Walt Ryan was born in Cheyenne County, Kansas. The first home he can remember was a sod-walled house located on a rise south of the Republican River. He attended his first eight years of school in one room school houses on the high plains and in the Missouri Ozarks. Ryan grew up with an appreciation for the people of the western frontier, then and now. He enjoys writing about them in fact and fiction. Ryan has lived and worked in the plains country and traveled the West. As a youth, he worked as a combiner on the wheat harvest circuit beginning on the Waggoner Ranch in Texas, and finishing the season on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. When Walt Ryan writes of horses and cattle, he does so with first hand knowledge. Ryan's many work experiences include mill hand, long haul truck driver, newsletter editor, photographer, writer, electrician, and over the years he worked through the ranks at several consumer cooperatives. Ryan's work has been published in the Ozarks Mountaineer, Rural Missouri Back Page, The Iron Men Album Magazine, Rural Missouri Guest Column, and various midwest publications. In addition to writing books and posting on his blog, he enjoys collecting antique firearms and horse gear. Ryan currently lives with his wife Denny in Mid-Missouri. www.SundownTrailBlog.com