This updated page marks the beginning of a new direction in my life. Actually, this statement isn’t true, for this change has been in place for quite some
time, and with the arrival of 2020, that time is now.

A couple of images that mark the change

LEFT TO RIGHT IN THE ABOVE IMAGE are Leo Oliva, LK, & George Elmore at Fort Larned, Kansas, in April 2012. Leo & George have been major players in my Indian wars life for three decades now, and this includes my speaking life … if not for them (and others just like them) I’d be hoeing weeds in a cotton field in Texas (and I can say this, for I hoed weeds in a cotton field in Lubbock, Texas, in 1976). This image, taken by National Park ranger Ellen Jones, forever brings back good memories for me, … memories of Kansas and Colorado and New Mexico and everywhere else in the Indian wars West. This is what I did, and if all goes according to plan, what I will do again,

THE BELOW IMAGE image deals with me and my life. I’m forever the little boy and at the same time I’m a pirate throughout time. It’s part of me, and that is why I have remained true to what my writing subjects will be. This is where I walk and swing a blade. What you see here is called stage sword combat or swashbuckling, and it is all by numbers—every offensive move has a defensive countermove—just like dance and performed without protective gear other than elbow and knee pads. I initially studied fencing under the legendary Ralph Faulkner, the two-time Olympian fighting saber (1928 & 1932), sword choreographer and stunt double on many swashbucklers during the Golden Age of Cinema, when a teenager; in college I fought competition with a saber; years later I learned swashbuckling, and eventually choreographed duels and wielded a blade on the stage. This image was taken during a workout on 21sept2015, and yes it’s my hair. I’ve walked with the pirates Francis Drake and Henry Morgan, and let’s not forget Peter Blood and Geoffrey Thorpe (if you don’t know who the last two pirates were, you will soon).(photo © Louis Kraft 2015)

You have reached the page wherein I live. You have reached the core of my writing world, for without projects there is no today and no tomorrow. Projects are ongoing, and they dominate my life. They are in constant query, which means constant change and growth. The main ones are the books, and everything else breathes life from them.

There are two major book projects, and both include follow-up projects:

• Errol & Olivia
  – This dual biography follows the life and times of Errol Flynn and Olivia de
  Havilland as they arrive in Hollywood during the 1930s, become a magical screen couple, see film careers soar, experience events that affect and drive them, realize the end of their teaming, and the aftermath of a love that could never be.
  • The follow-up book will be a nonfiction book on Errol Flynn. A fair amount of research is in-house, but there is still a lot more that must be completed. In 2020 I will again return to archival research. … Actually, I already have returned to tracking down down documents and obtaining them.

See the Errol & Olivia project page.

• Navajo Blood
  — The darkest times in Navajo history began in 1864 and spiraled downward until the “Long Walk” and their exile from their homeland. This novel—yes, a  novel—explores the effect of total war upon people through the eyes of a Navajo warrior, his granddaughter, and the legendary frontiersman Kit Carson.
  • Nonfiction book research on Kit Carson has been ongoing for years. More is still required and it will happen in 2020. As all my past nonfiction books, this one will deal with American Indians and their relationship with Carson.Nonfiction book research on Kit Carson has been ongoing for years. More is still required and it will happen in 2020. As all my past nonfiction books, this one will deal with American Indians and their relationship with Carson.

See the Navajo Blood project page.

But there’s more—much-much more

But it is dependent upon how long I continue to walk Mother Earth.

— The pirate Francis Drake: actually two: one nonfiction and one fiction. What? Oh yeah—a long time coming.— A full-length play on Errol Flynn (this is questionable at this time for several reasons, but I can’t begin to tell you how much I want to return to the stage).

— Several novels that are in various stages of progress, including:

• Land of the Heathen, a western that deals with a Chinese fishing community on the Monterey Peninsula, California.
• Muse Eternal, a modern-day western that deals with the Anasazi in the American Southwest.

— An untitled memoir … Avoid this at all costs! … I don’t think so.

— The Final Showdown redux.

— Wynkoop-Cheyenne documentary (Director Tom Eubanks and I couldn’t get this project produced a few years back, and we haven’t tried since).

Just for the record, in 2015 all talks and articles were placed on hold until I completed my work on Sand Creek and the Tragic End of a Lifeway, which I did at the very end of December 2019 (the book will be published in March 2020). As of 2020 talks and articles are back in my life.

Everyone listed above are all interconnected with one word—humanity. They are all interconnected within my brain, and at any given moment any person from the above book topics can grab my attention. Not one of them is simply defined, but this isn’t surprising for no human being (living or dead) can be simply defined.

By the way, if I can’t link the pieces of my nonfiction books together with solid
and viewable research for anyone who wants to look at it, I’ll never pound the keyboard and create a backstory that never existed. Nor will I create a perfect quotation that
was never written or said, or a key piece of history that never happened.