Tom "Forty Rod" Taylor

Tom Taylor gives us stories of people who instantly feel like friends. He has been writing since high school when an English teacher encouraged him to start putting his stories on paper instead of simply writing book reports about the work of others. Upon his retirement he pulled out some forty stories that had been started (and occasionally abandoned) over the many years, and began to “put some of my yarns in shape to get them published.”  Legends is the first of many such stories of the great American West.  It is deliberately written in such a way as to allow several sequels to the main story. Following the success of Legends, his first novel, The Cavanaugh stories, a four volume series, was started.  Although The Last Bounty is the final book of the four, it is the first to be published.

 

     Having been in both the Army and the Marine Corps, as well as in numerous civilian jobs, has given Tom access to a great many people and personalities, and allowed him to adapt that knowledge to those characters that are used in his stories.  Being widely traveled has enriched his knowledge of places, customs, and environments; and his appetite for history and many hours of research, lends a realistic touch to the background of his tales and to the characters that occupy them.

 

     Being an avid shooter and collector of “western things” keeps him in touch with the subject matter, as does his membership in several ‘old western’ shooting organizations, and the like-minded people with whom he associates.  Legends is in many ways a cooperative effort in that so many people have contributed bits and pieces of history, fact, folklore, and legend to the basic store of information.  Tom’s father was an early inspiration, having left his own home at an early age and making his way across America during the early decades of the Twentieth Century.  Many others have lent a hand along the way.

 

The name Forty Rod is how he is known to his many western shooting friends throughout the world. Tom is retired and living in California with his wife of more than forty years, Shawna.