Well, gang, I can’t keep it secret any more.  My next book is coming along nicely and I’m anticipating a late October release.  Right around my birthday.  I’m working hard to make that happen.

But here’s the thing:  The Last Hunt is a western.

You heard me.  I’m talking about hard-bitten gunslingers, tall, wide vistas, ornery horses, evil black hats, the whole bit.

Oh, sure, you say, but it’ll be like some kinda weird Cormac McCarthy hybrid, right?  A whacked out, modernistic take on the Wild West, standing the entire genre on its head.

Nope, nope and…nope.

Y’see, I happen to love westerns. I don’t look down on the genre, relegate it to second-class status. I grew up watching Clint Eastwood and John Wayne movies.  I enjoy reading the novels of Elmer Kelton and Richard S. Wheeler.  They’re superb writers, regardless of categories and classifications.

I’m saddened by the cinematic decline of the western—the last truly great cowboy flick I saw was “The Long Riders”, made back in 1980. “The Unforgiven” (1992) was a decent movie but far too earnest and over-long. “The Long Riders” was the shit.

And since then there’ve been remakes and abominations like “Young Guns”—westerns by people who’ve never been near a horse in their lives and whose knowledge of the Old West is, put kindly, superficial. Hollywood has tried to update westerns, reinvent them with big name stars and budgets that would make even Michael Cimino swoon…but they’ve lost the spirit.  Sam Peckinpah and John Ford had a real grasp of those who pioneered the land west of the Mississippi, their contrary natures, the sort of valor and resolution Alan LeMay refers to in a quote that precedes his classic novel, The Searchers:

“These people had the kind of courage that may be the finest gift of man:  the courage of those who simply keep on, and on, doing the next thing, far beyond all reasonable endurance, seldom thinking of themselves as martyred, and never thinking of themselves as brave.”

In the course of writing The Last Hunt, by pure chance I happened across a reproduction of a William R. Leigh painting called “The Warning Shadow”. It was another one of those too-amazing-to-be-a-coincidence moments (and I should know, I’d had a few of them).  The image was perfect for my book—but I had a dickens of a time tracking down who owned the rights.  Finally, I was put in touch with the Rockwell Museum of Western Art (in Corning, New York) and Bobby Rockwell helped me secure permission to use the painting.  Mr. Leigh’s artworks are highly prized, very collectible and I’m honored to have “The Warning Shadow” on my cover.

The cover accompanying this post is, I hasten to say, a mere mockup…but it gives you a fair idea of what to expect.  Once our designer, Chris Kent, has a crack at it, the cover will look even better.

As for plot details, er, I think I’ll keep that to myself for now.  When it gets closer to publication date I’ll be more forthcoming.  Hoping the novel will be popular with fans of the western genre as well as people who just love a fast, entertaining read.  Like my last two novels, I think The Last Hunt has a lot of cross-over appeal, the potential to draw a wide variety of readers.

I’ve spent the past three weeks going through the second draft and I like what I’m seeing.  It’s a short novel, around 50,000 words, and it moves along at an exciting clip.  Good, solid protagonist and memorable supporting players.  By the time this book is released in the late fall, it’s gonna hum.

So stay tuned, check in every once in awhile for updates and further developments.  Maybe even an excerpt or two, just to whet your appetite.

Yeah, I know, a western.  But, trust me, it’s a helluva tale…