I can't recommend the book House of Rain enough

So Cowboy Necromancer is chiseled into the southwest, and I've been a bit worried about really pulling it off because there's just so much research necessary to get things right. 

A lot of the times, it seems as if I have made something up, but if you know my style by now or you've been following my patreon, you might have seen that I generally draw on actual historical documents that I then add a fantasy take to.

This is evident in Cowboy Necromancer, and it is really evident in War Priest.

With Cowboy Necromancer, I not only wanted to go to some of the places, I wanted to utilize as much native mythology and names and settings of the region to create the world itself as a character. 

There have been some books recently that have really helped me, and you can find them all on Amazon. Here are some that I've read recently:

Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000W969O0

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Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne:

https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Summer-Moon-Comanches-Powerful-ebook/dp/B003KN3MDG

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Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey:
https://www.amazon.com/Desert-Solitaire-Edward-Abbey-ebook/dp/B07XB49J92

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Wild Bill by Tom Clavin:

https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Bill-American-Frontiers-Gunfighter-ebook/dp/B07D2BSM35

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Dreams of El Dorado by H.W. Brands

https://www.amazon.com/Dreams-El-Dorado-History-American-ebook/dp/B07NCXKW6P

Some of these are absolutely amazing, especially Blood and Thunder and Dreams of El Dorado for a view of the southwest history as a hole, the Quanah Parker and Wild Bill books for a better understanding of the Comanche and some of the natives of the plains and their ways of life. Edward Abbey's book has helped me with landscape descriptions, plus his voice is something I'll channel for a project in the future. (He is literally a disgruntled park ranger writing a memoir while living at one of the national parks. It's snarky and funny).

But House of Rain by Craig Childs... this is the one I was looking for.

https://www.amazon.com/House-Rain-Tracking-Civilization-Southwest-ebook/dp/B000OT7U78/

This one follows the writer, an explorer, as he navigates rough terrain in the Southwest and touches on archeoastronomy. And... that's all I needed to connect the threads to a story I could feel at the back of my head regarding the appearance of the Godwalkers in Cowboy Necromancer, and the humans who have encountered them in the past...

Read these books!