When I wrote my third book Blood Land, thus beginning the life and series of Sheriff James Pruett, there was a town and a people and a landscape I aimed to capture—the ones, in fact, where I grew up and grew up with. A friend posted this gorgeously-done video by the Chamber of Commerce and I have to tell you my soul sang for a few precious moments this morning. The book had been inside me for twenty years, though I just published it recently. From the comments, emails, reviews, etc. I would say I reached my goal of conveying the austere, tough, honorable territory in which I spent so much of my youth and where my books take place.

You should know that the word “blood” in this case has duality; yes, it’s a Mystery, and death happens—bloodily—but this word is also meant to exemplify the importance of blood—relations, kin, even deep friendships.

I decided to write a quick blog, nothing lengthy or wordy (I know, please sit down before you faint from the shock). I just wanted those of you who have read and enjoyed the book but have never seen the land or the people to have a chance to experience them (and so well-captured visually).

Visit Pinedale from Sublette County Chamber of Commerce on Vimeo.

There is a comment in the video that captures the heart of this heavenly slice of Wyoming and her people better than any I could have written:

“Your word is your bond; a handshake is a contract.”

The thing I love most about the video is that it captures the essence of what a rarity Pinedale is—an honest-to-God Western town that is not a shoot-em-up place where only cowboys are welcomed but a place where life exists as it does in all places in the world (only in a pocket of grandeur and in synergy with the true cowboy, who isn’t a pistol-slinging, spurs-jangling cliché but rather one of the truest, most genuine human beings you’ll ever have the grace to meet).