TRUE OR FALSE

A couple of blog readers have questioned the truthfulness and accuracy of my PARTNERS back story.  These readers see me as I am now; an old writer living in the tropics about as far away as one can get from the RIDE-ROPE-SHOOT action of my younger years.

Take a look at the cowboys on the fence in the old photo that heads my blog and my Face Book page. This was me and my friends in May of 1973.  Do I look tame? 

Left to right:  ROBERT HATTING, Bob Jacobsen, Nick Creason (the kid) Ted Creason, Ron Siler, Mert Hunking, Jack Hammack, Richard Rollins, Bill Erickson, Willis Wright, Dick Allen, and Jerry Koch.  Half of these guys are still alive; some read my work and my blog.  Each can attest that I was an action-adventure junkie and lived each day like it was my last. 

The photo I’ve included is that of Rick and me last October. The other photos are me doing me.  Rick still operates his ranch outside Tucson, AZ. He’s involved with more action in one day than most people see in a lifetime. We still get into trouble when we’re together. Perhaps that’s why I live abroad?

 

I guess the point I’m trying to make is this.  If you worked forty years for the post office or some giant corporation and your biggest thrill was a vacation to Disneyland, you’re naive and slightly stupid to doubt that the world also contains its adventurers and misfits. I’ve always been surrounded by the latter! 

BACK-STORIES are the truthful explanations of how and why a novel or screenplay was originated; the seeds of imagination. This will be my last posting on this matter.  Doubters should just pound sand!