own.”

In 2002, they moved to Colorado when Ritt accepted a position with the United States Department of Agriculture. Thirteen years later, his job took him and Tami to Montana, where they lived in a 600-square-foot cabin on thirty acres in the western mountains of the state.

“A passion for reading turned into a passion for writing while I was in high school,” says Ritt. “Since then, I’ve been writing everything: poems, short stories, essays, shopping lists, you name it.” In 2018, his short story, Father Pedro’s Prayer, won the Peacemaker Finalist award for best Western short fiction from Western Fictioneers. He followed that up in 2019 with another Peacemaker Finalist award for his story, Aces and Eights. In 2021, his novel, The Sons of Philo Gaines, won two Peacemaker Finalist awards, one for Best Western and the other for Best First Western. It also received the first-place Gold Medallion in the Will Rogers Medallion Awards. His short story, The Would-be Bounty Hunters, won the Peacemaker Award for Best Western Short Fiction of 2023.

Besides writing, Ritt enjoys hiking and bird-watching with his redheaded sweetheart, and he also likes reading about history, theology, and natural science. He has served on the boards of two nonprofit organizations and was elected to the Sauk County (Wisconsin) Board of Supervisors in 1998. He serves as a deacon in his church and is a member of the Western Writers of America and Western Fictioneers. ...more

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Michael R. Ritt’s books

Average rating: 4.57 · 53 ratings · 26 reviews · 7 distinct works

	The Sons of Philo Gaines (Five Star Western Series) 4.95 avg rating — 22 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Trading Post and Other Frontier Stories: A Five Star Anthology (A Five Star Anthology edited by Hazel Rumney Book 0) by Michael Zimmer (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), Johnny D. Boggs, John D. Nesbitt (Goodreads Author) 4.19 avg rating — 26 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Rough Country by Brett Cogburn (Goodreads Author), Brett Cogburn (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Michael R. Ritt (Goodreads Author) 4.46 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 2013 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Contention and Other Frontier Stories: A Five Star Anthology edited by Hazel Rumney by Loren D. Estleman, Johnny D. Boggs, Michael R. Ritt 4.44 avg rating — 9 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Untamed West by Western Fictioneers, Michael R. Ritt (Goodreads Author) (Contributor) 4.25 avg rating — 4 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Showdown by Johnny D. Boggs, Johnny D. Boggs, John Neely Davis it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2016 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Six Gun Justice: Western Stories by Richard Prosch (Goodreads Author), Steve Hockensmith (Goodreads Author), Easy Jackson (Goodreads Author) 3.75 avg rating — 4 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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LINCOLN – Complete 7 Volume Edition: Biographies, Speeches and Debates, Civil War Telegrams, Letters, Presidential Orders & Proclamations: Leader & Reformer

by Abraham Lincoln

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Six Gun Justice: Western Stories

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Wonderful Words of Life: Hymns in American Protestant History and Theology (The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship Liturgical Studies (CICW))

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Michael liked Jeff Benham's review of Trouble On The Brazos: A Western Adventure (The Gaines Family Saga Book 2): "Just an excellent story! Sad start because we already knew that Mike was going to be murdered. Luke gathered a posse to go after the bank robber and quickly found out his name was Flynn Kelly. It didn't take long for Flynn to find a partner and for t" Read more of this review »
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The Women of Bandit Bend by C.C. Harrison is a gripping Western story that skillfully blends adventure, mystery, and resilience. Set on the rugged Colorado frontier, the novel follows sisters Tally and Ivy Tisdale as they turn their father’s rundown ...more
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“I have read my books by many lights, hoarding their beauty, their wit or wisdom against the dark days when I would have no book, nor a place to read. I have known hunger of the belly kind many times over, but I have known a worse hunger: the need to know and to learn.”
― Louis L'Amour, Education of a Wandering Man: A Memoir

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