Mosey on over to the campfire, take a load off, and let me tell you about the adventures of J-Bar and me, Fret Maverick. J-Bar is my dad, a multi-state cowboy action shooting champion. To the best of my recollection, in nearly forty years, I had shot guns twice in my life. Returning home from a family vacation, I suddenly felt compelled to take a risk and try something completely new. So, I joined my recently retired father in playing the cowboy action game. Competing under the alias “Fret Maverick,” I was introduced to a slice of Americana I would have never known otherwise. The Cowboy Year is a quirky and beautiful, Midwest-set, father-and-son memoir. But ultimately, The Cowboy Year is a story about having the courage to tell new stories.