Waltzing Cowboys [Paperback]

Sarah Collins Honenberger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2009

Aging cowboy Rhue Hogan can t remember falling off the wild mare, but the leg cast and the burial of his best friend are enough to send him back to New York City to find the son he s never met. When his son 40 year-old Ford Hogan leaves the city to bury his mother s ashes, he invites Evie Newton, a young woman he barely knows, to help him explore his Puritan roots. As Ford and Rhue chase their private demons, a midget psychic, two juvenile delinquents, a boy fisherman, and a cynical detective come to the rescue. Entranced by a desire to love and be loved, but scared of commitment, both father and son dance around the possibility of redemption until they discover that heartfelt words have the power to build bridges.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Waltzing Cowboys is a splendid novel, in design and execution a fancy two-step the past does with the present. Ms. Honenberger is a writer with a wealth of talent, all of which she wisely spends in the service of her characters, for hers is the notion that we servants of the liar s art have the moral obligation to address the truths slight and grand, welcome and not that animate our crooked kind. Lordy, what sweet music this writing is to my ear. --Lee Abbott, Pulitzer Prize nominee and author of All Things, All At Once

I read Waltzing Cowboys with a great deal of pleasure. The writing is alive . . . sense of place is excellent, and . . . for all its dark side, it is, finally, a happy story about good people, unusual in this day and age. Unflinching, yet positive. --George Garrett, Novelist, Former Chair UVA English Dept, Former VA Poet Laureate

White Lies is a brilliant debut by a fine new novelist, a rare gem - a superbly written tale that deals with the sorts of things that matter most in life - such as love and family - and also with such great and timeless themes as tragedy and triumph; character strengths and failings; duty, honor and integrity; and courage in the face of adversity. Sarah Collins Honenberger is a gifted storyteller, a master of nuance who knows how to move you deeply; how to lift your heart; how to grab your attention and hold it. -----Copley News Service

About the Author

Sarah Collins Honenberger's first novel, White Lies: A Tale of Babies, Vacccines, and Deception, (Cedar Creek, December 2006) was a nominee for the Library of Virginia Fiction award in 2007. Her second novel Waltzing Cowboys was an Editor's Pick for December 08 on Bookviews.com. Her first prize short stories have appeared in Antietam Review, New Millenium, South Lit, and The HooK.

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Cedar Creek Publishing; 1st edition (January 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979020565
• ISBN-13: 978-0979020568
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,485,818 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Surprise cancer diagnosis in 2009 shocked me, but I'm writing again after surgeries and treatment, inspired by all the courageous people I met that year. Books have forever lured me in to other worlds. Writing fiction satisfies my sense of adventure in the everyday of all kinds of people in all kinds of places. The mother of a vaccine injured baby, an old cowboy who ran away from a pregnant wife 40 years earlier, the 16 year old boy in a river town who doesn't want to miss his life now that he's diagnosed with leukemia. The miracle of writing for me is that mere words, albeit honed with a fierce red editing pen, can create these characters and make them friends.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dubya Bush need not fear reading this book., December 29, 2011

By 

Mathew Paust - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Waltzing Cowboys (Paperback)

I always make it a point to buy at least one book at book signings where I'm also pushing product. My motives are mixed. I joke that it's like priming a pump. I buy one of yours and you reciprocate. I did this at my first signing, with three other authors, and ended up spending more than I made even tho the reciprocal theory worked for the most part. But it was in December and the books I bought were gifts - signed gifts, at that - which took care of the bulk of my Christmas shopping. That was last year (2010 depending on when you're reading this).

This year's December signing at the same bookstore - Twice Told Tales in Gloucester, Virginia - featured seven authors, too many for the reciprocal ploy to work without depleting my bank account whether or not I sold any books. I bought one, figuring maybe it might start something that would spill over unto me. It didn't, although I did sell one to a walk-in customer.

Deciding which book to buy was the rub. Cramped for space in the small store, I was positioned on the second-floor landing between two "Jessica Fletchers" who'd already each published several dozen of the kind of mysteries known as "cozies," which are distinguished from "hard boiled" mysteries by their titles, characters and lack of on-page violence. I wasn't in the market for a cozy. One of the other authors among the four on the ground floor was also peddling cozies.

I should note that had any of the three cozy authors bought one or both of my books, I'd have reciprocated. It's the way I roll. But they didn't so I rolled on by. Two of the others had books I'd bought the previous year. This left Sarah Collins Honenberger. I almost rolled on by her, too, as her books looked literary and I rarely buy literary without a proper introduction.

Yet, here we were, standing near each other in a small bookstore with her three novels arranged unpretentiously on a small table. She seemed relaxed and friendly. I politely asked her about her books and she talked about them articulately with enthusiasm but without any huckster's hype. Her sales savvy nonetheless zeroed in on the book she sensed most interested me - Waltzing Cowboys. I thought at first it might be a Brokeback Mountain-type story, but I didn't say this. She told me it was about an old cowboy who goes to New York to find the son he'd abandoned decades earlier.

Possibly without realizing it, altho I suspect she sensed this somehow, too, she mentioned she saw the story as perfect for a movie starring my favorite actor.

"A friend of mine in L.A. knows Robert socially. I'm hoping she'll show it to him," she told me. She tried to restrain the excitement in her voice, but I picked up on it. It blossomed full blown when she saw she'd struck paydirt with me.

I finished the book last night. A good read. Literary, oh yes, but a fascinating story and well-crafted, leaving me hungry for what takes place after the book ends. I'd buy the sequel in a New York minute. And, yes, Sarah was right, Waltzing Cowboys is perfect for Robert Duvall.

So who does the waltzing? Would this be a movie Dubya Bush might shy away from, too? Ha. Only if the former Texas governor has a thing about the delicate dance cowboys and untamed horses must do before they learn to trust each other. This occurs in beautifully intimate detail in the first chapter, which Sarah had entered in a short story contest several years earlier, winning first place.

"Rhue's prairie dance with Delilah stood on its own as a story until [the cowboy's] past in New York City rose up like a ghostly mourner from Vince's funeral and begged me to explore Ford's life without a father," she writes in the book's acknowledgments. Waltzing Cowboys was the thoughtful, literary and entertaining result.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Waltzing with my soul, March 21, 2009

By 

S. Deeth "Sheila Deeth" (OR, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Waltzing Cowboys (Paperback)

Sarah Collins Honenberger has an amazing skill with first chapters. It was reading the first chapter of "White Lies" online that persuaded me to buy her first book. And the first chapter of "Waltzing Cowboys" has a similar effect.

I've never ridden a horse, nor even really wanted to. Yet Sarah brings me alongside her aging cowboy, Rhue, and I hold my breath, trying to keep silent, as he stretches out his hand to the palomino. I want to feel that soft breath in my own palm, and I keep my eyes almost closed as I read, so as not to disturb her.

There's a theme established in that first chapter and the rest of the novel stays true to it, eventually coming full circle with Rhue re-entering the broken relationship of his past. I hold my breath again.

Rhue's story is interwoven with that of his grown-up son. Rhue's love is seen through the eyes of a fascinating cast of characters, looking back on their own families' pain. And Rhue's quest becomes a journey as full of pitfalls as an old man's stumbling in a crooked pasture.

There were places where the coincidences seemed a little too contrived in this story, but their contrivance contributed to a beautiful picture---New York as wonderful as the Montana plains---and each new event became part of an intricate dance. Full of glorious images and people and phrases, this book was a waltz with my own soul, through the footsteps of another, and I really enjoyed it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An intriguing read and a drama of humanity, February 9, 2009

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Waltzing Cowboys (Paperback)

It's never too late to form something special. "Waltzing Cowboys" tells the story of an old cowboy who begins to understand his own mortality and fix his life's wrongs, starting with the son he never met who lives across the country. A tale filled with interesting characters, "Waltzing Cowboys" is an intriguing read and a drama of humanity.