The truth is often stranger than fiction, something local resident Joey Barker says makes his first book, “Catching the Katy” something that will keep the pages turning as he tells of a teen who is thrown into the world of drug smuggling in the 1970s.“Sometimes the truth is just so weird and so far-fetched, it’s hard to believe,” Barker said of his debut novel now available on Amazon or through his publisher, RoseDog Books. “‘Catching the Katy’ is semi-nonfiction, which basically means there is definitely some exaggeration, but for the most part, the bizarre stories are true. You, as the reader, have to decide which is which.”Writing under the name Barker Milford, he tells about the infamous Cowboy Mafia and how the young teen protagonist fell into the dangerous drug-running business.“In the late 1970s, the King died, Freebird fell, disco ruled and … Texas, per capita, had more illegal weed than any territory in the free world,” Milford said of the basis of his book. “It was all due to the infamous Cowboy Mafia operating from a seafood storefront in High Island, Texas.”Milford continued, “To record, it was the largest smuggling ring on the United States mainland.