Guest Blog by Author CRAIG JOHNSON!

[Fricka]

At events, a lot of people start their questions with, “So when you and Henry went up in the mountains....” I always correct them, for fear that they might want me to arrest someone

I had to chuckle at that line from Craig.I guess it's kind of a compliment, that people connect him so closely with his character, but really, you would think they would know the difference.I mean, it's a bit like someone in the past asking Arthur Conan Doyle what he intended to do about Moriarty.

Anyway, I am so pleased to discover this book series. I love mystery novels, obviously, as my posts on this forum indicate, but there haven't been a lot of them with a western setting (that I know of).  My dad had most of Louis L'Amour's books, and I read all of them that he did have, and others from the library, and before that, of course there was Zane Grey. Tony Hillerman wrote books set in the west, too, but his protagonists were Indians. I think it will be very interesting to read books that give the perspective of a Sheriff doing investigations in the west, so I'm adding Craig's books to my TBR list. I do like that cover from As the Crow Flies, too.

[eadieburke]

I'll have to read some of Craig's books since I am a bit familiar with Wyoming. My grandparents lived in Cheyenne and we went there by train ever summer.

[becke_davis]

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eadieburke wrote:
I'll have to read some of Craig's books since I am a bit familiar with Wyoming. My grandparents lived in Cheyenne and we went there by train ever summer.

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I've never been there but my son says it's gorgeous!

[eadieburke]

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becke_davis wrote:

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eadieburke wrote:
I'll have to read some of Craig's books since I am a bit familiar with Wyoming. My grandparents lived in Cheyenne and we went there by train ever summer.

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I've never been there but my son says it's gorgeous!

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Very beautiful part of the country. We used to go late June early July and they would have Frontier Days and Rodeo. We would also have picnics in the Rocky Mountains and Yellowstone National Park and watch the geysers.

[becke_davis]

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eadieburke wrote:

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becke_davis wrote:

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eadieburke wrote:
I'll have to read some of Craig's books since I am a bit familiar with Wyoming. My grandparents lived in Cheyenne and we went there by train ever summer.

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I've never been there but my son says it's gorgeous!

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Very beautiful part of the country. We used to go late June early July and they would have Frontier Days and Rodeo. We would also have picnics in the Rocky Mountains and Yellowstone National Park and watch the geysers.

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My son and future daughter-in-law went through Yellowstone and that whole part of the country on their 7,000 mile road trip last year. They RAVED about how beautiful it is up there!

[Fricka]

Just wanted to note that even though I did not attend the recent signing event by Craig in my area, I'm still planning to read his latest book, As The Crow Flies,  and have it on hold from my local library. I'm also planing to watch the pilot episode of Longmire tonight, on the A&E channel. Wish it would air a bit earlier in the evening, but I guess I'll take an early evening nap so I'll be awake enough to watch the later airing.

There's a nice interview by Carol Memmott of USA Today which appears in today's(Sunday) edition of The Arizona Republic, titled"Western moseys back to TV" in which the Longmire character is presented as ". . . an old-fashioned hero driven by a thirst for justice,  an anti-CSI lawman who doesn't carry a cellphone and solves crime through dogged work." Much of the article deals with the actor chosen to portray Longmire, Robert Taylor. Katee Sackoff, formerly on Battlestar Gallactica, is cast as his deputy, and Lou Diamond Phillips plays Longmire's friend Henry Standing Bear.

Executive producer John Coveny is quoted as saying:" There isn't a modern-day Western on TV, and when you combine it with this crime-world procedural you really have a fresh kind of show to watch."  Well, I think it's about time for a Western-themed mystery/crime solving series to hit televsion, so as I wrote earlier, I'll be watching Longmire tonight.

P.S. Hope Craig is making a mint of money from the  televsion adaptation from his books!

[becke_davis]

CHRISTMAS IN

ABSAROKA COUNTY

Walt Longmire Christmas Stories

By Craig Johnson

Christmas in Absaroka County  

On December 4, 2012 Penguin will release CHRISTMAS IN ABSAROKA COUNTY ($3.99; ISBN: 978-1-10163471-8) an original eSpecial story collection by New York Times bestselling author Craig Johnson.

In CHRISTMAS IN ABSAROKA COUNTY, readers glimpse a softer side of Walt Longmire, the longtime sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming, as he grapples with the death of his wife Martha and his sometimes turbulent, but ever-loving relationship with his daughter Cady. In these four stories: Ministerial Aid, Slick-Tongued Devil, Toys for Tots, and Unbalanced, Walt is alternately at his best and his worst. He helps a possibly delusional elderly victim of domestic abuse while sporting a bath robe and a mean hangover on New Year’s Day. He’s sidelined by grief when his wife’s obituary appears in the paper and there’s an unexpected knock on his door, two-days before Christmas. He strives to help even those who don’t want it when he picks up a young female hitchhiker and he’s forced into some last-minute Christmas shopping by the Greatest Legal Mind of Our Times, during which he might just end up saving a young Marine chaplain’s Christmas.

Full of Longmire’s dry wit and good heart, CHRISTMAS IN ABSAROKA COUNTY is a holiday must-have for every Craig Johnson fan.

Also in time for the holidays Penguin will release a boxed set trade paperback collection of Craig Johnson’s first four Longmire mysteries: The Cold Dish, Death Without Company, Kindness Goes Unpunished and Another Man’s Moccasins. Johnson’s last Walt Longmire mystery, AS THE CROW FLIES (Viking), was a New York Times bestseller. His ninth Longmire mystery, A SERPENT’S TOOTH (Viking) goes on sale May 7, 2013.

A&E-TV’s highly-rated Longmire, will be back for a second season in Summer 2013. It stars Robert Taylor (Matrix, Vertical Limit) as Sheriff Walt Longmire, Lou Diamond Phillips (La Bamba, Young Guns) as Henry Standing Bear and Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica, 24) as Vic Moretti.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Craig Johnson is the author of eight novels in the Walt Longmire mystery series, which has garnered popular and critical acclaim. The Cold Dish was a Dilys Award finalist and the French edition won Le Prix du Polar Nouvel Observateur/BibliObs. Death Without Company, the Wyoming State Historical Association’s Book of the Year, won France’s Le Prix 813. Another Man’s Moccasins was the Western Writers of America’s Spur Award winner and the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers’ Book of the Year, and The Dark Horse, the fifth in the series, was aPublishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. Junkyard Dogs won the Watson Award for a mystery novel with the bestsidekick, and Hell Is Empty, selected by Library Journal as the Best Mystery of the Year, was a New York Timesbest seller, as was As the Crow Flies. The Walt Longmire series is the basis for the hit A&E drama, Longmire, starring Robert Taylor, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Katee Sackoff. Johnson lives in Ucross, Wyoming, population twenty-five.

[Beth_Groundwat…]

Great post, Craig, and I'm so happy for you, with all your recent successes! I love the Walt Longmire series, and I hope you'll keep writing the books for a long time.