The honest truth is I have just been busy.

In May, I gave two speeches at the Grand Canyon about Theodore Roosevelt.  I was very honored at this invitation, as it is not every day a fella gets asked to speak at one of the most popular National Parks.

On our second visit, we brought along our new addition to the Blake household, Travis Tyree.  He enjoyed visiting the park very much.  Travis sat through my speech, but did not seem terribly impressed. Hmmmm…..

In June, I was in Tucson for the annual Western Writers of America convention, where THE COWBOY PRESIDENT was given its nomination certificate for Best Biography.

Every convention they have a costume contest and I went as John Wayne’s character from “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.”  Didn’t win, but I did not care.  It gave me a chance to dress up!

In July Linda and I traveled to New York City.  I was finally able to visit Theodore’s birthplace and Sagamore Hill home on Long Island.  We also met up with many cousins who came to see me when I spoke about Theodore at a Bronx library.  I also had a great time visiting with two of my makeup buddies from “Lincoln,” Craig Lindberg and Keith Palmer, visiting Sagamore Hill.

My next book, GO WEST, MR. PRESIDENT will be released in June 2020 by Two Dot press (same folks who published THE COWBOY PRESIDENT).  This book covers Theodore’s 1903 Great Loop Tour of the Western states.  Along the way of researching, I uncovered an assassination attempt in Walla Walla, Washington that no other historian has written about.  It was interesting reading Theodore’s 265 speeches (which he wrote himself!), as much of what he said  over 100 years ago is very relevant to today’s issues.

I am now deep in research process for my next book, which will be about the making of John Ford’s Cavalry trilogy: FORT APACHE, SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON and RIO GRANDE.  I had this idea planned for a while, but it got pushed to the back burner with the two Theodore Roosevelt books.

I so enjoy these three films and while I have just started the research process, already I am coming up with some great material.  For instance, I have two scene stills in my personal collection from SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON, that are not in the film.  I recently discovered that the scenes were indeed in the script and filmed, but Fords deleted them from the final print.

Apologies for this so-called babbling blog being so silent of late.  I thought with retirement I’d have more free time…

I wish you all an early Happy Thanksgiving!