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SADDLEBAG DISPATCHES
BEHIND THE CHUTES Dennis Doty PUBLISHER
Bringing Home the Hardware Celebrating Some Top Authors and Another Great Issue.
W
elcome to the Winter issue of Saddlebag Dispatches magazine. This issue is themed around Cochise County, Arizona. You’ll likely recognize the authors of most, if not all, of our features. We are extremely pleased with the recognition that some of our authors and staff have received since the last issue. Sherry Monahan received a Will Rogers Medallion Award Gold Medal for The Tombstone Cookbook: Reci-
Michael Norman (left) and Saddlebag Dispatches Managing Editor Anthony Wood accept a Will Rogers Medallion Copper Medal for Michael’s short story “Lozen’s War.”
pes and Lore from the Town Too Tough to Die; Chris Enss won a silver medal for The Widowed Ones: Beyond the Battle of the Little Bighorn, co-authored with Howard Kazanjian; Chris also received a Copper Medal for Along Came a Cowgirl: Daring and Iconic Women of the Rodeo & Wild West Shows; Michael Norman received a Copper Medal for his short story, “Lozen’s War” published in Saddlebag Dispatches; Timothy Lange won Silver for Galaxy: The Best Friend a Cowboy Ever Had; P.A. O’Neil received Copper for her great article on the annual Ellensburg Rodeo, “Northwest Passage,” also here in Saddlebag Dispatches, and Manuela Schneider won a Silver Medal for her western film, Miner’s Candle. Over at Western Fictioneers, JD Arnold was a Peacemaker Award finalist for Best First Novel with Rawhide Jake: Learning the Ropes, and Ben Goheen was a finalist for short fiction with “On the Trail with Packer,” which is another one you may recognize from right here at Saddlebag Dispatches. Finally, Chris Enss also won the WILLA Award from Women Writing the West with The Widowed Ones: Beyond the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Our heartiest congratulations to all of these talented authors. If you haven’t read their work yet, you really need to. Now on to this issue... First off, please excuse our dust while we do some remodeling around the old ranch house. As you flip through the pages, you’ll notice some changes to our signature style, perhaps none larger than the front cover you’ve already seen. After five years in our previous format we decided to liven the place up a bit. Similar changes will be coming to our website soon, as well. Don’t worry, though, we’re the same old Saddlebag Dispatches, just a little better looking for our big Tenth Anniversary celebration in 2024. So what else do we have in store for you this year? Well, I’d say quite a bit. For one thing, we’re proud to announce the winner of our Inaugural Longhorn Prize for Western Short Fiction, the one and only Michael Norman with his fantastic short story, “A Death of Crows.” Michael will not only take home $300 and even more bragging rights, he’ll also receive a trophy belt buckle from Montana Silversmiths to commemorate the occasion. Next up, we have a history and exploration of the Arizona’s beautiful Karchner Caverns by award-winning author Doug Hocking. There’s a masterful treatise setting the record straight regarding the legacy of lawman/detective Jonas V. Brighton—known in some circles as Rawhide Jake—by JD Arnold. The inimitable Chris Enss teams up with JoAnn Chartier to bring you the stories of both Cathy Wil-
