They call the wind #@|¿X*!

I'm in the middle of binge-reading Elmore Leonard's westerns. Most of the stories are set in the Arizona desert. For all the details he includes, he never mentions the wind, even though it's an annoying, even destructive, fact of life in the desert.

If Leonard hadn't died a little while ago, and if he'd still been cranking out formulaic westerns, I'd write him to complain.

"Dude, think of the local color and plot devices a good wind storm could provide. The hero is not only leathery from the heat and sun, but he's also sandblasted... Bad guys disappearing into a dust cloud... People not only dying of dehydration, but also choking on sand... Stage coaches being blown over..."

I guess I need to write my own stories. Let's see, I could start with a ruggedly handsome loner nomad exploring the Sonoran desert in a converted van...