{"id":40,"date":"2018-12-31T10:31:25","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T10:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=40"},"modified":"2018-12-31T10:31:25","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T10:31:25","slug":"texas-readsby-glenn-dromgoole-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=40","title":{"rendered":"Texas ReadsBy Glenn Dromgoole"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Glenn Dromgoole’s Texas Reads column appears weekly at LoneStarLiterary.com<\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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2.22.2015\u00a0 Cowboys survived rugged conditions in winter of 1884<\/span><\/h1>\n

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<\/span><\/span>Midland author Patrick Dearen\u2019s<\/span> latest novel, The Big Drift<\/span><\/a><\/span> (TCU Press, $22.95 paperback), focuses on two cowboys\u2014one white, one black\u2014and the brutal conditions they endured during the blizzard of 1884 and the ensuing cattle roundup the next spring.<\/p>\n

Although the story is fiction, Dearen writes authoritatively of what it was like to be a cowboy in those days in the rugged Middle Concho region of West Texas.<\/p>\n

Drawing on his nonfiction accounts of interviews with old cowboys\u2014Saddling Up Anyway: The Dangerous Lives of Old-Time Cowboys<\/span><\/a><\/span> and The Last of the Old-Time Cowboys<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u2014Dearen spins a fast-paced tale about the cowhands from the Slash Five brand and their gritty determination to save as many of their herd as possible despite harsh weather, deadly stampedes, and numerous other adversities.<\/p>\n

The two main characters, Zeke and Will, both carry unspeakable and unshakable burdens from their past.<\/p>\n

Zeke, who is black, is on the run, believing he is responsible for the death of the best man he ever knew, his kindly boss Master Young.<\/p>\n

And no matter how far he rides, Will, who is white, can\u2019t outrun the memories from his childhood, when at age ten he helped his father pour kerosene on an East Texas black family\u2019s shack and then watched in horror as his father set it afire, with the family inside.<\/p>\n

Circumstances draw the two young men together, with Zeke saving Will\u2019s life and becoming part of his outfit.<\/p>\n

Together they barely get through the winter and then join with cowhands from other brands as they try to round up the surviving cattle that drifted south trying to escape the blizzard.<\/p>\n

If you like a good western, \u201cThe Big Drift\u201d puts the reader right in the middle of the action.<\/p>\n

Inspirational: McKade Marshall<\/span> is the author of Tasting the Goodness of God<\/span><\/a><\/span> (MLM Publishing, $15 paperback), a collection of 31 devotionals \u201cfor everyday living.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each piece is about three pages long, consisting of an inspirational message followed by suggested Bible readings and a thought for the day.<\/p>\n

Read more at mckademarshall.com<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Keith Craft,<\/span> founder of Elevate Life Church in Frisco, has written Your Divine Fingerprint: The Force That Makes You Unstoppable<\/span><\/a><\/span> (HarperOne, $14.99 paperback). \u201cThat which makes you different,\u201d he writes, \u201cmakes you great.\u201d At the end of each chapter, he offers three \u201cthink, be, do\u201d sets of questions or calls to action. Read more at keithcraft.org.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Glenn Dromgoole<\/span> is co-author of 101 Essential Texas Books.<\/span><\/a><\/span> Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.<\/p>\n

Read his past columns in Lone Star Literary Life here.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Glenn Dromgoole’s Texas Reads column appears weekly at LoneStarLiterary.com 2.22.2015\u00a0 Cowboys survived rugged conditions in winter of 1884 Midland author Patrick Dearen\u2019s latest novel, The Big Drift (TCU Press, $22.95 paperback), focuses on two cowboys\u2014one white, one black\u2014and the brutal conditions they endured during the blizzard of 1884 and the ensuing cattle roundup the next […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}