Mustang Spring: Stories & Poems

Deanna Dickinson McCall has cows, horses and a love of the land bred into her, coming from a family that began ranching in Texas in the 1840s. She has ranched in several western states, including twenty-five years spent raising her family on a remote Nevada ranch without phones or electricity. Riding on her own ranches, riding for day wages, receiving cattle at sale yards, and selling feed and vet supplies have given her fodder for her been-there, done-that stories and poetry. She and her husband and son ranch in the Sacramento Mountains of southern New Mexico. "[Deanna Dickinson McCall's] wisdom is hard-earned; her stories are not about the 'romance of Western life.' Characters know heat and hurt, cold and loss, danger, heartbreak and toil. But, like the writer, they don't know 'can't.' Perseverance is required for survival. When there is humor, it is wry, ironic, a way of coping with ever-present challenges of ranching life." - Margo Metegrano, Center for Western & Cowboy Poetry