The Keystone Kid had come all the way from Pennsylvania to be a cowboy, and stepped off the train dressed to the teeth in an atrocious freshly bought Western outfit. It was no surprise to anyone when he almost instantly became the butt of some unpleasant jokes in the local bar. What was surprising was that he made no attempt to fight back against the bully who had decided to make a show of it. He gained two things that day - his name, the "Keystone Kid," and his reputation as a coward. The Kid made one friend, though, who helped him learn the ropes - horses and cattle, the way the ranch was really run - and he soon took on the look and ways of a true cowhand. But there was still that sore point of his cowardice. No one could help the Kid with that. When the time finally came to prove himself, he had to stand alone...and his life depended on it.
Author
Frank Roderus wrote his first story—it was a western—when he was five. It was really awful, as might be expected, but his mother kept that typed and spell-checked short story tucked away until the day she died. Later, Frank became a newspaper reporter, thinking that books are written by authors which he most assuredly was not. He kept trying to write though, and eventually did it wrong enough to learn how to get it right. That first sale, a young adult novel published by Independence Press, was more than thirty years and a good many books ago. As a journalist, the Colorado Press Association awarded Frank Roderus their highest award, the Sweepstakes Award, for the best news story of 1980, and the Western Writers of America has twice named Frank recipient of their prestigious Spur Award. Frank passed away at age 73 in December 2015.
