Ralph Compton stood six foot eight without his boots. He worked as a musician, a radio announcer, a songwriter, and a newspaper columnist. His first novel, The Goodnight Trail, was a finalist for the Western Writers of America Medicine Pipe Bearer Award for best debut novel. He was the USA Today bestselling author of the Trail of the Gunfighter series, the Border Empire series, the Sundown Riders series, and the Trail Drive series, among others.

Jackson Lowry is the western pen name for Robert E. Vardeman, author of more than 300 novels. Multiple awards-nominated, Vardeman received the 2017 Western Fictioneers Lifetime Achievement Award. Western titles include Sonora Noose, Great West Detective Agency, and the weird western trilogy Punished. He was born in Texas and has lived in the wilds of New Mexico most of his life.