“Country” James is a pen name. My pen name…one of them. Under it, I write “country”–good country novels starring somebody “country” or somebody “city” who’s trying to “go country.” Key words there are “good” and “country.” In other words, I write about people of rural America, where rugged individualism is fostered and celebrated, where integrity counts, and truth and honor are paramount. Think ranch, farm, homestead, western, Midwestern, rural, small town, cowboy and trucker, think “country,” and you get what I’m talking about. Better, think of your favorite Country Western song–its hero, its heroine, its story …and the story behind that story. That’s what I write as C. J. I’ll start releasing some of my “Country” James novels this year…if my editors let me, that is. And to the question, am I really “country” myself or just a pretender–a drugstore variety, city-slicker wannabe? Well, I was put on a horse at a year-and-a-half in New Mexico, and once they let me go it alone, I never got off. I’ve hazed cattle, roped with the hands, and taken my knocks with the best and the worst of them. Taken under the wing of one of the best wranglers of the bunch, a man who was a legend even in his own time, I learned the tricks and the secrets of gentling a horse, and even of busting rank broncs. I even learned to braid my own black snake, then fill it with shot, as well as to shoe my own horse, building the shoes myself from blanks. I’m good with a rope and a tractor, can string fence and castrate a calf, a hog, and just about anything “livestock”, though I never did master the art of making good biscuits and gravy over a campfire. I’ve wrangled horses, mules, Herefords and Longhorns, wrestled hogs, and out-maneuvered mean dairy bulls. So, generally-speaking, and even specifically, yeah, I’m “country” and love it. https://www.dlkeur.com/author/CJCountryJames/