Ride, Cowboy, Ride!: 8 Seconds Ain'T That Long - Hardcover

Black, Baxter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0762780460 ISBN 13: 9780762780464

Publisher: TwoDot, 2012

Synopsis

 This hilarious new novel by America’s best-selling cowboy poet, Baxter Black, offers a funny, fast-paced inside look at the lives of rodeo cowboys and the women they love--or that they want to love. Cooney Bedlam is a saddle bronc rider and bull rider who has just fallen in love with the indefatigable Pica DeTroiT, but every time he tries to win her affections, he makes a fool of himself. When she's accused of illegal trafficking in endangered species, after being set up by the diabolical Oui Oui Reese, Cooney and his traveling partner, Straight Line, pull out all the stops to try to prove her innocence and to compete at the National Finals Rodeo.

About this title

About the Author:

Cowboy poet and large-animal veterinarian, Baxter Black, says "I was raised with the coyotes.  No, this is serious.  I was raised in New Mexico, did three years at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, then four more years at Colorado State University to earn a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree.  Veterinary school was hard for me.  (The price of a gallon of gas was higher than my GPA!)

"Throughout the summers of my college years I worked at different livestock operations as 'cowboy labor.' To help support myself, among other things, I had a band and rode bulls.   Upon graduation I practiced for thirteen years in the livestock business and would still be there if cowboy poetry had not hijacked my life.

"Since poetry is virtually illegal in the United States, I have had to work around the edges of the mainstream to make a living - outside the box, as it were.  For thirty years I have been successful performing cowboy poetry (think of Shakespeare rather than Robert Frost) at venues across the country and in Canada.  The greatest blessing in my business is that I have never had to solicit appearances.  It has all been word of mouth.

"To augment my performances, over the years I have expanded into best-selling books, CD and DVD publishing, a regular column, a commercial radio program, National Public Radio appearances, cable television, and producing commercials.

"Our entertainment business, my wife’s and mine, began in Colorado.  Twelve years ago we moved to Arizona to take care of my folks.  I still have a heavy travel schedule and we have five employees in our office.  We have a married daughter and a teenage son. 

"We live on a small ranch close to the Mexican border and I punch cows when I’m not on the road.  It ain’t a bad life."

Review:

Sounding for all the world like an American Tom Sharpe, Black tells the riotous story of Cooney Bedlam and Straight Line, a couple of rodeo riders who hook up with the alluring Pica D’TroiT, who’s been set up by the nasty Oui Oui Reese to take the fall for illegal animal trafficking. Can Cooney and Straight get her off the hook and still make it to the National Rodeo Finals in time to compete? Baxter, a veterinarian, novelist, and cowboy poet, has an exuberant prose style (he uses lots of exclamation marks but not because he doesn’t know better: they make us laugh) and a very weird way of putting together a story (How many novels can you name that include a calf-roping scene set in a woman’s living room?). He doesn’t go for the subtle humor—other characters are called Salinka Mortonmortonson, Dr. Shin-Guard, Lionel Trane, and Neville Schneer—and, when he goes for the big laughs, he usually gets them (with a book like this, there are always a few jokes that fall flat, but those are few and far between). A very funny, very eccentric take on the contemporary western.
— David Pitt, Booklist


In his funniest novel yet, cowboy poet Black pits two modern-day rodeo cowboys against wild bucking broncs and ornery bulls, as well as ruthless endangered species smugglers, a vindictive beauty queen, and the hilarious fumblings of the romantic heart. This comical farce is a fine example of western humor loaded with silliness and wacky malapropisms. Cooney Bedlam and Straight Line are rodeo cowboy traveling buddies who ride broncs and bulls for the big money–and bigger belt buckles—of champions. Straight is serious about his career; Cooney is a free-spirit, smitten by Pica D’TroiT, “a pistol-packin’ pawnshop pinup girl.” When Straight and Pica become involved in the fiercely competitive business of cowboy cosmetics, they earn the enmity of a bitter female model and her lovesick boyfriend. As Cooney and Straight compete en route to nationals in Vegas, their misadventures include fighting off an angry mob of animal rights activists with a fly swatter, drinking too much prune juice and tequila, and riding against famous cowboys, including Hubcap Longevity, in a goofy llama race (“A word about llamas: nasty”). Meanwhile, Pica’s framed for smuggling endangered species feathers, and Cooney tries to clear her name and avoid the murderous intentions of an inept Latino gunman (think Desi Arnaz with a pistol). A hoot. (Sept.)--Publisher's Weekly

About this edition

• Publisher: TwoDot
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0762780460
• ISBN 13: 9780762780464
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352