Bio for Author Steven Anderson Law

Steven Law and STEVEN ANDERSON LAW are pen names for Steven Anderson, under which he writes fiction and has written a weekly newspaper column, "Suburban Cowboy." He chose the pseudonym in honor of his grandmother, Dorothy Law Crawford, who read many stories to him as a child, and was a huge inspiration to him in education and in life. His grandmother died when he was in high school and using her name on some of his writings is like a blanket dedication for all that she gave to him.

During Steven’s last semester at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where he was about to receive a bachelor’s degree in business administration, an English professor encouraged him to pursue a career in writing. After hooking him up with some professional writers at the Kansas City Writers’ Group, Steven attended his first writer gathering and found his place in this world. It was at these meetings where Steven developed lasting friendships, including weekly coffee gatherings and poetry readings with the late Kansas City Royals baseball star, Dan Quisenberry.

Though Steven had flirted with writing fiction in several genres, such as thrillers or crime dramas, he found his voice by going back to his family roots in rural Missouri. In 1996, still in his twenties, Steven penned his first novel, Old Blue, a young adult western, which his friends and mentors at the Kansas City Writers Group encouraged him to try and sell to a publisher. Steven found success by landing a contract with agent Howard Pelham, and an interest in his novel by the library book publisher, Walker and Company in New York.

After some suggested revisions by the editor at Walker and Company, Steven submitted his final draft only to discover that Walker had discontinued their Western list and thus never went to contract. Though disappointed in this sudden roadblock, Steven was encouraged to attend a professional writing conference where he could meet editors, agents, and other novelists who wrote in the Western genre. Taking this advice he registered for the Ozark Creative Writers Conference in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

At this conference Steven met and became lasting friends with Jory Sherman, W. C. Jameson, Frederic Bean, Mike Blakely, and Dusty Richards, all published authors in the Western genre. After showing his last letter from Walker in Company to Jory Sherman and Fred Bean, they instantly understood his dilemma and offered to help. What none of them knew, however, was that the Western was about to be dropped by several other major, New York publishing houses and that all authors would be struggling to stay published.

This began Steven’s campaign to revise the awareness and diversity of Western literature, America’s own unique genre. This campaign resulted in a Web site, ReadWest.com, which ultimately became the ReadWest Foundation, Inc, a nonprofit organization. After a year in service the Web site evolved into an online magazine featuring western authors, providing samples of their work, and today offers an annual readers conference where fans of the genre can meet their favorite authors.

In 2000 ReadWest Online Magazine published "Opening Day", a short story by David Marion Wilkinson, which won the nationally acclaimed Spur Award for Best Western Short Fiction. ReadWest also published "Bonanza", a short story by Win Blevins, which was a Spur Award finalist in that same category. The Spur Award is the highest honor an author or publisher can receive in Western literature, and is given by the Western Writers of America. ReadWest was the first ever electronic publisher to win the Spur Award.

Steven soon became a requested speaker at writing conferences and events on the topics of writing, marketing, and Internet publishing. He has been a guest speaker at several conferences for Western Writers of America, Ozark Creative Writers, the Missouri Writer's Guild, and others. He has been a Spur Award judge for Best Original Paperback Novel and Best First Novel, and has appeared on National Public Radio (NPR) four times (see links to radio archives at left).

Being one of the first Western writers to blaze the Internet trail, Steven began working as a Web publicist for other Western authors. Today, under the name of Steven’s own publishing company, Goldminds Publishing, Steven manages Web publicity for some of the most respected and successful novelists in America, including New York Times best-selling author Stephen Harrigan, Pulitzer Prize finalist S. C. Gwynne, and seven-time winner of the Spur Award and author of The Good Old Boys, the late Elmer Kelton.

Though successful as a Web publicist and publisher, Steven Law's primary work is his writing. He has written numerous newspaper articles, book reviews, short stories, and four novels. His novel OLD BLUE was finally published in 1999 by Two Trails Publishing, and re-released in 2006 by Goldminds Publishing. His second novel, THE TRUE FATHER (originally published as RODEO SUMMER in 2006) was released in the summer of 2008. His latest novel, YUMA GOLD, will be published by Penguin-Berkley in November 2011, and a second and third book in a “Treasures of the West” series, JESSE’S GOLD, and CUSTER’S GOLD, are pending release. Another series, “Blood for Justice,” is pending contract with Penquin/Berkley. The first book in that series is titled EL PASO WAY.