Monte Casteel hadn’t planned on staying long when he rode into the small Wyoming town of Eagle Spring.  He was just a ranch hand with no work between seasons.  But even before he got into town, someone warned him it might be better for his health if he kept on riding, and Monte hated to be told what to do.  It got even tougher to leave when he saw Dora in the street.  She was the girl he’d pined after for so long, though she never seemed to care much for him.  They may not have been the best reasons to stay around, but they were good enough for Monte.  He didn’t know—-yet—-that he had one great reason to ride out of town fast—-a range war was brewing, hired guns were coming in, and before long Monte would find himself caught right in the middle.

Travis Quinn doesn't have much luck picking friends. First, a friend gets him fired from a ranch. Then he heads down the Powder River, meeting another "friend" who puts in a good word and gets him hired at the Lockhart Ranch. And, if the rumors are true, this friend might just get Travis killed.

At first, homesteader Henry Sommers was pleased when his neighbor Van O’Leary started dropping by.  After, all, friends came in handy out on the Wyoming Plains.  But it soon became clear that O’Leary had some sort of money-making scheme in the works and didn’t much care how the money was made.  Henry wanted no part of his neighbor’s dirty business, but freeing himself of O’Leary was almost as difficult as climbing out of quicksand . . . and just as dangerous.

A novel of the contemporary American West, Keep the Wind in Your Face takes place in the big outdoors.  It features men and women, horses and big-game hunting, and a strong sense of landscape as a presence in the action.  It portrays adventure that is realistic to the modern West, with a healthy absence of television melodrama.  This novel has a spare but eloquent prose style that matches its subject.

Out on a ranch in the foothills, Jim Lander is trying to get his life in order.  He's trying to put his divorce behind him so he can develop a relationship with Dusty, a nice young woman who lives in town.  Things get complicated, though, when he doesn't resist temptations at the Trail's End, his favorite honky-tonk bar. To sort things out, he goes to the mountains. But even then, it takes the right combination to get things into balance.  Nothing comes easy, but it is possible to find a good camp, up and away from it all, where the best light comes from the moon and the campfire. This is John D. Nesbitt's second novel about life in the contemporary West.  As in his other work, Nesbitt gives a realistic treatment to his materials.  His characters are less than perfect, having been through divorce or similar mistakes and giving a hesitant try at romance.  They live in a setting that Nesbitt writes about the best--small-town life, farm and ranch country, and the big outdoors where everyone has the right to look for a good camp.  This is a lean, trim novel with a graceful prose style that will remind us of why we like to read.

This is a one-of-a-kind book, consisting of six stories that interlock to give the unified effect of a novel.  The narrative offers an entertaining combination of comedy, parody, satire,  poetry, song, and pristine romance—with a serious undercurrent beneath the playful surface.  Styled as wholesome fiction to combat the scurrility and incivility of the modern age, this book should bring amusement and delight.

Here is a world of sky and sage, dust and rain, horses and saddles, pickups and gun racks—where the wild roses bloom in springtime and the wild geese fly in winter.

This is a world where men and women meet, or separate, or have a drink somewhere in between, as they sort out their pasts and try to remake the present.

Somewhere between John Steinbeck and Merle Haggard, these short stories are about people who work in the fields, sleep in cars and bunkhouses, and sort out the problems that life hands them.  One character remembers the day Marilyn Monroe died; another runs off with an underage girl; and another finds a hidden rifle in a dead man's house.  These people live in a world of young hopes and sad memories, pretty girls and hard work.

Here is a collection of nine western stories, ranging from gunfights to romance.  Men and women alike have enjoyed these selections.

Each story has the features of good western writing— a clearly etched setting, memorable characterization, an original story line, and a lively writing style.  These are selections you will want to read more than once.