“In the Spirit of a Classic COTTON SMITH Western Adventure!” Pressure-packed words to be
sure. Following in the footsteps of a beloved, award-winning author is no easy feat.
Although my father, Cotton, was short in stature, he was a larger than life leader. Ask the
thousands of little league ballplayers, Scouts, clients, fellow Western Writers of America authors,
friends, and anyone who knew him or crossed his path. I tell you this not to re-write Cotton’s
obituary, but to let you know what he was like and the influence he had on me.
Dad loved American history, reading and Western movies. One of the first movies I watched all the
way through – with him, I was eight – was “The Magnificent Seven.” That grew into my fondness
for movies that had three things: horses, cowboys and horses. I can’t count how many times I’ve
re-watched classics like “Winchester ’73,” “Silverado,” “Rio Bravo,” and “Tombstone,” but it’s more
times than soldiers who went after Butch and Sundance.
Family vacations –those old-fashioned long epics we all used to take in the car—were amazing
because we often went to places that breathed with Old West history: Deadwood, Santa Fe,
Cheyenne, all of ‘em. It was on one of those epic journeys that Dad introduced me to the joys of
reading Louis L’Amour. I was about 10 or 11 and that first one was Flint. Somewhere on the
highway between Casper and Cody, I got hooked. The Daybreakers and Hondo followed. Later
when those movies with Tom Selleck and Sam Elliott came out, I wanted to be a Sackett.
It was with great pride that the Smith family celebrated Dad’s first book, Dark Trail to Dodge. We
even had special “Dark Trail” beer brewed for the occasion, with his cover as the label. You see,
the Smith family is a rowdy bunch. Our backyard croquet games are noisy and highly competitive.
Our whiffle ball games have been known to include beanballs and charging the mound. And that’s
just the six-year-old nephews. We don’t sing the “Happy Birthday” song, we literally holler it at the
top of our lungs. We’re a full contact family.
Holidays, birthdays, ballgames were always accompanied by family meals. Often, we’d go around
the table, everyone getting the opportunity to share what they were thankful for or impart some
wisdom or report some news. Sometimes there were tears. Sometimes debate. And always
laughter. Lots of it. Cotton sat at the head of the table with Sonya at the other end, holding court.
After Cotton unexpectedly died in 2015, I vowed that I would keep the stories he created alive by
finishing his Corrigan Brothers series. But life kept getting in the way and my promise went
unfulfilled. That is, until my retirement and Covid isolation joined forces and gave me time to focus
on writing. Flash forward to 2024 when my friends at Wolfpack Publishing believed in the concept
of my continuing on, in the spirit of a classic Cotton Smith Western adventure. The Corrigan saga
now stands at five books instead of two. I’m eager to see what Holt, Deed and Blue do next.
So Dad’s gone now, Mom too. But their spirits live on. The Smith clan is still full contact. We still
belt out Happy Birthday. The family meals are still lively. But now it’s my turn to tell a story. As Dad
would say, it’s “good stuff.”
My reader friends, I hope you think so too.