Joe Durham, a 1975 University of Texas of the Permian Basin graduate, has published two western novels in the last two years.

The first novel, "New Mexico Trail," was published by PublishAmerica in 2005 and the second novel, "Guest Ranch," was published by PublishAmerica in 2006  Durham's third novel, "High Country Adventure," is in the works.

Durham is currently writing sports for a small weekly in West Monroe, Louisiana. After graduating from UTPB (which was then an upper-level school) he went to work on a small daily in Alice, for more than two years.After leaving Alice, he worked on newspapers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Kentucky and Alabama.

"I wrote the first draft of "New Mexico Trail" back in the 1980's," he recalled, "but an apartment fire destroyed the manuscript. "It would be several years before I found the time to rewrite, and several rejections before I found a publisher."

"New Mexico Trail" tells the story of a young boy who is captured by a gang of cut throat outlaws. The boy has to grow up quickly once he escapes from the gang to lead his own life. "Guest Ranch" is a sequel to "New Mexico Trial." Both books are available at www.amazon.com .