StanleyWheeler

Speaking of book covers, I've redone the cover to Justice in Season. I'm not certain that I'm pleased with it. The background may be too busy. I needed to change it as the old cover didn't fit the Kindle cover dimensions; it looked odd, out of place, and amateurish (now it only suffers from the latter distinction, or maybe still all three but just in a different way). Here's the new cover:

Yes, I used the same template that I used for Smoke. If you like something, keep it--or as I say, glom* onto it and never let it go. I also made a similar cover for the sequel, Justice Resurgent. I may decide to change it before I'm done writing the sequel, so I won't post the preview of that one yet.

I finished two Louis L'Amour books recently. The Broken Gun, and The Mountain Valley War. Rather than a straight review, I'll do a little compare and contrast. TBG is a shorter, quicker read. TMVW is longer (yes, that's redundant). I chose TMVW based on the fact that it is set in Idaho. Unfortunately, it didn't seem uniquely Idaho enough to me. Aside from some place names, it might've been Utah or Nevada, but that's a minor complaint.

TBG isn't really a western; it is set in Arizona in the 1960's. A writer, whose life experience is much like L'Amour's, is lured to a remote ranch by folks who don't care for what his research might reveal about the legal title to their ranch. It has a bit of a noir flavor. By the end of the book, I was hearing the protagonist speak in the voice of Humphrey Bogart.

TMVW uses a classic western morality tale template: An evil land baron (or "King," in this case) attempts to persuade the legitimate small farmers and ranchers to sell out cheaply; his methods include cutting off their supplies, and late night visits to deliver house warming gifts of lead and fire. One of those small farmers is a man going by an alias to hide the fact that he is an all-around western renaissance man, being extremely talented with his fists as well as his Colts. He wants to settle down, perhaps with the woman who followed him from Texas and who runs a gambling palace. Our hero's sense of justice and future plans don't mesh well with the land-grabbers new planning and zoning code--what with that new comprehensive plan zoning him into a new zip code or restricting him to a three by six plot in the dirt-view estates. Naturally, the hero manages to make heroic journeys, win heroic fights, and dispense heroic justice and mercy.

I preferred TBG. Both stories boasted heroes who performed difficult feats to outwit and outfight their enemies. In TMVW the hero had lots of help, although he was often left to succeed by dint** of his own fists and pistols. The writer in TBG didn't have any open allies, but he acquired some key aid to help him triumph. Both also featured shooting, horses, fighting, murder, and climbing--not necessarily in that order.

Next time I hope to use more pictures like this:

from the movie Fallen Angel. The film is loaded with great black and white shots--in fact, they all are, black and white that is. The story isn't bad, and the acting is pretty good. I'll probably do a reframe with the pictures since I won't remember the story well enough to do a recap and review. Which reminds me that I need to do another Combat! episode soon.


*That's for you--you know who I mean. It's from the Scottish "glaum," in case you're interested. It originally meant "to steal" or "to seize." It also has come to mean "to adhere to" or "to grab." Its first known use was in 1907.

**Also for you--you still know who I mean--because I know you'll ask. The phrase "by dint of" means "by means or use of." Dint comes from the Old English "Dynt" and was first used in writing sometime before the 12th century.