Genres: Historical Fiction, Western, Humour & Satire
Formats: E-Book, Paperback
Age Groups: 18+

When naïve Englishman Baron Jerome Manchester Paget arrives in 1878 Fort Griffin with a satchel full of money to start a buffalo ranch and expand his wealth, a horde of colorful swindlers from throughout Texas arrive to relieve him of his fortune and to destroy his dream. With a passel of oddball characters and more twists and turns than a stagecoach trail, The Fleecing of Fort Griffin starts a cascade of swindles, counter-swindles, and comic miscalculations aimed at taking the baron for all he is worth. To stay rich—and alive, the baron must outwit crooked West Texas gamblers, a one-eyed gunfighter, a savvy marshal, conniving females, a disenchanted army colonel, and a worldly stump preacher, all convinced they’re smarter than him. With only a young orphan for a valet and a rooster for a watchdog as his allies, Baron Paget must navigate frontier greed, vanity and hubris to survive. Written...

Genres: Children's fiction, Western
Formats: E-Book, Paperback
Age Groups: 8-11, 12-15

During the great cattle-drive era of the late 1800s, Old Blue became the most trusted longhorn lead steer in the herds of pioneering Texas rancher Charles Goodnight. When thousands of cattle thundered north toward railheads and growing towns, it was Blue’s calm instincts—and not the cowboys’ feeble efforts—that kept the drives moving safely over prairies, across rivers, through storms, and away from hungry predators. Yet through the decades, Blue’s remarkable story faded into myth. Cowboys claimed they did all the hard work, and history books focused on the men, not the animals who made the West possible. Then, in 1998, a weathered packet of pages surfaced: a mysterious manuscript written with a bold, unforgettable perspective. Author Preston Lewis, a Spur Award–winning storyteller of the American frontier, recognized it at once—Old Blue had written his own “autobiography,” a firsthand account of the cattle trails from the steer who actually led them....

Genres: Children's Nonfiction, History
Formats: E-Book, Audio, Paperback, Hardback
Age Groups: 12-15

Pintsized Pioneers at Play: Homemade Frontier Fun and Danger explores the forgotten world of how kids lived, laughed—and sometimes limped—through their childhood years in the Old West. While their parents settled the land, these pintsized pioneers explored it, creating their own adventures with homemade toys, daring games, wild animal encounters, and risky escapades. This engaging sequel to the award-winning Pintsized Pioneers: Taming the Frontier, One Chore at a Time shines a spotlight on the joys and perils of play in a land still being tamed. From exploring the prairie and wrangling critters to celebrating frontier holidays and watching traveling circuses, this book reveals how children carved out fun and entertainment in a rough-and-tumble world. Learn how railroads and mail-order catalogs brought new toys, how schools and churches doubled as social hubs, and how a simple game could end in laughter—or injury. Written for young adults but fascinating for readers of...

Genres: Commercial Fiction, Historical Fiction
Formats: E-Book, Audio, Paperback, Hardback
Age Groups: 18+

In the waning months of the American Civil War, a delusional Confederate commander makes a desperate attempt to change the course of the South’s dwindling hopes by invading middle Tennessee. The tragic result of Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood’s misplaced hubris devastates his Army of Tennessee and alters the lives of the citizens of Franklin, Tennessee. In a historical novel reminiscent of The Killer Angels, Too Much the Lion follows a handful of Confederate generals, infantrymen and local residents through the five days leading up to the horrific Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864. The lives of soldiers ranging from Major General Patrick Cleburne to Brigadier General Hiram Granbury and from Sergeant Major Sumner Cunningham and to Corporal Sam Watkins will be forever changed by Hood’s decisions and mistakes. Franklin civilians like apprehensive and loving mother Mary Alice McPhail and teen Hardin Figuers, desperate to serve the Confederacy but...

Genres: History
Formats: E-Book, Paperback, Hardback
Age Groups: 12-15, 18+

Children tread lightly through the pages of Old West history. Pintsized Pioneers: Taming the Frontier, One Chore at a Time gives frontier children their due for all the work they did to assist their families. Even at early ages, the youngsters helped families make ends meet and handled chores that today seem unbelievable. Written for today's young adults, Pintsized Pioneers offers lessons on frontier history and on the value of work for contemporary youth. In 1850 adolescents 16 and under accounted for 46 percent of the national population, making them an important labor force in settling the country. Pintsized Pioneers examines their tasks and toils starting with the chores on the trail west. Children assisted in providing fuel and water on the trail and at home when they settled down. In their new locations the young ones helped grow food, make clothing for the entire family and assist with the...

Genres: Historical Fiction, Western
Formats: E-Book, Paperback, Hardback
Age Groups: 18+

Long before Tombstone and the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, frontier vagabond Doc Holliday rode into the tumultuous Texas town of Fort Griffin, looking for a mysterious lady gambler, not trouble. Only after he finds both does he escape into legend. Known throughout the rough-and-tumble towns of west Texas for her beauty, female gambler Lottie Deno possesses uncanny luck at the gaming tables. Trouble, though, comes in several shapes, none more volatile nor more available than "Big Nose" Kate Elder, a soiled dove with a heart of bold! As Doc attempts to win Lottie's money and her heart, both he and she become pawns in a duel of saloon rivals to control Fort Griffin's gambling underworld. In this contest between gambling king and queen, Kate elder becomes the unpredictable joker, as infatuated with Doc as he is with Lottie. A model of feminine propriety except for her gambling, Lottie Deno...

Genres: History
Formats: E-Book, Paperback, Hardback
Age Groups: 18+

As a popular pastime on the American frontier, horse racing could always draw a crowd to admire and bet on horseflesh. Realizing its appeal, boosters of the nascent West Texas community of San Angelo used horse racing to attract investors and settlers and to distance themselves from competing communities in the Concho Valley. Betting on Horses: Racing as an Economic Development Tool in Frontier West Texas, 1886-1896, explores how San Angelo promoters incorporated racing into their boosterism, sending local horses across the nation and broadening the community’s national exposure and reputation. Betting on Horses is the story of one frontier town’s efforts to survive and thrive as it vied with competitors for the telegraph, for the railroad, for exposure that would attract investors and for its long-term survival. Too, it’s the story of Concho Valley racehorses like Belle P, Get There, Hal Fisher and Viola Belle, who raced on tracks...

Genres: Humour
Formats: E-Book, Paperback, Hardback
Age Groups: 18+

Jokes from a Humorless Machine: A Comedic Journey through Artificial Intelligence explores whether AI, specifically ChatGPT, has enough of a sense of humor to create jokes that will tickle the funny bone of contemporary Americans. Through a series of prompts, the authors ask ChatGPT to develop jokes on classic themes as well as contemporary issues with surprising results, all demonstrating AI's sense of humor as shaped by its algorithmic woke sensibilities. Preston Lewis, an award-winning humorist, and Harriet Kocher Lewis, his award-winning editor, challenge ChatGPT to humor them with a series of prompts to develop jokes on classic themes like knock-knock, yo mama, three fellows enter a bar and the reason the chicken crossed the road. Then the authors move on to more contemporary issues like politics, politicians and gender identify, challenging ChatGPT to find humor in modern culture. Finally, the authors seek from ChatGPT observations on contemporary culture in...

Genres: Religion
Formats: E-Book, Paperback
Age Groups: 18+

With the release of OpenAI making ChatGPT available to the public in 2022, the authors wondered how a soulless machine would interpret biblical verses. Would the results from a godless computer be derogatory or supportive of their Christian beliefs? Using some of the most beloved verses as well as several of the more disturbing passages from the Bible, Preston and Harriet Lewis began a faith journey through artificial intelligence that provided surprising results. Devotionals from a Soulless Machine: A Journey of Faith through Artificial Intelligence takes the reader along as these two laypersons explore how A.I. interprets God’s message and the basic tenets of Christianity. The co-authors prompted ChatGPT to develop a devotional of 500 words or less along with a related prayer on more than a hundred biblical verses, including some of the most-recognized verses as well as some of the most obscure or vile passages never covered in...

Genres: History, Memoir
Formats: E-Book, Paperback, Hardback
Age Groups: 12-15, 18+

The greatest conflict in human history started brothers Ray F. and John B. Lewis on a journey that they never imagined as farm boys picking cotton in the dusty fields of West Texas during the Great Depression. World War II took them across the Atlantic to places they had only read about in books or seen on movie screens when they could afford theater tickets. By the time they returned to the States, they had lost their country-boy naivete. In To War and Back: The World War II Journey of Two West Texas Farm Boys, award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction Preston Lewis explores the wartime exploits of his uncle Ray and his father John. Ray saw combat in the 552nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion, but John never heard a shot fired in anger while a merchant mariner at the end of the conflict. To War and Back is the sequel...

Genres: Cookery & Diet
Formats: E-Book, Paperback
Age Groups: 18+

In Recipes from a Tasteless Machine: A Culinary Journey through Artificial Intelligence the authors put ChatGPT to the taste test, challenging it to develop delicious recipes on a variety of themes. The result provides an amusing mix of recipes and a fascinating look into how artificial intelligence thinks in the kitchen. Recipes from a Tasteless Machine is the third book in the Magic Machine Series from award winning authors Preston Lewis and Harriet Kocher Lewis. The book organizes recipes around themes based on the months of the year and related holidays. From breakfast meals in January all the way to holiday fare at the end of the year, the authors provide a culinary calendar of mostly delectable dishes that'll bring a smile to the face if not to the tastebuds. New Year’s Day recipes cover breakfast, pastries and brunch while February focuses on candies, cookies and cakes in celebration of...

Genres: History, Memoir
Formats: E-Book, Paperback, Hardback
Age Groups: 18+

Cotton—like the families that produced it—is today undervalued for its contribution to Texas’s wealth and heritage, but for the region’s first century as a colony, a nation and then a state, the fluffy commodity carried the Lone Star economy bale by bale toward prosperity. In Cotton-Picking Folks, award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction Preston Lewis explores one family’s experiences on dryland tenant farms during the Great Depression and the waning years of the sharecropping and crop lien system. As the grandson of a tenant farmer, Lewis in the 1970s collected the written and oral histories of his grandfather’s five daughters and two sons. Born into a poverty that demanded their child labor, all seven siblings picked cotton before they could read, and all faced a biscuit-and-gravy existence that typified the farm tenancy system in the cotton South in the first five decades of the twentieth century. The seven matured as...

Genres: History
Formats: E-Book, Paperback
Age Groups: 12-15, 18+

No animal in the Old West was more revered nor more reviled than the domestic cat. Sought for their rodent control, but despised for their nocturnal noisemaking, cats lived a schizophrenic existence on the American frontier. In Cat Tales of the Old West Spur Award-winning author Preston Lewis brings frontier felines into the light of the 21st century with a collection of amusing and eclectic excerpts from dozens of 19th century frontier newspapers reporting on pussycats west of the Mississippi River. Through a selection of poems, puns and articles from period news journals, Cat Tales of the Old West provides an entertaining, enlightening and sometimes alarming take on kitties, both feral and domestic, in the American West. The 24,000-word Cat Tales highlights cats as noisemakers, victims of violence, value lessons for children, sources of fable and history, and topics of humor. Cat Tales of the Old West is both engaging...

Genres: History

In More Cat Tales of the Old West: Triumphs, Trials & Trivia of Frontier Felines, two-time Spur Award recipient Preston Lewis pulls together another amusing and eclectic collection of articles from western newspapers reports on frontier cats. In the sequel to his award-winning Cat Tales of the Old West: Poems, Puns & Perspectives on Frontier Felines, Lewis provides another engaging look at frontier felines from the perspective of pioneering times. In More Cat Tales of the Old West, Lewis examines cats as frontier fighters, homebodies, workers, miners, criminals, and actors with enough colorful period anecdotes to satisfy both the cat lover and the cat hater. With a foreword by New York Times bestselling author Chris Enss, More Cat Tales of the Old West provides an educational perspective on Old West history. Lewis has been called the greatest living authority on cats in the Old West with articles on the subject...