Written by Deb Houdek Rule for The Heinlein Prize Trust FOR RELEASE ON SEPTEMBER 29, 2003 MAJOR PRIZE FOCUSES ON SPACE COMMERCIALIZATION The Heinlein Prize, a major new award for practical accomplishments in commercial space activities, was announced today at the 54th International Aeronautical Congress underway in Bremen, Germany. Trustees of the Robert A. and[…]
Arthur McCoy and the James Gang, published summer 2002 in the James-Younger Gang Journal. ©2002 D. H. Rule (Deb Houdek Rule)
The Spectre of Death Rode the Land: A Southern Family Caught Up in the Union Invasion of Missouri, 1861-1865 by Lois Glass Webb reviewed by Deb Houdek Rule for Civil War St. Louis “The war in Southeast Missouri was not one of glorious battles fought and chronicled for future reveling historians. Nevertheless, brave men skirmished[…]
Autobiography of Samuel S. Hildebrand, Edited by Kirby Ross reviewed by Deb Houdek Rule for Civil War St. Louis “Hooray for Hildebrand,” the bandits at the Ste. Genevieve robbery (presumably the ultimately famous James-Younger gang) shouted as they rode out of town. That piece of history as much as anything secured Sam Hildebrand’s place in[…]
Guerrilla Season by Pat Hughes reviewed by Deb Houdek Rule for Civil War St. Louis Season of light, season of darkness… this was 1863 in Clay County in northern Missouri. Boys hunted, swam, and played with their friends. They also planted crops and tended to their chores. It was all normal, pastoral, even, except at[…]
Vengeance In My Heart: A Novel of the Civil War by David K. Moore reviewed by Deb Houdek Rule for Civil War St. Louis Cover blurb: In 1863, Confederate guerrillas raided Lawrence, Kansas, unleashing in turn a torrent of revenge on western Missouri by Kansans and Federal soldiers. The author tracked down dozens of eyewitness[…]
Gangs of New York reviewed by Deb Houdek Rule for Civil War St. Louis What, you might well ask, has the movie “Gangs of New York” to do with the Civil War in St. Louis? On the surface, very little, but in the undercurrents and background scenes, a fair bit. “Gangs of New York” covers[…]
When the Heavens Fell: The Youngers in Stillwater Prison and The Great Cole Younger & Frank James Historical Wild West Show by John Koblas reviewed by Deb Houdek Rule for Civil War St. Louis Author John Koblas adds two new entries into the field of books on the James-Younger gang with “When the Heavens Fell:[…]
Blessed Are the Peacemakers by Joe W. Smith reviewed by Deb Houdek Rule for Civil War St. Louis Joe W. Smith, author of “Blessed Are the Peacemakers” tackles the difficult subject of the bushwhacker war in the Ozark countryside of Arkansas near the Missouri-Arkansas border during the Civil War. He does this in a fiction[…]
Little House in Brookfield by by Maria D. Wilkes reviewed by Deb Houdek Rule Sloppy writing and a severe lack of editing make the book read as a hastily tossed-together piece written to meet a deadline for commercial, rather than artistic, purposes. The story is inconsistent and filled with random elements (such as the family[…]