I've always had a love affair with the American cowboy. You know, the tall, silent type who prefers the company of his horse to people. Owen Wister is said to have created the first romantic cowboy in 1902 with his best-selling novel The Virginian. The hero was brave and honorable, tough but soft-spoken, and was later portrayed on the screen in 1929 by Gary Cooper.

In 1982, I met and married Bill McGee, a genuine American cowboy. Bill was born and raised on a ranch in Montana (coincidentally "Coop" was born in Helena, MT), grew up during the Depression, rode the rails, cowboyed around the West, and enlisted in the Navy in 1942. After being discharged from the Navy and trying a stint at Montana State, Bill thumbed his way to Reno, Nevada. The year was 1947 and Reno was still the "Divorce Capital of the World" because of its six week residency requirement and reputation for the "quickie divorce." Divorce ranches had sprung up where the well-heeled could wait out their six weeks in privacy.

Bill arrived in Reno with seven dollars tucked in his boot and in search of adventure and a job. A chance conversation at the Round Up Bar - Reno's unofficial hiring hall for cowboys - landed him a job at the Flying M E, the most exclusive of the divorce ranches that catered to wealthy Easterners, titled Europeans and Hollywood celebrities. He would spend the next three years wrangling dudes at the Flying M E.

By the time I met Bill in 1982, he had long quit cowboyin' (1950), made a successful transition into radio and TV broadcasting, and authored several books on broadcast sales. It was his stories of the Flying M E days that fascinated me the most--stories that were like an old Hollywood film coming to life with names like Astor, du Pont, Gable and Gardner. They conjured up images of a past that seemed more glamorous than the present (but most everything does these days). It was easy to imagine an Eastern socialite, drenched in mink, monogrammed trunks in tow, being met at the Reno train depot by a tall, handsome cowboy--a description which fit Bill, by the way. It was easy to imagine the cowboy-and-the-lady romances, the attraction of opposites. It's the stuff of romance.

"You have to write about these days," I urged again and again. And after all, how many dude wranglers from the 1940s were "still above ground" to tell the story?

In 2001, we began collaborating on Bill's cowboy memoirs. Bill dictated his stories into a tape recorder and I transcribed and edited them. As we got deeper into the manuscript, we became curious to see if we could locate others who had stayed at the Flying M E or had stories of the ranch and its legendary owner, Emmy Wood (the "M E" is for "em-mee"). Using the Internet, I found a few former ranch guests, now in their eighties and nineties. I had more luck finding the offspring, who were fascinated to learn about their mother's or father's time in Nevada. Bill and I conducted phone or in-person interviews and always asked about photographs.

I spent a considerable amount of time doing other research--scanning microfilmed newspapers and archived magazines from the late 1940s for divorce stories; sifting through file boxes in historical societies and library special collections for journals, letters and photographs; and contributing some original writing when the text beckoned a woman's point of view.

The format of the book changed from a simple memoir to a 444-page coffee table book with more than 500 photographs, most from private collections and never before published. Part memoir, part history, the book is divided into four parts: Part I, "Cowboyin' Memoirs," recounts Bill's years cowboyin' in Montana, Wyoming, California and Nevada; Part II, "The Famous Flying M E Ranch and the Changing Cast of Characters," gives the reader an up-close glimpse of life on the exclusive dude ranch and the people who stayed there; Part III, "Gettin' Untied," describes the Nevada divorce business; and Part IV, "Other Leading Nevada Dude-Divorce Ranches, Circa 1930-1960," profiles the other leading divorce ranches of the era, plus many lesser-known dude-divorce ranches. Eric Moody, Curator of Manuscripts at the Nevada Historical Society, cites, "THE DIVORCE SEEKERS is the best book yet about Nevada's famous dude-divorce ranch business."

Given my fascination with the West, I truly enjoyed working on this book. I learned a lot about Nevada and how the 1931 six week divorce law was designed to help the state get through the Depression. I met fascinating people with romantic stories to tell. I came to understand why so many Eastern blue bloods and others high to the manor born came to Nevada for six weeks to get a divorce, fell in love with the scenery and the people, and remained in the Silver State for the rest of their lives. And, of course, there were those cowboys. Bill and I have just completed a screenplay based on "The Divorce Seekers." Who do you think should play the Bill character? Email your casting suggestions and-or comments to bmcpublications@aol.com.