From his home on the Texas Panhandle, John R. Erickson, rancher and author of the bestselling Hank the Cowdog series, saw firsthand the raw power of two megafires that swept across the high plains in 2006 and 2017. "These were landmark events that are etched onto the memory of an entire generation and will be passed down to the next. They made the old-time methods of fighting fire with shovels, wet gunny sacks, and ranch spray rigs a pathetic joke." Yet Bad Smoke, Good Smoke, while relating a tale of gut-wrenching destruction, also provides a more nuanced view of what is often a natural event, giving the two-sided story of our relationship with fire. Not just a first-hand account, Bad Smoke, Good Smoke also synthesizes and explains the latest research in range management, climate, and fire. Having experienced the bad smoke, Erickson tries to understand a rancher's relationship to good smoke and to reconcile the symbiotic relationship that a rancher has with fire. Evocatively chronicled, Erickson tells what it is like trying to stop the unstoppable: Bad Smoke, Good Smoke gives voice to the particular pains that ranchers must face in our era of climate change and ever more powerful natural disasters.

In his book, Story Craft, John R. Erickson says that one of the biggest challenges he faced as a young author was figuring out, "What is a story, and what is it supposed to do?"

Those were simple questions, he says, but they didn't have simple answers. We could say that he found his answers when he wrote and self-published the first Hank the Cowdog book in 1983. The series now stands at 54 books with over 7.5 million copies sold.

For 26 years, Erickson was content to leave it there.

But after receiving hundreds of letters from teachers and parents, he began to realize that his actual business was not books, but "spiritual nourishment." Good stories nourish the human spirit, and it doesn't happen by accident.

Part 1 of the book describes Erickson's experiences as an apprentice writer and publisher. In Part 2, he attempts to defiine what a story should be and how it relates to culture and religious faith. And in Part 3, he gives helpful, practical advice to aspiring writers.

A Wild and Windy Tale When an enemy spy (in a chicken suit ) sneaks on the ranch, it's going to be a wild day for Hank. Will Hank be able to protect the ranch and some newfound valuables of his? But Hank's biggest challenge will be whether he (and Drover) can lead a rescue to save Slim from his ride on a Runaway Windmill? Hear Hank and Drover sing the catchy "A Dog Should Smell Like a Dog" song.

To Cheat or Not To Cheat That is just one of the questions to be answered on the ranch! While interrogating J.T. Cluck, will Hank be able to figure out what scary creatures are planning an attack on the ranch? After Hank lures Pete the Barncat into making a foolish bet for scraps, would Pete try to cheat the Head of Ranch Security? Will Truth and Justice (Hank) win in the end? Hear Hank sing the hilarious song, "Don't Get Your News From a Chicken."

When John Erickson, author of the Hank the Cowdog book series, saved up and purchased a tract of Panhandle property near Perryton, it set off a chain of discovery. Who lived in Texas over a thousand years ago? In Porch Talk, John Erickson and his archaeologist friend Doug Boyd investigate this question while explaining the art and science of archaeology for middle readers. On the Perryton ranch, John and his friends unearthed a ghost town that dated back to around 1300 CE. They found a sprawl of widely spaced pit houses occupying an area of 300 acres in John's West Pasture. It is unclear how many people lived there, but it was a place where babies were born and the elderly died and were buried. Women nursed children, made cornmeal in stone metates, and stitched clothes of leather while the men hunted bison using arrows tipped with points made from Alibates flint. Porch Talk features the kind of conversation John and Doug might have on the porch after a day of work in the field. For more than twenty years, they worked together on this and other prehistoric sites, sharing a fascination for the ancient people who occupied the area. How did these people work, play, and survive? Any person today who picks up Porch Talk, young or old, will learn about archaeology, prehistoric Texas, and the importance of taking care of the land. The conversation will ignite your curiosity and make you aware of the brave and sturdy people who occupied this land long ago.