WORKING LIKE A COWBOY by Stephen Bly Everyone wants to be like a cowboy, it seems. Or to know a cowboy. Even in other countries, to be like a cowboy seems popular. I know this because of writing westerns and the responses I get. Such as the Austin-Stoner Series. I can’t count how many letters […]
Think Like A Cowboy It’s 1954. In the western cowboy novel, Cowboy For A Rainy Afternoon, six Old West cowboys and a 10-year-old boy meet for a weekly cribbage game. While the old men spin tales of days gone by on the trail, a real life adventure stirs around them. The boy with the red […]
Have You Ever Been Hornswoggled? The man who called me on the phone sounded friendly, maybe too much so. It was the old, “Hi, Stephen, how you doin’? How’s everything in Idaho? The weather treatin’ you and the ranchers right? Know you aren’t thinkin’ about the busy fall yet, but I ran across a deal […]
The National Finals Rodeo resembles The World Series or the Super Bowl. The very best cowboys and cowgirls in the world converge in Las Vegas every December to compete for millions in prize money. Not only can you watch superior rodeo athletes, but also the top bucking stock. Every bareback horse, saddle bronc, and bull […]
Ever been caught losing your hat? I was driving out to the corrals when a cowboy neighbor hiked out of the woods. He was dusting off his hat and brushing his jeans. I stopped to visit and noticed his torn flannel shirt and a scratch across his face. “Howdy,” I said. “Can I help?” “Did […]
One of the loneliest Old West jobs had to be the line rider. In the Old West days before Joseph Glidden’s patented barbed wire invention crossed the prairies, ranchers found it difficult to keep their cattle on the home range. To keep them from wandering to a neighbor’s pasture or getting lost in the wilderness, […]
The Cowboy Code Meets the Medieval Code of Chivalry By Janalyn Voigt The worlds of knights and chivalry and the cowboy code of the American West seem quite different, but I’ve noticed striking similarities. Both inhabit feudalistic cultures set on frontiers during times where law-and-order wasn’t yet established. And both developed unwritten codes of honor that […]
Cowboy Roping and Faith At Work Styles by Stephen Bly Cowboy roping terms vary from one part of the country to another. That 30×60 ft rope the cowboy hooks with thin leather strap to the right of his saddle horn? It might be called a lasso, a reata, or a lariat. In the old days […]
Most Everything I Know I Learned From Rodeo Rules by western author Stephen Bly Robert Jack lived right down the road. He called me Butch and I called him Junior. We discovered we agreed on almost everything … Dwight David Eisenhower and the New York Yankees, Dodge pickup trucks and quetta nectarines, Coca Cola and […]
In the frame short story in this anthology, Ben and Marnie Pearson never intended to start a jewelry collection. But when they were given a box of leftover jewelry at an estate sale, they were intrigued by the colorful contents . . .
The sparkling jewels featured in this collection may have been passed down through generations or discovered accidentally, but each has its own unique short story. From diamonds to emeralds, opals to rubies, these stones have witnessed it all.
Here in The Jeweler's Heart are their fascinating tales told by seventeen of the talented novel writers of ChiLibris. For fans of inspirational fiction and heartwarming tales, The Jeweler's Heart is a treasure.
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