And I'm back!

I'm back from the Wine, Writers & Song event in Brownville, and boy are my arms tired. Wait a minute, I guess that doesn't make sense since I didn't fly. Anyway, I'm back and the festival was a lot of fun! I've never been to Brownville so that was something new. I didn't know there was such a great little spot so close to home. It's an artistic community with plenty of book shops (that I loved) and plenty of antique stores (that my wife loved). It also looks like a town from a western. See for yourself:

Ok...it looks like a western town if you don't think about the SUVs and cars parked outside. You know what I mean.

There were a lot of poets and artists there, which was fun because I don't normally get a chance to hear poets do their thing. I found out there's a lot of poetry societies in my area, so I'll have to check some of those out. In general, I've never been very good at writing poetry. I'm just too long-winded, I suppose. I saw a group called Echopoetico and they were phenomenal. They had a mix of traditional Andean instruments along with spoken poetry. Personally, I wasn't expecting for it to be my sort of thing, but it was really great! I'm really glad I sat back and gave them a chance because it was definitely worth it. I'll put a link to them on the blog so you can check them out if you want. I recommend it!

On Saturday, I spoke at a great place called the Carson House. I didn't get a chance to take a full tour of it, but it looked like an old house that was restored to be historically accurate. It was truly a beautiful place. Here's a picture:

I did a reading from THE ACCOMPLICE and talked a lot about Doc Holliday. For those of you who were able to stop by, it was great seeing you. For those of you who didn't make it, you missed a historical event because it was the first time I ever did a reading from any of my books. It wasn't poetry or music, but I thought it fit with the tone of the event. Hopefully, I didn't look like too big of a fool up there.

All in all, it was a fun weekend. My thanks to Jan, who did a great job organizing everything. The food was excellent and I highly recommend that anyone in the Nebraska area give Brownville a visit. Right now, it's back to work for me. I'm starting in on my second book in the Ralph Compton series. My first Compton book, THE BLOODY TRAIL, will be released in August. I won't be poking my head out again until June for the Western Writers Convention being held in Springfield, MO, but I'll check in here as much as possible.