And my Missoula, Montana chum , fellow writer Chris La Tray, kindly snapped a new pic of The Manliest Book Ever Written (aka Cowboys, Mountain Men & Grizzly Bears), dominating a spinner rack at the Lochsa Lodge in Idaho. Cool place for my book to prowl its way into people’s shopping bags. Thanks, Chris!

(Click cover for larger image.)

In Bootleggers, Lobstermen, and Lumberjacks: Fifty of the Grittiest Moments in the History of Hardscrabble New England, author Matthew P. Mayo presents 50 narrative-driven tales covering hundreds of years of incredible, true accounts of Indian abductions and all-out wars; of timber-tough men in the golden age of New England logging; of suspected witches being hung and crushed by stones; of savage storms, fantastic shipwrecks, ruthless pirates, and half-starved castaways; of train wrecks, blizzards, and nor’easters; of the hair-raising exploits of rumrunners, smugglers, and bootleggers; of hardworking lobstermen driven to settle their differences any way they can; of hill farmers with fast cars during Prohibition doing their best to survive in the challenging and unique locale that is New England—as much a place as a state of mind.

(Globe Pequot Press; October, 2010)
(Softcover; 6 x 9; 320 pages; 28 historic photos; $16.95; ISBN: 978-0-7627-5968-2)

Here’s a taste of what’s inside:

• The Pilgrims’ first winter is a time of disease, starvation, and death

• Giles Corey is pressed to death with stones during the Salem Witch Trials

• Hannah Duston’s scalping spree leaves 14 Indians dead

• Every month in 1816 saw a killing frost, and famine swept through New England

• Big Jim Cullen gets his neck stretched in New England’s only lynching

• A R.I. girl’s corpse is mutilated, then her family inhales the fumes of her burning organs

• The mother of all logjams rips apart a Vermont town

• Two-million gallons of molasses in a 40-foot wall roars through Boston

• A high-speed Vermont booze-run ends in a shooting, a car wreck, and a dead boy

• FBI’s most-wanted, the Al Brady Gang, are outwitted by savvy Mainers

• Nazis from a submarine use a small Maine town as their entry to sabotage the US

• Lobstermen cut trap lines, burn docks, sink boats, and then the shooting starts

Available for pre-order: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Borders | Indiebound | Powell’s

The first, Winters’ War, is due for release in May, 2011, followed in roughly six-month intervals by Hot Lead, Cold Heart, and Wrong Town. The books will appear in print, audio versions, various e-book formats, and possibly foreign-language versions.

Hopefully, all of this, plus new covers (maybe sporting the words “Spur Award Finalist”!) and major distribution will add up to stellar sales. Keep ’em crossed!

Matthew and Jennifer with John D. Nesbitt at the 2010 Spur Awards Banquet.

Another high point of the week, for me, was receiving my Spur Finalist award in the Short Fiction category at the Spur Finalist Luncheon on Friday. The story, “Half a Pig,” appears in the Express Westerns anthology, A Fistful of Legends. That I came in a (close?!) second to my good friend, writer John D. Nesbitt, made the achievement much more special. The certificate’s now framed on my office wall, and makes me type faster and with more emphasis. Look out, world!

Next year … Bismarck, North Dakota!

The 2010 convention looks to be a corker, and events will include, due to proximity to Nashville, WWA’s official vote on the greatest Western songs of all time, plus panels on Indian writers, the Trail of Tears, Davy Crockett, and more. Planned side trips include a visit to Cumberland Gap National Historical Park and a visit to the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians. Also planned is the annual mass book signing and Spur Awards banquets. And Pulitzer Prize winner, N. Scott Momaday, will be presented with this year’s Owen Wister Award for lifetime contributions to the literature of the American West.

The convention is open to members and non-members, and as always, promises to be jam-packed with activities, business, and perhaps a bit of time left over for bellying up to the bar. Visit www.WesternWriters.org for the full feedbag. See you there, pards!

“This is a great collection of short little pieces roughly lumped into three different categories, as Mayo outlines in the introduction: Mountain Men and Indians; Man vs. Nature; and Cowboys and Gunfighters; running chronologically from the early 19th century to the early 20th century. It touches on many great stories — 50 of ‘em — all of which are potentially worthy of full books devoted to each one. It is an exciting, and harrowing, review of the hardships faced in the Old West, as well as many of the larger-than-life characters to come out of that era. A great book to keep on the bedside table for those moments when you only have 10 or 15 minutes to read at a time. Recommended!”

Thanks, Chris!

Here’s a link to the list of the 2010 WWA Spur Award Winners and Finalists.

And here’s what WWA says about the Spurs:
“Since 1953, Western Writers of America has promoted and honored the best in Western literature with the annual Spur Awards, selected by panels of judges. Awards, for material published last year, are given for works whose inspiration, image, and literary excellence best represent the reality and spirit of the American West.”

I’m pleased, to say the least, not only because it’s a great honor for me, but also for all of the fine writers in the anthology in which my story appears: A Fistful of Legends. The book is a top-notch collection of “21 All-New Blazing Tales of the Old West” brimming with pulpy Old West goodness and edited to exacting standards (and it sports an introduction by top-shelf writer James Reasoner–’nuff said).

Track down your own copy here or at my “Books” page. And keep yer pistol loaded….