Today Is The Day Hellraisers Go To Press

 August 15, 2022

   The October issue of True West magazine and the forthcoming book, Hellraisers & Trailblazers: The Real Women of The Wild West, both go to press today. God bless our production manager, Robert Ray, and our editor Stuart Rosebrook for fighting both fires simultaneously (scaling and correcting and saving 250 pages of scans and type to make them press worthy). The deadline is midnight tonight for uploads. This is the culmination of over two years of hard work, sudden stops and outrageous, pandemic-supply chain issues.

   Yesterday afternoon I finished the final image to go on page 79 on a page about Mexican Cowgirls.

Daily Scratchboard Whip Out: "La Vaquera"

   So I asked the Top Secret Writer if he wanted to blurb our Women's book and here is what he wrote.

"Bob Boze Bell claims to know a lot about women—although the women in his life claim otherwise—so you will have to read his new book to find out who is right."

—Paul Andrew Hutton

   That is hilarious—and more true than I'd like to admit!—but not sure it's a fair appraisal of the book since Jana was there to right my many misconceptons. Or, at least most of them. Here for your reading pleasure are some of the first comments we have received from people I admire and respect.

"Groundbreaking and absolutely enthralling!"

—John Fusco, writer and director of Young Guns

"A wonderful tale of how 54% of the population did 90% of the work to get 10% of the credit. Never was this more true than in the West. Their untold stories unfold in fascinating and amusing detail. Think you know the history of the West? That’s not the half of it."

—Wendy Shaw

"Make a pot of coffee, cinch up and take a ride over this gorgeous and spellbinding offering. This book belongs in the curriculum of every school in the
United States."
—Juni Fisher, Award Winning Singer, Songwriter, and Author.

"What a beautiful collection of images and stories from the Old West.  It’s incredibly inspiring to see the achievements of so many bad-ass women—makes me want to run out and become a hellraiser myself!”

—Lori Goodloe, President of the Billy the Kid Outlaw Gang

"Bob and Jana have combined their artistic and authors’ talents to create a classic about the
stalwart, gutsy, clever, beautiful, enduring women who helped give birth to a nation and a
region—the Wild West."

—Lynda Sanchez, author and historian

"Jana and Boze are the perfect duo to tackle this

ambitious subject and – ZINGO! They hit the bullseye!"

—Betty Drake, author of "Rattlesnake Rodeo"

"The courage, determination and strength of character of these remarkable women makes for a great read. I laughed, shook my head in amazement and was thoroughly entertained. Plus, the pictures and illustrations!  Bob knocked it out of the park with this one!"  

—Larry Winget, Six-time New York Times/Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author of Shut Up, Stop Whining & Get A Life and more 

   So, after four title changes, and many months of back and forth debating on how to combine Jana's prose with my sidebar-graphic tendencies, on top of herculean file exchanges and Slack calls ad infinitum, we may actually have a shot of having books at the opening on November 4 at the Phippen Museum in Prescott, Arizona.

"Alls well, that ends well."

—Old Vaquero Saying