Ben. H. English ~ AUTHOR ~ TEXAS USA

“The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel too fast, and you miss all you are traveling for.”
–Louis L’Amour

I hope that everyone enjoyed their holidays with family and friends in abundance, and that each of you were able to relax and reflect upon the real reason for the season. We all need our respites, and we all need the time to count our bountiful blessings.

Many of you have been asking about the progress of my first historical novel, ‘Destiny’s Way,’ and I wanted to make a quick at-large report to get everyone up to speed. Creative Texts Publishers is currently in the process of queuing up the manuscript for print, and a back cover blurb as well as front cover art layout has been selected. I am pleased with the quality of work in this.

On a related note, the sales of ‘Yonderings’ (TCU Press) continue to move along briskly, not a bad showing considering it was only my first effort and actually hit the shelves over two years ago. The sales were so good that Amazon almost ran out of copies in the days leading up to Christmas, something that does not happen often with such a huge supplier of books.

With both of these books in mind, I would humbly like to make a request. If you have read ‘Yonderings’ and think it worthy, please leave a review with whomever you purchased your copy from. I do not push Amazon, preferring to work on a personal level with independent shops such as Front Street Books here in Alpine. But Amazon does sell something like seventy percent of all the books published these days, and I would very much appreciate any review you could provide. It sure helps get the word out to a much larger audience.

Now, about the photograph for today. This was taken last month about a mile and a half downriver from Castolon. I was hiking out the original section of the River Road, long since abandoned and just about gone in several parts.

The sun was setting, casting long shadows that partially shaded the stark chiseling of cuts forming the mouth of Santa Elena Canyon. The effect rippled along the eastern face of Anguila Mesa, spreading along the uplift into northern Mexico and the still larger Sierra Ponce.

At this point the Rio Grande runs hard against the bluff below, forcing the old road up higher above the river bottom. It was so quiet and still, you could hear yourself breathing. Then, looking out for miles and miles across both Texas and El Estado de Chihuahua, the scene itself was enough to take that same breath away.

I was home again.

Thank you for reading, and furthermore thanks to everyone out there for your continuing encouragement and support. You honor me in so many ways with your kind words and comments, and they are so appreciated.

God bless to all,

Ben H. English
Alpine, Texas

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