Fictional Absaroka County Sheriff Walt Longmire hates motorcycles as much as Indiana Jones hates snakes, but the New York Times bestselling author Craig Johnson loves bikes as much as he loves his horses and Wyoming ranch.

With his 19th novel ‘The Longmire Defense’ set for early September 2023 publication, we spoke with the 62-year-old West Virginia native about his motivation and discipline for writing, how he spent several promotional tours visiting bookstores on his BMW motorcycle, and that time many decades ago when he nearly lost an eye during a motocross race.

Little is known of blue-eyed author Craig Johnson’s career path prior to publishing his first novel, The Cold Dish, at age 43 in 2004. Johnson appears to have stayed on the right side of Johnny Law, and at some point was inspired to develop the characters which appeared in the book. He certainly has a vivid imagination and a penchant for writing about trials and tribulations of people on and off the Indian reservations around the greater Wyoming area.