Dawson and Connelly

As I mentioned last night, I planned to wrap up my reading of Peter Dawson's LONE RIDER FROM TEXAS. I did so, and here's what I posted about it on the WesternPulps list:

I just finished reading LONE RIDER FROM TEXAS, a Thorndike Large Print collection of seven of Peter Dawson's pulp Western stories:

"Manhunt in Malpais", from WESTERN STORY, February 4, 1939
"Lawman of Latigo Wells", from COWBOY STORIES, September 1936
"The Boom-Camp Terror", from DIME WESTERN, June 1937
"A Renegade Guards the Gold Stage", from STAR WESTERN, January 1938
"Bushwhack Heritage", from WESTERN STORY, April 2, 1938
"This One Good Eye" (as "Owlhoot Nemesis"), WESTERN STORY, July 30, 1938
"Lone Rider From Texas" (as "Lone Raider From Texas"), WESTERN STORY, March 11, 1939

There are the usual informative story introductions by Jon Tuska, also. Although it doesn't say so anywhere, this is sort of a theme anthology. Most of the stories deal with outlaws going straight or trying to keep their shady past from catching up with them. All of them are excellent. Peter Dawson (Jonathan Glidden) was one of the best writers in the Western pulps and always kept the purple prose to a minumum, although it sometimes creeps in during the gunfight scenes (not necessarily a bad thing). This is my favorite of the Dawson collections I've read so far. It'll probably turn up eventually as a Leisure paperback, and if it does, it'll be well worth picking up.

I'm now reading Michael Connelly's novel THE POET. As long-time readers of this blog may recall, last fall I went on a sort of Connelly mini-binge, reading the first four Harry Bosch novels in fairly short order. I haven't read anything by him since then, though. But I'm in the mood for his work again and am enjoying this one so far.

I was able to work on the writing most of the day and got 23 pages done. I also realized that some of my plans for the rest of the book aren't going to work, so I have to change gears and approach it a little differently. I still feel good about how it's going, though.