I have been a writer of adventure novels of the Old West. I have now branched out to writing contemporary crime novels with a suspense/mystery base. What I feel makes these unique is that they are set in the modern West and Alaska, as opposed to exotic world and big city settings. They involve average people and local law enforcement agencies.

My writing influence comes from my ancestral roots. Mountain men, voyageurs, pioneers, and explorers make up the branches of my family tree. My paternal grandfather was Blackfoot Indian from Montana. My maternal grandfather was a Minnesota lumberjack, both men were born in the 1800’s.

As a lifelong outdoorsman I have inherited that pioneer blood and followed in the footsteps of both my families. I have experienced life in the Alaska bush, as well as the wilderness of the Rocky and Cascade Mountains, as a working cowboy, guide, horsepacker, hunter, and trapper.
I also spent several years as a Colorado Deputy Sheriff. This experience in the law enforcement field allows me an intimate insight to the system that I weave into my new crime genre stories.
I incorporate all of my experiences into my stories to ingrain them with authenticity and draw the reader into the story by their realism and a personal knowledge of the people and lifestyle involved.

I have near to 500 fiction and non-fiction works published. Included are: 19 novels and short story collections, 70 short stories, and inclusion in 18 anthologies. I am the first 3 time winner of the Will Rogers Medallion Award, in 2008 for Best Western Fiction, and again in 2013 for Best Western Humor, and 2014 for Best Western Novel. Nine of my short stories have earned Reader’s Choice Awards.