Geron Scates, former WIKK radio broadcasting personality, is making news at his new job at Western Texas College.
Texas author, Zane Sterling, recently addressed the Western Texas College Radio Broadcasting Department, of which, Scates is the professor. While at the college, Sterling approached Scates to ask if he would be the voice (narrator/main character) for an audio book, to which
Scates, of course, said yes. (And, we local people all know how good "the voice of the Eagles" is from listening to Scates broadcast Eagle football.) Scates then suggested that other voices be added for some of the other characters, which would make this audio book different from most other audio books.
Sterling's book, "Debt of Vengeance" is a Western that is stated as being a story where there are no super heroes, no larger than life men or women, but ordinary people much like ourselves, that are thrust into extreme circumstances and forced to fight their way through as best they can.
Now for some background information on the author.
Sterling himself is an interesting character. According to his bio, he was raised in Scurry County, Texas on a farm and ranch owned by his family for three generations. He stated that Scurry County, Texas, "is what us Texans refer to as "Mesquite Country". A land sometimes blinded by the flying dust of a sandstorm and frequently short on rainfall but to all of us who were hardheaded (I prefer that to other adjectives) enough to adjust to such things there is no finer country on God's green earth. Though the weather is rather unpredictable the people are not, they stand tall and proud. If ya' don't want to know what they think, for heavens-sake, don't ask, they have a tendency to shoot as straight as a .50 caliber Sharps."
Sterling stated that he has always had a love for the old West and like a few of his ancestors he had a hankerin' to see what was over the next rise. So after high school Sterling began his travels. They took him to West Texas oilfields, from the Gulf Coast of Mississippi to Reno, Nevada as a pit boss in casinos to shoeing horses and starting colts with a good friend and well-known horse trainer, Bob Erickson.
But the old west was still flowing in his veins and he had a desire to share his stories so he began writing and performing Cowboy Poetry in 1998. He has had poetry published in numerous newspapers from California to Texas. One memorable experience he fondly remembers in Vinton, California is sharing the stage with one of the best Cowboy Poets in the world, Waddie Mitchell at the longest continuing cowboy poetry gathering in the state.
