How My Love of the Pony Express Inspired Ambush at Horse Creek

Every author has that one story they've wanted to write for years.

For me, it was a western.

I've been a fan of westerns for as long as I can remember. Growing up, no author influenced me more than Louis L'Amour. His novels weren't simply stories about gunfights and outlaws—they were stories about ordinary people facing extraordinary challenges on the American frontier. He had a remarkable ability to transport readers into another time and place, and I've always admired that.

Long before I ever became an author, I knew that if I wrote a western someday, I wanted it to capture that same spirit of adventure.

An Unexpected Connection

Life has a funny way of connecting seemingly unrelated experiences.

Before becoming a full-time author, I spent twenty-five years with the United States Postal Service. During those years, I was a member of the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association.

If you've ever seen the Association's logo, you've probably noticed something familiar.

A Pony Express rider.

Every time I saw that emblem, it reminded me of the courageous young men who carried the nation's mail across nearly two thousand miles of wilderness in only ten days. Their determination, endurance, and commitment to delivering the mail against impossible odds fascinated me.

Eventually, I realized something.

If I was finally going to write a western...

It had to be about the Pony Express.

Walking Where History Happened

Research has always been one of my favorite parts of writing historical fiction.

Books can tell you what happened.

But standing where history happened is something entirely different.

My wife, Cindy, and I traveled to St. Joseph, Missouri, where we visited the Pony Express Museum. Walking through the exhibits, seeing the equipment, reading the stories of the riders, and learning how the service actually operated made the history come alive in ways no textbook ever could.

After visiting the museum, we decided to follow history.

We drove along portions of the original Pony Express Trail through Missouri, Kansas, and into Nebraska.

Even today, much of that country feels remarkably untouched.

Yes, there are farms now where prairie once stretched uninterrupted, but there are still long sections where you can drive for miles beneath an enormous sky without meeting another vehicle. The silence is almost overwhelming.

As I looked across those rolling grasslands, I couldn't help but imagine a lone Pony Express rider appearing on the horizon, urging his horse toward the next relay station.

For a moment...

...it didn't feel like the twenty-first century anymore.

One Question Started the Story

As I traveled the trail, one question kept coming back to me.

What would it have been like to be one of those young riders?

Most of them were little more than teenagers.

They rode through storms, crossed swollen rivers, encountered outlaws, and risked attacks from those who opposed the westward expansion of the United States.

Yet every rider understood that the mail had to get through.

That simple idea became the heart of Ambush at Horse Creek.

I wanted readers to experience the frontier through the eyes of a young Pony Express rider whose ordinary mail run suddenly becomes anything but ordinary.

Bringing the Old West to Life

One thing I learned while writing Ambush at Horse Creek is that the real history of the Pony Express is every bit as exciting as fiction.

The service operated for only eighteen months, yet it became one of the most enduring symbols of the American West.

It represented courage.

Responsibility.

Sacrifice.

And the determination to connect a growing nation.

Those were the qualities I wanted to celebrate in my novel.

Why Historical Fiction Matters

Whether I'm writing about time travel along the Natchez Trace, pirates sailing the Atlantic, or a Pony Express rider racing across the plains, my goal is always the same.

I want readers to feel as though they've stepped into another time.

History isn't just something we study.

It's something we can experience through stories.

If Ambush at Horse Creek encourages readers to learn more about the Pony Express—or inspires someone to visit St. Joseph and follow the trail for themselves—then I've accomplished exactly what I hoped to do.

After all, every great adventure begins with a journey.

Mine simply began with a lifelong love of westerns...and a Pony Express rider on a postal carrier's logo.

Ambush at Horse Creek holds a special place in my heart because it combines three lifelong passions: westerns, American history, and my years with the Postal Service. It was an honor to tell a story inspired by the brave young riders who carried America's mail across the frontier. I was especially humbled when the novel was named First Runner-Up in the Western category at the 2024 San Francisco Book Festival, an acknowledgment that made the journey from inspiration to publication even more rewarding.