"Biscuits And Gunfire For Breakfast"
by David Dillinger
Illustrations by S. Mike Barondeau
Copyright ©2002
ISBN: 0-87714-720-5 eBook edition
ISBN: 0-87714-261-0 PB edition
All rights reserved by Denlinger's Publishers, including the right to reproduce this electronic book, or portions thereof, in any form, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
THE AUTHOR
David Dillinger was born in the Oklahoma hills in 1953 and grew up on a small cattle ranch. One set of David's grandparents were of the pioneer stock who were born in what was the wild part of the country called Indian Territory which later became known as the state of Oklahoma. Dave's other grandparents were blessed with a dose of Cherokee blood and were often known as fighting half breeds. David grew up on a small cattle ranch in Oklahoma. A shotgun in one hand and fishing pole in the other kept his young mind active until in the early sixties when he got his first typewriter. It only seemed natural for him to put something on all those blank pieces of paper and thus began a habit of writing stories.
David enlisted into the Infantry of the United States Army as soon as he finished high school. Instead of being sent to Viet Nam like almost all the men in his company, David was shipped out to Panama and the Southern Command that served and protected Central America, South America and the Caribbean. David was transferred to Texas and the 2nd Armored Division after knocking about in the jungles of Panama for a year and a half.
David finished his three year hitch in the military and then proceeded to get an education. The author went to several universities and picked up a degree in Journalism Education. David worked at teaching for a short while before branching out into other lines of work. He worked at all sorts of jobs and found that by working for the federal government, it afforded the best opportunity to pay the bills and allow his mind to put pen to paper. David's work has been published in newspapers, magazines as well as over the Internet. David is the author of that exciting western novel, "The Rocky Mountain Exodus," as well as this spellbinding story, "Biscuits and Gunfire For Breakfast."
David is also an active member of the Masonic Lodge. If you notice in his stories, he tries to put something about the Masons of history in his writing. David is a Past Master of Greenwood Lodge #163 and is currently the secretary of the same lodge. David is also a Past District Deputy Grand Master of the 22nd District of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of A.F.&A.M. of Kansas.
David lives on a small secluded farm in Kansas with his wife Jackie. David still works for the federal government and is currently Postmaster of Fall River, Kansas. David and family enjoy hunting for deer, wild turkey, and other game. It seems that even after getting close to that fifty year mark, David still has a gun in one hand, a fishing pole in the other, and a typewriter at his side.
THE BOOK
This story is based in the early 1800's as parts of the Louisiana Purchase is opened up to white settlement. Immigrants from Europe begin to settle on the wild Missouri River as the young United States of America begins to transfer defeated eastern Indians onto the wide open plains. In this mix of cultures of western European Immigrants, displaced eastern Indians, and war loving plain's Indians is placed the most unlikely of hero, Mr. Matthew McDonald.
Matthew McDonald is an American born Scotsman who makes his living by fighting Indians and selling scalps. McDonald has been taught from birth on how to hate. As a young man he was taught the way of the feuding clans of Scotland. The McDonald clan have sworn revenge upon the Campbells who with the English army had attacked the McDonald glen; killing men, women, and even the McDonald children as the king had ordered the wholesale extermination of the McDonald clan.
The old Scottish feud spills over across the cold Atlantic as McDonalds and Campbells continue an old family tradition of fighting on American soil. The fight soon turns cockeyed as Matthew McDonald falls for the beautiful but deadly Widow McGregor whose maiden name just happens to be Campbell.
Matthew with his pockets full of gold and silver travels back towards civilization upon the Missouri River and finds a group of poor immigrants who have gambled everything on their farms and are about to lose their land because the government suddenly requires all land payments to be made in gold or silver. It is desperate times for the immigrants who gamble everything on this stranger passing through who knows where to find gold out west in the Spanish city of Santa Fe.
Matthew McDonald must lead a party of these greenhorn immigrants, which includes Campbells and the ill tempered Katy McGregor through the bloodthirsty Osage Indians, past the unpredictable Kiowa and right into the midst of the fearless Comanche Indians. The immigrants bet everything on a trip to Santa Fe and the gleam of Spanish gold. Matthew the loner can count on no one except his trusted mule which has been named unceremoniously, King George.
Feuds and family fights abound as McDonald and the Campbells join ranks and make war on eastern Indians, the plains Indians, the American Army, the Spanish Army, and anyone else who gets into the way of these desperate Scotsmen. In the midst of the gun smoke and barbarian behavior, Matthew McDonald and the beautiful, good cooking, ill tempered, Widow Katy McGregor find true love upon the plains.
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