In these ten stories, Ford mines literary gold from the wind-scrubbed landscape of the American West - and from the guarded hopes and gnawing loneliness of the people who live there. A refugee from justice driving across Wyoming with his daughter; an unhappy girlfriend and a stolen Mercedes; a boy watching his family dissolve in a night of tragicomic violence; two men and a woman swapping hard-luck stories in a frontier bar as they try to sweeten their luck. Rock Springs is a masterpiece of taut narration, cleanly chiselled prose, and empathy so generous that it feels like a kind of grace.
An ancient inland sea, surrounded by lush vegetation and inhabited by dinosaurs, helped create the mineral-rich landscape where Rock Springs, Wyoming, now sits. French trappers first encountered American Indians who were traveling via a natural corridor that traverses the region, and eventually pioneer trails used this same route in the great westward expansion. The First Transcontinental Railroad arrived in 1868, and the national demand for energy in the form of fossil fuels turned everyone's attention to the vast coal deposits. Thus the frontier outpost of Rock Springs became an important energy center, and immigrants from around the world came to work in the mines and make this land their home. As local businessman Leonard Hay used to say, "All wealth comes from the earth." Today other minerals have joined coal as new sources of wealth for Rock Springs, and plans are being made to harness the wind that carved out this unique landscape.
Great Falls, Montana, is where the Rockies end and where, in 1960, the Brinson family hopes to find a better life. Instead, sixteen-year-old Joe Brinson watches his parents discover the limits of their marriage and, at the same time, the unexpected depths of dignity and courage that remain even when love dies.
Once described as "a place where God and man went fifty-fifty to produce perfection," Rock Springs Park remained a landmark along the Lincoln Highway in Chester until 1970. In its heyday, this panhandle playground captivated 20,000 visitors daily with attractions including the World's Greatest Scenic Railway, the Cyclone Roller Coaster, and a hand-carved 1927 Dentzel Carousel. Images of America: Rock Springs Park features over 200 rarely seen images and portrays the lifespan of the park from its history as Native American hunting grounds to its development as a local trolley park and full-fledged amusement park. The park hosted business and community picnic excursions and countless celebrity entertainers. Performer Bobby Vinton remembers the era of dances at the park as "a very romantic time . . . almost like something in the movies. There was the carousel, the guys in white shoes and girls that were all dressed up with their crinoline skirts."
Ramblings is about a boy growing up in the 1960s in a farm community where the people were connected through real-life needs and the joys and struggles it created in relationships and life. This is a memoir of the reality, humor and lessons of agricultural life. Although philosophical at times, the narrative comes through people and stories, not through excessive discourse on the philosophy of an agricultural heritage. Stories center around the 'inconsequential' people who enrich our lives in everyday ways. It is an honest book which exposes the flaws of these people while maintaining their heroic nature in their daily walk. The book explores the relationships of family, neighbors and community, which will be familiar to anyone regardless of age or background.
Enjoy this Steamy Cowboy Romance Book from Small Town Romance author Kaci M. Rose... I shouldn't want him. He's older than me, he's a rough bar owning cowboy, dangerous. But every time I'm near him I've never felt safer. I've always been a good girl, following my parent's rules, church every Sunday, and good grades in school. But when Jason walks into my life I'm willing to break every rule for him, only he won't let me. This bad boy cowboy is conforming to my parent's rules proving he's worthy of me. Until one of the guys at church start getting a little too pushy, trying to lay claim on me, stalking me, and spreading lies around the church. Until this guy goes too far and I see a side of Jason I've never seen before, a side that could ruin everything. The Cowboy and His Sweetheart is a novel in the Rock Springs, Texas series, and all books in the Rock Springs world are interconnected standalones. A HOT cowboy romance with a guaranteed happily ever after and an Alpha hero, age gap romance, and virgin heroine. It does have some strong language and oh my, sexy times. Rock Springs, Texas Series The Cowboy and His Runaway The Cowboy and His Best Friend The Cowboy and His Obsession The Cowboy and His Sweetheart The Cowboy and His Secret Rock Springs Wedding Novella
Everyone knows the name Calamity Jane. Scores of dime novels and movie and TV Westerns have portrayed this original Wild West woman as an adventuresome, gun-toting hellion. Although Calamity Jane has probably been written about more than any other woman of the nineteenth-century American West, fiction and legend have largely obscured the facts of her life. This lively, concise, and exhaustively researched biography traces the real person from the Missouri farm where she was born in 1856 through the development of her notorious persona as a Wild West heroine. Before Calamity Jane became a legend, she was Martha Canary, orphaned when she was only eleven years old. From a young age she traveled fearlessly, worked with men, smoked, chewed tobacco, and drank. By the time she arrived in the boomtown of Deadwood, South Dakota, in 1876, she had become Calamity Jane, and the real Martha Canary had disappeared under a landslide of purple prose. Calamity became a hostess and dancer in Deadwood’s saloons and theaters. She imbibed heavily, and she might have been a prostitute, but she had other qualities, as well, including those of an angel of mercy who ministered to the sick and the down-and-out. Journalists and dime novelists couldn’t get enough of either version, nor, in the following century, could filmmakers. Sorting through the stories, veteran western historian Richard W. Etulain’s account begins with a biography that offers new information on Calamity’s several “husbands” (including one she legally married), her two children, and a woman who claimed to be the daughter of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity, a story Etulain discredits. In the second half of the book, Etulain traces the stories that have shaped Calamity Jane’s reputation. Some Calamity portraits, he says, suggest that she aspired to a quiet life with a husband and family. As the 2004–2006 HBO series Deadwood makes clear, well more than a century after her first appearance as a heroine in the Deadwood Dick dime novels, Calamity Jane lives on—raunchy, unabashed, contradictory, and ambiguous as ever.
Enjoy this FREE Steamy Cowboy Romance Book from Small Town Romance author Kaci Rose... A protective cowboy, a girl on the run, and crash landing that shakes them both. No cowboy ever expects to find a woman hiding in their barn. Much less one that is a beautiful as Riley, even with the bruises. I vow to protect her, from whatever she is running from. I will protect her from everything... everything but me. The Cowboy and His Runaway is a free novel in the Rock Springs, Texas series, and all books in the Rock Springs world are interconnected standalones. A HOT cowboy romance with a guaranteed happily ever after and an Alpha hero, it does have some strong language and oh my, sexy times. Enjoy this series starter for free! Rock Springs, Texas Series The Cowboy and His Runaway The Cowboy and His Best Friend The Cowboy and His Obsession The Cowboy and His Sweetheart The Cowboy and His Secret Rock Springs Wedding Novella
In twenty heavy chapters, this book chronicles Anselmi's experiences growing up as a straight edge, BMX-riding metalhead in Rock Springs, Wyoming, a place with one of the highest per capita suicide rates in the United States. His grandpa was a well-known businessman and politician in the area, and was featured in a 1977 60 Minutes episode for his alleged connections to organized crime. This is only the beginning of Anselmi's heavy saga, and it interweaves all of the social and personal history one might expect from a story like this--including Black Sabbath, Pantera, and Metallica logo tattoos, explorations in LSD, metal, and BMX culture, self-loathing and sobriety, and--finally--a very unique perspective on what it means to live in a heavy fucking world.
