AuthorDjBishop.com
Title
Home Page of Western Fiction Writer and Author DJ Bishop
Description
My twin brother Tommie and I were born in Clay County, Texas on March 27, 1950, and the only two of the seven children, two girls and five boys, of L.W. (Jack) and Claudie May (Dolly) Bishop born in a hospital. The other five were all born at home somewhere on the Waggoner Ranch. That’s who my father worked for until taking a job with the Snerly Ranch and moving into the little run-down house south of Henrietta, Texas. I was the sixth, and by Tommie coming along five minutes later was the seventh, and last child born to a bigger than life cowboy father, and hard working, God-fearing mother, right square-dab in the middle of cattle country.
The nearest town was Henrietta but it was several miles away and a place seldom visited and only then just to pickup what was needed, a sack of flour or maybe cornmeal, because everything else we had, we either grew or made at home. Since then I have lived in Burkburnett, Wichita Falls, Iowa Park, Bowie, Nocona, Ringgold, and since 1993 Fort Worth, but still have many family members or friends living in each. Much of what I write about today comes from the many cherished memories of those younger days. The countless Sunday afternoons I spent after supper sitting on the front porch of an old ranch house or sat with my leg hung over the top rail of a corral fence listening with spellbound interest as some of the greatest cowboys to ever sit a saddle talked and told their many stories. It is back to those days my mind wanders from time to time, remembering vividly the manner in which the cowboys spoke and carried themselves. The carefulness in which they rolled a smoke or the preciseness they used in building a roping loop. Much can be said about those men, and how they lived, and in my novels I do my best to tell it as I remember, or as it was told to me. Over the years I’ve had several jobs including truck driver, computer programmer, heavy equipment operator and cowboy, but no matter what the job or where, in my mind I was always a cowboy first, and in my heart I was always headed home to the ranch. It wasn’t until ten years after surviving a heart attack in 1986 that I even thought about writing. And I wouldn’t have then if not for my beautiful wife Carolyn, and her father, and if not for their, and everyone else in the family’s, undying persistence I for sure would have never stayed with it. The most surprising thing is it wasn’t the writing, but the research that, to me, was the most enjoyable part. I started my first manuscript, "The Heritage From Within," a 900 page Trilogy in 1997 and finished it in 1999. My second project was, "Nightmare or Vision," and my third and first published work was "Luke Ludd," since then I have sold such titles as Sheriff Luke Ludd, Showdown at Deer Creek, and now I'm working on Jake Law, and Jake Law Texas Ranger that will hopefully be finished soon.
Please let me not forget for one second all the many true cowboys I've had the pleasure of knowing in my life. May the ones still with us always be mounted fresh and ride where the prairie is wide, the air clean, and the water cool and clear. And to the many who have already rode over the distant horizon and faded into that far-off sunset, may they always be remembered in a good light and wherever they are, may they rest in peace.
