E. Joe Brown

     I looked at my blogs this year and saw that I had said little, if anything, about Charlie Kelly and his beautiful wife, Susan, in a long time. That's just wrong—really wrong!

      For those of you who weren't around from the start, let me get you up to date. Charlie Kelly (my protagonist) is loosely based on my maternal grandfather, who, as a young man, was a cowboy on the world-famous Miller's 101 Ranch in northern Oklahoma. He was there at the time of my story, which follows the life of Charlie Kelly, in other words, about a hundred years ago.

There are some things you don’t see coming. Or you put the possibility of that something out of your mind. What are you talking about, Joe?

     On September 27^th, I got a call from my cousin Roger that his dad, Dale Kelly, was in bad shape, in hospice, and might only have weeks to live. Linda and I immediately began preparing and left within forty-eight hours for Oklahoma. We all may have relatives who have been influential or a significant part of our lives. Uncle Dale was that for me. When he returned from the Korean War, he was about twenty-two years old, single, and Hollywood handsome. He was my mom’s youngest sibling (of four). Dale lived with us from that point on until he married his late wife, Rita. Their wedding happened in our home. I was about five or six years old, and he and I shared a bed, fishing trips, and many of my fondest memories. I have so many wonderful memories from that time.

I can only sometimes be at my desk or somewhere writing. Like all of you, I have a relatively normal life with family, friends, and other interests. I will share a few things I've done since the Day of the Cowboy. What I'll share is what I would call my normal life.

The two weeks immediately following the "Day of the Cowboy" event at The Chisolm Trail Heritage Center were filled with doctor's appointments for me or Linda, board meetings, and working on the manuscript for my next novel, "A Cowboy's Dilemma," which will come out sometime next year. I'll give you a date as soon as my publisher gives it to me.

I received a message from a friend that led to a trip to Lincoln, New Mexico, that will be a great memory for me and two of my best buddies from the Old Farts Baseball Club (OFBC). Now you're asking, "What's this OFBC?"

A few years ago, I met Gary Herron, then the Sports Editor of the Rio Rancho Observer newspaper. I had written a short story about meeting my childhood hero, Mickey Mantle, as a fourteen-year-old kid, and then I was able to see him eight years later, and Mickey remembered me. This story was published at least six times, and Gary saw it in Sports Collectors Digest. He contacted me for an interview and an article in the Observer. The interview led Gary and I to become friends. We, along with two other fellows named Joe, started the OFBC.

Linda and I arrived home Monday night from a sixteen-day trip. It started with a book signing at Best of Books bookstore in Edmond, Oklahoma, on June 18th. We stopped overnight in Chickasha, Oklahoma to have dinner and visit my cousin Carla on the 17th. Then, it was on to Tulsa to attend the WWA convention that would last through Saturday evening. Every year we look forward to this because we see old friends and make new ones while learning from incredible panels, talks, and hallway conversations.

Thinking about how much my life has changed since December 2018 is exciting. My wonderful daughter-in-law Tanya asked me at Thanksgiving if I would like to attend a writer's meeting in December. I was interested in beginning to write about my life (memoirs), and I had a storyline bouncing around in my mind for years (Kelly Can Saga Series). The potential novel(s) and memoirs did not have titles, or anything concrete at that time. I agreed to go with her. From that event, I met some folks, and in January 2019, I started taking writing classes at the continuing education department of the University of New Mexico.

     Every person desiring to communicate a thought, story, or idea must understand and determine his or her audience. I've been wrestling with this for a while. This effort has included conversations with fellow writers, people who share my love for our Western heritage, and friends from all walks of life. So far, I've learned that every writer/author is dealing with this same question. We all hope we are reaching folks who love what we write about, but we know all too well that we need to include a lot of potential readers and wonder how we can correct this. I've created a plan to give me some answers while I know I will be around people I love.

     The great thing about writing historical fiction is that the author can incorporate real events with real people into their story. I have chosen to do that, and it makes it more interesting and fun for me, and I hope it is for my readers as well.
     I set my Kelly Can Saga Series about a hundred years ago because I wanted to use my maternal grandfather (Clarence Kelly) and his stories about his time on Miller's 101 Ranch as inspiration. As I have often said to a live audience, my novels are works of fiction, but a few things in the story come from my times with "Granddaddy" sitting out under a tree somewhere or in his lap at home. He told me stories of his days as a cowboy out on the Miller's 101.

     Well, I apologize again folks. But since returning from Tucson, my wife and I have had over a dozen medical appointments. Some routine some not. My wife Linda is in recovery mode from two eye surgeries. She’s doing fine. But some of these appointments were mine and I got reminded getting older has its challenges. Now I know what people mean when they say - "Getting' old ain't fer sissies."  You have to have a sense of humor. It's been distracting. But we all have those, don't we?

     My trip to Arizona for two book festivals was terrific. I was part of the Tombstone Festival of Western Books on March 8th. Doug Hocking held it in Schieffelin Hall on Fremont Street in historic Tombstone, Arizona. The hall was built in 1881 and is one of nearly twenty sites worth the trip to Tombstone. I sold books, made new friends, and enjoyed seeing old friends all day. Linda and I drove to Tucson, Arizona that evening and settled into our room at the hotel that would be home for the next three nights.

Since my return from the book launch tour for the second novel in the Kelly Can Saga - "A Cowboy's Fortune," I've been about as busy as a person should ever be. Now I'm not complaining (well, maybe a little bit), but I would welcome a down day or a week. I know it hasn't been a month since "A Cowboy's Fortune" was launched, but I've already written about 70,000 words in the next book in the Kelly Can Saga. I had a fair amount of work already completed on the story, but I've enjoyed a period of creativity over the past month, and that's been wonderful.

"A Cowboy's Fortune" book launch trip was a big success and a lot of fun. The weather gave us some challenges, but otherwise, we couldn't have asked for more. Linda and I drove off from home on Tuesday, January 23rd, and stayed at a hotel in Chickasha, OK, that night. We had dinner with my cousin Carla at Mama Caro’s that evening. The following morning we returned there and ate breakfast before going to Hick’s Company. That’s a mighty fine western wear store in Chickasha. The owner, James Hicks, is legendary around there. He’s eighty-six years old and still goes into the store every day. If you are ever in town make sure to meet James. He has everything you need and has a few yarns to share too.

      As I shared in my last blog article, my second novel in the Kelly Can Saga Series, A Cowboy's Fortune will be published on Wednesday, January 24th, 2024. The cutthroat world of big oil is very different from the life of a humble cowboy, but if anyone can succeed among all the treachery and danger, KELLY CAN! It's 1919 and Charlie Kelly has married the love of his life, Susan, and together the newlyweds hope to grow the business empire that Susan's father, Walter Kramer, built. Charlie's dream of starting his own oil company becomes a reality, and Susan takes over the leadership of the Kramer Group, but tragedy soon follows triumph.

I hope you spent some quality time with people you care about and some quiet alone if that’s what you need. The Holidays can be stressful if you let it, but I hope you were able to recreate yourself and think about what you will accomplish in 2024. I know I was trying hard to do some work planning book tours for 2024 in December. However, I learned that many of the people I had hoped to reach for those significant events in 2024 supporting my next novel were not at work or were in some way unavailable.

   I hope you got your shopping done and all that's left are some presents that still need to be wrapped. You say you haven’t even started!!! OMG!!!
That’s a typical mid-December conversation, isn’t it? I remember when I was still working at Edward AFB my friends would talk about how they had let time slip by and now they would need to fight the crowds who were also doing last-minute shopping.

Don't you love the Holidays? I sure do. The final three or four months of every year are always hectic for me, but I love it. The week before last was the International Western Music Association's (IWMA) annual convention or conference here in Albuquerque. I always enjoy the music, workshops, and especially seeing old friends again. I heard all of us attending using the word "family" a lot. At first, I thought, what? Are they discussing a cousin, aunt, or sibling? Then it hit me. Of course. We in the IWMA are a big family (by choice), not by blood.