Bison grazing in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. (Photograph by Jennifer Smith-Mayo)

We’re back in the office after a whirlwind week in the Wild West (Wyoming!), where were invited to present at the 38th annual Wyoming Writers conference, this year in Casper. Our talks—covering such topics as how to make the most of a query, how to combine photography with writing, how to better use social media, how to collaborate and still stay married, and more—went over very well … and then we rambled and roved.

It wasn’t our first visit to the Cowboy State, but it will go down as one of our favorites. We covered a couple thousand miles (easy to do out West) and still managed to see but a sliver of Wyoming’s many fine and fascinating offerings, including Yellowstone’s Old Faithful, bison galore, elk, mule deer, bears, moose, we even had a wee snowball fight in 73-degree weather in Yellowstone on June 5! We also went on a trail ride, ogled the Tetons, ate a lot of great food, sampled fab beer, met a state full of kind people, visited Independence Rock, explored stretches of the Oregon Trail…. In fact, everywhere we went in Wyoming we were surrounded by something of historical significance.

And now we’re back at Gritty HQ, putting the final touches on our next published offering: the revised edition of Matthew P. Mayo’s critically acclaimed 2007 novel WINTERS’ WAR: A Story of the Winters’ Family. Here’s a bit about the book:

For eight years the Winters family has worked hard to live down the nightmare of a bloody range war. Theirs is now a promising ranch on hard-won land in Wyoming’s rugged Rockies. But on the eve of the season’s first snowstorm a stranger slips in, ripping open old wounds, and devolving their lives into a brutal struggle for survival. Niall Winters returns from selling his fall herd to find his ranch a burned ruin, his Uncle Drift dead, his wife missing, and the blizzard covering any clues with a whole lot of snow. He heads into the raging maw of the storm determined to confront this demon from his past and salvage the remains of their shattered lives–or die trying. But he has no idea of the horrors that await him.

We had initially promised the ebook version in April, but time and a truckload of exciting new plans for Gritty Press necessitated that we bump that deadline to June. Now that the dust has settled, we can assure you that this new version of WINTERS’ WAR is worth the wait, complete with new cover design by Jennifer Smith-Mayo, a complete revision and typeset, and a teaser chapter for our third release (July!), HOT LEAD, COLD HEART: One Last Mission for Mason the Mankiller.

PLUS … we’re inching closer to revealing the first in a series of exciting developments for Gritty Press.

Stay tuned in and remember … Keep It Gritty!