About Taste Test: Barbed Wire and Bootheels

with stories by Lorne Rodman, BA Tortuga and Vic Winter
48 pages / 10100  words
ISBN: 978-1-60370-999-6
Available file types - html, lit, Adobe and Sony optimized pdf, prc, epub

What goes with Barbed Wire and Bootheels? Cowboys, of course. In Vic Winter's Life on the Land, Jason has worked hard for his land, and for his life. Thank goodness he has Robin to share it all with him. Robin cares for him as much as he cares for his ranch, and he's sure good things are on the way.

In Ride 'em Cowboy by Lorne Rodman, Hue isn’t the only one at the rodeo and fair with an old-fashioned name. He might be a greenhorn, but he sure gets cowboy Chase's attention. And in Too Careful by Half, by BA Tortuga, Sam and Beau from File Gumbo are learning how to deal with Sam's terrible injury. And recovery. Earthy, rough and ready, and all cowboy, that's what this Taste Test is all about.

Sample

Life on the Land
By Vic Winter

Jason Guilhorn was tired down to his bones. He was filthy; he didn't think he'd ever get the crap out from under his fingernails and he wasn't sure he'd be able to stand long enough in a shower to get clean. Of course, Jason had also never been happier than he was right now.

He stopped Whiskey, his beautiful chestnut gelding, at the top of the rise from the fields and turned the horse's head so he could look back over the land. His land. All his life he'd worked for other people, milked and sowed and fenced and cared for animals that weren't his. Even when he was little he'd helped his parents who were working for other people, rich ranchers and well-off farmers. Not anymore.

He'd scrimped and saved and not spent a dime of his money until he had enough saved up to by a small parcel of land and a few head of cattle to go with it. His father's face had been so full of pride the day Jason showed him the deed to the JayGee Ranch. He'd made the sign himself, hung it on the side of the road where the lane that led up to the house and barn was.

JayGee Ranch, Jason Guilhorn, owner.

That sign and what it represented made days like today worth every aching muscle, every bit of dirt ground into his skin. Hell, even his shirt was torn because he'd gotten caught in the barbed wire fencing he was trying to fix. He had a needle and some thread, though, he could fix his shirt again so it was right as rain. The fence was fixed now, too, and his cattle were safe once again from wandering away.

Banjo, his lab mix, started barking at him. She'd gone up ahead to the barn when he'd stopped and was clearly unimpressed that he was lollygagging about. He whistled to her and she came loping over, tongue hanging out of the side of her mouth, making it look like she had a big grin on her face.

She tilted her head at him when he laughed and then barked once, imperiously, and turned to head back toward the barn. Whiskey neighed and tossed his head.

"All right, all right, I get the message. Time to call it quits for the day."