The Rodeo Southwest

About the Book

Tom Lacey and Samuel Embers were outlaws who split from the Younger Brothers Gang. Their handles were the Nevada Kid and Smokey. After the robbery of the Kingston-Downey Express, they took honest jobs while seeking refuge at a prominent cattle ranch. Tom had been shot through the left thigh, and taking on honest jobs was the only way Smokey could get his partner back on his feet again without getting captured. When returning to the O’Connor ranch from a cattle drive up north, they had no idea their cover was revealed to the local sheriff. They were arrested, tried, and convicted to prison terms. Smokey was released after five years, but Tom Lacey (the Nevada Kid) had to stay an extra two for misbehavior. What got Nevada the two extra years was his stubbornness and his bad-boy attitude. It was his sour venom that got him in there in the first place—that along with his love, respect, and damned cursed weakness for beautiful women. In book 3 of the Southwest Series, the Nevada Kid and Smokey are released from prison. Nevada heads southwest and joins the Broken Arrow Ranch rodeo circuit to make some fast money, hoping to reach the goal he set for himself of buying a cattle ranch. What kind of trouble does he get into there with his new friend Recordina “Ricki,” the barrel racer? Who is cutting cinch straps, trying to cause a planned murder to look like an accident?

About the Author

Diane M. Cece was born and raised in a small New Jersey town and was descended from a large Italian family that originated in San Potito Ultra, Avellino, Italy. Her ancestors were avid fishermen and farmers. After retiring from twenty-five years of federal service, her interests turned to her love for history and writing. She started a second career at small Waterloo Village in northern New Jersey and became a historical interpreter and continued on as a seamstress designing and manufacturing historically accurate eighteenth-century custom period clothing. Joining a Civil War reenactment group the 27th New Jersey Volunteers nicknamed "Bailey's Boys", she moved on to living history interpretation. Her love for the Old West continued on throughout her life’s spectrum, loving the energy the Western movies and local rodeos offered her and living her own life around the unspoken Code of the West. She was a fan of country music her whole life and was an unpublished songwriter and member of the Nashville Songwriters Association International, but that wasn’t enough because she did Texas round dancing for twenty years and, for a short time, taught the two-step, line and couples dances in her home state. She is a member of the National Rifle Association and two gun clubs in New Jersey, which satisfy her strong feelings for patriotism and American conservative values. Her other interests besides dancing, include archery, shooting sports, and game fishing for Northern Pike, all of which she has done.