Dac Crossley's Western Blog

Fiction via Electron?

Are you reading e-books these days? On a Kindle perhaps, or on an iPad, a Nook, or even on your computer?

There’s an opportunity to offer my novels as e-books on Amazon, for their Kindle reader. Would that be worthwhile? Would you, my good friends, prefer to read a western mystery on a screen?

My fellow authors, in Georgia and in the Southwest, are you offering your works electronically? Thinking about doing so?

I’ve had a Kindle for about two years now, one of the original ones. It was useful on long trips – no need to pack along a bunch of paperbacks, and I could download a book over the web, anyplace I went. Even on an airplane.

Recently I bought an Apple iPad and I prefer it to the Kindle. It’s bigger, easier to use, and has a color screen. I just read the newest John LeCarre, “Our Kind of Traitor” (about $10). Re-read “Treasure Island” (free). A comfortable experience.

I installed a Kindle “app” on my iPad, so I can read Amazon’s e-books. Amazon has a much larger selection than Apple does. The Kindle app works well on the iPad. Kindle books you buy are stored forever by Amazon. The Apple downloads can be stored on your computer.

I've yet to explore the storehouse of electronic books and documents elsewhere on the web.

Have we finally reached that watershed, where downloaded e-books will begin to replace paper? Will my future reference library of Texas history be stored electronically, someplace in the clouds of the e-world?

Should I offer my westerns on Kindle? Royalties aren’t bad, and there’s no expense to me other than the set-up. Would my e-novels compete with my paper ones?

Are you reading e-books?

Dac Crossley
10/28/2010

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” – St. Augustine

The Doodle-Bug

Remember doodle-bugs from your childhood?

I spent Saturday down on the Georgia Coast – St. Simon’s Island, an overbuilt barrier island near the Florida border. In the grounds of old Fort Fredericka, in some dark, silted soil, I noticed a number of little doodle-bug pits, lined up, waiting for prey.

Growing up in Kingsville, Texas, it was fun to tease doodle-bugs. Get a straw and stir the pit. If you do it carefully enough, gently, the doodle-bug will clamp onto it. Or, sneak into the kitchen and get an iced-tea spoon out of the drawer. You could catch a doodle-bug if you were quick enough. Ugly little beast with long jaws, it would work its way backwards into the sand. Look closely or you won't even see it.

In those happy childhood days, Texas kids were closer to the natural world, I think, with fewer distractions. No organized kids sports, nothing electronic except for a radio. There was time for things like doodle-bugs.

In college I learned that doodle-bugs were really called “ant lions.” I do seem to remember ants scrambling to get out of one of those little pits. They are immature insects; the adults look somewhat like dragonflies and come to lights at night. College students were too busy to play with doodle-bugs.

It seems to me that we kids sang a little rhyme to catch doodle-bugs, but I can’t remember it now. Anybody?

Dac Crossley
October 18, 2010

“If men were angels, there would be no need for government.” – James Madison.

Escape from the Alamo

It's Coming.... Get Ready!

Available Soon!

Remember the Alamo! The defenders fought bravely, to the last man, giving their lives for freedom and the Republic of Texas. But suppose one of those warriors survived the battle? What could he do? Where could he go? He’s supposed to be dead. Escape from the Alamo is the story of young George Hanks, an ever-grinning Tennessee lad called “Possum” by Davy Crockett. No longer grinning, Possum finds himself on the battlefield at San Jacinto, wounded, confused and alone. He can’t go back to Tennessee because they believe he died at the Alamo. What’s become of his idol, Davy Crockett? Possum believes that Crockett must have also survived the Alamo battle, and undertakes to find him in South Texas. Possum’s journey to manhood takes him through fights with Indians and bandits, arrest and trial, and enlistment in the Texas Rangers.

All editing done - ready for the publisher.

Dac Crossley
10/11/2010

"History is a race between education and catastrophe." - H. G. Wells

"Come and Take It" -- October 2, 1835

October 2, 1835 – date of the first military engagement of the Texas revolution, between settlers in Gonzales, Texas and a detachment of the Mexican army. A skirmish precipitated by a small brass cannon.

In 1831, the Mexican government gave Green DeWitt’s colony the cannon for protection against Comanche raiders. It was installed in a blockhouse at Gonzales, on the Guadalupe River.

Growing uneasiness in San Antonio prompted Colonel Ugartechea to request the cannon’s return. The citizens in Gonzales refused to part with it. Ugartechea then sent a force of 100 Dragoons to insist upon the cannon’s return. They arrived on the west bank of the Guadalupe, across from Gonzales. Their commander, Lieutenant Francisco de Castañeda, shouted across the rain-swollen river, demanding to speak to the alcalde. Citizens shouted back that he was out of town.

Following his orders not to create an incident, Castañeda settled down to wait on the riverbank. The Texans used the time to solicit help from surrounding areas. The elected a captain, John Henry Moore, and crossed the Guadalupe river themselves on the night of October 1, 1835. On October 2, the Texans emerged from the early morning mist and opened fire on the Mexicans.

Castañeda retreated to a defensible position and called for a parley. Moore demanded his surrender. Castañeda declined.

As soon as Moore returned to the Texan lines, the little cannon fired metal scrap toward the Mexicans. Several long rifles joined in. obeying their orders, the Mexicans retreated back to San Antonio.

The Texans cheered their victory, the brass cannon and their hastily-constructed flag: “Come and Take It.”

According to Noah Smithwick, the only Texan casualty was a bloody nose, the result of a tumble from a horse.

Thanks to Ruth H. for calling October 2, 1835, to my attention.

Dac Crossley
10/2/2010

"It's a good thing that life is not as serious as it seems to a waiter.": Don Herold.