Dude Ranch Nights--story behind the story

As most of you know, JMS has been strictly an LGBT publisher from its inception. However, they are now expanding a bit to offer some 'regular' fiction to include some M/F erotic romances. I'm thrilled to be able to announce my novella, Dude Ranch Nights, which has been out of print for some time, is one of this beginning batch of tales. It was released today!

I do want to remind my readers that the story is set in the early 1950s and I tried to be completely true and authentic to that time frame as I wrote it. Therefor some things that are not politically correct now are going to happen, even some things a few readers may find upsetting or offensive. I do no intentionally offend or upset anyone but since I majored in History when I was in school, I have some strong feelings about remaining authentic and never rewriting what was real to mollify anyone's 2017 sensibilities. You cannot change what was and pretending will not make it go away or cease to have occurred!! That being said, let's go into a bit of background for this story.

At the period, when I was only a very small child, "Dude Ranches" were a big fad. Some were very tame and genteel but others catered to more adventurous and thrill-seeking clientele. My dad was good friends with a man who ran just such a place. Dad went along on a number of dangerous and exciting hunts and expeditions. His tales of them piqued my interest--little pitchers with big ears!--and as I approached my teens, I developed a large crush of Mr Greenough, who was the guide and proprietor. He had the reputation for being quite a ladies man in his younger years and even up into his sixties, he seemed to be a very glamorous and exciting sort of chap! So from my early efforts at fiction, I was sure I would eventually write some stories inspired by that mystique.

There is a family saga 'big novel' which has sat in fragments in the back of a file drawer for many years and may or may not ever see the light of day. However, Dude Ranch Nights has been completed, published and is now going to be reissued. Now I hasten to explain that Cameron Greenway is not intended to 'be' or even closely correspond to the real Mr T. Leo Greenough, but I do credit the latter for inspiration here. Still I state without hesitation that any real resemblance is coincidental and not truly intended; the worthy gentleman has been deceased for close to sixty years  and may he rest in peace.

Carole is strictly the figment of my imagination, perhaps a vague construct from some of my youthful daydreams and flights of fancy concerning how life might be had I been 'to the manor born.' To some degree we are sisters of spirit for I was always interested in adventure and challenges and pursued as many of them as I could. Had I enjoyed an adventurer uncle, I surely would have gone with him every chance I had!

The photo at right was taken by my dad and it or a similar one graced the cover of an outdoor adventure magazine back in the late 1950s. It was at Mr. Greenough's Spring Creek Ranch in the Verde Valley in central Arizona and features him with one of his mules and two of the hunting hounds. This is NOT Cam Greenway but with a bit of imagination you can perhaps visualize the hero of Dude Ranch Nights!