I know how long it’s been since I’ve posted on this site. Best intentions of posting-while-writing-a-book aside, I have been writing, though not on social platforms; instead I write in private, at the mustang cabin or at the ranch, for long hours or short, between cattle work, before and after ranch activities, in my dreams.

Two weeks ago I sent the manuscript of The Last Cows to the editor at Bison Books/University of Nebraska Press. He called me a few days later (they are so prompt at Bison Books!) and went through his list of concerns in the text, as well as What Happens Next. First, I wait, then tackle his list (okay, I’ve already started–I missed the manuscript so); then, if the book is approved, we sign a real contract (the first was really an MOU). And I rewrite, revise, correct, delete, regret what I’ve missed, and turn in the “final” product. Then we proofread galleys, and still miss things. Gods willing, in a year +/- from now, a book with The Last Cows and my name on the cover will appear.

Pretty’s heifer. Photo by TJ Holmes

Meanwhile, over the last months I have received some good writer-news, highlighted by receipt of the Ellen Meloy Award for Desert Writers and Bison Books’ interest:

• “After Birth,” runner-up for The Missouri Review‘s 2023 Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize, will appear in the spring 2024 issue of TMR
• Terrain.org nominated “In the Rut,” finalist for the 13th Annual Nonfiction Contest, for Best American Essays 2024
• “Follow the Stars,” finalist, Deep Wild Journal, 2024 
• “Emergence,” published in High Desert Journal in 2022, is a Best American Essays 2023 Notable Essay
• “Wrapped,” 2023 finalist among Orion‘s 1,000+ pitches for an issue on floods
• “Ode to Rain,” finalist for a 2023 Women Writing the West DOWNING Journalism Award 
• “Dead Center,” semi-finalist, River Teeth, 2023
• “Another West,” finalist, New Millennium Writings 54th Literary Awards, 2023

Roanie babysitting. Photo by TJ Holmes