Winner of the Colorado Independent Publishers Association GoldMedalGary Penleyis story of how his grandfather took hold of his boyhoodis a welcome visit to that most mapless territory, the growing up years. Hismemories of ranch life on the plains of Colorado chime with any of us who werebaptized in the westis rivers of wind.--Ivan Doig, author of This House of SkyRivers of Wind is a fine book in many respects. For one, itisa well-written, true chronicle of everyday life in rural southeastern Coloradoearlier this century. The book is also a top-notch character study of eDad,iPenleyis grandfather who raised him, and gives a real feel for those whostraddled time from the horse-and-buggy era to the age of airplanes. Itis agood read.-- Western HorsemanIt has hard times, good times, moments of absolute hilarity,rattlesnakes, bobcats and a crusty grandfather. -- Publishers Weekly, quotingGayle Ray of Tattered Cover BookstoreThis tender and affecting memoir of the authoris youth on his grandfatherisranch on the Colorado plains in the 1940s and 1950s is a significant socialdocument of an American way of life now almost vanished.

When Gary Penley was four, he, his brother, and his mother went to live withher father, who would soon become known to young Penley as eDad.i Thismemoir of growing up with a man who stood with the intensity of a coiledspring--a compact bundle of energy and fierce determination, whose piercing eyeschallenged the world and whose stubborn jaw defied it--is also a tender elegy tothe last era of the American frontier. About the AuthorGary Penley is the author of two other books, including the highly praisedbiography DellaRaye: A Girl Who Grew Up in Hell and Emerged Whole , about his friendDonnie Hughesi mother, who was wrongly confined to a mental institution fortwenty years. His first novel, Jubal ,holds echoes of classic works of Southern fiction, such as Harper Leeis ToKill a Mockingbird .