Books

Bugles In The Sun
Jim Christina
CreateSpace March 7, 2012
Softcover, 162 pp.
Available- 2

Meet Author and Radio Host Jim Christina:
Author Jim Christina, Founder and Host of:
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From the Author:
“Bugles in The Sun” tells the story of the troopers of the 7th United States Cavalry as they approach the valley of the Little Bighorn in southeast Montana Territory. The story is not one of intense action but more the story of the men that lived and died with the 7th on that fateful Sunday in June of Eighteen Seventy-six.

The story is told through the eyes and writings of John J. Conolly, a thirty-five year old Corporal with Company I under the command of Captain Myles Keogh. Still being young enough that his energy and belief in the system and country have not yet been compromised by the mutterings and musings of his fellow troopers, Conolly was a staunch supporter of the commander of the 7th and his Company Commander, Myles Keogh. As complaining was extremely common within the services, the level at which the 7th Cavalry complained was well known throughout the cavalry community, as their fighting song, ‘Garryowen’, was known, yet, the basic moral throughout the 7th was top notch.

The field commander of the 7th was Lt. Colonel (Bvt Lieutenant General) George Armstrong Custer, affectionately, or not, called ‘Old Iron Pants’ or ‘Hard Ass’ by the troopers, and frequently called ‘a son of a bitch’ by more than a few of the officers. Corporal Conolly kept a journal on this expedition so his young sons would have a record of their father’s days in the 7th Cavalry and a sense of pride in their country. Conolly’s journal tells us of the weariness, fatigue, loneliness, boredom and trepidation the men of the 7th feel as they approach their inevitable clash with history.

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From the Publisher:
Following the American Civil War, the freed slaves began the migration to the north and the west. Many freedmen became respected and valued cowboys on some of the largest ranches in the west.

This is the story of two brothers, Bountiful Jim Lent and Lewis Bishop. Both hard working hands but with an awful story to tell. Lewis' direct family including his sister, her husband, their baby and his father are killed in a raid by the hooded citizens known as the Nightriders, a holdout of the old slave hunters and killers during the slavery period. The raid ignites what would become to be known as the Williamson Valley War and would drag in some of the territory's toughest fighters and gunmen in a last ditch effort too reclaim what rightly belongs to the two brothers and their neighbors.

Meet Author and Radio Host Jim Christina:
Author Jim Christina, Founder and Host of:
The Writer's Block Radio Show, LA Talk Radio
Thursday, July 9, 2015, Click here for podcast
Click here for ALL Writer's Block Radio Shows

Synopsis:
Gathered in one book are the first three tales from the pen of author Jim Christina. His main characters, Hunter and Jolly Goodman, are men of the 1880's. Here's how the author describes them in his debut novel:

In writing The Hunter, I tried to not only show some of the hardships that were endured but the real everyday lives of people in the 1880's. As now, people weren't throwaways. They had purpose in their lives and a sense of right and wrong, they had a sense of purpose and perhaps destiny. Even at fifty eight and seventy three the Hunter and Jolly were men with a zest for life and an ability to accomplish what few men were.

These men came alive for me. They became flesh and blood, bone and gristle. They bled when injured, drank too much and cussed like sailors but they are bound by an oath taken years before and never broken by either one.

I hope you enjoy the story as much as I enjoyed writing it.      
       --author Jim Christina

Meet Author and Radio Host Jim Christina:
Author Jim Christina, Founder and Host of:
The Writer's Block Radio Show, LA Talk Radio
Thursday, July 9, 2015, Click here for podcast
Click here for ALL Writer's Block Radio Shows

Synopsis:
Gathered in one book are the first three tales from the pen of author Jim Christina. His main characters, Hunter and Jolly Goodman, are men of the 1880's. Here's how the author describes them in his debut novel:

In writing The Hunter, I tried to not only show some of the hardships that were endured but the real everyday lives of people in the 1880's. As now, people weren't throwaways. They had purpose in their lives and a sense of right and wrong, they had a sense of purpose and perhaps destiny. Even at fifty eight and seventy three the Hunter and Jolly were men with a zest for life and an ability to accomplish what few men were.

These men came alive for me. They became flesh and blood, bone and gristle. They bled when injured, drank too much and cussed like sailors but they are bound by an oath taken years before and never broken by either one.

I hope you enjoy the story as much as I enjoyed writing it.      
       --author Jim Christina

Meet Author and Radio Host Jim Christina:
Author Jim Christina, Founder and Host of:
The Writer's Block Radio Show, LA Talk Radio
Thursday, July 9, 2015, Click here for podcast
Click here for ALL Writer's Block Radio Shows

From our Purveyor of Books:
Author Jim Christina takes us on a ride into familiar territory, yet changes things up with new places and characters. If you've been following the Hunter Tales, this new Western adventure has Hunter passing on his trade to a perfect, willing student from Waco, Texas...Jeff Stryker. As is Christina's style, the language is salty, the action hot and fast, the characters memorable, and the scenic West it's perfect setting. This is the fourth book from Jim Christina's pen, and we hope, more will follow!

From the Author's Foreword:
While writing the Hunter novel, The Rights of Men, an itch started in me to change up a little. Slowly a realization hit me that the perfect character for his own story was that of young Jeff Styker of the Circle-J ranch and a staunch supporter of both the Hunter and Jolly Goodman.

From Waco, Texas came two young hands Jeff Stryker and Bobby Malloy. In a horrible twist of fate the jovial and always upbeat Bobby is killed when marauders attach the South Pond on the Circle-J.

The Hunter, for the first time, is feeling his mortality and wants to pass o his trade, teach his craft...and Stryker is a perfect student. Willing to learn, a quick study and eventually, at an early age, he too becomes a hunter of men. 

The locations are the same southeastern Arizona Territory as the Hunter novels and some of the characters are the same but the story is decidedly different. Stryker learns that whereas he has learned his trade there is always something else he can learn. As his friend, Bobby Malloy, once told him, "If'n you cain't learn somethin everyday then you're brain's doin something wrong." And so Jeff Stryker continues his education in the mountains and deserts of the Arizona Territory.

In this story he is forced to take up the hunt on his own after the Hunter is seriously injured by a fall in the mountains. The hunt for el Fantasma (the Ghost) leads him into Mexico hunting the worst killer in Arizona history. He is thrust into a scenerio he never dreamed he would have to be a part of, yet the hunt is too magnetic for him to break it off.

But Stryker has a secret, one that he has never shared with anyone but his friend Bobby Malloy. It is this secret that makes Jeff Stryker unique and deadly.

I hope you enjoy the story of Jeff Stryker as much as you enjoyed the Hunter stories and as much as I did while writing it because it's not so much the story of a young man as it is the story of a young man learning his potential and coming of age in hard times and in a hard way.

About the Author:
Jim Christina has been an Old West Living Historian for a number of years. He has written several stories, a two act play, 'An Evening with Tom Horn', the Hunter novels and several more.

Paperback. 276 pages. 

Meet Author and Radio Host Jim Christina:
Author Jim Christina, Founder and Host of:
The Writer's Block Radio Show, LA Talk Radio
Thursday, July 9, 2015, Click here for podcast
Click here for ALL Writer's Block Radio Shows

From the Publisher:
When Phineas Bellflower, a writer from Brooklyn and late of Chicago, arrives on the stage in Tucson, he unwittingly sets the stage for a series of turns that will leave both the Hunter and Jeff Stryker scratching their heads. Again you can regale while Whitey and Lenny bumble and stumble and come out smelling like a rose. Hog tying Phineas and leaving him laying in the middle of the desert in his underwear and shoes, Lenny and Whitey make off with all of Phineas' gear and luggage, hoping to find the money they know he had with him. But, thrown into the mix are two thugs from the 5th Ward in New York, Spats Melloy and Mr. O'Brien sent to kill Phineas over an expose' he wrote about the 5th Ward boss, Michael J. McManus, Big Mike, who is also in route to Arizona.

The race is now on for the Hunter and Jeff Stryker to get Phineas out of harms way and into the safe haven of Tombstone before either the Sonora Desert, Spats, Mr. O'Brien or Whitey and Lenny catch up to him. The desert is proving to be a large foe for the two thugs from Brooklyn and is slowly taking them apart, leaving them hapless, and helpless on their own. Unprepared and unknowing they arrived in Arizona thinking it a cake walk, when in reality, the desert is proving to be their biggest foe.

Eventually all characters wind up in Tombstone in an altercation that will have you surprised and grinning from ear to ear. The dialogue is fast and fresh as are the characters in this rollicking good yarn. Belly laughs abound as you follow the groups across the desert in search of safety and each other. Come join the Hunter and Stryker as they ply their trade and once again show the compassion and strength they posses.

Meet Author and Radio Host Jim Christina:
Author Jim Christina, Founder and Host of:
The Writer's Block Radio Show, LA Talk Radio
Thursday, July 9, 2015, Click here for podcast
Click here for ALL Writer's Block Radio Shows

From our Purveyor of Books:
Another western tale from the imagination and pen of historian Jim Christina is always an event! If you enjoy compelling characters, page-turning situations, accurate details, and sweeping landscapes...then you'll enjoy any of Christina's books. This latest one, Long Ride To Morning, is a pre-quel to The Hunter Series. 

In this latest book, when Mose Porter is murdered by Ty Frederic, Bobby Malloy and Jeff Stryker saddle up and take after him, following to New Mexico and ultimately, Arizona Territory. But, finding themselves short of money and supplies, Stryker and Malloy take a job on a cattle drive with rancher, Nate Pickering and his wife, Sarah. But, not all is right in that camp and Malloy and Stryker find themselves again fighting for their lives.

Join Stryker and Malloy on their journey of discovery and growth as they grow to men and learn not all men are not as they seem.

Meet Author and Radio Host Jim Christina:
Author Jim Christina, Founder and Host of:
The Writer's Block Radio Show, LA Talk Radio
Thursday, July 9, 2015, Click here for podcast
Click here for ALL Writer's Block Radio Shows