The Journey from Goggle Blogger to Published Author: "The Saddle and the Screen"




For years, I’ve shared my love for Western TV shows here on Medium or Google. I’ve written about the greats of the 1950s, the dusty trails of the 1940s, and the heroes who defined an era.

But as I read your comments and shared in your memories, I realized something: These stories deserve a permanent home. I am thrilled to announce that my new book, The Saddle and the Screen, is officially available on Amazon KDP.

🌄 What The Saddle and the Screen Is About

This book is part memoir, part cultural history, and part tribute to a time when communities gathered around a single flickering screen. It’s a journey through:

  • Coal Country Beginnings: Stories of growing up in St. Charles and Bonny Blue, Virginia, where local theaters brought the West to life.

  • The Legends: Reflections on the icons who shaped my childhood, from Gene Autry to John Wayne.

  • Values & Vision: Insights into how 1940s and 50s entertainment created heroes and offered hope during difficult times.

  • The Intersection of Reality and Myth: A look at where rural life, Hollywood dreams, and the birth of television collided.

📚 Why I Wrote It

This book exists because of you. Your comments about the shows you watched with your parents, the theme songs you still hum, and the heroes you admired convinced me that this history needed to be preserved.

I’ve taken the best of my Medium blogs, expanded the stories, dug into my personal archives, and woven them into a single narrative about how Westerns shaped not just a genre—but a life.

🐎 Saddle Up

If you’ve enjoyed my articles here, you’ll find that same heart in these pages—only deeper, richer, and more personal.

👉 Grab your copy of The Saddle and the Screen on Amazon here

Thank you for being part of this journey. Your encouragement turned a lifetime of research into a published work. I hope this book brings back memories and reminds you of the power stories once had in shaping our world.

The journey’s just beginning.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

“Ghosts of the Battlefield: Jonesville’s Final Echo”

Image
Shadows of the Old Dominion: Why Virginia Is America’s Most Haunted State Dickerson/Melbourne house in Jonesville where the Union Army moved to a defensive position but saw their situation was dire and eventually surrendered to the Confederate Army, with 12 dead and nearly 400 captured.   Virginia is often celebrated as The Mother of Presidents and the birthplace of American democracy. But beneath the monuments, battlefields, and colonial streets lies another identity—one whispered in the rustle of Jamestown’s woods and the stillness of Fredericksburg’s Sunken Road. Virginia is widely regarded as America’s most haunted state , and the reasons run far deeper than ghost stories. The Old Dominion holds an unparalleled concentration of human history—triumph, tragedy, conflict, ceremony, and survival—all layered across 11,000 years. The result is a landscape where the past never fully loosens its grip. 1. Ancient Echoes: 11,000 Years of Human Presence Long before English s...
Read more

Beer Joints, Bootleggers, Taxis and the Virginian Theater

Image
  Saturday Night in the "New York of the Hollows" By Jerry Buchanan If you looked at the census numbers for St. Charles in 1950, you’d see a modest count of 550 people. But if you stood on the sidewalk on a Saturday afternoon, those numbers lied. To us, St. Charles didn't feel like a small town; it felt like a mountain metropolis. The Saturday Swell Every Saturday, the sidewalks were so packed with miners and their families coming in from the camps—places like Bonny Blue, Kemmerer Gem, and Benedict —that you often had to step off the curb just to get around. The town was a transportation hub. We had a passenger bus running to Pennington Gap, but the real local "movers" were the taxis. The taxi stand usually had three or four cabs idling, manned by drivers like Carl Buchanan and George Gibson . Walt Gilley (related to "Blackie" Gilley) also drove for Carl from time to time. I’ll never forget the day Walt walked into the Cavalier Cafe looking for a co...
Read more

Memories of St. Charles Elementary School

Image
  From Lunch Pails to Free Plates: A St. Charles Journey Since 1956 By Jerry Buchanan The old brick walls of St. Charles: Where my journey began in 1956. The Heartbeat of St. Charles: A Journey Back to 1956 Looking at an old photo of the St. Charles school, I am instantly transported back to 1956, the year my journey began. While the finer details of those early years have faded like a sepia print, the rhythms of life in that building remain etched in my mind. The Midday Trek One of my most vivid memories isn’t of a lesson at a chalkboard, but of the midday bell. In those days, the cafeteria was tucked away behind the high school, but my siblings and I rarely saw the inside of it. There were no programs for free or reduced lunches then; if the cafeteria meal didn't fit the family budget, you simply went home. Rain or shine, we made the trek home for lunch. It was a testament to the times—our parents worked hard, but with multiple children, the budget was tight. I do remember one sm...
Read more