Dreamin' of Grass Valley

About the Book

Dreaming of Grass Valley, a truer than life novel of the lives, loves, adventures, and hijinks of a couple of seasoned cowboys, a wolf dog, and a mail-order bride all trying to make their future in a California gold camp.

When “Big Jim” von Reinhoff and his lifelong friend, Maximum Epps, decide to follow their dream of building a ranch in the pine-studded hills of Grass Valley, they are thrown together by chance with a mail-order bride from St. Louis and an escaped Apache pet wolf dog named Dee-Oh-Gee. Through Indian attacks, broken hearts, hardships, dangers, and unforeseen adventures, they develop a special relationship that keeps them together and, despite it all, they never lose sight of the dream.

This riveting tale and revealing story will stir the hard core, historical, western buff, while capturing the allure and fascination of the romance reader.

About the Author

Jimmy, (Jim) Coy Risdal, born and raised on a ranch adjacent to a Lakota Reservation, has lived a life surrounded by the makings of a great story. With a born passion for history and a fascination with adventurous tales both tall and true, he has finally put to pen and paper that story, which he’s been preparing for so many years.

A story built upon and grown out of the stories and tales of those that have lived and shared their own—shared around campfires and over fence pickets, along miles of rough shod roads, amidst the tallest pines, along deer trails and bubbling streams . . . and sometimes that welcome saloon stool on a hot summer’s day. His childhood and young adulthood were spent hearing the stories from those that lived it and loved to tell it.

With a BA in history from San Jose State University, Mr. Risdal has lived the last fifteen years in the Grass Valley, California, territories that this story has taken root from. He is an expert rifleman and enjoys collecting and restoring antique firearms. He has always had a fascination with the life of the Old West, so it is only natural that this story of the life of “Big Jim” may ring to some a little closer to true than tall—as all stories do, when you have a great storyteller.