Commitment, Western Novel by Neil Waring

Commitment is a big western story, over 300 pages long, and I thought it was a bit wordy, but I didn't let that take away anything from the story. It is the story of the Superman of the West, Matthew "Blade" Holmes, who was the subject of pulp novels because he was so fast with a revolver and a knife and a rifle. He was also an expert tracker and he was on the trail of a dumb like a fox or just lucky outlaw named Luke Templeton. Templeton had been killing men and women indiscriminately while he was hunting for Holmes. He came close more than once in his attempts on Holmes, but was unsuccessful.

Holmes was spending some time with his girlfriend, Emma Marja Fick when he up and left for the West and didn't say a word to her. And didn't return until the end of the story. Holmes was born in Ohio and left home when he turned 16 years old, always planning to return, but hadn't got around to it. In school he made a particular enemy of one of his classmates who was envious of the skills of Holmes, Red Tibbs. Unbeknownst to Blade, Tibbs, a Pinkerton man, had been hired by Big Ed to kill Holmes for arresting him earlier. Luke Templeton was Big Ed's nephew and was hunting Holmes himself. They travel around Wyoming, mainly Cheyenne and Fort Laramie, trying to find each other and the Army gets involved when Templeton steals from them. And there are a couple of Sheriffs/Marshals also chasing Templeton for the murders he committed.

There is much daydreaming and night dreaming by Holmes about his situation and Emma, his friends, and others in his life, like John Ryan the Mountain Man, and other lawmen and military men which I thought was a little overdone. Overall I give Commitment four stars, being a first western novel by the author and an exciting story with plenty of suspense..

Neil Waring is a former high school history teacher now retired and writing both fiction and non-fiction and lives in Guernsey Wyoming. I wish him good luck.

More Monsoon and Changes

The darn monsoon storms past us by yesterday evening, missing us by a half-mile or a mile. Today doesn't look as promising as that, if we get any rain at all. I was planning to watch the rain come down, but no luck. I began watching America's Got Talent and didn't even read a thing other than the local paper.

I'm doing some research still on becoming a successful writer, and will be putting it into some changes. The changes will help me sell more books, I hope, and draw more readers to my blog and elsewhere. The changes may take two or three months or even longer, but stay tuned. There will be a couple of new releases coming up also and more exciting stuff. I expect that some of the changes will occur by Christmastime, so please keep following as I attempt to bring the changes to life..

The Weather and Travel

The monsoons have been a hit or miss situation this summer. Several storms have passed through, some only leaving a trace of rain and others up to a quarter-inch. The have been pounding the east side of the valley with up to three inches and they need it. Last night we received a good inch and it helped a lot to settle the dust. A 20% chance of rain today.

We were out of town over last weekend. We drove to St. George, Utah, through Laughlin and Las Vegas. It took about nine hours and my nephew's place was a welcome sight. We left our car there and Russ, the nephew, drove on up to the foothills of the Uintas for a family reunion. The weather was absolutely perfect and the scenery was divine driving through the mountains of central Utah. The weather in my old hometown of Altonah was refreshing. That evening the wind picked up pretty good and the temperature dropped to about 55 degrees. Did I say refreshing? It was downright cold to us as we shivered through at the 8,000 foot level.

We stayed at a motel in Roosevelt. The town looked prosperous compared to the last time we were there with many new businesses and large houses added. We had a good day in the Party Pasture with about 70 relatives there celebrating our reunion with visiting, games for the kiddies, and an auction for the adults and older kids.

We traveled through Ferron, Clawson, Huntington, and Price. Many of my mother's relatives were born and lived in those areas. My cousin was Curator of the Natural History Museum in Price before he passed away. Price is a coal-mining town and several relatives worked in the mines off and on.

We took a different route back to St. George on Utah 6 highway and back to I-15. We picked up our car a couple days later and went through northern Arizona, the Kaibabs, Marble Canyon over the Colorado River and down through Flagstaff to Phoenix. We were having lunch at Cameron Station when it rained hard for about a half hour and we had sprinkles and light showers down into the Valley of the Sun. Marble Canyon is a beautiful cliff that runs for miles and is well worth seeing if you get the chance.

And a good time was had by all!!

My Line, Genealogically Speaking

There seems to be a revival in Genealogy Research, everyone is looking for ancestors, and so I thought I would post mine for the Hell of it, at least as far back as I could find.

John Case, 1615-1704, married Sarah Spencer and had 10 kids. Came to America in 1640 on the good ship Dover along with his father, William, and brothers, Thomas, and William. There is possible one other brother, Henry, who settled on Long Island. John had dealings in a court with Henry, but that's the only connection found. Anyway, John settled in Hartford for a short while before moving to Simsbury, where he lived until his death.

Joseph, Sr., 1674-1748, married Anna Eno, whose ancestry shows one as Mayor of Vincennes, France, and prior to that Mayor of Mons, Belgium. Her father was an Army Lieutenant standing night guard when the Spanish attacked Vincennes. He fled to London.

Joseph, Jr., 1700-1782, married Hannah Humphrey.

Asahel, 1729-1800, married Dorothy Phelps, among the first settlers of Norfolk, Connecticut. Asahel served in the Revolutionary War.

Joseph, 1753-1804, married Lydia Mills, among first settlers of Austinburg, Ohio. He had a heart attack while helping some strangers across a river.

James, 1794-1858, married Hannah Wiard. Joined Brigham Young's party to Utah in 1847 while working with the Pawnee Indians in Nebraska for the Indian Agency in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Settled in Manti, Utah, when that town was established.

 Solomon C, 1825-1874, married (1) Sarah Sampson [my great-grandmother], (2) Emily Melissa Richey, (3) Elizabeth Pectol.

Solomon H., 1857-1888, married Sarah Lublin. Sol died in Springville, Utah, how or from what, I don't know.

Alma H., 1883-1951, married Maria Foote (my father and mother). He was a farmer, Stationery Engineer, deputy sheriff, and all-around fine gent.

There you have it, folks, for whatever it's worth.