Bottom of the Hill Publishing

admin June 21st, 2011

Ballad of a Small Town, Adventures of Logan West is HOT on Kindle ranked #16 in Westerns!

The customer reviews are outstanding…

“Ballad of a Small Town is engaging and fun. Mr. Swift’s characters are interesting and often hilarious. Reading a chapter here and a chapter there around my busy weeks became a breath of fresh air and a welcome break from anything mundane. I look forward to future stories from Mr. Swift.”

“Reading `Ballad of a Small Town, Adventures of Logan West” is sorta like a old locomotive when it was fired up and watching the steam shooshing out and the big wheel slipping around not quite getting a holt of the rail and a-round again and faster and THEN it got traction and the train started moving slow now and then faster…the whistle blowing, the smoke billowing out and the train leaving the station at a walk, then a run, and on… tooting its way in the distance…you never ever forget seeing such a sight.”

“This tongue-in-cheek ballad provides the reader with chuckles and relaxation. Hal Swift’s light sense of humor is a welcome respite for stressful times. I recommend it for a delightful break…”

You’ll find Ballad of a Small Town,  Adventures of Logan West in print for Kindle and Nook.

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admin December 14th, 2010

TRAILS WEST…an Anthology of Western Lore invites the reader to share six short stories that embrace six different situations in the old west.
NO TOMORROW by Herb Marlow is the story of the plight and rewards one cattle boss finds as he lives his dream on the western frontier.  Marlow is the author of over 30 books and essays, including his recently published Cowboy Riches.
THE FAMILY MAN by new author Hamilton Haley is a tale of a good man who is one of the first immigrants to the Oregon Country.  It relates the way he assists three different families to a better life in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.
THE STRANGER IN RAIL CAMP SEVEN by Jim Kennison tells about one weekend that might have happened in the life of a true historical figure.  Kennison is new to Bottom of the Hill Publishing but not to readers as he has several books to his credit.
TROUBLE IN COLD ROCK COUNTRY by Johnny Gunn relates the realities of frontier justice with a happy ending for one cattle drover.  Johnny Gunn is the author of the recently published book of short stories entitled Out of the West…Tales of the Western Frontier.
THE DOUBLE DEAL by Dave P. Fisher tells how a U.S. Marshal goes about solving a murder case where every clue seems to be a dead end.  Dave P. Fisher is the author of the Poudre Canyon Saga, a trilogy being published by Bottom of the Hill Publishing.
THE LADY AND THE LION by cowboy poet and author Hal Swift is another chapter in the life of Logan West.  Logan is a banjo playing journalist to whom readers were introduced in Hal’s book, Ballad of a Small Town, Adventures of Logan West.  The fun continues in Drytown with many of the folks you met in that recently published book.

Look for TRAILS WEST…an Anthology of Western Lore at amazon and other booksellers.

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admin December 7th, 2010

TRAILS WEST…an Anthology of Western Lore brings together six of today’s great western writers into one book with six short stories that embrace six different situations in the old west.

NO TOMORROW by Herb Marlow is the story of the plight and rewards one cattle boss finds as he lives his dream on the western frontier.  Marlow is the author of over 30 books and essays, including his recently published Cowboy Riches.

THE FAMILY MAN by new author Hamilton Haley is a tale of a good man who is one of the first immigrants to the Oregon Country.  It relates the way he assists three different families to a better life in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

THE STRANGER IN RAIL CAMP SEVEN by Jim Kennison tells about one weekend that might have happened in the life of a true historical figure.  Kennison is new to Bottom of the Hill Publishing but not to readers as he has several books to his credit.

TROUBLE IN COLD ROCK COUNTRY by Johnny Gunn relates the realities of frontier justice with a happy ending for one cattle drover.  Johnny Gunn is the author of the recently published book of short stories entitled Out of the West…Tales of the American Frontier.

THE DOUBLE DEAL by Dave P. Fisher tells how a U.S. Marshal goes about solving a murder case where every clue seems to be a dead end.  Dave P. Fisher is the author of the Poudre Canyon Saga,a trilogy being published by Bottom of the Hill Publishing including Where Free Men Gather & White Grizzly.

THE LADY AND THE LION by cowboy poet and author Hal Swift is another chapter in the life of Logan West.  Logan is a banjo playing journalist to whom readers were introduced in Hal’s book, Ballad of a Small Town, Adventures of Logan West. The fun continues in Drytown with many of the folks you met in that recently published book.

Trails West is in it’s final edit now and will be available right around Christmas.

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admin July 1st, 2010

Ballad of a Small Town, Adventures of Logan West is now available in print and Kindle form.

Hal Swift’s Ballad of a Small Town is the story of banjo pickin’ Logan West, Shorty and a unique mountain settlement in western Utah Territory, called Drytown. You can get it now for Kindle form Amazon or get it in print from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other booksellers.

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admin April 29th, 2010

Ballad of a Small Town, Adventures of Logan West is now available for Kindle.

The Bandits Did What?–When his stage coach is stopped by highwaymen, itinerant journalist, Logan West, saves the day. With his banjo?

Ballad of a Small Town is the story of banjo pickin’ Logan West, Shorty and a unique mountain settlement in western Utah Territory, called Drytown. You can get it now for Kindle or get it in print on May 12th.

Where the Truckee River bends,
In Utah Territory,
I found a place called Drytown there,
And this is that town’s story.

T’was spring of Eighteen-Sixty-Four
And warm winds they were blowing.
Wild flowers bloomed and strangers came,
And Drytown it was growing.
Ballad of a Small Town
–Logan West–

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admin April 27th, 2010

Drytown History

Drytown, originally Big Bend, Utah Territory, was a small community near the cross-country Overland Trail, used by travelers in the mid-to-late 1800s. Drytown was important, mainly because it was on the way to somewhere else.

What that means is that Drytown was a major transfer point, where supply wagons traveling east and west, off-loaded merchandise to other wagons that carried it to towns and ranches north and south of Drytown.

In 1864–the last year of the Civil War–the western part of Utah Territory became the state of Nevada.

In 1869, when the Central Pacific Railroad in its westward expansion reached Drytown, company officials renamed it Wadsworth, in honor of the respected Civil War Union general, James Wadsworth. The story is that, when he was killed in battle, both sides ceased fighting until his body was removed from the field of combat.

Many of the characters in the tales are real people. Others are fictional. They are a very accepting group of people and mix together with few problems.

The town of Wadsworth is located 27 miles northeast of Lake’s Crossing, which now is Reno. Shorty’s Place is based on Shorty’s Lunchroom, a popular refreshment spot in mid to the late 1860’s Wadsworth. I got the idea for Shorty’s Place from a hectographed newspaper, the Wadsworth Bee, from the early 1870’s. The late Carl Shelly, former state senator, and owner of Shelly’s Hardware in Sparks, also was instrumental in the founding of the Sparks Museum. It was he who showed me the Wadsworth Bee, and wondered if it might give me some story ideas. It did.

By the way, most of the drinks served in Shorty’s Place are buttermilk, sassafras tea, and sasparilla. Which, as everyone knows, are the choice of all real cowboys.

Ballad of a Small Town, Adventures of Logan West has been released for Kindle and will soon be available in print.

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admin April 27th, 2010

Ballad’s Genesis

The idea for Ballad of a Small Town was born when I saw a copy of the Wadsworth, NV newspaper* from around 1869. In it was an ad for Shorty’s Lunchroom. Shorty’s Place grew out of that, and I put it in Drytown, which was still Wadsworth’s name in 1864–it was also called Big Bend, referring to the bend in the Truckee River as it headed north toward what we whites call Pyramid Lake. The Numa (Paiutes) call it Panunadu.

In January of 1996, Dorman Nelson, editor and publisher of Western Tales Magazine, bought “Letter From Shorty,”–a short story based on Shorty’s Lunchroom–but he had to shut down the magazine for various reasons. He advised me to continue writing, but to put my western short stories into a collection, with a unifying theme or character and make them into a novel.

Working on that idea, I found what I wanted in Logan West, a journalism graduate from Indiana, whose bride eloped with their best man. Logan heads west to write the novel he’s long thought about doing, takes his banjo along, and winds up working in Shorty’s Place.

Before the first story was finished, the idea for “the ballad” manifested. As a troubadour of sorts, it seemed natural for Logan to write a ballad based on his travels, and “Ballad of a Small Town,” was born. Each chapter is prefaced by an excerpt from the ballad.

Although I have a melody for the ballad in my head, I’ve left it to the reader to compose his or her own. Just remember, it’s being accompanied by a really mellow-sounding banjo.

*Newspapers of the day often were printed on a Hectograph. A special gel was poured into a shallow pan–much like a cookie pan–and a paper “master” copy was laid on top of the gel, face down. The master copy was rolled gently with a rubber roller and the gel took on the impression of what was on the paper master copy. After the master copy was removed, blank paper was laid on the gel and it was gently pressed down with the same roller. The information on the gel was impressed on the surface of the paper. One-hundred copies could be made before the gel lost its efficiency. Hectograph comes from Greek. Hecto means one-hundred, and graph means “drawn”.

Ballad of a Small Town, Adventures of Logan West has been released for Kindle and will soon be available in print.

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admin April 26th, 2010

Bottom of the Hill Publishing will help bring the cowboy poetry and stories of Hal Swift to print.

Hal has lived and worked in Indiana, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, California and Nevada–he knows the rural life and the West. His life experiences are many and varied.

A Navy Morse Code radio operator, he’s a veteran of the Japan Occupation Forces, and the Korean War. He’s worked as a musician, store clerk, security guard, disc jockey, reporter, and news editor. He’s gained national attention as a writer of Western short stories, and cowboy poetry. His book, “Cowboy Poems and Outright Lies,” published in 2001, is on the shelf of the Fife Folklore Archives at Utah State University, Logan, Utah, and is in the Dickinsen Research Center National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City. It also is in a section of the Washoe County Nevada Library, known as “The Nevada Shelf.”

Many of his poems are on various websites, available by going to a search engine and typing in Hal Swift, Cowboy Poet.
Although he’s semi-retired now, he still considers himself a writer and reporter of the human condition, past and present. He lives within a half-hour’s drive from Drytown–now Wadsworth, Nevada–where the events depicted in his novel, Ballad of a Small Town take place.

Ballad of a Small Town, Adventures of Logan West has been released for Kindle and will soon be available in print.

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