Whistlestop Book Review: "On the Road Home" by Terry Burns

Janalyn Voigt

Stories and poems from a genuine cowboy poet grace the pages of On the Road Home, by Terry Burns. Ranging from joyful to somber, these vignettes stay with you and, yes, can even change your thinking. At the least, they provoke thought.

With deep insights into subjects like what makes for a good marriage, longevity, happiness and spiritual health, this book resonates with truth. Terry's unique brand of common sense combined with compassion and good humor are just the prescription for a world of ills. Pick this book up and you'll put it down again the better for having read it.

I highly recommend On the Road Home by Terry Burns to adult and teen readers. This book is teen approved because of its practical wisdom.

©2011 Janalyn Voigt is a Carol Awards judge and the author of novel books

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*My thanks to the publisher for providing a complimentary copy of this book for purposes of review.


**Janalyn Voigt is an Amazon Associate and benefits when products are purchased on Amazon through links from Book Readers Central.

Meet and Greet: Terry Burns

Book Giveaway Drawing! 
Read the details later in this post.


Terry Burns is an agent with Hartline Literary. He also writes inspirational fiction. As a writer he has over 40 books in print, including 10 novels. A new series from Port Yonder Press entitled “The Sagebrush Collection” features his short works. The first, “On the Road Home,” released in March 2010.  A Young Adult title, Beyond the Smoke, won the Will Rogers Medallion. “A Writer’s Survival Guide to Publication” from Port Yonder Press, developed out of his month-long course for American Christian Fiction Writers. Terry is a popular speaker at workshops across the country. Find a bookstore of his available works as well as a regular blog at www.terryburns.net.


BRC: How would you describe On the Road Home?


It’s just fun. It has some cowboy poetry and some regular poetry. It has some short stories that hopefully never go where you think they are going, and it wraps up with a novella in the back of the book. I’m not trying to pass on any earthshaking messages but I wrote most of this because it was fun to write and I believe it is fun to read as well.


BRC: How did the book come about?


I was asked to read some cowboy poetry at a campfire session at a conference. I don’t consider myself a cowboy poet but I have written some of it so I did. Following the session Chila Woychik at Port Yonder Press asked me if my little cowboy poetry book was still in print and I said no. She asked if she could bring it back. I said that would be nice and I sent the material for it to her. She came back and asked if I had any short stories and I said yes and sent some of those. She asked if I had any novellas and I said I did. I thought Chila was having a very difficult time finding things to fill up a book. Then she came back and said it was going to take several books. 


I was very pleased someone thought my short works, many of which have been published elsewhere, were worth collecting. The first book, On the Road Home, is out. The second book, which will be heavily western, is in progress. She was originally thinking four (books). I’m not sure how many it might end up being, maybe just two.

BRC: That's a great story! It sounds like a lot of work. How do you balance your time between writing and agenting?

That’s hard. I’m a full-time writing professional and most of it is devoted to being an agent and trying to get the words of my clients out there. I have to balance writing with doing that, with traveling all over the country teaching workshops and speaking, with being a husband, father and grandfather (soon to be great-grandfather) and I’ll admit writing takes a hit. But I decided some time ago that I could have more impact using my faith in my writing by helping a number of writers get good Christian work out there than I could by doing a couple of books a year myself. All of my clients are Christian even though I don’t restrict my work to the Christian market so I feel good that I am helping get work out there that will do just that. I generally rank up toward the top of the Publisher’s Marketplace list of top agents making deals for debut writers because I have a heart for trying to help writers get started.

BRC: That's quite a balancing act. What inspired you to become a writer in the first place?

I had no choice. I’m a fifth-generation Irish storyteller (that I know about, it probably goes much further back) and a fourth-generation Texas teller of tall tales. Telling a story is as natural to me as breathing, but learning to write it down in a manner that will be publishable takes a lot of hard work and study.

BRC: Bonnie Calhoun calls you "a modern-day Cowboy" in her endorsement of your book. Do you consider that assessment accurate?

I’ve loved the cowboy life ever since I helped Roy Rogers clean up the west in Saturday morning matinees. I’ve worked on ranches when I could, I put on a rodeo for many years, and when it comes to reading or writing I love that time period. I once heard a western described as “a morality play on horseback” and there is a lot of truth to that. Most of the time westerns have good guys and bad guys and there’s not a lot of gray in them. We could use more of that in today’s world, particularly in Washington. I consider being a cowboy more how you live your life and what you believe than about where you work or where you were born. Roy Rogers is still my all-time hero, a good Christian man who cared more about being a role model for the kids than he cared about being a movie star. We could use more of that too.

BRC: Well spoken. We need more true heroes. 


Tell us about your writing process.

I’m a seat-of-the-pants writer. My first 2-3 chapters are just placeholders to get the story moving. Usually by that point the characters have taken over and I’m just along for the ride. I write a first draft that is maybe half the size the final manuscript will be but which contains the entire story line. Then I go back and rewrite the first chapters now that I know the story and the characters and go back through the book fleshing it out and adding subplots, setting and detail. The very last thing I do is craft a really compelling first page that will hook the reader and reel them in. Finally I go through and “direct” the final story making sure it flows well from chapter to chapter, has no dead spots, and keeps the reader engrossed.

BRC:  What are you working on now?

The next book in the Sagebrush Collection.

BRC: When you're not writing, which books do you enjoy reading?

This may surprise you, or maybe it won’t. I’m very concerned about all of the silly things they are doing in Washington and how our country is moving away from the principles that it was founded on. I’m reading several books that I believe are giving me a better understanding of what is going on and what I might could do about it. I have never been affiliated with a political party and have been an independent all of my life. I believe we’d be better off if there were MORE independents holding both political party’s feet to the fire telling them what we want and expect. But I’ll get down off my soapbox.

BRC: Good for you, standing up for your convictions. 


Where can readers find you online?

Primarily at my Web site, at the Hartline Web site, at the Hartline Blog http://hartlineliteraryagency.blogspot.com/ , not to mention Facebook, Twitter, and a couple of dozen other writing-related sites and groups.

©2011 Janalyn Voigt, author of novel books

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Book Giveaway Drawing: Terry Burns will give away a free copy of  On the Road Home to a reader of this blog. To enter, leave a comment to this post no later than midnight (Pacific Time) this Thursday. If you are a follower of Book Readers Central and tell me so in a separate comment, I'll give you an extra chance to win. 

Please include a valid email address in an anti-spam format (example: youremailhandle[at]gmail[dot]com]) or your entry will become invalid. 

I'll announce the winner on Book Readers Central on Friday. The winner must respond within two weeks of notification. Detailed rules of giveaways on Book Reader's Central are located in the footer of this blog.

**Janalyn Voigt is an Amazon Associate and benefits when products are purchased on Amazon through links from Book Readers Central.

Meet and Greet Monday: Stephen Bly

Book Giveaway Drawing! (Details below.)

Stephen Bly resides in Winchester, Idaho at 4,000 ft. elev., on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation. He's been married 47 years to fellow writer, Janet Chester Bly, and they've co-authored 18 books.


Stephen is father of 3 sons: Russell, Michael, & Aaron. The family includes daughters-in-law, Lois, Michelle & Rina Joye, plus grandkids: Zachary, Miranda (& husband Chris), and Keaton.


As a third-generation westerner, Steve spent 30 years working family ranches and farms in central California.

When he's not writing Steve collects and restores antique Winchesters; studies histories of the Old West; and does construction on Broken Arrow Crossing (a false front western village next to his home). He also plays a par game of golf.
Recent books by Stephen Bly include: Creede of Old Montana (2009), The Land Tamers (re-issued 2009), One Step Over The Border, Center Street/Hachette; The Horse Dreams Series—Memories of a Dirt Road Town, The Mustang Breaker, and Wish I’d Known You Tears Ago (B&H); Paperback Writer (B&H); and Fortunes of the Black Hills Series (B&H Publishers).

Noteworthy Facts about Stephen Bly

* Author and co-author of 102 fiction and nonfiction books, including historical and contemporary westerns.
* Christy Award winner, Westerns, 2002, The Long Trail Home
* Christy Award finalist, Westerns, 2003
* Mayor of Winchester, Idaho, pop. 308 (1999-2007)
* Pastor of Winchester Community Church
* Speaker for men’s and writers’ groups, USA and Canada
* Roving editor, "Big Show Journal"
* Mentor, Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild
* Represented by agent Chip MacGregor, MacGregor Literary
* Fresno State University, CA, Philosophy, summa cum laude
* M. Div., Fuller Theological Seminary, CA, 1974

Interview with Stephen Bly

 • How would you describe your new release?

It’s the closest to memoir that I’ve attempted in a novel. In 1954, I was 10-years-old and spent many hours playing cribbage and listening to narratives of the ‘old days’ from my grandpa.

A 10-year-old boy. Six old cowboys. A ’49 Plymouth with open trunk. And a damsel in distress. All the fixings for adventure in 1954 Albuquerque. Maybe you weren’t born 100 years too late.

The permanent residents of the old hotel: 5 old cowboys, 70s to 90s. Every week these five, plus a young boy’s (“Little Brother”) grandfather, play cribbage in the lobby. But that’s not the real focus. Their chief pleasure centers on tales of their riding and roping days. And every story mostly true. Those who paid attention, heard their hearts too.

The cowboys in my story retire in Albuquerque, not Santa Fe, because even in 1954 the latter was becoming the artsy, celebrity spot it is today. These guys needed a cheap hotel and city amenities. So, Albuquerque suited them fine. Before there were retirement communities and senior citizen housing, some elderly lived in old downtown hotels. Well past their prime to attract overnight guests, they catered to senior citizens who scraped by on something fairly new in the fifties: Social Security.

The eldest was born during the Civil War. All of them cowboyed from the late 1880s until the 1940s. They tell first-hand stories of what the West was truly like.

Cowboy For A Rainy Afternoon reminisces about real cowboy lives, much the same as Andy Adams’ book, The Log of a Cowboy, written in the early 1900s. Author’s suggestion: this book is best read aloud, as though around a campfire, by someone with a grasp of the rhythm of the language.

On one rainy afternoon, Little Brother sits with his red straw cowboy hat, cap gun, and leather bullet belt with silver-painted wooden bullets, to listen to cowboy tales, romps through past escapades. The old men delighted in their youthful, captive audience. Meanwhile, a drama unfolds, a story brews in the lobby that propels them all into one last cowboy stand.

(Click the link at the bottom of this post to read an excerpt from Chapter One of Cowboy for a Rainy Afternoon.)

• What message do you hope it conveys?

The heritage of courage against evil that one generation can pass on to another.

• What did you enjoy most about writing this book?

The definite sense throughout the process that I was right there in the lobby of that hotel and later riding in the ’49 Plymouth with all the characters. I was that young boy and re-living parts of my youth through him.

• What did you dislike most about writing this book?

Not being able to sit down and write it all in one full sweep. I hated having to write in-between other projects.

• What inspired you to become a writer?

It’s all my wife’s fault. She got me into it. After going to a couple writer’s conferences, she asked permission to submit some articles and short stories she edited out of my sermons. . .and took a book proposal from a study I’d done for college students to Mt. Hermon Christian Writers Conference. All of them were accepted. After I got the first checks I said, “Hey, I think I’ll do my own writing.”

So, it was my wife’s insistence that I had something to say to folks beyond my local congregation.

• Tell us about your writing process.

Step One – research, including on-site exploration.

Step Two – Build a bio on each main character.

Step Three – Sit in front of a blank computer screen and add step one and step two, then record what happens. No plotting needed.

• What are you working on now?

September 1st is deadline for my WIP, which has the working title, “Throw Away Heart.” Most of the story happens on a train ride from Omaha to Sacramento in the 1880s. The title sounds more like a romance, which it is, but the editor wants a more western sounding name for their base of Bly fans. So, I’ll brainstorm that while I finish the project.

• What books do you enjoy reading?

In fiction--from Owen Wister to John Steinbeck, Elmer Kelton to William Saroyan, Luke Short to Fyodor Dostoevsky. And, of course, Louis L’Amour and Zane Grey. In nonfiction, I’m meditating again on J. I. Packer’s Knowing God. And I devour most any history book, my favorite subject.

• Where can readers buy your book?

Order Cowboy For A Rainy Afternoon through http://www.amazon.com/ or http://www.blybooks.com/ or through your local bookstore (via Ingram Distributors). Ask for it at your local library too.

• Where can readers find you online?

Our websites: http://www.blybooks.com/ and http://www.onestepovertheborder.com/

Or our “On A Western Trail” blog: http://www.blybooks.blogspot.com/

Click here to read an excerpt from Chapter One of Cowboy for a Rainy Afternoon.

Book Giveaway Drawing: Leave a comment to this post for a chance to win a free copy of Cowboy for a Rainy Afternoon. Be sure and include a way to contact you or your entry will be ineligible. Entries accepted until midnight, Pacific Coast Time/US. The winner will be announced Friday on this blog. Click the link in the side bar to read detailed book giveaway drawing rules.

Thanks for stopping by Book Readers Central. Please consider becomiing a follower of this blog's feed or signing up to receive posts by email.

Whistlestop Wednesday Book Review: "Creede of Old Montana" by Stephen Bly

Hold your horses, Pardner! Don't start this book at bedtime or you might just sacrifice a night's sleep. With page-turning action, pithy dialogue and a fine sense of the ridiculous, ex-cavalry soldier Avery John Creede fights for right (and dear life) as he faces danger head-on. A beautiful blonde girl in a yellow dress, appropriately nicknamed "Sunny," enters the picture with gun in hand and turns Avery's life upside down, although his heart belongs to well-bred Carla. And then there's Ace, green but learning fast from his Uncle Creede. While other less stout-hearted folk flee, they stand together against the Rinkman gang.

Stephen Bly's stunning writing style brings the Old West to life. With deft skill, he sustains a fast pace but doesn't sacrifice characterizations or setting. My only mild quibble with this book is that the humor, while standing on its own merits, sometimes does cross the line of believability to set up "gags." I'm not a regular reader of Classic Westerns, however, so I don't know what's acceptable within the genre.

I highly recommend "Creede of Old Montana" to those who enjoy Western fiction and even to those who might not normally read them. In this world today, we need more heroes. Stephen Bly helps us find them. And that's worth losing a little sleep over.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author for purposes of review.

Meet and Greet Monday:Author K M Weiland

Dear Reader,

For me, writing has always been a creative itch I must either scratch — or go crazy ignoring! Stories have rattled around in my overactive imagination for as long as I can remember. In fact, my first memory is of my three-year-old self sitting in a tree house at a family reunion in Colorado, making up stories in which I was the superhero who saved the day. I like to think my stories have gained a little in sophistication since then!

I grew up chasing Billy the Kid and Jesse James on horseback through the sand hills of western Nebraska, at least in my mind. Aside from a few dreams of training horses and barrel racing, writing has always been my all-consuming passion. God gives each of us a gift (or gifts), and it’s our responsibility to give it back to Him. I write because I love it and because it’s part of who I am. I write because I believe this is what I'm meant to do with my life - and so I write to the best of my ability for His glory.

Epic tales of history have always thrilled me. It was a natural step for me to dive into historical fiction. My first book, A Man Called Outlaw, set in the 19^th century during the land wars that rocked Wyoming Territory, allowed me to write the inevitable western saga brewing in my imagination since childhood. Three years after Outlaw’s publication, I’m ecstatic to announce the October 1^st release of my medieval novel Behold the Dawn, set during the 3^rd Crusade.

Behold the Dawn is a tale of vengeance and romance, guilt and redemption, sacrifice and deliverance. Knights, fair ladies, indentured servants, *Templars, monks, and **Saracens all race across the pages, some of them fleeing a tragic past, others attempting to carve out a future. Marcus Annan, a knight famed for his prowess on the battlefield, thinks he can keep the secrets of his past buried forever. But when Gethin the Baptsti, a mysterious crippled monk, demands Annan help him find justice for the transgressions of sixteen years ago, Annan is forced to leave the tourneys — the infamous mock battles long condemned by the Church — and join the Third Crusade.

Wounded in battle and hunted by enemies on every side, Anan rescues Lady Mairead of Keaton, an English noblewoman, from an infidel prison camp. He flees to Constantinople but, try as he might, Anon cannot elude the past. Amidst the pain and grief of a war he doesn’t even believe in, he faces long-hidden secrets and sins. Anon bares his soul to the mercy of a God he abandoned years ago.

Although my representation of such an immense topic as redemption and grace must necessarily be flawed, I hope readers can see past the dross and take away a few flakes of gold from the story’s heart. And perhaps Marcus Annan and company will leave their impact on your life, as they most definitely have on mine.

—K.M. Weiland

*Templar: A member of an order of knights founded about 1118 to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land.
**Sacracen: A member of a pre-Islamic nomadic people of the Syrian-Arabian deserts.

Note: Janalyn Voigt is an Amazon Associate and benefits when books are purchased on Amazon through links from Book Readers Central.