South Dakota author Johny Weber has two new novels that will be hitting the shelves.
The Rodeo Rode was released in November and Mountain Ranch, the third book in her series, will be out this February.
The Mountain novels are historical fiction and begin in 1847 as the two main characters carve out a place for themselves in the Rocky Mountain wilderness. Weber describes her novels as a family saga with some romance elements. 
“There’s a romance, but it’s not the main point,” she said. “It’s not driven by boy-meets-girl and all of that.”
While the books are in a series, they don’t rely on cliffhangers or sudden twists, so readers can read them independently if they’d like. Each novel focuses on a different member of the family.
Her standalone novel The Rodeo Road is loosely based on some of her lived experiences.
“I met my husband rodeoing in Wisconsin when I worked at a horsemanship school. He was a pickup man for a rodeo company. By the time we were married, he rode bulls and saddle broncs at Korkow Rodeo out of Pierre,” Weber said. “The Rodeo Rode is set in the 1970s, and it’s a fiction story, but there’s a lot about what I remember from those days. I put a lot of my heart into this one. It has a lot of South Dakota and a lot of memories.”
Jim Korkow helped her recall some information from that time, and he had his own fun stories to share. In the author’s note for the novel, she points out which scenes are based on true events.
Weber was born in Illinois and moved west after graduating high school. She and her husband Jeff settled in Timer Lake.
She got her teaching degree in Spearfish and completed her master’s at Northern State University. She taught in Timber Lake for over 20 years before accepting a position at NSU.
“My husband bought cattle and always went to sales,” she said. “He thought it’d be a good idea for me to teach in Aberdeen, and he could visit and stay with me after the sales.”
Weber said that she started writing at a young age.
“When I was young, the only ways to write were with pen and pencil or with a typewriter, and I hated both,” she said.
She started writing her first book in the late 80s and finished it in the 90s.
“I had small children and was teaching then,” she said. “I would go to school and work on a school computer when my husband was home during the weekend. A computer made it a lot easier. It took about five or six years to finish the first book. My mom and dad read it and took pity on me and got me a computer for Christmas.”
Both of her children had health problems growing up, so her manuscript was shelved for a while. She queried her novel with publishers before that, though, and she received positive feedback. Unfortunately, the publisher that reached out to her no longer published fiction.
After she moved back to Timber Lake in 2017, she pulled her novel off the shelf and thought, “I should do something with this.” She self-published her novel Mountains in Your Mind, but the self-publishing route wasn’t the right fit.
“While I was doing that, the sequel started to grow in my mind,” she said.
Weber wrote the second book of her series while she was in Arizona for the winter. She attended Tucson’s Festival of Books and talked to publishers there.
“I really liked visiting with one gal, and I sent her my second manuscript,” she said. “She called me and said, ‘So this is the second? Let me see the first!’”
Her publisher offered to republish her first book under a different title, so Mountains in Your Mind became Mountain Refuge, and Mountain Grown followed.
Since becoming a published author, Weber has submitted her books to several contests. Each one has been a finalist in at least one contest, including the American Legacy Book Awards and the StoryTrade Awards. She also continues to promote her books at the Tucson Book Festival.
Weber’s books can be found on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble. They are also available at the Hitch’n Post here in Aberdeen.
For more information about her books, visit johnyw.com.
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