Behind the Chutes—Dennis Doty

WELL, IT’S DECEMBER. THE canning is done, the hog’s in the smokehouse, the cattle have been driven down to their winter range, and the firewood is cut and stacked for winter. It’s been one heck of a year for most of us. Seems like every industry has experienced supply chain challenges and unpredictable delays. Many have found new careers or new ways of doing business. And like cowboys have always done, we’ve cowboyed up, met the challenges head on, and gotten the job done. But it hasn’t all been tough news. Thanks to a group of truly outstanding writers, Saddlebag Dispatches and our parent company, Oghma Creative Media, harvested a crop of award-winning stories that we think would make our dearly departed founder,Dusty Richards, proud.

We started out with Rod Miller’s short story, “Black Joe” (Saddlebag Dispatches/Summer 2020), which won the Western Fictioneers’ Peacemaker for Short Western Fiction. Two more of our contributors were finalists. Regina McLemore for Best First Western Novel with her Cherokee Clay (Fife Press/Young Dragons Press) and John T. Biggs for Short Western Fiction with “The Last Photograph” (Saddlebag Dispatches/Summer 2020). Summer also saw our first winner in our own Mustang Award for western flash fiction. The competition was fierce with multiple award-winning authors submitting their work. The top eight entries were published in our Summer issue. In the end, Andrew Salmon’s “High Stakes” took top honors and a cash prize.

October was a busy month with judging for another Dusty and Pat Richards Memorial Oxbow Award for short fiction from Ozark Creative Writ-rs. The winner was Nancy Smith Gibson, and her winning story, “Wherever Life Leads,” appears in this issue.

Mid-October saw our authors and staff attending the Will Rogers Medallion Awards in Fort Worth. Paul Colt’s riveting novel, Grasshoppers in Summer (hardcover 5Star, paperback and eBook Oghma Creative Media, 2020), collected a respectable 4th Place in Western Fiction as did Regina McLemore’s Cherokee Clay in Western Young Readers. In the Short Story category, Darrel Sparkman’s “Holy Sabbath Morning” from his novel, Hard Times (Galway Press/Oghma Creative Media) took top honors while Anthony Wood’s, “Not So Long in The Tooth” (Saddlebag Dispatches/Winter 2020) collected 4th, and Sharon Frame Gay garnered a 5th with her “North Star” (Saddlebag Dispatches/Winter 2020). If you missed any of these great stories, they are available through your favorite bookseller, and back issues of Saddlebag Dispatches can be found on our website. These are some seriously good western writers and well worth following. If you have or do read them, remember the best way to show your appreciation to any author is to leave an honest review.

Regina Mclemore stands with Young Dragons Press publisher Chrissy Willis after accepting her Medallion.

Photography by ownbeyphotography.com

Bestselling author Paul Colt celebrates with Oghma Creative Media CEO Casey W. Cowan after accepting his award.

Photography by ownbeyphotography.com

Saddlebag Dispatches and Oghma Creative Media were well-represented at the Will Rogers Medallion Awards Ceremony in Fort Worth, Texas in October. Back row from left, George & Michelle Mitchell, Lisa & Anthony Wood, Front row from left, Amy & Casey Cowan, Dylan & Derek Hale

Photography by ownbeyphotography.com

The Mustang Award for Outstanding Western Flash Fiction will be open for submissions beginning February 1st and will close on March 1st, 2022. There are no fees to enter, and submissions are open to any writer worldwide who writes in the English language. Winning story will receive a $25 cash prize and publication in the Summer 2022 issue. Runners-up may also be published depending on space availability. Entry constitutes permission to publish with first world-wide publication rights. Rights revert to the author upon publication of the Summer 2022 issue except for non-exclusive electronic rights in perpetuity. Submissions must be no more than 1,000 words. Manuscripts should be double-spaced with one-inch margins in Times New Roman 12 point font. Please, do not include any identifying information in the manuscript except the story title. Author’s name, address, telephone number, and email should be included in a one-page cover letter. The cover letter should state that the story is submitted for the Mustang Award competition, the story title, author identification, and a 150-200 word third person bio to be used in the event of publication. Only electronic submissions will be accepted. Mustang Award should be the subject of your email. Submit to: submissions@saddlebagdispatches.com.

The judges for this year’s contest have not yet been determined but will be announced on the Saddlebag Dispatches website prior to February 1st.

With all the news about awards finally “dispatched” with—you see what I did there?—it’s unfortunately time to turn to a couple of losses to the western publishing world this year.

We were saddened by the announcement that Charles Williams, co-founder of the Will Rogers Medallion Award, has retired from his position as Executive Director of the organization (though he will continue to serve on the board as Emeritus Director). Charles co-founded WRMA in 2002, when he and Margo Metagrano received permission from the Will Rogers Foundation to start a Cowboy Poetry Award in Will’s name. Under Charles’s expert guidance, that award, it’s prestige, and the number of categories it now honors has grown exponentially in the two decades since its establishment. Charles is the author of the award-winning “Dust From Distant Trails” cowboy poetry book and the recipient of WRMA’s first presentation of the Golden Lariat for Lifetime Achievement— an honor he richly deserves. We here at Saddlebag Dispatches wish to extend our profoundest gratitude to Charles for his dedication, passion, and service to Western writing and publishing—to say nothing of being an all-around good guy. While we’re saddened to see him step out of the limelight, we know WRMA is in good hands with the selection of his successor to the Executive Director position, the in-imitable Chris Enss.

Finally, we were disappointed to hear of the recent demise of the venerable Rope and Wire magazine. Rope and Wire has served and entertained western readers for many years, and editor and head honcho, Scott Gese, provided a ready market for some outstanding writers. We’re sad to see any outlet of great western writing ride off into the sunset, but we salute Scott and wish him the very best. We hope that some of the writers who have lost this valuable resource will consider submitting their work to Saddlebag Dispatches.

In this issue, we have another great collection of stories about gunmen and farmers, prospectors, and Native Americans. We hope you enjoy them. Until next time, we’ll be right here, Behind the Chutes.

—DENNIS DOTYP, ublisher