Best Books of Indiana Literary competition -- Judge's comments

The Scorpion Trail by Larry D. Sweazy

For the second-consecutive year, Larry D. Sweazy delighted Best Books of Indiana judges with his latest addition to the Josiah Wolfe series. The Scorpion Trail, while a traditional and gritty western novel, sets itself apart in the genre due to Sweazy’s deft storytelling and historical accuracy. It was a joy to watch the further development Josiah Wolfe’s character throughout his new adventures in The Scorpion Trail, which truly compliments Sweazy’s previous novel The Rattlesnake Season. While The Scorpion Trail stands very well on its own, reading the books in tandem is recommended for a truly great western experience. Sweazy’s The Rattlesnake Season, was only the second western novel ever selected as a finalist for the Best Books of Indiana competition. The Scorpion Trail now becomes the first western to win the competition. Both recognitions are testament to supreme quality of Sweazy’s Josiah Wolfe series, which are not simply great westerns, but great novels of fiction.

THE SCORPION TRAIL wins Best Books of Indiana competition

The Scorpion Trail, published by Berkley Books (Penguin, New York), has won the Best Books of Indiana literary competition.  The honor was announced by the Indiana State Library on September 06, 2011.

The Best Books of Indiana contest was created to honor Indiana's long and illustrious literary heritage and recognize Hoosier authors. The Indiana Center for the Books administers the Best Books of Indiana contest annually and accepts entries from Hoosier authors or books that have an Indiana theme or setting.

"It is a privilege to recognize this terrific group of Hoosier authors," said Roberta Brooker, Indiana State Librarian, of the winning contestants. "One copy of each Best Book will permanently join the works of great Hoosier authors like Gene Stratton Porter, James Whitcomb Riley and Kurt Vonnegut within the State Library’s Indiana Authors Room."

Sweazy was a finalist in the same category last year for The Rattlesnake Season, Josiah Wolfe, Texas Ranger #1 (Berkley Books, New York).

The Scorpion Trail is the second book in the award-winning Josiah Wolfe, Texas Ranger series. The novel previously won the 2011 Will Rogers Medallion Award for Western Fiction.

From the back cover: Starting your life over in a big city like Austin, Texas is no easy task, especially for a man raised on the land like Texas Ranger Josiah Wolfe. Now, after uprooting his son to the state’s capital, Josiah must leave Austin to meet up with the rest of the Texas Ranger Frontier Battalion. But before he can get to work, Josiah has to make a quick stop to check on his old friend Juan Carlos. When Josiah finds the livery where Juan Carlos was hiding aflame, he fears he may never repay the debt made the day the Mexican saved his life. To find out if his friend is dead or alive, Josiah searches for the one person who might know Juan Carlos’ whereabouts. But she too has gone missing, and another deadly fire is reported in Waco, Josiah’s quick detour turns into a search that brings up old enemies and new dangers. He’ll have to ride hard and draw fast to find his Battalion…and to return back home..

There will be (at least) six books in the Josiah Wolfe, Texas series with the most current novel, The Cougar’s Prey (#4), published on October 04, 2011. The Badger’s Revenge (#3) was published in April, 2011.

The Tuesday Update

It seems like I've been away from the blog forever.  I had a pretty good stretch there when I was routine with my postings.  But life got in the way.  I can say now that things have settled down a bit, and I'm looking forward to the coming months.

It's hard to believe that The Cougar's Prey releases two months from today.   I've scheduled my first book signing for this release.  I'll be at Barnes & Noble in Noblesville (17090 Mercantile Blvd.
Noblesville, IN 46060) on Tuesday, October 4th from 6 PM to 8 PM.  Beyond that, I don't have any firm dates yet for appearances, but I'll post them here when I get them.

I was surprised yesterday to get the announcement that The Scorpion Trail (Josiah Wolfe #2) is a finalist in the Best Books of Indiana competition.  This is a huge honor for me, since my books are set in Texas, to receive recognition from my home state.  The Rattlesnake Season (Josiah Wolfe #1) was also a finalist last year.  So I am doubly honored.  Results should be announced at the end of August.




It's amazing that fall is right around the corner.  I'm looking forward to Bouchercon 2011 in St. Louis, and I'll also be spending a day Magna Cum Murder in Muncie, Indiana, in October. 

If you haven't checked out The Traditional West, a new anthology of western short stories, please do.  I have a new story in it, "Lost Mountain Pass", and the anthology is chocked full of good stories by some of the best western writers around.

I have a few more short stories set to appear in anthologies this year, and next.  Once I get pre-order info, I'll post it here.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to be more frequent in the coming days.

THE SCORPION TRAIL wins the Will Rogers Medallion award for Western Fiction

I was notified last evening that The Scorpion Trail (Josiah Wolfe #2) has won the 2011 Will Rogers Medallion Award for Western Fiction.

The Will Rogers Medallion Award is presented each year to those books that represent an Outstanding Achievement in the publishing of Western Literature. They are books that exemplify outstanding excellence in content and design with an enduring quality that preserves and celebrates the history and spirit of the West and the memory of Will Rogers.


Roundup review of The Scorpion Trail by Matthew P. Mayo:

Already a fan of Larry D. Sweazy's first novel in his Josiah Wolfe, Texas Ranger series, The Rattlesnake Season, I was prepared to like its sequel, yet hesitant, too, lest Sweazy do something to sway my fondness for the well-drawn characters he'd introduced me to. I needn't have worried, The Scorpion Trail is a first-class read.

And those characters? Sweazy works them over pretty hard--emotionally, physically, socially--but the ones who survive emerge stronger and wiser. Josiah Wolfe is a complex character decidedly not a superman. His tragic past and the specters of his dead wife and daughters haunt him every day, but his love for his young son, for being a Texas Ranger, for the newly reawakened appreciations of a woman in his life bubble to the surface, forcing Wolfe for the first time in a long time to look to the future with hope.

We're treated also in this book to the maturation of the pugnacious, trigger-happy ranger, Scrap Elliott--a welcome development, for Scrap is a firecracker whose youthful vibrance counterbalances Wolfe's more mature, sober ruminations. In these characters, Sweazy is setting up a partnership, burrs and all, as filled with tension as it is with growing mutual admiration.

At times a gunshot-speed series of events, the book takes Wolfe and Elliot from Austin to Waco to Fort Worth, along the Brazos River. Toss in an ungrateful prostitute, angry Kiowas, skulking killers, and a vicious Mexican known as El Puno, the Fist, and you're on--and in--The Scorpion Trail.

Sweazy has the rare and enviable ability to convey a balance of gripping action and weighty themes in a conversational manner. The Scorpion Trail proves he's a natural storyteller, born to the task.

THE RATTLESNAKE SEASON giveaway winner:

Is Geneva Davis.  If you entered and didn't win, try again this week to win a copy of The Scorpion Trail.

Thanks to everyone that entered.

~~Larry

Win a FREE signed copy of THE RATTLESNAKE SEASON

The release of The Badger's Revenge, the third novel in the Josiah Wolfe, Texas Ranger series, is less than a month away (04/05/11).  If you haven't read the first book in the series, The Rattlesnake Season, or the second book, The Scorpion Trail, then you're in luck.

Starting today I will give away copies of both books between now and the launch (04/05/11) of The Badger's Revenge.

Here's what you need to do:  Enter a comment on this blog, and make sure I have a way to contact you. It's that simple.  

I will gather all of the names in the Comments Section, and pull one out of a cowboy hat next Friday, 3/11, and give away a signed copy of The Rattlesnake Season.  I will mail the copy at no expense to the winner.

Between 3/11 and 3/18 the same contest and rules will apply, only I'll be giving away a signed copy of The Scorpion Trail.  I'll post the start of the next contest and the winner of this one next Friday (3/11). 

Enter as many times  as you like...

Lauch Countdown

38 days until The Badger's Revenge hit's bookshelves.

Praise for the previous Josiah Wolfe novels:

“Very rarely…a novel comes along that fulfills all the expectations of the genre while rising to the level of a classic. Larry D. Sweazy’s The Rattlesnake Season combines the slam-bang action of a good Western with the sensitivity of style and depth of character that used to be the hallmark of literary fiction…Josiah Wolfe is an American original created by an American original….”—Loren D. Estleman, Spur Award–winning author of The Book of Murdock

 

“The Scorpion Trail possesses the grit and swirl of dust kicked up from the heels of a galloping steed, carried swiftly on a hard West Texas wind.”—Mike Blakely, Spur Award-winning author of A Tale Out of Luck (with Willie Nelson)