Ammunition Belt: The Legend Goes on

Sierra Belt, a sharpshooting seventeen-year-old rancher's daughter is weaned on a series of dangerous encounters with rogue animals. She grows up hunting and working with her father as a hunter for hire on Colorado's Western Slope of the 1860's. The experience serves her as she later faces treacherous men.

The maturing girl chances on a young half-breed at the rendezvous and experiences attraction if not love for the first time. The romance ends as quickly as it started owing to dislocation. A year later, on a trip east with her friend, she experiences a near fatal attraction to a promiscuous young man.

Events spin out of control and the girl takes matters into her own hands. The consequence of her actions propels her into a prolonged chase across the country and through the mountains. At the same time, her half-breed friend experiences tribulations of his own and is hunted by a ruthless Mormon assassin.

Fate and fortune intervene in a beneficial manner to spare the young people. A reunion occurs, but the circumstances are bitter sweet.

Westerns in the 50’s stirred my imagination. I loved them all, from Gunsmoke to Paladin. My move west in the late 80’s didn’t transform me. It just made me aware that I am a ’cowboy’ at heart. Writing Westerns gives voice to my vision of what America could be again. I would like to have ridden these trails that I have imagined and described.