John E. Richman

John E. Richman (born February 28, 1947), is an American author best known for his three-novel Montana Adventure Series. In addition, he has published numerous newspaper and magazine articles on subjects ranging from modern social issues, to business content and fiction. Throughout his long corporate career, Richman retained his determination to write and publish a not-for-profit fiction series targeting the post-modern, young adult reader. This was accomplished in 2009 with the publication of the third novel in the series, Battle at Bighorn. Contained within the three separate novels is a total story arc that takes young Montana from his farm in eastern Montana, on a series of adventures in Wyoming, Kansas, Texas, and ultimately back to Montana. His original quest was to become a cowboy. Along the way, he also becomes a man. Richman notes that the campy style of the Montana Series novels was deliberate in his attempting to replicate the best of the cowboy serials of the 30's and 40's, plus the TV serials of the 50's, though with great effort to build the Montana character without use of gratuitous violence and or racism against native Americans, that tended to populate that earlier genre.
The Montana Adventure Series was also motivated by Richman's strong objection to the celebrity worship so prevalent within modern America. To quote him, "Celebrity worship is problematic enough among otherwise balanced adults, but it's nothing less than destructive to our children. Young girls starving themselves to look like Barbi. African American boys and girls going to great lengths to straighten their hair for the same or similar purpose. Plastic surgery as graduation gifts. And that's just the optics. All such focus on excessive wealth and popularity sends powerful counter-messages to the same children that in most other contexts, parents try to instill such virtues as self-reliance, self-confidence and, heaven forbid, basic morality!"
Richman found within the Montana character, a good old-fashioned boy, properly raised to the point of leaving the nest. As is always the case, he leaves the nest and must begin to interact with the world around him on his own (which in the 1885 American west, was as diverse and potentially threatening as it is today). What distinguishes Montana, is his incorrigible belief in the basic goodness of people and the good choices he usually makes when good inevitably confronts bad. The lessons in these stories go well beyond their place in time.
History Hook
In an effort to have the Montana Adventure Series "heard above the din" in the already crowded world of fiction, when planning the series, the author opted to write fictional stories placed in real historical settings, among real historical events, and with even the occasional tangential brush with real historical figures. This required special research and a substantial attention to context detail that would normally not attend young adult fiction. Never are these historical figures centered in plots or sub-plots. However, a closer than normal reading of the books reveals a touch of real history that adds to the luster of "time and place." The author has referred to it as his "hook".
Montana Adventure Series Novels
Call Me Montana -- The Beginning Lulu Press 2007
Steel Dust Dawn Lulu Press 2008
Battle At Bighorn Lulu Press 2009
Inspiration
The Montana character was originally inspired the author's brother Dean, who, back in the 1950s, at the age of ten, attempted to write a screenplay about a young man growing up in the early West. His campy tag line, "Most folks just call me Montana," made him the butt of sibling jokes for years, but touched a nerve Richman wanted imbued in his prime character. Dean, a 1965 Annapolis graduate and disabled Viet-Nam veteran, has lived most of his adult life in Texas and continues to personify the spirit of Montana.

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