William A. Luckey

2013 - This may surprise a few people - that my real name is Belinda E. Perry and I have been writing for 30 years, using the name William A. Luckey to promote traditional westerns.

Texas Springs, although published under my name, Belinda Perry, is part of a trilogy between Flags Over Texas (not my choice of title) and River Wars, which was published in 2011, the third book of the trilogy about the McCraw family near Marfa, Texas.

The newest book is An Old Woman's Lies, by Belinda Perry, it even has a photo of me on the back cover, a wild departure from trying to write any information about the real me without giving away my identity. I am a grandmother, with two children and four grandchildren. The rest of the autobiography is true, except that for twenty-one years I was married. I have always ridden, always had horses around me even if I didn't own a horse at the time.

Horses have been a major part of my life. I found I had the ability to retrain spoiled horses so that they were a pleasure to ride, saving them from that trip to the 'killers'. Spoiled horses come from human abuse, neglect, or ignorance. In retraining these animals, I learned patience, humor, and that time and consistency can work miracles.

My childhood was spent on a dairy farm; when I wasn't riding my real horse, I used to saddle the top rail of the wood fence and pretend I was galloping across grass land in the west. Friends would play the game with me, and there is a photo of three of us, lined up on our rail 'horses', playing out the good guys and the bad guys.

In each human, good or bad as we may be labeled, there is the possibility of greatness, perhaps only one moment when we face a choice that takes us beyond what the world sees. This is the basis of my books, and what I believe in, that the individual has a choice to go outside of the comfort zone and act selflessly.

Life with horses is filled with risk and injury. Yet all these years later I continue to ride, retrain, and write stories about these great beings who give us a different outlook on our own lives.