Home of The Girl With Strawberry Hair
I’m excited to announce my book, The Girl With Strawberry Hair, will be promoted as part of a special sale on @Smashwords to celebrate Read an Ebook Week 2023 from March 5-11. Be sure to follow me for more updates and links to the promotion for my book and many more! #ebookweek23 #Smashwords
Today is the release day for The Girl With Strawberry Hair! You can purchase the western adventure ebook or the softcover version right now from Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon! If you live overseas, I gotcha covered! Bibliotheca, Tolino, Vivlio, and more are available to purchase the book on as well! Of course, also ask your local bookstore to carry the book!
So here it is!
For those overseas you aren’t forgotten! Biblioteca, Borrow Box, Tolino, Vivlio are also available to buy the book as well!
Thanks to the amazing work by artist Erik Reeves (We did a spotlight on him a few days ago here) I now reveal the book cover for The Girl With Strawberry Hair!
I had always wanted the book to represent the “penny novels” that were written long ago, during the age of the Old West, and all of the covers, were, of course hand-drawn. The artwork comes courtesy of artist Erik Reeves, who does some great work! You can find more of his work here. The cover features two of the main characters Chris Tarver and Helen Miller, and one of the villains of this novel named Godfrey.
What’s it about?
A misfit bunch of friends comes together to right the injustices which exist in a small town.
Who’s in it?
What a cast! Scott Glenn, Kevin Kline, Rosanna Arquette, Brian Dennehy, Jeff Fahey, Kevin Costner, Danny Glover, Lynn Whitfield, Joe Seneca, John Cleese, Linda Hunt, Jeff Goldblum. Here we have Danny Glover an Mal, an expert with a Henry Rifle, who meets the rest of the good guys while returning to Silverado at the request of his mother, to help the family secure their home from the local cattle baron. What’s interesting here is how the film, as light as it is, has its most headiest story with Mal, and the racism that comes with a Black family owning their own land, and his sister, Rae, played by Lynn Whitfield, as a woman tired of the farm life and goes to work at the local saloon. What’s interesting here is that both brother and sister wanted to lead lives away from farm life, with interesting unintended consequences for those actions. Extra props to longtime actor Joe Seneca as the father Ezra. He wasn’t in the film long but left and impression. In a great, light western there was a serious story of a Black family trying to come back together. Glover, Whitfield and Seneca could have had their characters’ story told as a completely separate movie and it would’ve been great!
Where can I watch it?
You can watch streaming on HBO Max, Amazon Prime, and rent on Vudu, Youtube, Google Play and more.
What’s it About?
In order to ruin a western town, a corrupt politician appoints a black Sheriff, who promptly becomes his most formidable adversary. (To say anything further would be a crime)
Who’s in it?
An amazing cast led by Cleavon Little, with Gene Wilder, Harvey Corman, Mel Brooks, Sam Pickens, and Madeline Khan. One of the few major Hollywood releases to star an African-American lawman (which is a joke in the film and was regarded that way by the audiences but we now know there were some). This movie is one of the greatest comedies of all time, never to be duplicated, it never pulls its punches in regards to racism and the utter stupidity of it, and so many comedy bits shine. Here’s one of my favorite scenes:
It’s a shame Cleavon Little didn’t have a bigger career than he did. He gave a great performance, especially with the other actors in his orbit. Everyone else seemed to do quite well afterward except for Little. This film is always a standout for showcasing a Black sheriff in a major western that would not be made today.
Where can I watch it?
You can stream it on Hulu and HBO Max, and can rent it from virtually everyone else, and I do mean everyone.
What’s it about?
Following the end of the Civil War, soldier-turned-trail-guide Buck (Sidney Poitier) makes a living by helping former slaves find settlements in the West. Along the way, a con artist, the Preacher (Harry Belafonte), joins the group, and constantly clashes with Buck. But when a gang of bounty hunters, led by the fiendish Deshay (Cameron Mitchell), attempts to round up the freed slaves to bring them back to Louisiana, the two put aside their differences to fight a common enemy.
Who’s in it?
Harry Belefonte, Sidney Portier, Ruby Dee
I mean, Sidney Poitier is one of the greatest actors of all time, and the man who opening the door through which every African-American actor has walked through ever since. Harry Belafonte was a trailblazer in his own right, but at the time before this film he was dissatisfied with the roles he was getting and concentrated on his singing. Ruby Dee was a great actress on both stage and screen, and left her mark in movies, TV and Broadway.
Where can I watch it?
You can watch it free on Tubi. Other than that, you can pay to rent it from Amazon, Google Play, Vudu, Youtube, and Apple TV.
A lone wagon arrives in the small town of Liberty, full of both pain and promise. Recent Widower and Civil War veteran Jack Tarver arrives with his son Chris to start a new life. Hopefully they will accept a Black man starting a small ranch. That’s gonna be an issue. Chris Tarver being both Black and White is another. But Liberty was supposed to be a different place. Sam Spivey had said so. His old partner in the war was dead, but even then he could feel Sam’s spirit in this place…
Blackjack, a drifter and gambler, arrives in Liberty to set up shop and make a whole lot of money. Now, if he can just do all this and not have to kill anyone, more’s the better…
The money is running out. Ellie Stanton sees the concern on her father’s face. The Cattle Baron of Liberty, the man who truly ran the town, is broke. Ellie is determined to keep her family’s land and monies, and will do whatever it takes, even if it means looking at a man society would crucify her for…
The war is over. There should have been free reign to pillage and take what they could get. They earned it. They deserved it. Jeremy Davis believes this. But instead of living the good life, he found himself in prison, put there by a saint, the one who wound up ruining his life and stealing what was his. But Jeremy and his men have a plan. They were getting out soon. And when they did, they would find Jack Tarver and make him and his family pay what they owe…
What’s it About?
Four men, all of them with different skillsets, are brought together by a wealthy businessman with one mission: cross the border into Mexico to rescue his wife who has been kidnapped by a Mexican revolutionary. But this simple rescue mission is far more complex than they realize…
Who’s in it?
This is the great Woody Strode, one of the few black actors to play a major character in these early westerns, playing the expert tracker Jake. What I loved about this is that the question of race only comes up one time. Lee Marvin’s Fardan is asked by his employer if he has an issue working with a Black man. He says he doesn’t, and THAT’S IT. No one ever questions his expertise, and no one doubts what he can do, ever. As with the rest of them, he’s a pro at being a tracker, and doesn’t make mistakes. He’s treated the same as every other member of the team, as it should be.
It was still something even in 1966 to see a western with a Black character treated as an equal among his white team members. Particularly since the others were major actors in Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster and Robert Ryan.
Warning!
The Professionals is a really fun Mission-Impossible style western featuring grand vistas and some really great suspenseful set pieces. The only negative is Raza, the main “villain”, a Mexican character played by the very not Mexican Jack Palance. He does a good enough job, but in todays’ world that casting isn’t going to fly. Your mileage may vary with that.
Where To Watch:
You can find The Professionals on DVD or Blu Ray on Amazon.
You can also stream on Netflix for free or rent through Google Play or Amazon Prime Video.
If you give it a watch let me know what you thought of the film in the comments below!
Channel 39. That’s a good place to get started. Like most kids in the 80’s I adored Saturday morning cartoons. And we knew when it was over because right after Looney Tunes (the last cartoon) American Bandstand came on. Followed by Solid Gold and Soul Train. The cartoon party was officially over for the weekend.
But one day, my Dad went into my room just as Don Cornelius started introducing the show, and changed the channel to 39. And it was in this moment I watched The Lone Ranger for the first time. That was followed by some combination of Have Gun Will Travel, or Branded, and then The Rifleman, Bonanza, The Wild Wild West, and after that The Big Valley, ending the day on Gunsmoke. Sometimes a western movie followed it, but I was outside playing by then. Gunsmoke was too grown up to hold my interest.
Men and women riding horses, guns blazing, righting wrongs every week, and every episode ended more or less on a positive note. ‘Until next week, my friends!’ was the promise, and I did my best to be there, with my silver popgun and fake cowboy hat. Appointment TV, indeed! As I grew older I started watching John Wayne and Clint Eastwood movies, loving them all (I have pictures of both men in my office) and while I greatly enjoyed their movies, something was always missing.
Me.
Or rather, someone who looked like me. As a small child I didn’t notice it too much, but as an older one I did. ‘Why weren’t there any Black cowboy heroes who looked like me? Maybe they didn’t exist?’ The latter was something I said to myself often. It wasn’t until I became an adult that I started to hear about Bass Reeves, Stagecoach Mary, Nat Love, Bill Pickett, and so many more people who never came up in my history books in school. Or television. Or movies. Or books. Now, in the year 2022 we are starting to hear about these fine folks, but we’re only just starting to scratch the surface of who they were and what they did to help shape the wild west into the most uniquely American thing on Earth. One day a thought came into my head, and before long I had the book written and ready to go. Now let’s enjoy a new journey that is filled with adventure, action, and some humor, featuring a new Black western hero everyone can cheer behind!
Liberty Saints Press 