Download the first five chapters of TIN STAR by Cecil Castellucci. On their way to start a new life, Tula and her family travel on the Prairie Rose, a colony ship headed to a planet in the outer reaches of the galaxy. All is going well until the ship makes a stop at a remote space station, the Yertina Feray, and the colonist's leader, Brother Blue, beats Tula within an inch of her life. An alien, Heckleck, saves her and teaches her the ways of life on the space station. When three humans crash land onto the station, Tula's desire for escape becomes irresistible, and her desire for companionship becomes unavoidable. But just as Tula begins to concoct a plan to get off the space station and kill Brother Blue, everything goes awry, and suddenly romance is the farthest thing from her mind.

"Beaten and left for dead, fourteen-year-old Tula Bane finds herself abandoned on a space station called Yertina Feray after traveling with the colonist group, Children of the Earth"--

Mark Brown is hoping to become a minister of the church, but for now he is teaching the elementary school in the little town of Barker's Crossing in Wyoming. When a local landowner begins to terrorize the homesteaders around Barker's Crossing, Brown realizes that it is time to act. He has not always been a teacher; in fact he was a lawman for over ten years. Now, before he can fulfil his ambition of becoming a minister, he must take up his gun one last time and fight to defend the helpless.

Have you ever wondered what life was really like during the Revolutionary War? Through recipes, crafts, engaging historical information, activities, and games this book gives you a chance to experience what life was like during the Revolutionary War. Included in this book are timelines, maps, exciting photographs, one recipe, and three crafts or activities. Age appropriate instructions, tips for teachers, and thought provoking questions make each craft appropriate for either individual of classroom use.

Western films are often considered sprawling reflections of the American spirit. This book analyzes the archetypes, themes, and figures within the mythology of the western frontier. Western themes are interpreted as expressions of cultural needs that perform specific psychological functions for the audience. Chapters are devoted to the frontier hero character, the roles of women and Native Americans, and the work of the genre's most prolific directors, Anthony Mann and John Ford. The book includes a filmography and movie stills. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

For more than a century the Western film has proven to be an enduring genre. At the dawn of the 20th century, in the same years that The Great Train Robbery begat a film genre, Owen Wister wrote The Virginian, which began a new literary genre. From the beginning, both literature and film would usually perpetuate the myth of the Old West as a place where justice always triumphed and all concerned (except the villains) pursued the Law. The facts, however, reflect abuses of due process: lynch mobs and hired gunslingers rather than lawmen regularly pursued lawbreakers; vengeance rather than justice was often employed; and even in courts of law justice didn't always prevail. Some films and novels bucked this trend, however. This book discusses the many Western films as well as the novels they are based on, that illustrate distortions of the law in the Old West and the many ways, most of them marked by vengeance, in which its characters pursued justice.

Newly Revised From best-selling authors Patricia Rice, Adrienne deWolfe, Sharon Ihle and Patricia Hagan come four award-winning tales featuring four feisty lady troublemakers who finally meet their match. Four complete novels in one volume. TEXAS LILY: In a time when women are to be seen and not heard, widowed Lily Porter has a child to raise and a ranch to save. Cade is part Apache brave, part Mexican grandee, the perfect choice for ranch foreman, until Cade turns all that power and forbidden passion on Lily. TEXAS OUTLAW: Fancy Holleday has more nerve than the average thief. No man can resist her smoky voice and violet eyes—including federal tin-star, Cord Rawlins. Cord has sworn to resist, but the Nevada penitentiary is a long ride north, and Fancy's wicked smile hides a desperate secret. THE LAW AND MISS PENNY: When US Marshal Morgan Slater awakes, head throbbing, he believes a lovely lady's claim that he is her cousin and member of her family's medicine show. Mariah has good reason for misleading the hard-headed lawman hell-bent on shutting down her legitimate business—until cousinly banter turns into forbidden passion. SAY YOU LOVE ME: Jacie Calhoun refuses to marry the man to whom she's promised, after learning that her mother, taken captive long-ago by the Comanche, might still be alive. But warrior Luke Howling Wolf isn't about to give up his beloved adopted mother—Sunstar—his tribe's revered medicine woman, despite his passion for Jacie. REVIEWS: "Ms. Rice is in her element as she gives us a recipe for romance... one delicious read." ~Romantic Times "Funny, fresh, fast-paced and romantic, Texas Outlaw is an entertaining read." ~Susan Wiggs, National Bestselling Author "Master storyteller Sharon Ihle spins a heartwarming tale full of humor and tears... brilliant, candid, and poignant dialogue. Tears will be running down your face at the touching conclusion. This is a book you'll read!" ~Rendezvous "Say You Love Me is intense and very emotional... Well worth the read." ~Heather Chamberlin, Amazon Reviewer

With its unique focus on pacifism, The Big Country was an unusual Western for audiences of the 1950s. Produced in 1958, this epic film featured an all-star cast that included Gregory Peck, Charlton Heston, and Oscar-winner Burl Ives. One of the most enduring elements of the film has been Jerome Moross’s score. Inspired to re-think the traditional Western score and approach it in a way that enhances the emotional content, rather than simply accompanying the action, Moross created a work that stands as one of the great achievements of cinematic music. In Jerome Moross’s The Big Country: A Film Score Guide, Mariana Whitmer examines Moross’s landmark work, a score that continues to attract listeners and influence composers of film, Westerns and otherwise. This book begins with a biographical survey of Moross’s formative years, his early dramatic compositions in ballet and musical theater, and his early film work, providing an historical context for understanding his approach to scoring The Big Country. Drawing upon Moross’s original manuscripts and correspondence, Whitmer looks carefully at the score itself. She relates the history of this magnificent score and how the film’s music differs significantly from contemporary trends in the Western. Whitmer also examines the music’s individual cues and describes how Moross approached the film as a dramatic entity, delineating sections of the narrative into mega-scenes through the music. Finally, the aftermath of this score is considered, including how it has influenced not only subsequent Westerns but also music videos. The first book devoted to a Western film score and the only biographical book on the composer, Jerome Moross’s The Big Country: A Film Score Guide, will be a valuable read for musicologists, film scholars, and anyone interested in Moross and his music.

For every Wild Bill Hickok or Billy the Kid, there was another western gunfighter just as deadly but not as well known. Robert K. DeArment has earned a reputation as the premier researcher of unknown gunfighters, and here he offers twelve more portraits of men who weren’t glorified in legend but were just as notorious in their day. Those who think they already know all about Old West gunfighters will be amazed at this new collection. Here are men like Porter Stockton, the Texas terror who bragged that he had killed eighteen men, and Jim Levy, who killed a man for disparaging his Irish blood, though he was also the only known Jewish gunfighter. These stories span eight decades, from the gold rushes of the 1850s to the 1920s. Telling of gunmen such as Jim Masterson, the brother of Bat Masterson, or the real Whispering Smith—the man behind the fictionalized persona—whose career spanned four decades, DeArment conscientiously separates fact from fiction to reconstruct lives all the more amazing for having remained unknown for so long. The product of iron-clad research, this newest Deadly Dozen delivers the goods for gunfighter buffs in search of something different. Together the Deadly Dozen volumes constitute a Who’s Who of western outlaws and prove that there’s more to the Wild West than Jesse James.