A member of the Texas Literary Hall of Fame, Patrick Dearen is the author of twenty-seven books. His ten nonfiction works include A Cowboy of the Pecos, The Last of the Old-Time Cowboys, and Saddling Up Anyway: The Dangerous Lives of Old-Time Cowboys. His research has led to seventeen novels, including The Big Drift, winner of the Spur Award of Western Writers of America. His other novels include When Cowboys Die (a Spur Award finalist), Perseverance, When the Sky Rained Dust, The Illegal Man, To Hell or the Pecos, Dead Man's Boot, Apache Lament, Haunted Border, and The End of Nowhere.A ragtime pianist and wilderness enthusiast who has summited Mount Livermore (Baldy Peak), Dearen lives with his wife, Mary, in Texas. See patrickdearen.com for more information.