Dac Crossley's Western Blog

Introducing the Ranger

Mary and I took the new novel Revenge of the Texas Ranger to San Antonio last weekend. This was the first book-signing event of the season. Another author’s cancellation at The Twig Bookshop gave us a Saturday morning opportunity. A flying trip just for the weekend.

The Twig Bookshop is located in the old Pearl Brewery grounds, adjacent to the river and a lovely revival of the old plant. On Saturday mornings there is a large Farmer’s Market in operation in the parking lot. I do like farmer’s markets as venues for selling my books – people come to spend money. And, of course, Christmas shopping approaches.

On this occasion we were cursed with the worst weather of the year. Rainy, about 39 degrees, and enough wind to remind us that we were in Texas. Nevertheless I signed some books and made some new friends. Notably a nice young man and his wife, who chatted with us for quite a while. They were in from Odessa, a holiday weekend in a nice bed-and-breakfast. I signed a book for the gentleman, and as he turned to go, he handed me HIS business card.

He was an honest-to-God Texas Ranger.

That, right there, made the whole trip worth-while for me.

We took the opportunity to dine at Rosario’s on South Alamo. Mexican cuisine doesn’t get any better than Rosario’s. And we made it down to the Blue Star microbrew – good ale. Of course we had a beer at the bar in the Menger Hotel, where we ran our fingers across the damage done by Carrie Nation’s hatchet.

You can touch history on a San Antonio weekend.

Dac Crossley
November 26, 2013

“Only the guy who isn’t rowing has time to rock the boat.” – Jean-Paul Sartre.

Living on the Llano

A chance conversation at The Globe brought back memories of Lubbock, Texas, and the adventures of youth. In the late forties Larry C. and I drove there to begin serious studies in the field of biology. We left the rolling hills at Post, Texas and ascended the Caprock onto the southern plains of the Llano Estacado. What a change! What a shock to us.

My God, it was flat – treeless – windy. And the perpetual evening sandstorms. First came blasts of sand, which turned to gusts of mud followed by some rain. We saw farmers plowing those prairies, with a long plume of dust behind their tractors. There went whatever topsoil there had been.

Lubbock itself didn’t seem to offer much. Texas Tech was young – created two decades ago – and the faculty was a group of medical school dropouts (well, there were a few exceptions). The Biology Club was a bunch of pre-med students. We didn't know what to do. We had some of our classes in temporary buildings called “X-Shacks,” the legacy of expansion following WWII’s GI bill.

But there was hope. All along the eastern edge of the Caprock, streams kept the canyons verdant. Bird-watching, collecting insects, just relaxing in the band of greenery near Crosbyton or Silverton was there for the weekends. And overnight camping in Palo Duro Canyon whenever we could get away. And beginning our biological research programs in the lab. Ultimately, it worked well for us. Well enough that Larry later accepted a position as President of Texas Tech.

And I wonder – has the sand settled down? Has Lubbock become green? Texas Tech has grown into a University. Do students still slip away on weekends, into the canyons of the Caprock?

It’s still West Texas, isn’t it?

Dac Crossley
November 19, 2013

“We are always the same age, inside.” – Gertrude Stein.

Revenge at Last!

It’s been a couple of years in the making – but – Revenge of the Texas Ranger is now available at Amazon. I’m anticipating some book signings before the holidays, here and in Texas.

Revenge is the third novel in the border trilogy: Guns Across the Rio, Return of the Texas Ranger, and now Revenge of the Texas Ranger. Each is set in a different decade. Guns in 1917 and the border wars, Return in my old home town of Kingsville in 1927, and Revenge in the Houston-Galveston corridor in 1937. I’ve tried to let my characters mature during these decades, as we ourselves have done. Are they based on real people? Not exactly, although my daughter Mary F. says I bear some resemblance to Red Regan.

I’ve enjoyed dreaming up the women I write about. In my experience, women of the west and Texas women especially are strong people. No southern belles here, thank you. Texas women are self-reliant and determined to control their own fate. You’ve heard it said: “Texas is hell on women and horses.” I prefer, “In Texas, women and trees both have thorns.” I’ve borne that in mind as I write.

And the writing pushes forward. Under construction: a follow-up to Escape from the Alamo. Colorado’s son, back from the Civil War to a lawless South Texas. And another story about a young woman who finds herself abandoned. The neurons continue pulsing.

Will there be another “Ranger” book, a follow-up to Revenge? The characters brought forward to Texas in 1947? What would you think?

Dac Crossley
November 3, 2013

“He has only half learned the art of reading who has not added to it the more refined art of skipping and skimming.” – Arthur Balfour