John Edward Ames
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John Edward Ames (born December 30, 1949, in Toledo, Ohio) is a prolific American writer of novels and short stories. Raised in Monroe County, MI, and educated at Eastern Michigan University (B.S. and M.A. in English), Ames lived in Colorado and New Mexico before settling in 1986 in New Orleans, Louisiana. A critically-acclaimed writer of western fiction, Ames began his career writing for men’s magazines; pulp magazines, as well as penning horror novels and stories. In 1995, Ames’ historical novel The Unwritten Orderwas a finalist for a Western Writers of America 'Spur Award'.
In 2004 Ames wrote The Real Deadwood, a mix of history and buff lore about Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, outlaw towns, prospecting, gunslingers, and the perennial “whore with a heart of gold.” Writing under the pseudonym Judd Cole, Ames wrote the entire twenty-three book Cheyenne series. Under the same pen name he penned the eight-book Wild Bill series. He presently writes under a “house name” for one of the longest-published western series in America and has also written a novel (Deadwood Gulch, 2006) as Ralph Compton — the deceased "USA Today bestseller of frontier fiction" writer.
In addition to fifty-six book sales and six ghostwritten novels, Ames’ short stories and articles have appeared in includes (but not limited to:)
- Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
- The Writer
- the Borderland series
- Mystery Scene
- Colorado-North Review
- Oui
- Cavalier
Before becoming a full-time writer he taught English at Eastern Michigan University, the University of Northern Colorado and the University of New Mexico. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1968 and served as a journalist, including seven months as a stringer in Japan for the Stars and Stripes.
Perhaps the most prolific novelist in New Orleans, Ames fled with most fellow residents when Hurricane Katrina came ashore in 2005, but looming book deadlines forced him to return as soon as possible to his small upstairs apartment on St. Charles Avenue, where he spent the next six months writing three novels—and grateful for the distraction of work.
A PARTIAL LIST OF NOVEL TITLES The Force, Death Crystal, Spellcaster, The Asylum, The Unwritten Order, The Golden Circle, Soldier’s Heart, The Real Deadwood (nonfiction) THE CHEYENNE SERIES (AS JUDD COLE): Arrow Keeper, Death Chant, Vision Quest, Blood on the Plains, Comancheros, Pathfinder, Wendigo Mountain, Warrior Fury THE WILD BILL SERIES (AS JUDD COLE): Dead Man’s Hand, Bleeding Kansas, Santa Fe Showdown, Gun Law
DAN’L BOONE: THE LOST WILDERNESS TALES (LAST SEVEN BOOKS, AS DODGE TYLER): The Long Hunters, Warrior’s Trace, The Kaintucks
