Instead, these struggles taught her about herself, her own journey of discovery, seeing the western landscape with new eyes. She focused on commitment, asked what she had control over and then took the dark clouds life presented her and made them cooling shade to inspire her work. Even the Orient offers insight to challenge. Western heroes choose the hope, not the fear or danger. As Western Writers we're told we face a crisis of the genre.
Danger lurks inside industry changes in the form of superstores and high-tech computer technology.
Such challenges can either convince us we should put our energy into perma-culture or potatoes or inspire a surge of creativity. The model for our responses rides at us from the west. Great writers, like Elmer Kelton and Cindy Bonner, always deliver characters who lack perfection but whom we admire for their persistence, their way of confronting trials. Real life delivers, too. Consider B. Byron Price who in less than twenty years inspired a team of volunteers to convert the Cowboy Hall of Fame from certain closure to its present world-class status, rapidly expanding.