SHADOW OF THE WIND Synopsis Shadow Of The Wind, while a fictional novel by definition, is based on true-to-life individuals. It is the long anticipated installment to Mac Hedges' award winning Western novel, Last Buckaroo. In Shadow, Mac brings important generational back-ground to the colorful characters created in the earlier novel while providing readers with rich and authentic descriptions of Western culture and heritage.Dean McCuen is a young man fresh out of the Army. The son of a widowed father who owns a large and long established cattle ranch in Nevada. Dean tells in "first person" of his family's' rags to riches heritage; being brought up by wealthy "Eastern" relatives, and the life experiences that have shaped his character. After being discharged from the Military, Dean decides to go out on his own and gain some first-hand experience before seeking his place in the family business. Tap McCoy, a 60 year old who is a cowboy for life, is recovering from a very debauched and regretful week. On the outskirts of town, Dean picks up a very dazed Tap with only his most important possessions - his bedroll and saddle. And so, the destinies of Dean and Tap become entwined. For Dean, it is a chance to learn from "experience;" for Tap, it is a quick "getaway" out of town. Readers are introduced to many characters including, a grumpy old ranch owner that hates everyone, an attractive, flirtatious girl that enjoys having men fight over her, alcoholic cowboys that spend all their hard earned money on week long drunks, prejudice that includes Indians, Whites and Blacks and an eccentric desert hermit as well as a host of other interesting characters. There is nothing fictional about this story other than the plot. The characters are real, the adventures actually happened and the country and ranches exist. Every fight, bucking horse ride and wild wreck actually took place. It is a factual description of the working lives of the Great Basin buckaroos during the mid 1900's. Like Last Buckaroo, it captures a time period that has all but come to an end. Each chapter is episodic - a story within itself. Shadow Of the Wind is steeped in history with adventure, friendship, romance and a slight degree of mystery. This "buddy story" is fast moving, written with colorful descriptive language to give the reader an accurate idea of the location and view of the country without distracting from the action. Shadow of The Wind is a "must read" for anyone interested in the everyday lives of the people that live and work on the ranches of he west.
About the Author: Mackey Hedges was born in 1942. His 90 year old mother says that she can never remember a time when he wanted to be anything other than a cowboy. "He and his younger sister would play by the hour pretending that they had a big ranch where he was in charge of the cattle and she was the ranch nurse or cook. The first book that Hedges can remember his father reading to him was Will James' Loan Cowboy. "He loved that book and studied it like a preacher would a Bible." Mackey grew up listing to tales of how, during the depression, his father and another man had bought train carloads of mustangs, breaking the younger ones before selling them to local ranchers and farmers. He listened to his father tell of the terrible winters in the Laramie, Wyoming valley where ropes were tied from the cook house to the bunk house so men would not become lost during the ground blizzards that were so common in that area. From others he heard tales of chasing wild horses on the Nevada deserts and, he dreamed of the day when he too could spend his summers in the mountains working out of some isolated cow camp. It was while living in Nebraska at the age of 14 that he got his first real riding job. That job led to a colt-breaking job south of Omaha. Mac later joined the Marines. After coming home from overseas and being discharged, he headed straight for the mountains to fulfill his lifelong dream. He packed in the Sierras, wintered in isolated desert cow camps and went out on the wagons of several big outfits that branded 5,000 to 7,000 calves a summer. In 1967 Mackey married Candace Susan Kidd. They spent their first summer in the Sierras with him working as a packer and guide and Candi working as a wrangler and camp cook. Over the next 40 years, they drifted from ranch to ranch working in Nevada, California, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. However, through all these many moves they continued to call Nevada home. The Hedges have three boys: Buck, Jed, and Sam. All three boys were home schooled because of the isolated ranches where they lived during the time that the boys were growing up. In 2009, While working on a local ranch a young horse kicked him and broke his leg. Mac used the time to write, Shadow of The Wind. He notes, "I wrote Last Buckaroo in 1995 while healing up from a broken back. I hope I do not get the opportunity to write too many more books. I'm not sure I can stand all the prosperity."