The Cattle Drive from Southwest

About the Book

The Cattle Drive from Southwest 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. Nevada had been shot through the left thigh, and taking on honest jobs was the only way Smokey could get his pard back on his feet again without getting captured. What they didn’t figure into the equation was the rancher’s beautiful, innocent young niece, Polly, falling in love with the Nevada Kid. She came from back East to live with her aunt and uncle and to teach at the local schoolhouse. Smokey had a very tough time keeping the beautiful girl from controlling his partner’s soul and destiny. Polly was the one witness to the robbery of the express who carried enough evidence against the two to get them imprisoned or, worse, hanged.

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 custom eighteenth-century period clothing. Joining a Civil War reenactment group the 27th Regiment 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 She was a fan of country music her whole life and was an unpublished songwriter and member of the Nashville Songwriters Association International, but that wasn’t enough because she did Texas round dancing for twenty years and,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.