From the recipient of the 1997 Whiting Award. Feeling disconnected from the wildly beautiful desert that she has known intimately for twenty years, award-winning writer Ellen Meloy embarks on a search for home that is historical, scientific, and spiritual. Her "Map of the Known Universe," devised to guide her quest, reveals extraordinary details of a physical link between the atomic age and her home on Utah's San Juan River. The Map grows to include Los Alamos, the Trinity A-test site, White Sands Missile Range, and primary sources of uranium. Meloy casts her naturalist's eye on the Southwest's "geography of consequence," where she finds unusual local bestiaries, the bodies of long-buried neighbors, an underground bubble of nuclear physics in a national forest, and the rich textures of nature on her own eight acres of land. The Last Cheater's Waltz: Beauty and Violence in the Desert Southwest is multilayered and far-reaching, yet always infused with Meloy's prodigious research, finely tuned prose, and wry humor.

A collection of short mysteries; several crimes have been committed and you have a chance to solve them, by reading all of the information and clues, before learning the solution on the next page. Murder Is Served to actors, politicians, society hostesses, corporate executives; it is served at embassies, dance classes, corporate retreats, class reunions, political conventions and more. If you've always wanted to be a sleuth, if you enjoy solving puzzles and problems; if you like matching wits with professional detectives and if you try to figure out the solution when reading a mystery novel, Murder Is Served is the book for you.

Searching for a new challenge in the shooting sports, a dynamic couple, who are experienced cowboy action shooters, entertain five developing new cowboy shooting games at their local cowboy clubcowboy fast draw, wild bunch, cowboy silhouettes (rifle and pistol), and cowboy long range. Each game involves gearing up with new guns, learning proper techniques, and practicing till proficient. After mastering each sport, their next step is to recruit and train a group of cowboy shooters for the purpose of upgrading everyone to competition status. Each new game is presented as a mixture of real information integrated with the real lives of this spirited and energetic couple. Cowboy Games will appeal to anyone who likes to read about a new shooting sport and how to do it right.

This story is about a retired man who, looking for a hobby, gets introduced to cowboy action shooting. It traces his training sessions by an experienced shooter, with whom he enters into a romantic relationship. They traveled to different cowboy shooting locations and started traveling out West. They visited several national parks, monuments, and many popular tourist attractions over six Western states. This book will appeal to the general public. It contains many comical situations between the major characters and cowboy shooters. In short, it provides a realistic exposure to a second life.

The Songwriter's Handbook by Tom T. Hall teaches the secrets of becoming a successful songwriter. "How can I find ideas for songs?" "What are the best ways to deal with a publisher?" "When I sell my song, how will I get paid?" A glossary of definitions and terms and more. Illustrated and indexed.