Could Have Been A Cowboy

AUTHOR UP CLOSE. I have been a contractor most of my adult life. This is actually a second career for me. Hopefully you have enjoyed many of my lyrics in this book. Some words I spelled wrong on purpose, I guess you know that by now. I did so the end of the word would have the effect I wanted; many lyricists do that. If by chance there are others, then shame on me and my spell check. Grammar never was my best subject. I’m married with six children and nine grandchildren. Working in any form has been my many hobbies. This is my first edition of Your Own Song to Sing. I will be doing additional editions, probably one a year for the next four or five years. Without writing any new material, I have enough to fill that many books, and yes, I’m still writing. Again I surely hope to see some of you that use my lyrics, if not on center stage when the awards come around. Meanwhile All Stay Well.—SAVERIO

Grandpa Garnier used to say, Love is like a bucking bronco. It takes guts and determination to hang on, but it's worth the ride. If only Grandpa was around now to help Tyson Garnier out of this mess. The famous pro football player is suddenly saddled with a very public scandal—and an illegitimate child. Tyson needs a good nanny now if he's going to salvage his career. And plain, no-nonsense Dakota Brown is the ideal candidate. Dakota doesn't care for football—or for a man who doesn't seem to want his own son. But she needs this job, and that precious little baby needs her. Dakota isn't Tyson's kind of woman. But the more he sees of her—and the more he sees of his son—the harder he wants to hang on.

The bigger they are, the harder they fall-in love. Rough Riders, Book 7 Soldier Cameron McKay has found his niche, and it ain't ropin' steers and wearin' spurs. His deputy sheriff job-and the injuries that ended his military career-keep him right where he wants to be: off the ranch and away from his family's pity. His darkest war memories are on lockdown, leaving him skeptical he'll ever find a woman that wants a man who's less than whole. Orphaned in the Ukraine at age eleven, Domini Katzinski has had to control every aspect of her life since emigrating to the U.S. Watching others' relationships crumble has convinced her to focus on the short-term-and find a take-charge man to whom she can relinquish total sexual control. Cam fits the bill: gorgeous, with a brooding vulnerability no one else seems to see. Once Cam gets over his surprise that sweet, shy Domini wants to be dominated, he's back to issuing orders. Their passion burns as hot as a rocket-propelled grenade-and if Domini has her way, it'll be a one-shot deal. Cam is ready to launch a full-out sensual assault to make her his, but when tragedy strikes, he'll have to keep their past demons from blowing their future together all to hell...

Back in the 1960's tracing your Family Tree was just becoming an interesting hobby. Now, like a lazy little babbling stream merrily following the course of time, that stream has metamorphosed into a huge, directed waterfall and on to an almost out of control flood of family information. Between tracing records, having DNA tested, and the ever-increasing boundaries the Internet is providing, connecting with family one never even realized existed forty years ago, has become an absorbing, interesting avocation for everybody from school children to Seniors. Our family alone has over 14,000 leaves growing on one tree or another in such diverse places as England, Wales, Scandinavian Countries, Finland, USA and Canada. All of us looking to be connected to one another. One never knows where or when that connection may happen. It's just not the data that's important. Was that first traveller a thoughtful, directed man who only wanted a better life for himself and his family? Was he a rogue looking for a fast way out of town to places he would never be found? Did he leave because he was in trouble with the local constabulary, or was he looking for religious freedom? What about the women? Why did they come? What were their thoughts? What was in it for them? When you find the stories, they are fascinating! Our thirst for knowledge of these people is insatiable! Whether or not you are a leaf on one of our orchard of trees you may find a graft that will lead you to another branch where another leaf has been joined to one of our own. Come. Learn about us. Learn about yourself.

Wounded during an investigation and still grieving the loss of his son, Anchorage private detective Nik Kane is determined to keep himself busy with a cold case that’s haunted him for twenty years. Danny Shirtleff was a cop who’d spent months undercover taking down violent criminals and cheating death until his luck ran out on a muddy road next to Skeleton Lake. Three slugs in the chest took care of Danny, and landed fledgling detective Nik Kane with the first big case of his career, one that he’s never been able to close. But even in Alaska, cold cases have a habit of heating up. And Nik Kane is about to get burned.

A career-to-date monograph by Anja Niemi, one of today’s most fascinating contemporary photographers, who places herself in front of the lens to create elegant, meticulously staged, and utterly memorable imagery. Anja Niemi: In Character is the first career retrospective monograph by one of the most exciting talents working in contemporary photography. Niemi’s work has emerged as a distinctive force within the venerable tradition of conceptual self- portraiture. A photo artist who works alone—photographing, staging, and acting out the characters in all of her images—Niemi is a constant presence (in character) in her work, developing complex, nuanced narratives through evocative costume and styling. In her bewitching Darlene & Me series she reconfigures the concept of the Hitchcock blond within a pristine Lynchian landscape for her own visual pleasure—and ours—while in She Could Have Been a Cowboy she turns the lens to a life lived under the constraints of conformity. With over one hundred and seventy photographs organized into the six series that have defined Niemi’s career to date, supported by an essay and interview by Max Houghton, Anja Niemi: In Character is the perfect introduction for those encountering Niemi’s work for the first time, and a comprehensive retrospective for her longtime followers.

In this slim, lively book our foremost historian of country music recalls the lost worlds of pioneering fiddlers and pickers, balladeers and yodelers. As he looks at "hillbilly" music's pre-commercial era and its early popular growth through radio and recordings, Bill C. Malone shows us that it was a product not only of the British Isles but of diverse African, German, Spanish, French, and Mexican influences.