Welcome to Saddlebag Dispatches, the Award-Winning Home of Great Western Fiction. We've got cowboys, lawmen, Native Americans, and mountain men. We offer wild horses, pickup trucks, buckboards, wagons, and more. In the spotlight this issue is our exclusive interview with prolific and award-winning Western/Historical author W. Michael Farmer. J.B. Hogan returns with the grand finale of his long-running serial novella, The Last Rider, and he leads a veritable wagon train of great western fiction from the likes of Will Rogers Medallion-winners Anthony Wood and W. Michael Farmer, Spur Award-winner Richard Prosch, Willa Award-winner Velda Brotherton, Dennis Doty, Kyleigh McCloud, Ben Goheen, James Janke, the winner of our Ozark Creative Writers Dusty Richards Memorial Oxbow Award for Western Short Stories, Nancy Smith Gibson. We've got Cowboy Poetry from Will Rogers Medallion Award-winner Marleen Bussma, J.B. Hogan, Michael Lee, and Karen Devenport, as well as nonfiction articles and columns from Terry Alexander, Paul Bishop, Regina McLemore, Michael Koch, Fred Staff, and many more. So pull up a log, pour yourself a cup of joe from the camp pot, and enjoy our newest issue.

Welcome to Saddlebag Dispatches, the Award-Winning Home of Great Western Fiction. We've got cowboys, lawmen, Native Americans, and mountain men. We offer wild horses, pickup trucks, buckboards, wagons, and more. Leading our lineup this issue is our exclusive interview with legendary Western star Robert Fuller of such television classics as Laramie and Wagon Train. Author J.B. Hogan returns with Part Four of his long-running serial novel, The Last Rider, leading a star-studded roster of fictioneers including Spur Award-winning authors Richard Prosch and Phil Mills, Jr., Willa Award-winner Velda Brotherton, John T. Biggs, Jacob Bayne, Kathleen Morris, Neala Ames, and Sharon Frame Gay. We've got Cowboy Poetry from Will Rogers Medallion Award-winner Marleen Bussma, R.G. Yoho, and Phil Mills, Jr., and nonfiction articles and columns from Terry Alexander, Paul Bishop, Regina McLemore, Michael McLean, Barbara Clouse, and more. Last but certainly not least, we're proud to announce the winners of our Inaugural Saddlebag Dispatches Mustang Award for Flash Fiction, including stories from all three of our winners and the top five honorable mentions. This is the place where Western stories come to be told, folks. The only question is which adventure do you want to dive into first?

Welcome to Saddlebag Dispatches, the Award-Winning Home of All Things Western.

El Hermano is a rare and authentic window into everyday Hispanic village life the way it once was, and to some extent, persists.

Riding 2,000 miles on horseback from Montana to New Mexico sounds like a crazy but thrilling dream or pure hardship and exhaustion. According to Bernice Ende, the trip was all that and more. Since swinging her leg over the saddle for that first long ride in 2005 (at the age of 50), Ende has logged more than 29,000 miles in the saddle, crisscrossing North America on horseback - alone. More than once she has traversed the Great Plains, the Southwest deserts, the Cascade Range, and the Rocky Mountains. Along the way, she discovered a sense of community and love of place that unites people wherever they live. From 2014-2016, she was the first person to ride coast to coast and back again in one trek, winning acclaim from the international Long Riders' Guild and awe from the people she met along the way. Bernice Ende's memoirs are illuminated by accompanying maps of her routes and photos from her journeys, capturing the instant friends she meets along the way, and her ongoing encounters with harsh weather, wildlife, hard work, mosquitoes, tricky route-finding, and the occasional worn out horseshoe. Ende reveals her inner struggles and triumphs - testing the limits of physical and mental stamina, coping with inescapable solitude, and the rewards of living life her own way, as she says, "in her own skin." Saddle up and come along for the journey of a lifetime.

- 50 unique cycling trip stories from 70 cyclists that will inform and inspire - Answers to over 700 questions that relate to bike travel around the world - Beautiful photography combined with practical advice 50 Ways to Cycle the World presents 50 unique cycling adventures gathered from more than 70 cyclists representing 22 nationalities. It is the ultimate visual guide and encyclopaedia to travelling by bicycle, whether you are travelling alone, as a couple, or as a family with small children. Featured here are inspiring stories and advice, accompanied by breathtaking photographs taken all over the world by the many contributors who share their cycling stories.

The heroic story of how Sherpas stood up and took control of their destiny Ever since Europeans started exploring the world’s highest mountains and trying to reach their summits in the early 20th century, Sherpas have been an integral part of mountaineering expeditions to the Himalayas. In this anthology curated from his popular Footsteps on the Mountain blog, Mark Horrell explores the evolution of Sherpa mountaineers, from the porters of early expeditions to the superstar climbers of the present day. Writing with trademark warmth and humour, he starts by bringing to life the Sherpa characters of the early days, describing their customs and superstitions, and putting their contributions and achievements into context. In the deeply personal second section of the book, he covers some of the conflicts of the 21st century, when a series of high-profile controversies highlighted the tensions between Sherpas and western climbers on Everest. He was a witness to a devastating avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall that killed 16 Nepali mountain workers and led to a labour dispute, and he describes the events that followed from a commercial client’s perspective. In the final section of the book, he brings the story up to date and looks to the future, as Sherpas have moved out of the limelight of westerners, running successful mountaineering expedition companies and becoming celebrated climbers in their own right. "It's uncommon to come across stories that look beneath the surface to investigate deeper issues while remaining accessible and humorous. Sherpa Hospitality achieves this." Alex Roddie