I was one of the lucky ones. I grew up a cowboy. With a cap gun tucked in my belt and my very
own gray cowboy hat, I was right there with Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. Sitting in front of the
television set with my dad, I fought with John Wayne at the Alamo and helped Matt Dillion rid
Dodge City of desperate outlaws.
Unfortunately, my cap gun broke and I lost my gray hat in the wind. But that never stopped me from believing in cowboys. As a police officer in Orange and Los Angeles Counties, it wasn’t too big a stretch to imagine the 9 m/m I carried was a sixgun slung low across my hips, and my black-and-white patrol car was a trusted stallion. In my thirty years of being a lawman, I never came across a single cattle rustler, but I did manage to lock up a few bank robbers and a couple of killers. That’s as close as I will ever come to taming a town…and I guess that will have to do.
I still watch westerns. Somehow, I find comfort in all the fisticuffs and gunfights that the
ratings people like to label as “Violence – for mature audiences only.” I like knowing the good
guys from the bad, and having the assurance that no matter how dire things may get, it will turn
out fine in the end. If only real life could be so simple.
It is my hope that you enjoy The Sheriff of Tucson books as much as that little boy who
grew up watching westerns on television with his father. And if you happen to find a boys’ size
small, gray cowboy hat, please enjoy it. There were plenty of adventures still left under its brim
for the next cow poke who puts it on.
Arl and his wife, Nancy, have been married over thirty years. They live in Franklin Tennessee, and have two adult children.
Arl draws on his knowledge of policing and love of the outdoors for inspiration in writing novels. Among his favorite authors include Ernest Hemingway, Stephen Ambrose, Nelson DeMille, Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler, Lee Child. It was Stephen Cannell who planted the seed that Arl could also be an author.
