Time for more story behind and excerpts!

The next release in the two years I am covering before I move on to other things was the first in my series titled The Wild Bunch. At first Amber Allure was going to do a 'picture inspired' cowboy group as we did with the working stiffs and several other evocative themes. I began to play around with an idea or two before the series was killed. By then it was too late for me and I went ahead with my plan.

It's no secret that I adore cowboys, at least the fanciful version most of us carry from beloved old western novels, movies and TV shows and some romantic rodeo stars or heroes from our youth! I was definitely cowboy/country when neither one was cool! I had a huge crush on Casey Tibbs, a long-ago PRCA champ. At about twelve I dreamed of becoming a barrel racer and marrying him. I was heart broken when he instead married the daughter of South Dakota governor and Medal of Honor winner Joe Foss! But life went on and my fickle heart too. It's amusing now. Anyway since the story--which grew into three related tales--was for the Allure line, my cowboy hero had to be gay.

Another western phenomenon, less popular now perhaps than in the last century, is the guest ranch or guide and outfitter ranch where guests get a taste of exciting western and outdoor adventures. The name Rainbow Ranch came to mind as the GLBT emblem and a setting where the facility catered to jet setting gay men who sought a getaway and some amorous adventures with sexy cowboys as well as the western ambience. From that term, I also suddenly visualized three buddies who were now working there and they too were a racial/ethnic rainbow, one being African American, one Anglo and one Latino.

The first one to step out of the imaginative haze and introduce himself was Eustace "Stace" Jones, the black cowboy. The three were all as footloose and carefree as tumble weeds--until one special guest grabbed them by the heart as well as other organs and changed their ways! For Stace this happened to be Jared Longford, a successful multimedia executive from California. From that point on, the story took wings and handed me all sorts of surprises. Before it was done I knew each of the three buddies would have to have his own tale and there would be another subplot running through the series. And so it came to be!

I set my imaginary ranch in Grant County, New Mexico not far from the Gila and Leopold Wilderness areas and in a region that I find very appealing. There are some guest ranches and outfitters along there but none like Rainbow Ranch that I know of! No animals were harmed or killed in the creation of this story and its companions and only a bit of truth and reality might have been mangled by my over-active imagination! These were fun stories but always with the twist of adventure I cannot seem to leave out of any tale.. The two pictures I took a couple of years ago on a visit back thru the area and that's the setting I envision--the ranch lies up near the foot of the mountains shown here!