Friday 14 August 2009

Blog roundup - the wild west



I spend a lot of time surfing the web, looking for western related information and so I've come across a fair few western blogs. To list them all would be impossible and if I did attempt such an undertaking you could guarantee a few new ones would spring up and make the endeavour pointless. So what I thought I'd do is list some of my particular favourites and I'll do this once a week, make it a regular Saturday post, and not only for western blogs but sites that cover other subjects too. Next week I'll look at some of the great crime fiction blogs out there. And in future weeks I plan to list film blogs, pulp blogs and blogs that contain a little bit of everything.


Here is my first blog roundup and for this first entry all these sites are western specific.



Western Fiction Review - This blog was launched around the same time as The Archive and recently celebrated it's first year. Run by the knowledgeable Steve M. it features interviews, reviews and the odd news feature. Steve writes with an obvious love for the genre and his reviews have often been responsible for me discovering many writers.


Meridian Bridge
- Is a blog that's become a bookmark for many a western fan. As well as western book and film reviews the blog runs regular historical posts. It's always a cracking read. Some of the historical pictures that turn up on this blog and brilliant,as are the articles they accompany.



Davy Crocket Almanack - is a brand new blog that looks like it's going to become a busy hang out for western fans. Run by writer Dave Lewis early posts have seen him looking at The Big Trail, Pulp Writer and sharing his excellent news that he's sold a story to Ellery Queen mystery magazine, a difficult market to break into. I'm not sure if this blog is going to be western specific but I'm including it in this list because the first week's posts have been dominated by western material.

Westerns all italia - is the place to be for information regarding European westerns and related material. Run by Tom B, a blogger from California, the blog is lovingly written and there are some great bits of trivia in his reviews that always entertain. This is yet another cracking western blog.


Black Horse Express
- is a news blog where you'll find the latest news on the British Black Horse range of books. Run by Ian Parnham the blog manages to link to any bit of BHW news on the web, making it easy for fans of the books to keep up with latest news.

Spur and Lock - is simply awesome. Here you'll find a lot of pulp western reviews and it's great to read about these long out of print classics. As well as features on more contemporary novels and the odd historical feature. This is another essential watering hole on the virtual trail.

Soapy Smith's Soapbox - Is a quit unique western related blog. Unique in that it's maintained by Jeff Smith, a great grandson of actual old west badman, Soapy Smith. Most of the postings are related to Soapy Smith but there is the occasional post containing general western information.


So that's my list of western related blogs. There are other western blogs out there and I hope to mention as many as possible from time to time but these are the ones I follow, never miss a post. There are many more blogs that feature, like The Archive, many items of western interest but are not genre specific and so these will be listed in a future post.

4 comments:

beverly said...

Thanks for this, Gary. This is a problem I have, as I don't know where to look sometimes for western blogs, and I feel I am missing out on something that is "out there" but I can't find it. Keep us posted with any new ones you do find. I love this blog, it is so informative.

Andrea

Gary Dobbs/Jack Martin said...

Andrea - I will do. I got this idea from Bill Cryder's excellent blog bytes feature in Ellery Queen Magazine. Bill covers all crime stuff there and I thought it would be interesting to have post every now and then of blogs that I personally like - westerns, crime and pretty much everything else. There's a few photography blogs that I love and some comedy ones. So I'll just list a few every week.

Oscar Case said...

Thanks for doing this. I've periodically searched the net for stuff like this, see a lot, but few are interesting enough for me to follow on a daily or posting basis, and have taken the liberty of adding some from your list. I figure the more you read, the more it will help you. Thanks, Gary.

Jeff Smith said...

Gary, thank you very much for including my blog in your western list! I am honored to be among those blogs you feel are worthy.

Jeff Smith

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