Books in the Dud and Ponder Westerns series

"2014 Short Fiction Spur Finalist V.J. Rose picks up the trail with Dudford Washburn, his Uncle Ponder, and a cast of rough and tumble characters in this continuation of a classic adventure tale of the Old American West. After making a small fortune selling longhorns in West Texas and New Mexico, Dudford Washburn, along with his Uncle Ponder and a motley crew of drovers, is chased all the way back to San Antonio by resentful West Texas ranchers, greedy bandits, marauding Comanche, and angry Apache who want to steal his gold, horses, and guns. Dud is driven to survive by two things-to see that his men make it home alive and, perhaps more importantly, to kill the man who stole his wife. A beautiful rescued Indian captive and three orphans unwittingly help Dud find his way amidst a backdrop of feuding relatives, raw young cowboys, and a landscape so harsh, death stalks at every turn. Tagline: Riders be wary...Death stalks at every turn..."--

"2014 Short Fiction Spur Finalist V.J. Rose takes us back into the lives of Dudford Washburn and his motley crew in this classic adventure tale of the Old American West. After the Civil War, rancher and muleskinner Dudford Washburn returns to San Antonio to find that his wife has unexpectedly divorced him. Determined to make enough money to win her back, he comes up with a scheme to herd longhorns across the wilds of West Texas in order to sell them to the army posts in New Mexico for a huge profit. It's so dangerous, the only cowhands he can find are green-under-the-collar boys who don't know any better. To round out his ramshackle crew, Dud is forced to take along his feuding relatives who have their own reasons for going. Everyone else believes they are about to embark on a suicide mission through hell, but Dud is convinced fortune awaits at the end of the trail... Tagline: They'll have to be bullhide tough to survive the harsh west"--