Cowboy Jubilee!
September 29 to October 1, 2023
@ Ft. Concho, San Angelo, TX
Celebrating EVERYTHING COWBOY!
It’s a Modern Day Wild West Show Experience!
Authors, and Look-a-likes for 2023
All Authors are scheduled to be on-site daily 9am to 5pm (Friday through Sunday). They may make an appearance at the Thursday Evening sing-a-long and many will be attending the Sunday Sure Shot Awards Banquet. Look-a-likes will be found throughout the event. Ask them about their ‘mentor.’
Authors
We are grateful to have several returning Authors for 2023.
And we welcome several new faces, too.
Linda Thorsen Bond
Dr. Linda Thorsen Bond has written and produced 20 historical plays and won two national Telly Awards for a television documentary about one of her plays. She has written newspaper and magazine articles for publications including Wild West, Texas Highways, Texas Monthly, W, USA Today, Family Circle, Australian Woman’s Day, San Angelo Standard Times, four different Colorado magazines and more.
Her historical novel, Saving the Oldest Town in Texas, was a finalist in the Historical Fiction category of the 2019 American Fiction Awards. It is the story of the scoundrel who robbed his own bank and left his wife, his children and his mansion behind in Nacogdoches, Texas.
Daisy Wettermark, on of Ms. Bond’s ‘living characters,’ was married to Col. Benjamin Wettermark. The Colonel was mayor and president of the biggest bank in Nacogdoches, Texas. In 1903, he robbed his own bank and left his wife, his children and his mansion behind and became the most wanted man in the U.S.
The next book due out mid-2020, San Angelo A to Z: A Young Reader’s Guide is being published by ACU Press (Abilene Christian University). www.lindathorsenbond.com or amazon.com/author/lindathorsenbond.com
Michael Gasaway
Michael Gasaway is a widower with five grown sons who can be described as a true Cowboy Christian Gentleman, who is strong but gentle as mentioned in his poem Men of Velvet and Steel. During his life he has been an award winning photographer, successful businessman, entrepreneur, Father, grandfather, author, and rancher and is a U.S. Marine veteran. He is the author of Angels and Cowboys among others.
James Griffin
James J. Griffin is a life long New Englander who has always been fascinated by the old West, particularly the Texas Rangers. He has been a student of the Rangers since a young age, and is considered an amateur historian of the organization. He works closely with the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco, to which he has contributed his extensive collection of Texas Ranger artifacts. Jim considers Texas his home away from home. He writes traditional westerns, contemporary Texas Ranger novels, as well as Young Adult and Children’s Texas Ranger books..He is also a lifelong horseman, who visits senior centers and nursing homes with his horse, Yankee.. Jim is a member of Western Writers of America and Western, Fictioneers. He makes his home in Keene, New Hampshire.
Eric Heisner
“We are the ‘Next Generation of Western Filmmakers’.
The stories of grit and glamour, as well as the moral
character and self reliance portrayed
in Westerns is important to keep relevant in today’s varied
choices of entertainment.The Western is definitely a niche
market, but we feel that we can communicate a good story
that will transcend every generation.”
Eric H. Heisner is an award-winning Screenwriter, Western Actor, Novelist, and Filmmaker. He prides himself on being hired as the cowboy character who can ride a horse, shoot a gun, deliver his lines, and not fall off. A graduate of Columbia College Chicago he worked on the hit television show “ER” as Assistant Location Manager for two years while living at State & Rush Street on the Gold Coast of Chicago. Eric was formerly roommates with Cinematographer Dan Farnam and Actor Chad Curtiss who decades later are still working contemporaries in Los Angeles, CA. Between gigs for “ER” and the feature film “High Fidelity” Heisner was able to travel to Peru and hike Macchu Piccu, traveled down to the Florida Keys and live in his truck for an extended period fine tuning his skills as a furniture maker and finish carpenter. A move out to Los Angeles put him in a job for Dustin Hoffman as a script courier and then in minor roles for the History Channel and background in several feature films such as “Pirates of the Caribbean”. Upon completion of the award-winning Western TV Pilot “Friend of the Devil” Heisner became known around town as the “Next Generation of Western Filmmakers”. Attending the Algonquin Cowboy Lunch with such Western Stars as Ernest Borgnine, Bo Hopkins, Bruce Boxleitner, and others serves as continuing education for an Actor, Writer and Filmmaker with a passion for the Western genre. His first novel, “West to Bravo” published in 2014 by a New York Publisher has put another notch on his storytelling resume that has been followed by several other Western and Adventure novels where he continues to broaden his skills as a teller of stories from the mythology of the American West. Heisner lives and works in San Antonio, Texas, and Glendale, California.
Doug Hocking (based on availability)
Doug writes award winning history that focuses on presenting what really happened in an exciting and entertaining manner. His work has received a Spur Award, Co-Founders’ Award for Best History, a Finalist for the Will Rogers Medallion (silver) and was a 2019 Finalist in History for the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. His historical fiction brings the Old West back to life while making another generation proud of the accomplishments and struggle of their ancestors. Each book is a history lesson wrapped in an riveting story.
Doug has led an exciting life. Born near New York City, a fact he very seldom admits, he learned to speak from his Cornish grandmother. Still very young, Doug was taken West where he grew up on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation in the Rio Arriba of New Mexico among piasonos and indios. At 18 he hitchhiked to Albuquerque and enlisted in Army Intelligence.
The next decade was spent in Thailand, Taiwan, at the Pentagon, and at bases so secret the Army often wouldn’t say where they were. This made it difficult to comply with orders to report, but Doug is a great intel analyst and interpreted the “indicators” to track them down. Doug stopped in Taiwan for several years and acquired an undergraduate degree in Business Administration from the University of Maryland. Returning to the U.S., he studied Ethnography in graduate school and then returned to the Army in Armored Cavalry, finding the cavalry more fun than musty tomes of forgotten lore. In Germany, he was eyeball to eyeball with the Soviet beast before it fell. His final tour of duty was the most difficult of all, trying to turn Military Intelligence lieutenants into officers. He also played a role in intelligence gathering and interpretation during the first Gulf War.
Since then Doug has earned honors with a graduate degree in U.S. history and garnered his certificate as a field archaeologist in historical archaeology braving a summer at a wilderness camp with college students in southern Colorado excavating Fort Massachusetts. “Bears only poked their heads into the mess tent a couple of times.” Doug has built homes, taught college, and worked in the hospitality industry. He spends time exploring lost towns, ruins, old forts and trails, interpreting foundations and trash, ranging far.
His work appears regularly in the Journal of Arizona History, the Cochise County Historical Journal, True West Magazine, Wild West Magazine and Roundup. www.DougHocking.com
T.C. Miller
T.C. Miller’s first piece was published when he was nine years old. He has written extensively since then in a variety of genres and formats. He created the BlackStar Ops Group eight years ago and has recently released the fourth book in the series of clean-read spy thrillers, BlackStar Ranch. His short story, Mary Elizabeth Peabody, appears in Flynn-The Series, a Western anthology published by Timber Creek Press. Miller was named Outstanding Author of 2017, at the Rose State College Writer’s Symposium.
T.C. spent twenty-four years in the USAF, four of them stationed at Mather Air Force Base. For thirty years he has studied and taught Hakkoryu Jujitsu.
Mike Shellenbergar
Mike Shellenbergar received his undergraduate degree from the University of Central Missouri and his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Mike is a veteran of the United States Army Security Agency, a private pilot, and a dive master, lending weight to the experiences of his characters. He lived in Playa del Carmen, Mexico for twelve years and now divides his time between his home in Summit County, Colorado and his home on Key Allegro. Mike specializes in historical fiction, using research and talent to craft stories that enthrall the readers.
Fresh off a two time First Place win at the Chanticleer International Book Awards, both his western romance novel Quail Creek Ranch and his fresh-off-the-press female cowboy story Refuge took First Place prices in the Laramie category, Mike is eager to write more stories and continue his ongoing series.
His works can be found on Amazon, IngramSpark Distributing, and BookBub!
Ann Snuggs
Ann Snuggs grew up in Southeast Arkansas. A born storyteller, she was regaling her mother with stories before she learned to write. As a child, she coerced her playmates into performing in short plays she wrote in between watching her favorite cowboy heroes ride the television range. Her friendship with one of those, Dick Jones, who played Buffalo Bill, Jr. on the television show of the same name and Dick West in The Range Rider, led to her upcoming book, Dick Jones: Where the Action Was.
Also a devoted mystery/detective fan, Ann began with Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys and by late elementary school had progressed to Erle Stanley Gardner and Dashiell Hammett. She cried when Mickey Spillane died.
In college at Henderson State University at Arkadelphia, Arkansas, she worked on a campus literary publication.
After college she began her career as a Jill-of-All-Trades, teaching school — in grades second to junior college and subjects from social studies to English and Speech to Math to Spanish; working at newspapers as a photographer, writer and editor; walking hots and rubbing horses in the barns as well as doing publicity work at thoroughbred race tracks; working in multiple positions at a florist; and on and on. She has often said the only two criteria a job must have to be considered are: 1. Have I ever done this before? (Answer: No) and 2. Does it sound interesting? (Answer: Yes).
Through all this she has written — something. When asked at conferences, “What do you write?” The reply is, “What do you want written?”
At one time or another Ann has written poetry, skits, song lyrics, novels, short stories, essays, newspaper columns and feature stories, advertising copy, whatever someone needed to have written. She writes for the same reason she breathes — it is necessary for her existence.
Ann is the author of two non-fiction books on Western movies, Riding the (Silver Screen) Range and Uncredited: Cliff Lyons On and Off Screen; a Western novel, Donovan’s Trail; and a mystery, Double Stalk. She also contributed two selections to the anthology, Tales From the South, Volume 1.
Mike Thompson
John T. Wayne
Charles Williams, Moderator,
Authors’ Question and Answer Sessions
Charles Williams, is the Executive Director of the Will Rogers Medallion Award Committee. He is a long-time Dallas, Texas resident and a member of the Dallas, Texas Gene Autry Fan Club.
Originally created to honor outstanding volumes of Cowboy Poetry, the Will Rogers Medallion Award includes other categories as interest and reader demand increased. Will Rogers was an accomplished author as well as a cowboy entertainer, and the purpose of the Award is to honor this facet of his legacy as well as to highlight current books that embody strong content, excellent production values, and enduring interest. The Annual Award Show is hosted in the Ft. Worth Stockyards during Red Steagall’s Cowboy Gathering, attracting authors from as far away as Canada, Wyoming, the Dakotas, and Montana.
Look-A-Likes & Re-enactors
The Cowboy Way Jubilee has enjoyed excellent support and attendance by several of the Cowboy Stars Look-a-likes. We are looking forward to announcing who all will be joining us for 2020. If you’re interested in attending as a Look-a-like, please contact Leslei.
Concho Cowboy Company, Inc.
Marshal Cactus Jack came to town one day … shot & killed the former marshal … who was the marshal at the time … & then he took over the former marshal’s job & is now the marshal. He’s said to have been involved in more than 20 gunfights without a scratch … legend has it that he’s “bullet proof”. Although he probably won’t admit it … he’s “sweet” on Madam Sunshine
Madam Sunshine owns and runs the saloon … thinks she can run just about ever’thing and ever’body in town, too! She is especially fond of money … & will stop at just ’bout nothin’ to get it! Rumor has it that she’s kinda sweet on Marshal Cactus Jack … heck it aint no rumor at all!
Will Killem … the “meanest man” in the west. Former soldier & ex-Texas Ranger … a sometimes bounty hunter … outlaw … pistolero. Mostly ornery! Rot gut whiskey, soiled doves & tin horn gamblers inhabit his world. Some people say he’s … “meaner than a polecat & twice as deadly as a two headed rattlesnake” … he’s kilt more men than small pox!
Tiny Tom … don’t know how he got that handle … cuz he’s bigger ‘n the side of a hay barn! An ex-soldier … he was drummed out of the Army for the merciless beating of a sargent, a captain & a major in a drunken brawl. Now a gambler & a pistolero … he drifts from town to town … relying on his luck, his wit & his gun!
Miss Violet is “Miss Dependable”! She’ll volunteer for all kinds of jobs, but that also goes with “there ain’t nothin’ that she won’t do”! Yeah & you never know … what that there girl’s gonna go & get herself into!
Marshal Cactus Jack came upon Jingles up in the Indian Nations where he was ’bout to be hung for rustlin’. Just as they was about to put his neck in the noose, the marshal rode up & saved him from a neck tie party! After the judge released Jingles in the marshal’s custody, the marshal took him under his wing and made him his deputy. Jack figures that, with a little confidence instilled in ole Jingles, he might be pert near competent … someday.
Jerry Eastman as “Bat Masterson”
Jerry Eastman began performing as Bat Masterson in 1994 with a gunfighter group, Old Dallas Gunfighters and Reenactment Society, later changed to Old Dallas Shootist. He has researched and been performing as Bat for over 20 plus years, doing living history and presentations in Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX and surrounding areas; Tombstone, and Old Tucson, AZ; Cheyene and Laramie, WY; Wichita, Dodge City and Olathe, KS. He assisted in the review of the manuscript for the book “Friends Call Me Bat” by Paul Colt and was sought out by Castle Productions for their limited series “Gunslingers” Season 2, Episode 3, “Bat Masterson, Defender of Dodge” as a Bat Masterson Historian.
Richard Falkenberg as “Bob Steele”
From the Driscoll, Texas, Richard Falkenberg brings the 1930s singing cowboy Bob Steele back to life. To see him in everyday clothes the resemblance is hidden, but when Richard dons Steele’s signature all black, those steely blue eyes just pop and you are whisked back in time. He and his wife Debbie travel the U.S. sharing their love of vintage Westerns with everyone they meet.
Richard has appeared at all of the Jubilees, a true-blue supporter for sure!
John Phipps as “Tonto”, “The Cisco Kid”
John Phipps happily revives the persona of, Tonto, the role made notable by the late actor, Jay Silverheels, in the early television series The Lone Ranger. Phipps lives in Linden, Indiana, has been appearing as a knife-throwing, whip-cracking Tonto for a decade, thrilling children and adults alike. He also performs as “Cisco” of the television series, “The Cisco Kid,” who also wields a whip. John’s hobby is collecting Western movies, so far he has more than a thousand! He travels with his little dog, “Princess.”
Mike Thompson as “Theodore Roosevelt”
Mike Thompson is an award-winning writer, playwright and photographer. He retired from the government where he tested explosives and was curator of an Army museum. He is a Vietnam veteran, medic, (1966-67) with a military career spanning forty-two years, (1960-2002), including the Air Force, Army, Army Reserves and National Guard.
Mike, his wife, Ruthie, and cat Mollie, live on the Laughing Horse Ranch, Land and Cattle Company, San Angelo, Texas. He has owned several businesses, worked as an actor, carpenter, bartender, oil landman, raised horses and done other things while trying to decide what he’s going to be if he grows up. His western, “The Turbulent Trail”, was the Arizona Authors Association 2017 #2 book of the year and his play, “Ashes Are Ashes”, was the AAA 2018 Best New Drama. His books may be found on Amazon, Mike Thompson/San Angelo Writer’s Club.
Today he writes, collects cowboy art and gear, travels, drinks beer and western dances with Ruthie at assorted dance halls and saloons across Texas.
Ermal Williamson as “John Wayne”
Ermal Williamson brings John Wayne to life as no one else can. With an undisputed track record consisting of Marine Corp experience, as a rough-and-tough cowboy stuntman at Universal Studios, his expertise on the Wild West, and a John Wayne and Gary Cooper impersonator, he puts his daily life-long experiences to work for him in all that he does.
He has appeared in Bonfires of the Vanities, Twilight Zone, The Patty Hearst Movie, General Hospital, Golden Girls, Santa Barbara Star Quest and other movies, television and stage performances. Ermal was even named Best Male Impersonator In Las Vegas and is known as the John Wayne Look-alike. Of course, there’s his one-man show “Memories with John Wayne and Gary Cooker” but he may be even more recognizable as the Duke in all the Coors Light beer commercials! He’s written seven Western novels and is a frequent speaker and emcee. Luckily for West Texas, Ermal is also known for his performances with his wife, Paula Williamson.
Paula Erlene Williamson as “Patsy Cline”
America’s Yodeling Sweetheart
The versatile Paula Williamson is a 6 -times National Yodeling Champion and recently became an international champion yodeler when she represented the USA in South Korea. You may have seen her yodeling in commercials for US Cellular and Arizona Casinos.
She has performed in the John Wayne Show with her husband Ermal Williamson for over 15 years. Paula brings her original and classic western songs to events, and her yodeling might just knock your socks off!
Paula performed as a tribute artist to “Patsy Cline” in the “Hank and Patsy Revisited Show.” She now performs her new show, “From Patsy To Patsy.” where she starts the show as Patsy Montana and in the second half of the show she dresses as Patsy Cline and performs some of Patsy’s most beloved hits. She’s even doubled for Lucille Ball.
Note all appearances are posted in good faith–health and work schedules permitting.
See our Facebook Group “Cowboy Ways Nowadays” for up to the minute information on the Cowboy Way Jubilee event. Post who you want to see at our next Cowboy Way Jubilee!
Like our Facebook Page “Cowboy Way Jubilee” and sign up for our event on Facebook “2020 Cowboy Way Jubilee” — it’s a great place to find roommates, share rides, etc… (at your own risk, of course)
For more info or questions, email CowboyWayFest@gmail.com, or call or text Leslei Fisher 580.768.5559.