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Johnny Boggs grew up in South Carolina, but even as a 12-year-old kid he was already familiar with the Southwest deserts and northern plains of the Old West.

His guides to those faraway places in long-gone times were writers of Western fiction such as Jack Schaefer, Louis L'Amour and Will Henry - especially Henry, who wrote classics such as "Who Rides With Wyatt" and "From Where the Sun Now Stands."

"A lot of times, Henry would portray the West in a more realistic fashion than, say, Louis L'Amour," Boggs said this week during a phone interview from his Santa Fe home. "Henry was true to Western history and to the Western spirit."

Now, more than 30 years after he started following the dust of his favorite writers, Boggs, 45, finds himself riding point in Western fiction.

Boggs, the author of novels such as "Camp Ford," "The Hart Brand" and "Northfield," was recently named best living writer of Western fiction in True West magazine's annual Best of the West issue, now on newsstands.

The honor puts him ahead of such giants in the field as Larry ("Lonesome Dove") McMurty; top-hand Elmer Kelton of San Angelo, Texas; and Albuquerque master storytellers Max Evans and Tony Hillerman.

Boggs finds it sort of overwhelming.

"Somebody told me the only thing you can do for an encore is be named best dead writer," he said.

Besides best living writer, True West editors made selections in 31 other categories including best living boot-maker to best ranch in the West.

In addition to Boggs, winners with New Mexico connections were:

Best living horse gear artisan: James Sturgeon of J.S. Saddlery in Cliff.

Best Western art gallery: Joe Wade Fine Art in Santa Fe.

Best tour company: Santa Fe Mountain Adventures.

True West made the picks with the help of suggestions from the magazine's contributing editors, of whom Boggs is one.

"I'm pretty sure I didn't vote for myself as best living writer," Boggs joked. "My suggestion was Fred Grove of Tucson."

Grove, born in Hominy, Okla., in 1913, is a five-time winner of the Spur Award, presented by the Western Writers of America, and the author of novels such "The Buffalo Runners," "Comanche Captives" and "A Far Trumpet."

"Fred was a pretty good mentor for me," Boggs said.

Like Grove, who was on the staff of newspapers in Oklahoma and Texas, Boggs started out in journalism, working about 15 years on the sports desks of the Dallas Times Herald and Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

In 1998, however, he moved to Santa Fe to start a freelance career as a writer of Western nonfiction and fiction.

Since then, he has turned out 31 novels, including "Doubtful Ca¤on," which came out last month.

He is vice president of the WWA and a winner of two of that organization's Spur Awards.

True West pointed to "Northfield," Boggs' 2006 novel about the James-Younger gang's disastrous raid on Northfield, Minn., to support its selection of him as the best living writer of Westerns.

"How could anyone come up with a new angle (on the raid)?" the magazine wrote. "Well, Johnny D. Boggs has done it in his book `Northfield.' He wrote each of the 23 chapters from the perspective and in the voice of a particular character - even a 5-year-old girl.

"His book is a remarkable effort, but that's no big surprise."

Writing from unique perspectives in not new for Boggs. In his 2002 Spur Award-winning short story "A Piano at Dead Man's Crossing," Boggs tells the tale from the viewpoint of an 800-pound, upright grand piano.

"For the genre to succeed, you have to go beyond the formula Western of the past," he said. "You have to tell stories that resonate with readers of today.

"You have to get younger readers interested. You have to get away from the escapism aspect of the Western and make the stories more true to history."

And he said Westerns don't have to be about the Old West. He said there are plenty of good stories to be told about the recent and contemporary West.

"Those kind of Westerns are harder sells to publishers," he said. "But Elmer Kelton's best novel is `The Time It Never Rained,' which is about the drought in the 1950s, and C.J. Box is writing good, contemporary mysteries in which the hero is a Wyoming game warden."

He said Albuquerque's Hillerman, whose mysteries are set on and around the Navajo reservation of the past 30 years, is one of the best Western writers of his time.

"He opens up the Navajo culture to millions of people," Boggs said. "He paints a wonderful, realistic picture of the Southwestern landscape. His (Navajo tribal policemen) Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn are great Western characters, men with hats and guns who bring law and order to the West.

"But it's a West that's different than the one Zane Grey wrote about."