Blizzards, Dead Cattle, and Update

If it weren't for a friend who'd just been to Rapid City, South Dakota, I probably wouldn't have heard about the massive loss of cattle in West River during a very early blizzard in the first week of October.

Oh, I'd seen the pretty pictures of the snow from Facebook friends who live there. But none were ranchers. The news is only now hitting the national media. Dakotans are used to being ignored and often like it that way, but not in this case.

Because the ranchers who lost their herds need help. If you have any spare change, please consider a donation.

In Dead White, set in the midst of winter, such blizzards are expected, or at least prepared for. And my fictional characters fret over the potential loss of livestock. But nothing like on this scale.

Not being a rancher myself, I know I don't truly understand what's been lost. Not just the animals, not just the livelihood, but bloodlines and lifelines. When the Indians lost the buffalo, killed off not by Mother Nature but human nature, it was even more devastating.

My own struggles with the next book in my mystery series pale in comparison. Dead Wrong is due at the editor's in mid-November. We'll see if I make it and how much work it will require if I do.

Fingers crossed that I get it out by the end of the year.