Saddlebums Western Review

James Reasoner

2008-02-03T23:38:00.000-05:00

From the Western Writers of America:

Longtime Western writer and WWA member James Reasoner and wife Livia lost their house and studio, and all their belongings, in a fire earlier this week. They're OK, as are their dogs and children, but got out with only their clothes they were wearing. Books, pulps, comics, everything else, gone.

"This is totallyoverwhelming," James says. To help the family, Western Writers of America and Kensington Books have agreed to make sizable contributions and ask anyone who would also like to contribute to send cash donations to the WWA Executive Director's office in Albuquerque, N.M.

Make the check out to Western Writers of America and put in the memo that the money is for the James Reasoner Emergency Fund. Checks should be mailed to:

WWA

MSC06 3770

1 University of New Mexico

Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001

Since James and Livia also lost their sizable library, donations are also being sought to help restock their bookcases whenever they have a new home. Kim Lionetti, Livia's agent at BookEnds, has generously agreed to accept any BOOK donations and keep them until the Reasoners have a place to put them. Books should be sent to:

Kim Lionetti

BookEnds Inc.

136 Long Hill Road

Gillette, NJ 07933

Our thoughts and prayers are with James, Livia and family during this tryingtime. Thanks for your help.

Johnny D. Boggs

WWA Vice President

Saddlebums Interview: John D. Nesbitt

2008-01-27T07:45:00.000-05:00

John D. Nesbitt has published fourteen novels, six short-story collections, and an impressive number of literary articles, book reviews, and poetry. He lives in Wyoming where he teaches both English and Spanish at Eastern Wyoming College, and he not only writes about the West, but he lives it and seemingly loves it.

His work is known for its strong sense of place, complex and believable characterization, and a prose that Roundup Magazine calls “elegantly spare.” His latest novel, Death at Dark Water, is scheduled for release in February 2008 from Leisure.

First, I want to thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions John.

Thank you for the opportunity.

I want to talk a little about your publishing history, what was the first novel you published? Was it a long time coming, or did you hit print pretty quickly once you decided to write it?

My first novel was One-Eyed Cowboy Wild, in 1994 with Walker and Company, one of the last New York publishers to do hardcover westerns. I had written short stories for quite a while and had been getting them published for over fifteen years, but it took me quite a while to get it together to do a book-length piece of fiction. The first novel I wrote was something different; this one was the second. I had a good inspiration for the story idea, and I wrote the first draft without a great deal of angst and struggle. Once I had it ready to go, I went through quite a few dead ends (more than a year) until the editor at Walker gave me the break I needed. Her name is Jackie Johnson, a wonderful person and a great old-style editor, and she will always have a special place in my heart.

When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?

I wrote creative stuff all the way through school, but it was probably in my first or second year of college that I became conscious of wanting to do it as something more than a hobby. By the time I was in my third or fourth year of college, I knew I wanted to write and be published.

I am proud of all my work, but there are a few books that I think of as being high points for me, in that I felt I carried things off about as well as I could hope to do.

Is there a book, or a few books, that you have written and are particularly proud of?

I am proud of all my work, but there are a few books that I think of as being high points for me, in that I felt I carried things off about as well as I could hope to do. My first western, One-Eyed Cowboy Wild, was good for a debut novel. After that, the ones I think of as high points are Coyote Trail, For the Norden Boys, Black Hat Butte, and Lonesome Range. Another book I am proud of, though it’s not a western novel, is my basic writing textbook, Blue Book of Basic Writing. It’s now in its sixth edition, and although it doesn’t have much public, it has been an ongoing work of great value to me and a source of pride.

Most writers are voracious readers, and I’m wondering what you read for pleasure?

For pleasure, I read westerns, mysteries, and standard British and American authors. I also read books by friends who are authors.

Now I want to turn to the western genre specifically. What first led you to the genre?

My father was a cattleman and farmer who went broke when I was very young. He had a black Stetson that fit me when I was ten or twelve, and between my family background and my schooling, I grew up with the sense that I was a western person. It was my heritage. I read westerns when I was young, and then when I was in college I started taking them seriously at the same time, and I ended up writing my doctoral dissertation on the classic western. All the time I was doing the work for the project, I knew I was studying technique. My first published story was a western, published in an ephemeral commercial magazine called Far West. My second story was a contemporary rural story intertwined with a western story, and it won a literary prize. And on and on, until I got it together to write book-length fiction.

I enjoy reading not only traditional westerns, but also stories based in the contemporary west. You write both. Do you have a preference for the type of western story you write?

I like both. I feel that I have greater freedom of subject matter and form in contemporary fiction, and I have a great fund of personal knowledge and experience to draw upon there as well, but writing traditional westerns is part of my writer’s identity, and I’m always happy to be working on a western. As for the type of story I write, I usually write what is called character-driven fiction, which has more emphasis on character interaction and motivation than on incident and surprise. Landscape or place usually has a significant role in my work, also. Reviewers usually cite character, detail, and prose style as my strong points.

What are a few of the western writers who have most influenced your work?

I would say Owen Wister, for his example that the western can be serious; A.B. Guthrie, Jr., for a sense of clear prose style and liberated form; and Ernest Haycox, for a sense of trying to blend thoughtful work with traditional structure.

If you could bring back the work of one western writer who would it be? Is there a specific title?

This is sort of a personal interest, but I would like to see the novels of Caroline Lockhart, an early twentieth-century novelist from Wyoming , reprinted. One novel has been reprinted in recent years, and I would like to see "Me—Smith” enjoy a bit of a renaissance. It is dated, as novels from 1910-1920 are, but it gives us an idea of what a woman western writer could get away with writing in 1911.

I think the genre is better off with more writers now than, say, in the 1970’s and 1980’s, when the bookracks were almost entirely taken up by Louis L’Amour and the adult westerns.

What do you think about the western genre today, and what do you think the future holds for the western story?

As for the quality of the western genre today, I think there is still a great deal of mediocre writing (I’m thinking mainly in terms of prose style, language use, and narrative craft), just as there was in the 1940’s and 1950’s, and there is quite a bit of gratuitous bloodshed, rape, and general mayhem. On the other hand, I think the genre is better off with more writers now than, say, in the 1970’s and 1980’s, when the bookracks were almost entirely taken up by Louis L’Amour and the adult westerns. It is clear that the western genre is not as strong as it once was (through the 1960’s or so), and I believe, as do many writers, that it is not likely to regain its earlier status. On the other hand, I do not believe that the readership is a shrinking group of people who are getting older and dying. My feeling is that the western is not going to vanish but that it will maintain a low level of popularity. It is a conservative genre, in that it doesn’t change much, so I don’t expect it to change greatly in its level of literary quality.

I understand you teach English and Spanish at a college in Wyoming. Since you spend a good deal of your time with young people, I was wondering if you have a perspective on how we—both the western genre and literature as a whole—can be more appealing to the younger generation?

In the students I have had in the last ten years or so, I have seen very few people who read for pleasure, and I have seen quite a few who won’t even read good literature when it is assigned. However, in the students who are coming up through grade school and high school right now, it seems as if there is a resurgence in interest in reading, thanks to many of the highly successful authors who write for young readers. Right now, the biggest rage seems to be for fantasy, and I don’t see that evolving into an interest in westerns, which aren’t nearly as glitzy. I don’t know how literature can be more appealing to the younger generation, except that it has to be clear, dramatic, and colorful.

Okay, now let’s get down to your current work. What is your latest novel?

My latest release is Raven Springs, the third in a mini-series of crossover western-mysteries with a genial narrator named Jimmy Clevis. The next one scheduled for release is Death at Dark Water, which takes place in territorial New Mexico and has all Hispanic characters except for the Anglo protagonist. It should be out in February.

Can you tell us about the novel—or any other projects—you are working on now?

I just finished and mailed off yet another western, written along fairly traditional lines. Until I get a publication date and a cover, I usually don’t say much more than that. This one is under contract, though, so I don’t think I’ll jinx it by saying as much as I did.

I have one last question, and I must warn it is a little vague. If you could chose any project to work on, what would it be?

I’m the kind of writer who straddles the lines—in my case, between literary and traditional (one reviewer characterized me as someone who writes literary traditional westerns, and I think that is accurate) and between historical and contemporary. I want to keep trying to write individual novels of quality, in both the genre western and the contemporary western novel. So if I had to choose one, I’d say, yeah, both.

Saddlebums Review: Hellfire Canyon by Max McCoy

2008-01-15T20:22:00.000-05:00

The regular readers of Saddlebums have probably noticed it has been a little quiet around here the past few weeks, and there is a reason. It’s not that I’m not reading, don’t enjoy a solid Western, or anything else like that. The problem is, I recently—three weeks ago—started a new job and it’s taking most of my energy right now, but things are beginning to break. I think. So bear with me—and my Saddlebums partner Gonzalo—while I get the new schedule down and get back to the nitty-gritty operation of a blog.

And to whet your appetite I have a few completed author interviews—Peter Brandvold, and John D. Nesbitt to name two—and I’m working on a few reviews as well. Until then here is a review of Max McCoy’s Hellfire Canyon I wrote in April 2007 for my Gravetapping blog. It's a terrific novel written by a versatile and very dependable author.

Hellfire Canyon is the story of Jacob Gamble: outlaw, renegade and general hell-raiser. He is the archetypical western outlaw, with one exception: He is likable, and rather than the antagonist, he is the hero.

The novel begins when three men trample into young Jacob’s farmhouse and demand breakfast from his mother. They are confederate soldiers with a platoon of blue bellies hot on their trail. This is the catalyst that shapes Jacob’s life—the Union soldiers burn down his home, and he discovers his father is in lockup scheduled to by hanged. Jacob and his mother set out to save his father, but instead they find themselves crossing Missouri in the company of a stranger, facing cutthroats, soldiers, the coming winter, and finally forced indoctrination into the gang of the notorious killer Alf Bolin.

Hellfire Canyon is not the typical. There is violence, but there is something more—a yearning and understanding of history, legend, and even folklore. Gamble is an admitted liar, killer and thief, but he—the story is written in first person—portrays himself never as a victim, but as a survivor. Interestingly, in the opening pages of the novel he casts doubt on everything that is to come: And I won’t tell the truth. Instead, I will spin the tale that is expected—that I was forced by circumstances at the tender age of thirteen to become the youngest member of the Bolin gang.

Hellfire Canyon is a campfire story. It is raw, tender, and fresh, but we are left knowing it isn’t the real story. It is the story the witness—Jacob Gamble—wants us to know, or perhaps more accurately thinks we want to know. It is more folklore and legend than anything else, and I loved every word. Ignore the horrible cover art and give Hellfire Canyon a try.

Scouting the Web

2008-01-07T00:48:00.000-05:00

■ Saddle up for the latest Lonesome Dove miniseries, Comanche Moon, starring Val Kilmer, Steve Zahn and Karl Urban. The six-hour, three-part extravaganza will air Jan. 13 on CBS. A prequel to Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove, this is the final installment in the saga. Here’s an interview with actor Karl Urban.

■ Two interesting book reviews from the Vintage Hardboiled Reads blog: Sabadilla by Richard Jessup and The Appaloosa by Robert MacLeod.

■ The newest issue of the Western Writers of America’s Roundup Magazine is out and with plenty of interesting offerings. Check out Stephen Lodge’s review of the 17th Annual Festival of the West in Arizona as well as its traditional book review section, Western Bookshelf, including comments on novels by Elmer Kelton, Bill Pronzini, Lauran Paine, and many others.

■ Here’s an interesting review of The Thunder Riders by Frank Leslie (a.k.a. Peter Brandvold) from Bookgasm.

■ Ron Fortier’s Pulp Fiction Reviews blog discusses the new Western anthology Where Legends Ride, a collection of stories by new and upcoming writers as well as several authors who regularly pen novels for the UK-based Robert Hale Publishers’ Black Horse Westerns.

■ Salon.com takes another look at Charles Portis’ True Grit on the occasion of its recent 40th anniversary.

■ Soviet Cowboys? ’Nuff said…

■ The Guardian on female characters in the new crop of Western films.

■ The Chicago Tribune takes a look at The Selected Letters of Wallace Stegner.

■ Over the last few weeks, Pulpgen has posted a slate of new downloadable Western pulps, including stories by Hapsburg Liebe and Lon Williams.

Richard S. Wheeler: SHANE by Jack Schaefer

2007-12-26T00:18:00.000-05:00

This post is the second installment in our series on Western classics. These contributions by Western master Richard S. Wheeler will provide an in-depth analysis of key works, including the circumstances of publication and the author as well as a discussion on what went into these stories and why they are now ranked among the best. Our first first installment in the series examined Conrad Richter’s The Sea of Grass. This week, we will take a look at Jack Schaefer's Shane.

Shane, by Jack Schaefer, is easily the most famous of western novels, and the one that made the most history. It was first published in 1946 as a three-part serial in Argosy Magazine, under the title, "Rider from Nowhere." Houghton Mifflin published it in book form in 1949 under the Shane title. It eventually went into seventy or more editions and sold twelve million copies (in a nation with half of today’s population). It also appeared in thirty foreign languages. It became the watershed novel that changed western fiction into men’s literature featuring the gunman hero. Its success was so phenomenal that publishers thereafter wanted gunman stories and little else.

The novel is narrated by Bob Starrett, son of Joe and Marian Starrett, who are nesters in a valley of the Big Horn mountains, a day’s ride from Sheridan. The boy first spots Shane riding along the road, a person so remarkable that passing riders turn to stare at him. There is something unusual about the approaching man:

"He would have looked frail alongside father’s square, solid bulk. But even I could read the endurance in the lines of that dark figure and the quiet power in his effortless, unthinking adjustment to every movement of the tired horse.

"He was clean-shaven and his face was lean and hard and burned from high forehead to firm, tapering chin. His eyes seemed hooded in the shadow of the hat’s brim. He came closer and I could see that this was because the brows were drawn into a frown of fixed and habitual alertness. Beneath them the eyes were endlessly searching from side to side and forward, checking off every item in view, missing nothing. As I noticed this, a sudden chill, and I could not have told why, struck through me there in the warm and open sun."

As Bob gets to know Shane, he realizes the man is also lonely and apart, and there is an inner sadness in him. Joe Starrett hires Shane as a hand on Starrett’s farm, and Shane puts aside his handsome clothes and buys dungarees. Both Joe and Marian are aware that Shane is different and dangerous, and yet both welcome him. Indeed, Marian flirts with Shane, and as the story grows, so does a deep, if platonic, love between them.

There is trouble afoot in the valley. Luke Fletcher, the major landholder in the valley, wants more land to expand his cattle empire, and has tried fruitlessly to drive out the nesters, using bullying, intimidation, and open threats. Starrett, the strongest and most courageous of the nesters, refuses to budge and encourages the other nesters to resist as well. It doesn’t hurt that the stranger called Shane, who says nothing of his past or his future, is firmly committed to the Starretts.

In the daily toil, Joe Starrett and Shane become friends and rivals. In a famous scene in which the pair attempt to reduce a huge stump, they vie with each other to hack it out of the ground, each trying to prove himself the better man– worthy of the other’s esteem and also Marian’s affections.

But this is not a story about a love triangle; it’s a story about worth. Near the end of the novel, with Shane on his way into town to defend the Starretts against a killer named Stark Wilson, Marian asks Shane whether he is plunging into deadly danger just for her.

"Shane hesitated for a long, long moment. ‘No, Marian.’ His gaze seemed to widen and encompass us all, mother and the still figure of father huddled on a chair by the window, and somehow the room and the house and the whole place. Then he was looking only at mother and she was all he could see.

"‘No, Marian. Could I separate you in my mind and afterwards be a man?"

Shane is the smaller physically, but even more forceful than Joe, and Bob Starrett is awed by the fierce bloom of life and purpose in Shane whenever he tackles an impossible task. And the impossible tasks do come along, as Luke Fletcher hunts for ways to break Shane and the Starretts. One of the worst of these occurs in the town saloon, when five of Fletcher’s biggest brutes swarm in and nail Shane. Schaefer’s depiction of the barroom fight is one of the most brutal ever put on a page. The Fletcher men gradually overwhelm Shane, breaking a bottle over Shane’s skull and stunning him, until Joe Starrett wades in and evens the score. Starrett himself is big and tough, and no pushover, and all the hard toil of his daily farming life pays off when he mauls Fletcher’s cowboys.

Fletcher heads out of town and returns with a gunman named Stark Wilson, whose reputation Shane knows and respects. Wilson begins by picking on the easiest target, the most hotheaded nester, and kills him. After that, it becomes plain that the nesters must either flee or perish, along with their families and all they possess. Joe Starrett doesn’t want Shane’s help; he tells Shane this is his fight and he’ll deal with Wilson his own way. Shane’s response is to cold-cock Starrett and leave him in Marian’s care.

The saloon gunfight is one of the most gripping written. The novel is so well known that I will spoil nothing by saying that Shane is the deadlier man, though Wilson wounds him. And Shane manages to kill the back-shooting Fletcher in the nick of time. When it is over, the wounded Shane rides quietly out of town and into the night, to the deep sorrow of Bob who is almost inconsolable. Shane soon vanishes into mystery and legend, his whereabouts unknown, just as his past is unknown. And the Starretts have their farm in the peaceful valley of Wyoming.

This was Jack Schaefer’s first novel. He preferred in later years to write stories less mythic and more attuned to the real West. He had grown up in Cleveland, an avid reader of everything he could get his hands on, and spent much of his life as a journalist. Although he is little known, and the volume of his work is small, he surely ranks as one of this nation’s greatest novelists.

- Richard S. Wheeler.

Saddlebums Interview: Dusty Richards

2007-12-19T19:13:00.000-05:00

Dusty Richards won his first two Spur Awards in 2007 for his novel The Horse Creek Incident and his short story “Comanche Moon”. He has written more than seventy novels, and his work has been well received by readers and critics alike. His recent short story collection Waltzing with Tumbleweeds contains several of his short stories that, according to reviewer Debbie Haskins, “keeps readers turning pages and coming back for more.”

He is a lifelong fan of both the West and the Western story—his enthusiasm for the subject shines throughout this interview as does his kindness. Dusty’s most recent novel Montana Revenge is out in paperback from Berkley.

Dusty is a terrific name for a western writer. Is it your given name, or a nickname?

I guess I was always into Westerns. When we moved from Mesa to Phoenix I just told everyone I met my name was Dusty. I was about 14. It stuck

“I don't know a greater honor for a western writer. Spurs are the Oscars of the western book.”

Before I get too far I want to congratulate you on the two Spur Awards you received earlier this year. You won the best paperback original category for your novel The Horse Creek Incident and the best short fiction of the year for your novella “Comanche Moon”.

I don't know a greater honor for a Western writer. Spurs are the Oscars of the Western book. I can recall going to my first Western Writers of America Convention in San Antonio over two decades ago when I was trying to break into the New York market. I met those Spur winners that year and all the old hands that I'd read. I never thought this old cowboy would ever collect one of them. I was lucky to be writing and doing what I liked and had dreamed about.

If you asked me January first last year, did I expect to win a Spur? No. My close writer friends kept saying you'll win one. It went over my head like a jet and I had no idea or even inkling I'd have two of those lovely awards on my table at home. I have never written a book in my life, and that means under pseudonyms or my own name, that I said “Oh, well this will be a Spur.”

I have studied and taught fiction writing for the last three decades. Books I have written total 76; lots of short stories and articles, but I wrote each one with one thing in mind—tell a good story the best I can.

I want to talk a little about your publishing history, what is the first novel you published? Was it a long time coming, or did you hit print pretty quickly once you decided to write it?

I always wrote “books” in long hand like Zane Grey did, only I never had “Dollie” to edit them. I read stacks of paperbacks and every hardback Western in the libraries. I even sat on Grey's cabin porch on the Mongollon Rim and promised his ghost I'd join him some day on the bookshelf.

When my girls were teens they wanted me to do something with them. I told them they had Louie and did not need me. In the eighties I was involved with a small publisher in Missouri. He had three books of mine and was supposed to publish them—after messing with him for two years I demanded my books back. He sent them back but he published them, and I've been looking for copies since then. There have been some show up on eBay. I had no idea for 20 years he had done that.

Yes I wrote and I sought experts. Dr. Frank Reuter, who is a great editor, line-edited a novel [I wrote] that I thought was wonderful. There was hardly a page [without] red lines and written all over. I went home sick but I knew that if I was going to sell in New York I had to meet his standards. Book two that he did had whole pages with no marks. Reuter lived about 40 miles from me so each time I drove over after work and we'd discuss the book. Book number three he apologized and said he was so busy reading it he might not had edited as tough as the others. That was Noble's Way, my first sale in New York. That took a decade from me deciding I wanted to really be a writer and publish—I teach folks short cuts on that time.

When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?

Probably in high school, but I had no idea which end to start on, and the fact I read so much didn't help me because reading books is a seamless way to learn what is inside them. Now if you want to dissect a writer read only the 3rd page—3-6-9 [and] so on. Then take colored high liters and began marking him up after that—learn internalization, narration, dialogue. Learn point of view and write a million words until your words create paintings. Basketball players who become pros shoot millions of baskets. Writers must do that—they must study poetry and simplicity; poetry is whole another deal—but there are lessons there: word images. Not a thesaurus but small words in the vocabulary of your reader. Use senses and understand body movements and facial expression. Use the seasons, the time of day, become a geographer, a plant expert, walk the ground, read the history and old newspaper accounts, diaries, and any accounts you can find. Then write what you love and it will show in the pages—they say.

Is there a book, or a few books, that you have written and are particularly proud of?

I wrote one contemporary book about Rodeo called The Natural. It was well accepted by the rodeo people. They are hard to please and they called it authentic. That gave me lots of pride. Maybe some day I'll write more when I find the right editor. The Westerns are my children. I love them all.

“I read Cormac McCarthy—when he uses Spanish like too much salt I hate him. I don't write like him but he has a way with words that deserve the writer's attention.”

Most writers are voracious readers, and I’m wondering what you read for pleasure?

I read Cormac McCarthy—when he uses Spanish like too much salt I hate him. I don't write like him but he has a way with words that deserve the writer's attention. I won't do anything that would make my books hard to read like lack of punctuation. I write my books with a fan in the room. I want that person to see what I see. Understand what I am telling him so he goes on reading long in the night.

I read McMurtry, some of his books are great—some I never finish.

I love Will Henry. I met him before he went to the big sky pasture. I tried and tried to mimic his style—no way

Tom Lea's Wonderful Country stuck to me like dried oatmeal on a cereal bowl.

Elmer Kelton writes great books and is a good friend.

Max Evans wrote great novellas. He's another amigo of mine and flatters me by buying my books for his friends

I have an extensive library of historical books and I read them—my books are fiction, but I attempt to put my characters in those scenes and not cut down any trees.

A man to watch is John Nesbitt. He teaches fiction writing at Torrington, Wyoming. He has a short story about Nat Champion, one of the men killed in the Wyoming range war in a collection of short stories currently on the racks from Kensington. I'd almost kill to have written that story. John also has several books from Leisure Books.

Jory Sherman [was] a great help in my struggle to get published when I was nobody. He writes with a pen that few can match.

Pete Brandvold. Here is a young man that will fill the gaps of the old men.

I have many friends I read. I hope they don't feel left out [because] I am writing this on the road.

Now I want to turn to the western genre specifically. What first led you to the genre?

Saturday matinee with Roy, Gene, and Hoppy

You have written four novels—The Ogallala Trail, Trail to Cottonwood Falls, The Abilene Trail, and The Trail to Fort Smith—in conjunction with the late Ralph Compton’s estate. I also should mention that your name is included on the cover. When you wrote these novels was there extra pressure to please Compton’s large fan base, or were you comfortable making these novels your own? Did you enjoy the experience?

When Dan Slater (then the editor) asked me to write some of those books, I was familiar with Ralph's books—I'd read several but instead of reading more of his I read Robert Vaughn's books in the series. I can't write like Ralph or Robert, but I saw what they had done—they'd written good Westerns about the cattle drives: a basic main menu of the west. So I began to find characters who needed to make those trips and [then] built a life for them.

Jim Parker of Yukin, Oklahoma is a re-enactor for the Chisholm Trail and great historian. He helped me on my first one. I met him one day when I was invited to a dedication of a mile marker on the Chisholm Trail on the Express Ranch. It was a great day.

If you could bring back the work of one Western writer who would it be? Is there a specific title?

Will Henry had a wonderful style of storytelling [that was] seeped in history and geography.

“The west is part of our culture. It goes up and down with whims of publishers and the buying public. There use to be three networks on TV. Today there are 500 and they have diluted the entertainment mix—yes more choices, but we are all so busy making a living, or entertaining ourselves at many venues.”

What do you think about the Western genre today, and what do you think the future holds for the western story?

The west is part of our culture. It goes up and down with whims of publishers and the buying public. There use to be three networks on TV. Today there are 500 and they have diluted the entertainment mix—yes more choices, but we are all so busy making a living, or entertaining ourselves at many venues. I feel that there is no better entertainment than curling up with a real book and enjoying the story—the West is there. And goodness I love to write it.

Okay, now let's get down to your current work. What is your latest novel?

My latest novel, Montana Revenge will be on the rack Sept. 7th. It is a Herschel Baker novel set in Yellowstone County, Billings, Montana. It is a mystery and a new challenge. You have all the facts that Sheriff Baker has and must find the killers.

Can you tell us about the novel—or any other projects—you are working on now?

I have a series in formation about twin brothers orphaned on the Texas frontier during the Civil War. Interestingly, I've studied identical twins, West Texas geography, vegetation, lifestyles and building structures.

I have one last question, and I must warn it is a little vague. If you could choose any project to work on, what would it be?

Ben, I have more of them scattered over my computer than I'll ever write.

A series about a maverick Catholic priest in 1790 Kentucky; my agent loves it, no takers.

The series about the Twins in Civil War times in West Texas (still in infancy).

A series about the Texas Feuds. Doc Sonicson at the U of AZ wrote lots about Texas feuds. It is under-written, I think, in fiction. That one is being considered.

I still have a couple completed novels in a series that publishers backed out of that I think are powerful.

P.S. A collection of my published short stories called Waltzing with Tumbleweeds is available at AWOC.com. I have heard more comments on it than any other thing I have written.

"Comanche Moon," the novella that won the short Spur, I wrote for a national magazine that publishes western serials. I felt they needed a good one. I got their guidelines and I really polished it, but when I submitted it they said they were not interested. Dan Slater asked for it on the kick off of Amazon shorts—if the magazine had taken it I might have missed the Spur.

Saddlebums Review: Camp Ford by Johnny D. Boggs

2007-12-16T23:30:00.000-05:00

Win MacNaughton is an aging—99 years old—former baseball player, umpire, and coach, who is invited to attend the 1946 World Series by The Sporting News. A reporter asks him how he thinks the two participating teams—the Red Sox and the Cardinals—compare to the best team he has ever seen. Win doesn’t hesitate, and quickly names two teams.

‘Easy’ I said. “Mr. Lincoln’s Hirelings and the Ford City Gallinippers. Played one game at Camp Ford, Texas.

The reporter gave Win a confused look and walked away. He didn’t mention either of the teams in the newspaper the next day, and Win MacNaughton spends the rest of Johnny D. Boggs’ Camp Ford explaining his answer. He begins his story as a boy in Rhode Island where he is introduced to the game that would shape his life. His moves with his parents down to Jacksboro, Texas, where his father gets involved with the anti-slavery movement, and then when the Civil War breaks out, his parents take him back North where, in 1863 he joins the 3rd Rhode Island Cavalry.

It isn’t long before Win finds himself a prisoner of war at Camp Ford, Texas. And life in that place is hard, cruel, and surprisingly filled with talk and love of baseball—even the Southerners are learning the game.

Camp Ford won the Spur Award for best novel in 2005, and it is the best Western novel I have read in a long time. Mr. Boggs adroitly weaves two storylines—the aged Win MacNaughton watching the 1946 World Series in St. Louis, and Win MacNaughton as a boy growing up in a changing and violent time with the new game of baseball. The prisoner of war scenes are harsh and realistic with vivid descriptions of the place, the characters, and, most importantly, the inner thoughts of MacNaughton as he tries to survive captivity.

The characters are richly created—they populate the novel with a sincerity and richness that is often lacking in genre works. The ideals of friendship, love, and hate are explored, and Mr. Boggs leaves just enough ambiguity in the narrative to allow the reader to judge the actions of the characters. The storyline is refreshing and original—it has just the right mixture of baseball folklore and Civil War history to satisfy both readers of historical fiction, and anyone who enjoys the sport.

Movie Review: Tombstone

2007-12-14T11:44:00.000-05:00

(This is the third installment in our series of reviews on classic Westerns inspired by the Gunfight at the OK Corral. We encourage you to read the first and second installments)

The third of our movies taking the gunfight at the OK Corral as their inspiration is also the latest one, Tombstone from 1993, considered by many fans to be among the best western movies ever made. I’m skipping over John Sturges’ 1967 Hour of the Gun. This sequel to Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is a fine film and James Garner and Jason Robards are a good team as Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. I recommend the picture, but Sturges had already dealt with these characters and the story is actually about Earp’s vengeance killings after the fact.

In Tombstone, Kurt Russell stars as Wyatt and Val Kilmer is Doc. Both men turn in the performances of their lives and the fact that they didn’t win Oscars is explained somewhat by all the Gumping that was going on that year. The fact that neither of them was even nominated is less understandable. Taking this praise one step further, Russell has been unofficially credited with ghost directing over half the picture when original director Kevin Jarre (who wrote the script) was fired and before credited director George P. Cosmatos came onboard.

“Tombstone” covers the same ground as the two earlier movies, and then some. The big shootout scene comes with over an hour of running time left. The bushwhack shooting of Virgil Earp (Sam Elliott) and Morgan Earp (Bill Paxton) are still to come, followed by Wyatt’s vengeance ride as he and four friends—Holliday, Sherman McMasters (Michael Rooker), Texas Jack Vermillion (Peter Sherayko) and Turkey Creek Jack Johnson (Buck Taylor)—go after the cowboy gang.

The movie comes closer to historical accuracy than did either of the others we’ve looked at. When the three Earps arrive with their wagons, wives, and dreams of fortune, none of the men want anything to do with maintaining law and order. Wyatt immediately runs a bullying gambler (a chunky Billy Bob Thornton) out of the Oriental Saloon and talks himself into a job as Faro dealer.

The brothers—at least this time James isn’t portrayed as a teenager and the weak branch on the family tree; in fact, he isn’t even in town this time, joining Warren Earp, the perennially missing man, among Hollywood’s unnecessary characters—meet old acquaintance Doc Holliday on the street. Wyatt and Morgan are glad to see him. Virgil doesn’t like him, but does tolerate his presence.

This time out the cowboys are not just thieves, rustlers and killers; they are Satan’s emmisarries on Earth. The first time we see them, they kill everyone in a wedding party, including the bride and priest. They are led by Curly Bill Brocius (Powers Booth) and Johnny Ringo (Michael Biehn) and abetted by Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan (Jon Tenney). Ike Clanton (Stephen Lang) is portrayed as a hanger-on and coward.

The Earps and cowboys hate each other but manage to co-exist for over a year; and then with great power comes a great lack of responsibility. When Curly Bill drunkenly murders the town marshal, beating the rap in court, and other cowboys shoot up the town and endanger the lives of women and children, Virgil has had enough and goes to the mayor (Terry O’Quinn) and accepts the marshal’s job. Morgan follows, but Wyatt, still wanting to do nothing but make money and carry on an extramarital affair with the actress Josie Marcus (Dana Delaney) refuses to be deputized.

He will soon change his mind.

Tombstone blends thematic elements from the first two OK Corral movies, but they are traditional themes from the history of western fiction: the fact that sooner or later freedom will have to be exchanged for progress, and the strong bond between men, whether they be brothers or friends.

And the friendship between Wyatt and Doc is much stronger here than we’ve seen it before. During Wyatt’s vengeance ride one of the men on the posse asks the obviously ailing Doc Holliday why he’s endangering his health by going along. “Because Wyatt Earp is my friend.” “Friend?” the man says, “Hell, I got lots of friends.” “I don’t,” Doc replies.

You breathe a sigh at the end of Tombstone and feel like what you’ve just seen should have been history, and that maybe it was. It isn’t, of course, but it comes close enough for the casual viewer. So close, in fact, that if you follow up a screening of the movie with a book about the events surrounding the gunfight, you’ll feel like you’re in familiar territory.

And if you ever visit Tombstone, AZ, you’ll feel something like a lover of the King Arthur legends feels when visiting Tintagel Castle. You can walk through the Bird Cage Theater and the OK Corral and know just why it’s so important to print the legend.

- Doug Bentin

(Doug writes film reviews for eFilmCritic! and book reviews (mostly Westerns) for Bookgasm. His personal blog is The Long Saturday of the Soul).

Movie Review: Gunfight at the OK Corral

2007-12-10T00:18:00.000-05:00

(This is the second installment in our series of reviews on classic Westerns inspired by the Gunfight at the OK Corral. For the first part of this series, click here)

The second of the three movies we’re looking at that chronicle the events leading up to the gunfight at the OK corral is, well, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. That makes it easy to remember.

Directed by John Sturges in 1957, the picture stars Burt Lancaster as Wyatt Earp, and Kirk Douglas as Doc Holliday. John Hudson, DeForest Kelley (yup, Dr. “Bones” McCoy from “Star Trek”) and Martin Millner tag along as Virgil, Morgan and James Earp. Lyle Bettger is Ike Clanton and Dennis Hopper is his little brother (son in real life) Billy. John Ireland, who played Billy Clanton in the 1946 My Darling Clementine, is Johnny Ringo. Rhonda Fleming is Laura Denbow, the gal Wyatt will love and leave behind, and Jo Van Fleet is Holliday’s sometime girlfriend (Big Nose) Kate Fisher. The script is by Leon Uris, who will later gain fame as the author of the bestsellers “Exodus,” “Topaz,” and “QB VII.”

The movie opens with one of those terrible songs that will make your kids roll their eyes when they hear it. Sung by Frankie Laine, it’s the kind of thing Mel Brooks parodied so mercilessly in “Blazing Saddles.” There’s no way not to grin at lyrics like “If the Lord is my friend, I’ll see you at the end of the Gunfight at the OK Corral.” Once it gets revved up, though, you can tell the score is by the great Dimitri Tiomkin.

Like the earlier “My Darling Clementine,” GOKC is a legend western that takes bits and pieces of actual western history and mixes them with pulp and romance to create a story that might look like it’s true but wouldn’t fool anyone who’d seen a 30-minute TV documentary on the affair.

The picture opens 10 years before the events in Tombstone as lawman Wyatt Earp is chasing cattle thief Ike Clanton through Ft. Griffin, Texas. Against his better judgment, Wyatt saves Doc Holliday from a lynch mob. Back in Dodge City, Doc loses Kate to Johnny Ringo and helps Wyatt arrest Shanghai Pierce (Ted de Corsia), who really has nothing to do with the story (nor did he in real life) but has such a great western name Uris just had to use it.

And speaking of nothing-to-do-with-it, Wyatt meets and falls in love with gambling lady Laura Denbow (the gorgeous Fleming). When he gets word from his brothers in Tombstone that they need his help, he tells the gal he loves her but he has to go to his family.

As it is with so many western movies, friendship and loyalty among men is the central theme here. Sturges would continue to mine this vein in years to come as the director of “Last Train From Gun Hill,” “The Magnificent Seven,” and “The Great Escape.” The film admits that the civilizing influence of women is necessary, but secondary to the responsibility imposed on a man by the willing acceptance of male friendship.

Unlike the case with “My Darling Clementine,” this movie pays at least lip service to the city/county politics at play in Tombstone. Wyatt asks for an appointed as U.S. Marshal so he will have jurisdiction over the entire county and can thus pursue the Clantons to their ranch out of town.

Since Wyatt has been chasing Ike Clanton for years, tempers flair when the two clans of inseparable brothers clash, resulting in the ambush death of James Earp, once again played as the baby brother of the family. His murder is the catalyst that causes the big shootout.

Douglas makes a far more believable Doc Holliday than the husky Victor Mature. We can see more clearly in this man the “too-lateness” and world-weary despair that pushes Doc into deadly situations. Our sadness at the waste of such a person is heightened by Lancaster’s holier-than-thou reading of Earp’s character. He’s constantly lecturing Doc on the evils of drunkenness, and while Doc goes out of his way to stand by Wyatt, when the gunfight is over and Earp sees plainly that Doc is dying, he still saddles up and rides away, leaving the consumptive gunman to find his own way.

The movie tries a little too hard to be an epic—a fault that would be noticeable in much of Sturges’ later work--but it is mostly enjoyable. Just remember that you can’t merely check your sense of history at the door—you have to lock it away in a trunk in the attic.

- Doug Bentin

(Doug writes film reviews for eFilmCritic! and book reviews (mostly Westerns) for Bookgasm. His personal blog is The Long Saturday of the Soul).

Saddlebums Interview: Win Blevins

2007-12-06T07:58:00.000-05:00

Win Blevins has a passion for the West and it shows in his writing. He lives a conscious and vibrant life in the rural Southwest. His first novel, Charbonneau: Man of Two Dreams, was published in 1975 and since then he has produced thirteen more novels, sold five screenplays, written history, and even published a dictionary. He won the Spur Award for his novel Stone Song, and he has achieved both critical acclaim as well as a devoted readership.

His latest novel A Long and Winding Road has recently been released in hardcover by Forge Books. The Publishers Weekly review reads, in part: Blevins is a master of mountain man lore, and he certainly knows the beaver and buffalo hide business, as well as the politics of the region and era.

First, I want to thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions Win.

You're welcome.

I want to talk a little about your publishing history, what is the first novel you published? Was it a long time coming, or did you hit print pretty quickly once you decided to write it?

My first novel was CHARBONNEAU: MAN OF TWO DREAMS, way back in 1975. It was the story of the life of Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau, the son of Sacajawea. It was bad luck—the publisher went out of business a couple weeks after it was published. Still in print, though.

My first book was two years earlier, GIVE YOUR HEART TO THE HAWKS: A TRIBUTE TO THE MOUNTAIN MEN. It's history told in the style of fiction, like Irving Stone’s MEN TO MATCH MY MOUNTAINS. I had a stroke of luck getting that first book published. The head of Nash Publishing, Ed Nash, heard me telling mountain man stories at a party. He asked me to turn them into a book, and I did. No struggles, no rejections, all too easy.

It turned out that the company didn't have the money to print enough copies to fill all the orders, and that hurt the book. However, it too is still in print. Best compliment a writer can get.

When I was a kid, my friends fantasized about being Superman. I wanted to be Clark Kent. Digging out stories and writing them for a newspaper, that sounded like fun.

When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?

When I was a kid, my friends fantasized about being Superman. I wanted to be Clark Kent. Digging out stories and writing them for a newspaper, that sounded like fun. I got to do that for some years.

Is there a book, or a few books, that you have written and are particularly proud of?

I love all my children. Maybe my favorite is the one that (as with children) was the most troublesome. I worked on the story of the life of Crazy Horse for twenty years. He was an infatuation and an obsession. His way of seeing Mystery became mine. When the book came out in 1995, the reception was extraordinary.

Most writers are voracious readers, and I'm wondering what you read for pleasure?

I read mysteries and thrillers, and sometimes poetry. When I'm writing, which is always, it's difficult for me to read literature that has a superb style—the voice tries to creep into my own work. So I read for fun. And believe that fun is a splendid achievement in a novel.

I read a lot about the West, but not many traditional, action-adventure westerns. I prefer history, journals, and novelists who are unusual. I like Ed Abbey's THE BRAVE COWBOY, John Nichols's THE MILAGRO BEANFIELD WAR (yes, it is a western—it's a battle over water rights), Tony Hillerman (they’re westerns as much as mysteries), Rudolfo Anaya, Scott Momaday, Wallace Stegner, Ivan Doig, Cormac McCarthy, and the historical novels of Larry McMurtry. If I was stranded in the desert with only one book about the West, I’ hope it would be Norman Maclean's A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT.

I avoid books in the endless succession of western clichés—the cavalry saving white folks from Indians, cattlemen vs. sheepmen, trail drive stories, tales of how AMERICANS CONQUERED THE WEST or TAMED THE WILDERNESS. Some of those books are terrific. However, it's been done, and to me it's not the story of the real West—it's just self-glorification. Also, it mostly leaves out women, Mexicans, Mormons, mountain men, and any genuine look at Indian people, in short the real West.

Your biography is impressive in its own right as an adventure story: You have climbed mountains, sailed, river-rafted, lost the use of your legs and then regained them. If you could, what was your most memorable adventure?

Most memorable? Well, there are two kinds—the ones that were the most fun and the ones that nearly got me killed. In the fun category—climbing Mont Blanc, my first big mountain; climbing everything I ever climbed with my two lifelong friends, Hooman Aprin and Leeds Davis; making the circuit around Annapurna in Nepal; floating the San Juan River a dozen times or more. Life-threatening? I took a fall into a crevasse on Mount Rainier and had a hard time getting out. And I froze my feet badly on Mount Jacinto near Palm Springs. Yes, Palm Springs, that's why I wasn’t expecting such a blizzard.

I love Westerners, who are the damnedest combination of savvy, plucky, bull-headed, thoughtful, ignorant, super-educated, maddening people on the planet. Their thinking doesn't run down the tracks laid by the NEW YORK TIMES—because it's original thinking (even when bonkers).

Now I want to turn to the Western genre specifically. What first led you to the genre?

I am fascinated by the West. I love the landscape, and try to make it the main character in every book. I love Westerners, who are the damnedest combination of savvy, plucky, bull-headed, thoughtful, ignorant, super-educated, maddening people on the planet. Their thinking doesn't run down the tracks laid by the NEW YORK TIMES—because it's original thinking (even when bonkers).

This love affair started when I spent a summer in Colorado, camping and hiking. It blew up big when I moved to Los Angeles and spent my week ends in the local mountains and deserts. When I came to the Canyonlands of the Utah-Arizona border in 1976, my heart was captured forever. I still live here.

Though professional writers are a rarity in my region, I feel like one maverick among many—Navajos, archeologists, artists, river rats, desert rats, a comradeship of individuality.

Are there any Western writers who have most influenced your work?

Sure, Mark Twain, Mark Twain, and Mark Twain. He was an extraordinarily intelligent fellow who wrote stories that appealed to the entire community, not just the literati. He wrote in the language of the common man. He was a genius, and he's my hero.

I've also been influenced greatly by the books of Bernard DeVoto, especially ACROSS THE WIDE MISSOURI and YEAR OF DECISION: 1846. If you want to learn to write history, read DeVoto.
A director of westerns gave me something to emulate. I want to jam pack my novels with the passion and originality of Sam Peckinpah's movies. THE WILD BUNCH and RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY are masterpieces.

I don't really have any models, though. I want to tell stories no one else has told. I'm trying to tell the biggest truth that I can see, and I have to see it for myself. I don't know whether this is a strength or a weakness.

If you could bring back the work of one Western writer who would it be? Is there a specific title?

I'd like more attention for some living writers who are underappreciated. Max Evans captures the contemporary West beautifully, and he's almost alone in that. Loren Estleman has a prose style that seethes with life. Richard Wheeler writes quiet, thoughtful, lovely novels. Craig Leslie and Jim Fergus are first-rate.

What do you think about the western genre today, and what do you think the future holds for the western story?

Write about the West and you'll be a pariah. Picture this: You're at a cocktail party with literary people in New York. An attractive young woman comes up and says, "What do you write?' You answer, "I write about the West." She makes her escape so fast you can feel the backdraft. She asks a nearby scribe what he writes. "Pornography," he answers. She smiles and says, "How fascinating. Tell me more."

Believe it.

I have no idea about the future of writing about the West. I know two things: 1) Every region of America is a first-rate subject for good writing, and in my opinion the West is the best of all, because the people are originals. 2) Good stories will always have an audience.

You not only write Western historical novels, but you also work as an editor for a New York publisher. Does this give you a different perspective on the genre?

I recently retired as an editor—clear sailing to do nothing but write from now on. During my editing years I learned that I can't predict what will sell and what won't, and that I love working with writers.

Different perspective? No. I'm not an ideal editor for westerns because my views about the West are personal and strongly held.

Everything I do in the West—drive, look at land forms, hike, swim a river in a life jacket, take my dog for a walk, visit ruins, listen to old-timers—everything finds its way into my books.

Your work is known for its historical accuracy. What role does research play in your writing, and how—if you do—do you compromise between the story and its historical roots?

Research is a big deal for me. In the mid 70s I was lucky enough to get some movie script money and could afford to spend a couple of years soaking up Western history like a sponge. I continue to read and read and check facts and check facts.

But that isn't the essence of research. For the Crazy Horse book I moved to Wyoming and stayed fifteen years (and am still in the rural West). I wanted to smell the air he smelled, wade the creeks he waded, make meat as he did, and so on. As it turned out, I also needed to do many sweat lodges, many vision quests, and other ceremonies. (His path is now mine; I became a pipe carrier.) The essence of research is experience, not book knowledge. If a writer hasn't been in a sweat lodge (and one celebrated Lakota hasn't), I can spot that within a couple of sentences. It destroys verisimilitude for me.

Everything I do in the West—drive, look at land forms, hike, swim a river in a life jacket, take my dog for a walk, visit ruins, listen to old-timers—everything finds its way into my books.

Yet even that kind of research only creates the world where the characters interact. Characters doing things that show who they are, and what human beings are like—that's the soul of fiction. That takes good observation of people, a nose for telling details, a sense of humor, and imagination. My novels, whether historical or contemporary, are acts of imagination in a thoroughly real world.

Compromise? No need. Oh my, just take a walk in the history of the West, or the streets of your own Western town, and you'll find truths begging to be told. Tell the truth and tell it loud.

You have written a broad variety of western fiction—from your novel Stone Song about Crazy Horse, to your chronicles of the early trappers, to contemporary western stories like your novel ravenShadow. Is there a particular era of western history you are most interested in?

If it's Western, historical or contemporary, I'm interested. If it's a story that hasn't been told and re-told, I may write it.

Maybe one day I'll expand that to, if it's American, I'm interested. I want to know who Americans are, from the splendid to the repulsive, and to sing it all in story form.

Okay, now let's get down to your current work. What is your latest novel?

For the past few years I've been writing mountain man novels called the RENDEZVOUS series. They follow the life of a single mountain man from when he leaves home in the East to when he retires as a trapper and settles in California with his half-blood children.

I wanted to write a series of stories that would show a character's growth from boy through marriage and children to the end of one kind of life; to tell the story of the great twenty years of the Rocky Mountain fur trade; to draw attention especially to the relationships (most of them very good) between the trappers and the Native people; to dramatize the difficulties of being of mixed blood in an Anglo world; and to explore some aspects of the fur trade era that are relatively unfamiliar, like the Indian slave trade.

Four of these novels have been published (the first won the Spur Award); the next, A LONG AND WINDING ROAD, comes out in December; and the final novel, DREAMS BENEATH YOUR FEET, is due in autumn of 2008.

Can you tell us about the novel—or any other projects—you are working on now?

I'm off on something entirely new, a series of novels we're informally calling THE PEOPLE WHO WOULD BECOME THE CHEROKEE. The books are set in the mists of pre-history, like Jean Auel's and Michael and Kathleen Gear’s. I don't know how many books will eventually comprise the series.

This is a lot of fun. They're pre-history, but little is known about the people who would become the Cherokees. So I'm taking a hard look at the culture in the 1500s and 1600s, our earliest knowledge of it, and imagining it backwards a few thousand years. This ancient culture will feel to modern readers like fantasy—it's full of shamans who can travel to the worlds above and below, spirit animals, magic, talking buzzards, enchanted caverns, etc. I guess the term for it would pre-historical fantasy.

Why the Cherokees? More than fifty years ago my aunts told me the family secret—we're Cherokee, and gave me some details. Since then I've had an avid curiosity about my unacknowledged ancestors. This is one way of getting to know them, and to pay tribute to them.

I have more ideas for books than I could write in a zillion lifetimes, and I love it that way. Life is grand and nutty and glorious—I'd like to get all of that into stories.

I have one last question, and I must warn it is a little vague. If you could chose any project to work on, what would it be?

I'd like to write poetry every day, and may soon get going on that. I'd like to write songs. I want to write a non-fiction paean to the grand country I live in. I'd like to write a couple of novels about the contemporary West in the Southwest, a zesty mixture of Anglos, Navajos, Pueblo people, Mexicans trying to make good lives around each other and in a world that is getting crazier by the day. I have more ideas for books than I could write in a zillion lifetimes, and I love it that way. Life is grand and nutty and glorious—I'd like to get all of that into stories.

THE SEA OF GRASS by Conrad Richter

2007-12-02T23:03:00.000-05:00

This post marks the first in a new series here at Saddlebums: an occasional piece dealing with the finest western fiction ever written. These contributions will examine the circumstances of publication, the author, and discuss what went into these stories and why they are now ranked among the best. Richard S. Wheeler prepared the first in the series, and it examines Conrad Richter’s The Sea of Grass.

Richard S. Wheeler is the dean of the modern western story. His novels are tender, tough, critical, and original—he has tackled expansive historical dramas, such as Aftershocks, a masterful portrayal of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906; biographical novels like Trouble in Tombstone; mining camp stories, such as his Spur winning novel Vengeance Valley. He is also the author of the well-received Barnaby Skye series—the most recent title in the series is The Canyon of Bones—and his recently released autobiography, An Accidental Novelist, has been praised by readers and writers alike.

The Sea of Grass, by Conrad Richter, first appeared as a Saturday Evening Post serial in 1936, and was published by Alfred Knopf in 1937. It is still in print, from the University of Ohio Press. The novel might be called a traditional cattleman vs. nester story, but it is much more. It is narrated by young Hal Brewton, nephew of the story’s central figure, Jim Brewton, who runs cattle on a vast sea of grass near Salt Fork, which is probably in Texas but could be in New Mexico.

Jim Brewton’s enormous range is almost all public land; he owns only the water holes, and that makes him vulnerable to the nesters wanting to plow the lush grassland and plant crops, even though the land is arid. The opening lines of the novel introduce us to its theme:

That lusty pioneer blood is tamed now, broken and gelded like the wild horse and the frontier settlement. And I think that I shall never see it flowing through human veins again as it did in my Uncle Jim Brewton, riding a lathered horse across his shaggy range or standing in his massive ranch house, bare of furniture as a garret, and holding together his empire of grass and cattle by the fire in his eyes.

The fire in his eyes. There is the heart of the novel. At the beginning, with the arrival of Brewton’s mail-order bride Lutie, we discover a horde of nesters waiting to swarm over Brewton’s ranch. And supporting them is the federal attorney, and later judge, Brice Chamberlain, who sympathizes with the humble. Lutie does, too. She furiously tries to civilize the obdurate Brewton, adding graces to his home, bringing a son and daughter into the family, and taking him to Mass on Sundays, but there is no taming old Jim.

Eventually, she has a third child, a blond boy, as blond as Brice Chamberlain is blond, and soon after that she leaves Brewton, and her whereabouts are unknown for years. But Chamberlain remains in Salt Fork, calls in the army to defend the nesters, and soon the nesters are plowing up Brewton’s range. After a trial, when Chamberlain asks Brewton why his men ran off a nester named Boggs, Brewton has a surprising reply: "He was not run off because he wanted to settle those hundred-sixty acres but because of what he wanted to do with the land."

He goes on to say he has some charity for the nester. "But–"and his voice began to ring in the small, hushed courtroom, "when that nester picks country like my big vega, that’s more than seven thousand feet above the sea, when he wants to plow it up to support his family where there isn’t enough rain for crops to grow, where he only kills the grass that will grow, where he starves for water and feeds his family by killing my beef and becomes a man without respect to himself and a miserable menace to the territory, then I have neither sympathy nor charity!"

As the novel progresses, we learn that Brewton was right. At first, during a wet cycle, the nesters prosper, their crops bloom, and their life seems assured. But with the coming of a dry cycle, their hopes collapse and they flee, leaving a ruined grassland behind them.

The novel was written long before publishers narrowed the traditional western to men’s literature that resolves conflict through violence. And while there is some violence in the story, it is offstage and muted. More surprising was the veiled but unmistakable adultery theme in the novel, handled delicately for the Saturday Evening Post readership. Old Jim Brewton remains as obdurate and flinty as ever as he ages, and late in the novel it appears that he was defeated by his rival and enemy, Brice Chamberlain, after all. But then one day Lutie mysteriously reappears, as passionate and willful as ever, begins once again to civilize the old ranchhouse, and takes up residence as though she had never left. And not only does Brewton welcome her, he is triumphant, for her return marks the final defeat and disgrace of Chamberlain– but I will leave it to the reader to interpret the surprising conclusion.

Conrad Richter’s prose is lyrical and draws us into a world scarcely imagined by modern people. But even more of an asset is his gift of characterization. Lutie and Jim Brewton are as vivid as any characters ever set on a page. Brewton is harsh, rigid, and yet filled with his own code of honor, which he lives by at great cost to himself. Lutie is a visionary, wanting to better the world, not only the world of the settlers, but Brewton’s cruel world, and she sets out to do it in the face of his obdurate resistance. Brice Chamberlain, on the other hand, is an idealist and reformer– with a heart of clay. He’s not man enough to stand up to Brewton after stealing Brewton’s wife (he deserts her at the train station when she is leaving Brewton for him), and lives out his life knowing he is the lesser man.

Richter went on to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1951 for another frontier novel, The Town. He had grown up in Pennsylvania, but spent much of his life in the place he loved most, New Mexico.
The Sea of Grass is at or near the top of most lists ranking the greatest westerns.

—Richard S. Wheeler

Scouting the Web

2007-11-30T00:00:00.000-05:00

1.- A number of published and novice Western writers have finally launched the much-anticipated anthology Where Legends Ride. For Western fans, this is particularly interesting since it includes short stories by many of the authors who regularly pen novels for UK publisher Robert Hale Publishers’ Black Horse Westerns, including Lance Howard (aka Howard Hopkins), I.J. Parnham and Ben Bridges (aka David Whitehead). You might know from reading this blog that Black Horse titles are hard to come by outside of the UK. This anthology provides readers a great opportunity to see what some of its writers are all about as well as sample Western fiction from new authors.

As their press release states: “Here you'll meet brave school-teachers, plucky widows, a battered wife, a stubborn mule and several folk who are seeking redemption. You'll feel the heat of the badlands, the chill of danger and the gut-wrenching of betrayal. The stories cover a broad range, from the poignant to the humorous and offer up some pleasant surprises for any reader who has never read a ‘western’ before.”

Where Legends Ride was hatched by the lively members of the Black Horse Westerns Yahoo group. To know more about the 14 short stories that comprise this anthology as well as the men and women behind them, visit the preview section of their website.

You can purchase the book here.

2.- The Los Angeles Times recently ran a nice profile of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Wallace Stegner.

The reissue of an obscure book by Stegner, Discovery! The Search for Arabian Oil has stirred some controversy between the publisher and the author’s agent, who claims the release of this work-for-hire job for a group of oil companies does “a massive disservice” to the author’s legacy. Apparently, the edition is not Stegner’s original version but the company-sanitized text. The Los Angeles Times reports on it here and The Washington Post weighs in here. You can also read a review of the book.

Its publication coincides with the release of The Selected Letters of Wallace Stegner. Edited by his son, Page Stegner, the book is said to provide an interesting glimpse at the vivid polemics between the author and some of his critics.

3.- For Western art fans, the November/December issue of Art of the West magazine as well as the December issue of the handsome Western Art Collector are out.

As I have said before, these publications are veritable catalogues of fine illustrations inspired by the West.

Movie Review: My Darling Clementine

2007-11-25T16:42:00.000-05:00

(This past October 26 signaled the anniversary of the legendary Gunfight at the OK Corral. The episode has inspired numerous works of literature and, most notably, films. In the first installment of a series, Doug Bentin will take a look at some of the movies that have recreated this interesting chapter in the history of the West.

Doug writes film reviews for eFilmCritic! and book reviews (mostly Westerns) for the most indispensable website Bookgasm. His personal blog is The Long Saturday of the Soul - Saddlebums).

With Oct. 26 marking the anniversary of the Gunfight at the OK Corral—which is surely one of the half-dozen most iconic incidents in the history of the American West—I thought we might take a look at three easily accessible movies that were inspired by the famous shootout.

The oldest of the three is John Ford’s classic My Darling Clementine (1946).

It seems to me that there are three varieties of Western fiction: realistic, romantic, and legendary. None is superior to the others and which one plays best with you depends on what you’re in the mood for at the time. MDC is definitely legendary, drawing as it does on actual historical events, even though tossing its ingredients into the blender of Hollywood and working with the smoothed-out results.

Henry Fonda is Wyatt Earp. He and brothers Virgil (Tim Holt), Morgan (Ward Bond) and James (an uncredited Don Garner) are just passing through Tombstone, AZ, on their way to California with a herd of cattle. One night Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan ride into town and James is left behind to watch the herd. He is murdered in the rain and the cattle are rustled.

James is presented as the baby of the family, a mere 18, when in fact he was seven years Wyatt’s senior and didn’t die until 1926. Additionally, there was no herd and all four brothers had been living in Tombstone since at least 1879. James was the only brother not involved in the gunfight and in the movie his death is used as the motivating factor for Wyatt to pin on the marshal’s badge and rid the town of the evil, thieving, rustling, murdering Clanton gang.

It’s in town that Wyatt meets the gambler Doc Holliday (Victor Mature, giving one of his best performances, although he is a bit husky to suffer from tuberculosis). This is not the first time Holliday has appeared in a John Ford Western, but the most famous time he was called “Hatfield” in Stagecoach and played by the much more physically believable John Carradine.

Romantic complications ensue when a lady friend of Doc’s from long ago and far away shows up unexpectedly. Clementine Carter (Cathy Downs) has been following Doc deeper into the west as he’s been trying to avoid her. His motive is to release her from the pain of watching his disease waste him away. He’s taken up with a dance hall gal named Chihuahua (Linda Darnell). Her profession and ethnicity are indicative of just how far Doc Holliday, that fine surgeon and southern gentleman, has fallen. That symbolism is as faulty as turning a dentist into a surgeon.

As Doc runs away from Clementine, Wyatt moves toward her. Fonda was always good at portraying the hesitant man in affairs of the heart, too respectful of good women to make the first move, so Wyatt’s sort-of courtship sails slowly. It doesn’t really get under weigh until Doc removes a stray bullet from Chihuahua and reclaims some of his old pride, at which point Clementine seems more willing to let him go. Wyatt is as puzzled by her attitude as we are. He leans on the bar and asks the whiskey-server, “Mac, you ever been in love?” to which Mac replies, “No, I been a bartender all my life.”

The action part of the story heats up when one of gang leader Ike Clanton’s (Walter Brennan) sons is killed and Ike and the rest of his brood come into town to wrap up their feud with the Earps.

Even if you can’t keep the Earp brothers straight in your mind and have no idea that one called James wasn’t killed by rustlers, you know the movie is going south historically speaking when you see on James’ headstone that he was killed in 1882—a year after the famous gunfight took place.

Nothing is made of the tinder-box politics of Tombstone in the early 1880s. Many historians believe that at the root of the conflict was a scramble for economic dominance, much as was the case in the Lincoln Co. War.

But this movie isn’t trying to be historically accurate. It’s a movie about the Wild West being tamed. Cattle trails give way to churches. When Doc performs his surgery, he uses tables pushed together in the saloon, so the bar becomes a hospital. Doc is the sophisticated man racing toward death just as Wyatt is the rough neck turning to civilization. Only one of them will reach his goal.

My Darling Clementine is one of those westerns that use a sand grain of historical truth around which to grow a pearl of western legend. If historical inaccuracies drive you nuts, and you can’t appreciate a movie just for the purity of its movie-ness, you might have a hard time with this one. Otherwise, it’s a classic. Enjoy.

Forthcoming Westerns: December 2007

2007-11-21T11:12:00.000-05:00

It’s a holiday weekend here in the United States, so I’m posting December’s upcoming Western releases a little early this month. The list, while not quite as impressive as the last few months, is pretty darn good. We have the usual suspects—a new Longarm, Gunsmith, Trailsman, and Slocum—and we also have a new Western from literary writer Thomas Eidson, and the plot—see below for the synopsis—sounds pretty good.

Leisure Books is releasing Tim Champlin’s latest novel, Devil's Domain, The Penguin Group is releasing a new Ralph Compton novel written by David Robbins—the same guy who writes Wilderness—as well as a new Vigilante novel by Jory Sherman, and there are six new Black Horse Westerns scheduled for release in the U.K.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday. And maybe I’ll see you in the Western section in the local bookstore. Happy reading.

Synopsis for Devil's Domain:

There was a reason people called Andersonville Prison hell on earth. With more than thirty thousand Union soldiers held captive in the worst conditions possible, death and disease were daily visitors. If scurvy or starvation didn’t kill them, the guards would. Sergeant John Mulroy knows he’ll die if he doesn’t find some way to escape. Problem is, even if he does get out, his closest ally suffers bouts of madness and just may murder him anyway….

November 27th

Devil's Domain by Tim Champlin
Wilderness #54: Pure of Heart by David Thompson
Shower of Gold by Zane Grey
The Soldier’s Way by Dane Coolidge

December 4th

Ralph Compton’s Blood Duel by Ralph Compton & David Robbins
St. Agnes’ Stand by Thomas Eidson
The Trailsman #314: North Country Cutthroats by Jon Sharpe
The Vigilante: Santa Fe Showdown by Jory Sherman
Preacher’s / Fury of the Mountain Man by William W. Johnstone
Rampage of the Mountain Man by William W. Johnstone

Synopsis for St. Agnes’ Stand:

July 1858: Nat Swanson, a bullet in his leg and bone-weary, flees across the New Mexico desert from a vengeful posse. Back in west Texas, he killed a man over a woman whose name he never knew, and now he’s on the run to California, his only hope for a new life the ranch deed in his pocket.

In a dry riverbed, Nat spots two overturned wagons surrounded by Apaches. The only sign of a survivor is his quick glimpse of an old woman’s face–a face that forces a stark decision. Nat can ride on and save himself, or stay and try to save the stranded and doomed party. Sister St. Agnes, huddled between the wagons with her fellow nuns and the orphans in their care, somehow knows that God will answer her prayers and send a savior to deliver them from evil.As death shadows the dusty arroyo, the forsaken canyon becomes a place of destiny where a courageous nun and an embattled man confront their fates together.

December 12th

Doubtful Canon by Johnny D. Boggs
Outlaws from Afar by Max Brand

December 15th

The Shopkeeper by James D. Best

Synopsis for The Gunsmith #313: Wildfire:

After a posse mistakes Clint Adams for a murdering pyromaniac who's scorched a path from Texas to New Mexico, he joins them on their hunt for the match-happy madman.

December 18th

The Gunsmith #313: Wildfire by J.R. Roberts
Longarm #350: Longarm and the Hangtree Vengeance by Tabor Evans
Slocum #347: Slocum’s Four Brides by Jake Logan

December 24th

The Flying Wagon by Ian Parnham
Lone Survivor by V.S. Meszaros

December 26th

The Horses: The Journey of Jim Glass by Bill Brooks

December 30th

Barbary Coast Gundown by James Gordon White
Find Madigan! By Hank J. Kirby
Justice for Crockett by Dale Graham
The Legend and the Man by Ben Nicholas
The Modoc Kid by Mark Bannerman
The Night Riders by Matt Laidlaw
Outcasts of Rebel Creek by Frank Bonham & Bill Pronzini
Sharpshooters and the Rainman by Ron Watkins
Twisted Bars by Max Brand
Wyoming Showdown by Jack Edwardes

Synopsis of The Bull Chop:

Jude Linsey is a young man who is content to live off his rich father's allowance. He ekes out the money in and out of Spooner's Drift by gambling, or fishing and hunting beaver in the high creeks of Shell Mountain. Then the town's bank gets robbed, and Jude is suddenly aware there's a chance to redeem himself with his family and friends. But the deceitful Sheriff Ingram Bere has to be considered: a man with a covetous eye and more than a lawful interest in Jude's welfare. To mull over his predicament, Jude takes to the timberline with his saddle-broke roan. But events change, and Jude has little choice but to pit his wits and guns against Bart and Dooley Susans' gang of hard-nosed, desperate killers.

Black Horse Westerns

December 31st

Manhunt in Quemado by Daniel Rockfern
Desolation Pass by Lance Howard
Hammer of God by Phillip McCormac
The Bull Chop by Abe Dancer
Wilde Country by Tyler Hatch
Judge Parker's Lawmen by Elliot Conway

Saddlebums Review: Holmes on the Range by Steve Hockensmith

2007-11-19T12:11:00.000-05:00

Holmes on the Range is a little different from the usual fare here at Saddlebums—it fits in quite nicely, but it is unique in that it is a Sherlock Holmes-type whodunit that is set in the Western United States of the 1890s. Big Red and Old Red are brothers who earn their livings the hard way. They do it from the back of a horse, but that doesn’t stop Old Red from admiring the work of Mr. Sherlock Holmes, which he studies evenings in the bunkhouse from the pages of The Strand. His younger brother, Big Red, reads them aloud because Old Red isn't lettered.

When the two take a job on a ranch in Montana they figure everything will be usual—long hours, poor pay, and barely edible food. When the ranch accountant turns up dead Old Red decides it’s time to employ his mentor’s—Sherlock Holmes—tested technique of detection. He sets out to investigate the death, but things tense-up as bodies are added to the casualty list, and then the ranch threatens to explode, figuratively, when the English owners show up unannounced. It doesn’t help matters that the local cannibal, Hungry Bob, is roaming the territory making everyone a little uneasy.

Holmes on the Range is a perfect mixture of Western lore and British mystery. Mr Hockensmith deftly combines two genres in a unique and unusual manner to create an intelligent and humorous story that will be enjoyed by fans of both genres. It is narrated by Big Red—the lettered brother—who admirably fills the role of Dr Watson. His voice is strong, funny as hell, and lucid in its descriptions of both the land and the characters that occupy it. The opening lines read:

There are two things you can’t escape out here in the West: dust and death. They sort of swirl together in the wind, and a fellow never knows when a fresh gust is going to blow one or the other right in his face. So while I’m yet a young man, I’ve already laid eyes on every manner of demise you could put a name to. I’ve seen folks drowned, shot, stabbed, starved, frozen, poisoned, hung, crushed, gored by steers, dragged by horses, bitten by snakes, and carried off by an assortment of illnesses with which I could fill the rest of this book and another besides.

So it’s quite a compliment I bestow when I say that the remains we came across the day after the big storm were the most frightful I’d ever seen.

The dialogue is sharp. The diction and idioms of the time period are captured well: He could still be south of here somewhere, runnin’ free or flat as frying pan. The characters are, put simply, characters. They have unique traits and names—Uly, Spider, Swede, Tall John, Swivel-Eye, Anytime, and Crazymouth. And the mystery is top-notch: I didn’t guess the murderer, or the motive, until late in the game.

Holmes on the Range is one of the better novels I have read this year. It is different, compelling, and humorous without being silly. I was hooked from the opening sentence, and Steve Hockensmith not only delivered on this early promise, but he exceeded my expectations. This is a novel that should be read by anyone who loves a mystery, a western, or just a good, well-written tale.

Scouting the Web

2007-11-16T00:16:00.000-05:00

■ Western scribe Jim Griffin’s Big Bend Death Trap, the latest novel in the Texas Ranger Cody Havlicek series, gets a glowing review at Rope and Wire (scroll down).

■ James Reasoner has published a new pseudonymous novel in The Trailsman series: Texas Timber War.

■ A new issue of Chap O’Keefe’s Black Horse Extra is online, featuring an article on Black Horse Westerns author Brian Parvin, a.k.a. Dan Claymaker, Jack Reason and Luther Chance. You will also find a very interesting piece on writing, focused on the creative process behind O’Keefe’s Peace at Any Price, which we reviewed here. This issue includes the traditional news roundup section Hoofprints and a list of upcoming BHW releases.

■ Neglected Books is a very interesting website where you can find more information and reviews of rare and out of print books, including Westerns such as Winds of Morning by H.L. Davis and Strange Conquest by Alfred Neumann.

■ The excellent Online Pulps site has a number of new downloads, including a short story from the August 1957 issue of Real Western Stories: The Dancing Trees by Lon Williams, starring his character Lee Winters. The synopsis reads: “Deputy Marshal Winters had been called upon to assist lovely damsels in distress before - but never a damsel like this, and never in this kind of distress!”

■ A new anthology containing ten lost mystery stories by Western writer extraordinaire Max Brand: Masquerade. You can read more about it here.

■ This might be old news, but it’s still worth noting. The 2008 Western Writers of America (WWA) Convention will take place June 10-14, 2008 at the Chaparral Suites in Scottsdale, Arizona.

■ Speaking of the WWA, a new issue of Roundup Magazine is out. You can see some of its contents here.

■ The New York Times Magazine has an all-Western films issue, with an overview of the genre by film critic A.O. Scott and comments on movies such as The Search Party, Broken Arrow and Robert Altman’s McCabe and Mrs. Miller (the latter by Jonathan Lethem). There’s also a short aside on actor Daniel Day-Lewis’ All-Time Top Westerns.

Robert B. Parker writes an interesting column on the film version of his novel Appaloosa, scheduled for release next year. Finally, there's pieces on on how Westerns shaped the business of filmmaking; the selling of the "Wild West" myth from Buffalo Bill Cody to Hollywood; the beautiful marriage of Westerns and hi-def DVDs; an interview with historian Patricia Limerick, author of the revisionist history of the West, The Legacy of Conquest; the figure of the outlaw in Westerns; and the curious comic and soon-to-be-movie Cowboys & Aliens, a trailer of which you can see here.

And here's a video with some pretty cool film clips on American Character and the Western.

All in all, a very comprehensive take on Hollywood Westerns. And with that, I'm out of here. Have a great weekend.

Saddlebums Review: Longarm and the Golden Eagle Shoot-Out

2007-11-12T00:23:00.000-05:00

Many writers of so-called “adult Westerns” – typically, serial novels in which the main character not only exhibits his prowess with a gun but also his skills in bed, the latter scenes depicted with varying degrees of graphicness – have often said that, in terms of plot, their books are nothing more than traditional Westerns with a few almost arbitrarily added sex episodes to satisfy the “adult” part of the equation. Given how many of the authors who write under house names such as Tabor Evans for the Longarm series or Jake Logan for Slocum are also accomplished scribes who publish “non-adult” books under their own name, you could reasonably expect some of these novels to exhibit at least a modicum of quality if.

Longarm and the Golden Eagle Shoot-Out is one of those installments that falls on the “better” side of the spectrum as opposed to the clichéd raunchiness you find in the worst adult Westerns. Like the good Longarms, it delivers a well-written story with tight plotting and plenty of action. Oh, and there’s sex scenes too. Actually, there are probably more of those than usual since this is a “giant edition” episode, which means it boasts a larger page count (250 pages) than the typical series installment (180 pages).

The explanation for all this probably lies in the fact that this particular Longarm was written by James Reasoner. Like many of his Westerns, this novel is heavy on the mystery, each plot twist unveiling a further secret involving its colorful cast of characters. The story opens with Deputy U.S. Marshal Custis Long, a.k.a. Longarm, in Wichita, following the trail of seasoned criminal Felix Gaunt. In spite of having killed over a dozen men in gunfights, Gaunt has only come to the attention of the U.S. government recently, when he attempted to sell diseased cattle to an Indian agency in Wyoming. Busted by a federal employee, the criminal shot him dead and is now on the run.

The stage is set for a typical Longarm manhunt but just when you think you know in which direction the story is going, the author introduces a number of parallel plots. One of these involves Raider, a former Pinkerton operative who also happens to be one of the main characters in the discontinued Doc and Raider series of adult Westerns formerly published by Playboy Press and subsequently by Berkley. Raider is now a blacksmith trying to settle down in Arkansas. Although he has been unsuccessful in finding a woman, he has no intention of going back to his action-filled past behind. As is to be expected, another plot thread involves Raider’s former associate, Doc Weatherbee, who is also retired from the Pinkerton agency and is presently working at his well-to-do brother’s bank in Boston.

Their stories converge in a shooting contest in West Texas, the initiative of big-time rancher Edmund Corrigan. The bored millionaire has decided to find out who is the fastest draw in the West. The prize is a life-sized gold statue of an eagle and if that doesn’t attract enough contestants, the potential of unlimited bragging rights and a larger than life reputation is a srtrong enough magnet for all sorts of miscreants and adventurers. Suffice is to say that neither Longarm nor Raider nor Doc are interested in the trophy nor the glory and yet all three descend on Corrigan’s ranch for reasons of their own.

The author’s taut pacing and solid characterizations do the rest in what is one of the more enjoyable of the recent Longarms. His trademark humor likewise adds a welcome lightheartedness to the story, differentiating it from the insufferable nature of straightforward contemporary “adult” or “erotic” fiction. Take, for example, his depiction of one Chastity Doolittle, whose name “was a condition with which she hadn’t been familiar in a good many years, and when it came to messing a round with men, she didn’t do little; she did a lot.”

Although “giant” novels seem a good idea if only for the fact that you get more pages for a slightly higher price, I am unsure whether this plays well to the series' strengths, one of which is the compact nature of its stories. At times it seems that this novel could have ended a couple of pages earlier and that the protracted chase that that takes place in its final chapters was added more to make this a “giant” edition than to satisfy plot requirements. Similarly, the abrupt introductions of and allusions to characters from other Longarm aventures – namely, the giant edition Longarm and the Outlaw Empress which was also authored by Reasoner – might confuse readers who are not familiar with them and were expecting a standalone title.

If there’s anything I could complain about this thoroughly entertaining novel, it is how the back cover could have been mentioned that Raider and Doc would be featured in the story. Probably not many people remember or even know them, but readers who are familiar with the genre would have certainly appreciated it.

Saddlebums Interview: Leah Hultenschmidt & Don D'Auria of Leisure Books

2007-11-06T21:33:00.000-05:00

I have been reading Leisure Books—everything from Western to Thriller to Horror—for more years than I would like to admit and when I talked Leah Hultenschmidt and Don D’Auria into an interview I was more than excited.

Leisure is one of the shining examples of a New York publisher that is successfully producing and marketing Westerns. Leisure’s Western line includes a broad array of reprints—writers like Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey, Max Brand, Lauran Paine, Wayne D. Overholser—as well as a good mixture of new writers—Robert J. Randisi, John D. Nesbitt, Tim Champlin, Cotton Smith, Johnny D. Boggs. The Lesiure line can be found in most major bookstores, grocery stores, department stores, and online--its website is one of the better publisher websites around with a simple and easy to use navigation system that not only features recent and new titles, but also previews coming titles.

Don D’Auria is Executive Editor at Leisure Books, where he acquires and edits Horror and Thrillers, and oversees the Western line. Prior to working at Leisure, Don was an editor at Bantam, where he edited Westerns and Action/Adventure, and at Doubleday, where he edited the hardcover Double D Western line. His authors include Cotton Smith, John D. Nesbitt, Kent Conwell, Paul Bagdon, Andrew J. Fenady, Robert J. Randisi, Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey, and Will Henry, among others.

Leah Hultenschmidt has been with Leisure for seven years. Before she began editing Westerns, she headed the company’s publicity department. Leah also acquires and edits in the Romance genre. Her authors include Max Brand, Wayne D. and Stephen Overholser, David Thompson, Johnny D. Boggs, Loren Zane Grey, Fred Grove, Lauran Paine, Mike Kearby and many others.

Dorchester Publishing is the parent company of Leisure Books and the oldest independent mass-market publisher in North America. More information on the book club can be found at http://www.dorchesterpub.com/Dorch/BookClub.cfm. Their submission guidelines are posted at http://www.dorchesterpub.com/Dorch/SubmissionGuidlines.cfm. To sign up for a newsletter announcing their latest releases, visit http://www.dorchesterpub.com/Dorch/Promo.cfm.

This is a unique interview for me—to speak to the decision makers, at least editorially, of a New York publishing house—and I would like to start with a few business-type questions as related to the Western genre. Leisure Books publishes four western novels each month, and I’m curious how the acquisition process works?

Don D’Auria (DD): I handle mostly original manuscripts, as opposed to reprints, so for me the process usually begins with a query letter, in which an author or agent briefly describes the ms and asks if they can send it in. The next step is simply me reading the manuscript and deciding if I want to make an offer for it. For authors I’ve worked with before, I can often base my decision on just a proposal or synopsis, since I’ll already know their writing style and I can trust them to write a good novel.

Leah Hultenschmidt (LH): With the exception of David Thompson’s Wilderness series, my acquisitions are all reprints. It’s a pretty simple process, really. The author (or agent) sends me a copy of the book, and if I think it fits well with our line and have room in the schedule for it, I’ll call up and make an offer.

“For authors who have a history with us, the decision to buy more titles is primarily based on previous sales—if the author continues to sell, we’ll keep publishing his books. For authors we’ve never published before, it mostly comes down to whether I like the story and the writing.”

How do you decide which older titles to bring back as reprints, and which original novels to publish? Do you always publish the same ratio of reprints to original novels, or does it change from month to month?

DD: There are a number of different factors that help me decide whether or not I want to publish an original manuscript, but the primary one, of course, is the quality of the writing and the storytelling. Also, I’d prefer to buy a book from an author who I think will continue to write excellent westerns in the future. This way I can work to help build a track record for the author and help establish a career, instead of just buying the one book then having to start all over again with another author.

LH: We prefer to reprint books that have never before been in paperback, although we have done some titles that originally came out as paperbacks but have been out of print for more than 10-15 years. For authors who have a history with us, the decision to buy more titles is primarily based on previous sales—if the author continues to sell, we’ll keep publishing his books. For authors we’ve never published before, it mostly comes down to whether I like the story and the writing. It also helps to have quotes or awards to help readers decide to take a chance on an author they might not have heard of.

The ratio of originals to reprints does vary month to month, depending on whether we have a Wilderness book scheduled or high-profile classic reprints by authors like Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey, or Will Henry.

Many readers, myself included, are in the dark as to how the editorial process works. What is the typical path of a novel from the time you purchase it, to when it is actually distributed to bookstores and dealers?

LH: It typically takes about 9-12 months to get a manuscript turned into a book. Work on the cover starts about 9-10 months before the pub date so our sales reps can get out there and sell the book to stores about 5 months prior to its release. All the editorial work needs to be done about 7 months before pub, which allows time for copyediting, typsetting, proofreading and printing. The schedule can vary a bit from book to book, but that’s the general timeline. Right now, I’m editing for April 2008, writing cover copy for June 2008, planning covers for July 2008 and buying books for Fall 2008.

Every Western published by Leisure has an insert that can be torn out and returned by readers to join a “book club”—the reader will then receive every new Western novel published by Leisure at a discount. My question, as a route of distribution, what portion of total sales do these direct sales represent?

LH: The book club is definitely a nice boon for sales. And for readers—especially when you can get 4 books a month for $16.00. The total percentage of sales, though, really varies by book. The number of book club members stays pretty steady, but the print runs for each title differ quite a bit. The book club can account for as much as 30% of sales, sometimes as little as 2%. Sometimes it can be the difference between a book making a profit and losing money, but again, it really depends on the individual book.

“What may be a successful number for one title could be a disappointment for another. We don’t hold Louis L’Amour and a first-time author to the same standards.”

How many copies does a Western novel need to sell before it can be considered a success? How many copies does the average western novel sell? Is there a significant difference in sales between the reprints and the original titles you publish?

LH: Again, this varies by book. What may be a successful number for one title could be a disappointment for another. We don’t hold Louis L’Amour and a first-time author to the same standards. The most important number for us is how many copies sold in relation to how many were shipped out to bookstores.

What are some of your best-selling authors and titles?

DD: I don’t think it will surprise anyone that Louis L’Amour is our best-selling author, since he’s one of the best-selling authors in the world. Not far behind him, though, is another all-time classic author, Zane Grey. I think these two authors, along with Max Brand, have a popularity that transcends the Western genre. Our restored edition of Grey’s Riders of Purple Sage is one of our best-selling titles, partly because it’s read by people who wouldn’t ordinarily pick up a Western.

“It’s certainly harder to get our titles into stores in the same numbers that we used to. As you say, the chains, like B&N and Borders, are cutting back on a number of their less profitable genres, and sadly one of those genres is the western.”

The Western sections in most large bookstores have been shrinking over the past decade or so, how difficult is it to get your books on the shelves in places likes Barnes & Noble, Borders, and other retailers?

DD: It’s certainly harder to get our titles into stores in the same numbers that we used to. As you say, the chains, like B&N and Borders, are cutting back on a number of their less profitable genres, and sadly one of those genres is the western. But wholesalers and distributors too are ordering lower numbers of the western titles that they carry, simply because they don’t feel they can turn around and sell them to stores. In our case, though, we’re working very hard to get our books out there into the marketplace, including alternative outlets like drug stores and supermarkets, to pick up some of the slack.

There has been a significant amount of talk on the Internet about the decline of the Western genre, and many place a significant portion of the blame on mainstream publishing houses for this decline. Proponents of this idea claim that publishers have failed to properly distribute their Westerns, put unattractive and unreflective artwork—of the actual story contained in the book—and basically have given up on a genre not because it is unprofitable, but not profitable enough. What do you think of these arguments? Is there some truth in them, or—from the perspective of an editor—are there other more driving reasons for the decline of the genre?

DD: Well, Leisure has definitely not given up on the Western genre or cut back in any way. We still publish as many titles every month as we ever did, and it’s still one of our more profitable lines. But in defense of the other houses that have cut back, it’s a simple fact that the readership for Westerns isn’t as large as it once was, and the bookstores and distributors aren’t buying as many as they once did. So Westerns may not sell as many books as other genres, and they may not make the publisher as much money as other genres. Even the largest publisher only has a fixed number of books they can publish every year, so it shouldn’t be that surprising that the publisher will choose to publish the books that will earn them the most money. From a purely business perspective, if you can choose between two books to publish, I think you can see the logic behind choosing the one that will sell better. But I think what’s at the bottom of the decline isn’t that publishers are publishing fewer Westerns, it’s that fewer readers seem to be buying the Westerns that are published. As I say, we still publish as many Westerns as we ever did, so we’re putting the books out there. Unfortunately, they just aren’t selling as many copies as they did even ten years ago. And those lower numbers are enough to convince some publishers to switch to more profitable lines. For us, though, even though the numbers are down a little, we’re still doing fine.

As a follow-up to the previous question, many writers and readers point to your Western line as proof that a New York publishing house can operate in the genre successfully. How has Leisure been able to gain and maintain its measurable success with its Western line? Why have you succeeded where so many others have failed in recent years?

LH: I think we have a number of advantages. As mentioned above, our book club is one. Also, in addition to the chain bookstores, a lot of our books are distributed in places like Wal-Mart, grocery stores and drug stores, which have been very supportive of the genre. Plus, other houses are publishing fewer Westerns, which gives us more of a marketshare. In certain stores, Leisure has accounted for up to 75% of the Westerns on the shelf.

“The impact is there, but it’s not huge. It’s a question of translating success in one medium to another. Not all the people who watch a Western movie will go out and buy a Western book.”

Every few years the Western is reborn on the screen—both big and small. A few examples are: HBO’s Deadwood, and Kevin Costner’s big screen adaptation of Lauran Paine’s novel The Open Range Men. Do these big-budget wide-audience happenings have a significant affect on Western novel sales?

DD: The impact is there, but it’s not huge. It’s a question of translating success in one medium to another. Not all the people who watch a Western movie will go out and buy a Western book. But whenever there’s a high-profile Western movie or TV show, it helps broaden awareness of the genre as a whole. And the effect is cumulative. One movie won’t do it, but once audiences have seen enough Western movies or TV shows that they enjoy, that’s when they decide that the like Westerns in general and start looking around for books.

LH: As Don said, one movie probably won’t have an impact on an entire genre. But it can have a dramatic effect on an individual title if there’s a tie-in involved, like with Open Range.

Now I want to ask you a few questions about the genre itself. Do you have one, or a few, favorite western writers?

DD: I love the current breed of western authors who are bringing a new approach to the western, or writing traditional westerns with a slightly different twist. That would be most of the current authors on the Leisure list, I suppose. But one of my all-time favorites has always been Will Henry. He’s hard to beat.

LH: I obviously like all of the authors I work with. But in addition to those, I’ve always enjoyed Larry McMurtry’s storytelling and characterization.

I have one last question, and I must warn it is a little vague. If you could choose any project to work on—as an editor or writer—what would it be?

DD: A couple years ago I would have said publishing Riders of Purple Sage in its original, uncut version, but now we’ve done that. So now I’d have to say publishing Jesse James’ autobiography. Imagine the stories he could have told.

Saddlebums Review: Wilderness #53: The Rising Storm by David Thompson

2007-11-05T09:24:00.001-05:00

Simon and Felicity Ward have built a home in the wilderness. They have the first functioning farm in the territory, and they—along with their young son Peter—are truly happy. It hasn’t been easy, but Simon’s hard work in the fields along with the seeds they brought from Boston are slowly overcoming the short growing season and their homestead is the envy of the territory.

Simon is a kind man, one who would rather nurture the land than cause damage to another person, and while he is making a living in the wilderness he is still something of a greenhorn. When a British Lord claims the Ward’s valley for himself, the family has little choice but to leave everything they have built, or fight. While the Ward’s are out numbered, their odds improve when a young man named Zach King makes himself known.

Zach is the son of the famous mountain man Nate King—the lead character in David Thompson’s Wilderness series who has only a limited role in this title—and he is known around the country as a fellow who likes to fight. When he hears the Ward’s story he immediately volunteers to deal with the problem, and take care of it he does—he faces down a small British army, a sadistic girl, and the British Lord himself.

Wilderness #53: The Rising Storm is the first title in the series I have read, and it wasn’t disappointing. It is a twist on the traditional western—it is set closer to 1830 than 1880. It is all action, and will appeal to anyone who enjoys the standard fare of competent, fast paced storytelling that defines most series writing. It has limited character development, and an abundance of light-hearted violence, but the story is fun and what it lacks in originality it makes up for in pure adventure entertainment. If you like this kind of fiction you should enjoy The Rising Storm.

Scouting the Web

2007-11-02T13:12:00.000-04:00

A jam packed Scouting the Web this week:

■ Prolific (and a Saddlebums favorite) writer James Reasoner has launched his new website. The list of books he’s written is worth the price of admission alone, even though he states there are several other titles he’s contractually obligated not to claim to have authored.

■ Michael Katz, author of the critically acclaimed Shalom on the Range, will be kicking off his book signing tour in the Northeast. Described by Johnny D. Boggs as “Louis L’Amour meets Jerry Seinfeld,” his novel was published earlier this year. These are the first three dates, where he will not only talk about the book but also all things Western:

Barnes & Noble-Jenkintown, PA • 215-886-5366
Saturday November 17, 2007 @ 2:00-4:00 p.m.

Barnes & Noble-Princeton, NJ • 609-897-9250
Tuesday November 27, 2007 @ 7:00-9:00 p.m.

Barnes & Noble-Exton, PA • 610-524-0103
Thursday November 29 @ 7:00-9:00 p.m.

If you happen to live in the area, we encourage you to drop by and say “howdy” to Mr. Katz. While you are at it, you can also check out his recent article on the present and future of the Western genre at Jew Review.

■ Rope and Wire has a new interview with Black Horse Westerns author Lee Pierce (hat tip to Jim Griffin for pointing us to that link).

■ New articles by Larry McMurtry: One on the film version of Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men in Newsweek and another one on photographer Diane Keaton from The New York Review of Books.

■ Popcorn Junkies has a list of favorite Sergio Leone films.

■ The latest issue of True West magazine is out with an article on Brad Pitt and Jesse James that’s also online and a history of Western comics exclusively available in the print edition.

■ The newest issue of Wild West magazine is also out. You can check its table of contents here as well as a very interesting historical article on the railroad war over the Rock Island Railroad in Oklahoma.

■ The Criterion Collection, a distributor of quality films famed for its handsome collectors editions DVDs, has just put out The First Films of Samuel Fuller, a box set that includes two excellent Westerns: The Baron of Arizona, in which Vincent Price portrays legendary swindler James Addison Reavis, and I Shot Jesse James, his directorial debut on the life of Robert Ford. Watching it makes for an interesting contrast with the more recent Brad Pitt film, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

■ The Washington Post’s book blog, Short Stack, has a list of favorite novels about the settling of the West, including usual suspects plus an out-of-left-field pick in Karen Fisher’s A Sudden Country.

■ John Wayne’s Hondo will be screened in its original the 3D format.

■ Writer Tim McGuire (recently interviewed by Saddlebums) has been contracted by Berkley to publish a new novel, Texas Cowboys, scheduled for release in late 2009. According to the author, the story is a continuation of his Rance Cash Texas series, albeit “with a grittier taste to reflect Abilene, Kansas in 1871. The story takes place there with the likes of J. B. Hickok, Jesse James, John Wesley Hardin, Ben Thompson, Luke Short, and a host of others names and events.”

■ High Country News brings us another article on the state of Westerns with some curious morsels. According to its author, one of the possible reasons for the genre’s sales decline is that “readers finally got sick of all those backward portrayals of women and Native Americans, and the romanticized views of frontier life.” I wonder if she’s read writers like Richard S. Wheeler, whose works easily disprove that assertion.

After a protracted discussion on ways to reinvigorate Westerns, she concludes: “For if we know the myths, we can practice what Western historian Patricia Limerick likes to call “myth management,” in which the frontier values of individualism and persistence are corralled into the service of shockingly modern causes like, say, energy efficiency. The Cowboy Way, like it or not, lives on. We might as well give it a job to do.” Huh?

The article is nonetheless very interesting (albeit short) and mostly focuses on Steve Hockensmith’s novels and the Russell Davis-edited anthology Lost Trails (hat tip for the link to the Westerns for Today blog).

■ Two great reviews at Bookgasm: The first is written by fellow Saddlebums contributor Doug Bentin and tackles Johnny D. Boggs’ East of the Border, set during the year Buffalo Bill Cody, Texas Jack Omohundro and Wild Bill Hickok traveled together in a stage play (click here). The second is for the horror Western novel The Blood Rider by Mark Tarrant (click here).

■ Speaking of horror Westerns, this is an interview with Robert Tinnell, author of The Wicked West graphic novels.

Here’s an interesting snippet:

“Q: People who like westerns really seem to love them, but compared to other popular genres, those fans seem relatively few in number. How much of that would you chalk up to simple differences in taste, and how much to stereotypes about the genre putting off people who might otherwise enjoy it? I confess, I myself haven't given it much of a chance; I think one reason is that the stereotypical images suggest a very narrow genre, for which much depth and variety aren't even really possible. What's wrong about that superficial impression, and what would I find if I looked beyond it? What would you say is the core appeal--the one that inspires such enthusiasm in fans--and why don't more people get it? What do you think non-fans would find most surprising if they began to explore the genre in earnest?

A: One of the reasons that I think the western is so appealing is that it represents a lot of stuff happening on frontiers or borders. And border country is usually dramatic country - be it where cultures meet and clash or where differing terrains meet and likewise clash. Beyond that, in America, I think, perhaps not so much now as maybe forty years ago, people gravitated to the westerns because they felt it represented a time when an individual really stood a chance to make it - though that was probably a much more idealized notion than reality. And back then, of course, you had folks for whom the Wild West still existed in their childhoods so you had a nostalgia factor.

My guess is that Europeans have different reasons for finding the Western so appealing. I think that European filmmakers certainly found much to rhapsodise over in the American western landscape. And in the eyes of those filmmakers they could blow apart the sanitized American myths of the good guy in the wide hat - think of all the Leone pictures.

I'm always delighted at the reaction that I get from people who aren't familiar with the great movie westerns. My daughter - at the age of 7 - freaked over ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST - refused to go to bed. She just devoured it. And she loves RED RIVER. I taught a class recently and made my students aware of the John Ford westerns and they were blown away by the visuals and, funny enough, seemed quite taken with the moral compass of the film - the sense of honor.

At heart, the vast expanses of the west and the struggles against man and nature that are part and parcel of the western in film, novels or comics, allows for a lot of character study and existential pondering. Maybe not in your average Roy Rogers flick - but for sure in a great Ford or Leone or Peckinpah picture.”

■ And finally, the poll results are in. The Magnificent Seven by Elmer Bernstein is, hands down, the most popular Western soundtrack among Saddlebums readers.

Saddlebums Interview: Randy Denmon

2007-10-31T00:00:00.000-04:00

Writer/engineer Randy Denmon is a lifelong resident of Monroe, Louisiana. Prior to publication, his first book, The Lawless Frontier, was a finalist of the National Writers Association’s annual novel contest. After being picked up by Kensington, the title was eventually shortlisted for the 2007 Spur for Best Original Paperback Novel. Seven-time Spur Award winner Elmer Kelton called The Lawless Frontier an "impressive debut" whereas National Book Award laureate Tim O'Brien hailed it as "well-written and engrossing."

The author, a US Army veteran of the Gulf War, has also written two more novels that are presently awaiting publication. One of them tells the story of two Texas Rangers during the Mexican-American War while his third novel deals with a Marine in Central America during the interwar years.

Did you ever write or publish anything before The Lawless Frontier ?

The Lawless Frontier was my first novel, no publications prior. It started out as a collection of short stories that I eventually turned into a novel.

What led you to start writing fiction in the first place? Why did you choose a Western or historical novel if you will to make your debut?

The Lawless Frontier started out as historical fiction. That was the intent anyway. It was eventually turned into a western because the editor at Kensington, Gary Goldstein, liked the story, but wanted to publish it in the western genre. I was then required to make the appropriate changes to have the novel conform. I guess you could say that the publishing industry and market turned my first book into a western. But it turned out fine.

Can you cite any authors as influences or inspiration for your work? What authors are you presently reading? How about writers in the Western genre?

There’s so many, I don’t know where to start. With some writers, I really like their stories, but not their styles, with others, it’s just the opposite. For a good combination of both, I’d say Elmore Leonard.

The writing in your novel is very polished and showcases a self-assured prose that is not always usual for authors making their debut. Did you place lot of emphasis on crafting the perfect sentence or were you more concerned with your writing being serviceable to the fast-paced nature of The Lawless Frontier?

Don’t think I’ve ever crafted a sentence, at least not from conception, but I do try to be bold – put the words down exactly as they flow from the mind, sometimes with a lot of disregard for the grammar rules. Terse, with a lot of quick stop and starts is always good for me. Though, I do find myself going back and cleaning up a lot of sentences after the fact.

"I try to go out of my way to depict this and point out the parallels and ironies with the past. Much of what has happened in the past is relevant and parallel to things today: current problems and concerns, both on a grand scale or on the personal level."

How much research into the history of the Mexican Revolution went into your novel? Does research play a large role in your writing?

I do a lot of research, and the research does aid in the writing. It gives me ideas about what to put on paper that will correctly reflect the time and setting. The first person narratives from a certain time and place are the best. They tell me what the people were actually doing, thinking, worrying about, etc. I always seem to pick up ideas from these.

Throughout your novel, characters like Stewart Cook make comments about foreign entanglements and life in countries with politically volatile situations. What led you to write about Americans caught in the middle of the Mexican Revolution? Did you consciously set out to draw some parallels between that historical episode and current events?

I lived in Mexico at one time and have always been fascinated with the place. It is, like America, a land of contradictions, good and bad. This is true with all of us also.

I try to go out of my way to depict this and point out the parallels and ironies with the past. Much of what has happened in the past is relevant and parallel to things today: current problems and concerns, both on a grand scale or on the personal level.

Could you describe the critical reception that your first novel garnered? How about National Book Award winner Tim O’Brien’s words of praise for the novel? After all, it is pretty unusual to see a so-called mainstream author raving about genre fiction.

All of the awards and accolades are just great. They are one of the few bonuses you receive in this business that is much more work than rewards. For me, they’ve seemed to motivate me as well as provide me with some satisfaction that my work is being enjoyed.

Tim O'Brien is a great guy. I met him at a writers' event in San Angelo, Texas. It [is] a conference they have there every year that Elmer Kelton is a part of. I talked to Tim about the book and other things. [H]e agreed to read the book and give me a blurb if he liked it, which he followed through on.

"I’ve (...) learned that publishers are not in the business for awards and acclaim, but to make a profit. They would rather publish something that is bad that sells than vice versa. Actually, if [I] had any advice to aspiring writers it would [be] to grasp this concept and not fight it – which we all have a tendency to do."

The Lawless Frontier is being ostensibly marketed as a Western. Did you have any say in this? Did you come up with the title and/or have any say about the cover illustration? This is not to say there is anything wrong with either, but I am asking you this in view of how many good novels (such as yours) are often overlooked by critics and even the public at large because they happen to be associated with a non-mainstream genre such as Westerns, mysteries, etc.

As I mentioned before, I had no say in the fact that the novel was marketed as a western; no say in the title or cover. No say in the marketing at all. I would have liked to have had a more mainstream title and cover. But I was essentially told it would be marketed as a western. In today’s climate and marketplace, first novelists have little clout, and they generally have to do as the publishers request if they want to get into print. I have learned since that it is easier to get genre fiction from lesser known writers into bookstores – probably why the publishers take the routes they do. I’ve also learned that publishers are not in the business for awards and acclaim, but to make a profit. They would rather publish something that is bad that sells than vice versa. Actually, if [I] had any advice to aspiring writers it would [be] to grasp this concept and not fight it – which we all have a tendency to do.

Every few years or so there is talk about Westerns making a comeback, comments that usually revolve around the success of TV productions such as Deadwood or recent films like 3:10 to Yuma. What is your assessment of the present state of Westerns and, more specifically, Western fiction?

Westerns are definitely making a comeback, both on screen and in print. The national sales numbers are in an upward trend, and many more bookstores have plans to create western sections. I’ve been lucky in this regard – hitting the market at the right time. And only recently, The Lawless Frontier was optioned for a movie by a Hollywood production company. There’s probably a 50 percent chance it will get made in some form. I have my fingers crossed.

Is your second book also a historical novel? Could you tell us more about it and also when will it go out on sale?

My second book is about two Texas Rangers fighting in the Texas Revolution and Mexican American War. In some ways, it’s similar to The Lawless Frontier, at least in its attempt point out many of the ironies of the past and their relevance to today. The publisher is still working on the title and publication date. Hopefully, sometime next year. I’m still not getting much say in the title, but it probably will be The Savage Breed or Legions of Vengeance. I’m hoping for the latter.

Are you planning to write more novels featuring the characters from The Lawless Frontier? Are you planning to keep on writing Westerns or historical novels or do you see your writing going in other directions in the future?

No more stories based on The Lawless Frontier, but my third book, now complete, is about the Marines fighting in Central American during the 1930s. I’m going to hold out to have this published as mainstream fiction – I hope. I’ll probably always only write historical stuff. It’s what I like, but I certainly plan to write more westerns, hopefully more contemporary westerns like what I consider The Lawless Frontier.

Saddlebums Review: The Lawless Frontier

2007-10-29T01:24:00.000-04:00

Louisiana writer Randy Denmon surprised many members of the Western community when apparently out of the blue his debut title The Lawless Frontier was short listed for the 2007 Spur Award for Best Original Paperback Novel. The book is indeed rare given how it reads like the effort of an experienced author, exhibiting the taut prose that is characteristic of some of the best traditional Westerns along with a story of breadth and resounding scope.

Set during the Mexican Revolution, The Lawless Frontier pits two U.S. war veterans and partners-in-arms of the Spanish-American War into the heart of the bloody conflict south of the border. The taciturn, half Mexican, half Texan attorney Stewart Cook asks his former comrade Myles Adams, now a liaison officer for the U.S. War Department, to accompany him to Mexico for a most fateful mission: rescue his romantic interest Alexia García and her family before the rebel troops of Pancho Villa ravage her hometown. The enterprise’s prospects for success pale compared to the chance that the two men will make it out alive. And yet, before one thinks he is faced with the typical Western yarn where the adventurers beat insurmountable odds and outshoot every bandit in sight, Denmon starts to weave a far more ambitious tale.

Adams and Cook are the unwitting witnesses of a vicious strife in a foreign yet neighboring land. Through their eyes the reader sees the plight of refugees leaving their towns before they are pillaged as anarchy encroaches the country. Through their interaction with other characters, Denmon also alludes to the Wilson administration’s hesitancy to intervene in the conflict, reflecting on the nature of foreign entanglements and drawing interesting parallels between past and present.

Although they have experienced war fighting in the Philippines and both of them are skilled soldiers, Adams and Cook are not the larger than life individuals you would expect in a novel with this title and presentation (allow me a little digression here, but this is yet another commentary on how publishers stubbornly insist on marketing Westerns as if they were assembly line products, clichéd titles and derivative cover illustrations included. For more on this, check out our interview with Randy Denmon on Wednesday).

In spite of his inexpressive nature, Stewart is often scared and feels doubts about the success of the mission. He has yet to express Alexia his feelings for her and yet he is marching across Mexico in a time and place where being an American is not only unpopular but dangerous. Myles, on the other hand, is a happy-go-lucky character who nevertheless excels at leading men through perilous situations. The rapport between Cook and Adams is reminiscent of that between Larry McMurtry’s Woodrow Call and Gus McCrae as their complementary personalities help them march on.

If I could mention a minor quibble with the novel, it is one that in all likelihood is more the responsibility of its editors than of the author himself. As in many other Western novels, its use of Spanish is at times erratic and grammatically incorrect, something that while not critical to the story still undermines its authenticity. To witness, the references to the “Santa Catarina” river near Monterrey as the “Santo Catarina” river (p. 162) or the unlikely choice of name for one of Alexia’s sisters: “Alijondra” (nonexistent as far as I know) instead of the more plausible “Alejandra.”

The Lawless Frontier is a solid first effort that, not unfairly, has earned accolades from a Western great like Elmer Kelton as well as National Book Award winner Tim O’Brien. Although it is uncertain whether Denmon will continue writing Westerns (or novels that could conceivably be marketed as such) he is a writer that merits close attention.

(Watch out for a Saddlebums interview with Randy Denmon on Wednesday)

Forthcoming Westerns: November 2007

2007-10-26T16:50:00.000-04:00

Update: Thanks to a tip from loyal reader and exellent writer Chap O'Keefe, I've added four Black Horse Westerns that will be released on November 30th--scroll down and take a look.

Also, my list of November releases doesn't include any Large Print editions, and there are several scheduled. I have chosen not to include them because they are difficult to find in bookstores and usually reprints of titles that have previously been released, but truthfully it is more that these lists take a surprising amount of time to compile, and the LP editions would make the process even longer. If there are publishers or writers who want to see a large print edition included on this list please send me an email before the 15th of each month and I will be happy to include it / them.

The western selection in October was terrific, and while November’s list isn’t quite as large, or as varied, it is still pretty darn good. We have a total of 24 novels coming out—they represent a mixture of new and old, and paperback and hardcover. There is also a large release—19 titles—of western audio books from Brilliance and Five Star. The bulk of the titles are the work of Max Brand, but the list also includes other classic western writers such as T.T. Flynn, Les Savage, Jr., T.V. Olsen, Lewis B. Patten, and several others.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Halloween, and I hope to see you at the bookstore.

October 30th

Bronc Man by Paul Bagdon
Dogs of the Captain by Max Brand
The Trail of Whitened Skulls by Tom W. Blackburn
Walk Proud, Stand Tall by Johnny D. Boggs

Synopsis of Johnny D. Boggs’ Walk Proud, Stand Tall:

“Back in his prime, Lin Garrett was a legend as a lawman. The story of how he captured outlaw Ollie Sinclair was a favorite in Arizona Territory. But Lin hung up his badge long ago and now spends his days at a county home for the aged. His days are peaceful—until he gets word Sinclair has formed a new gang and pulled off a daring train robbery. The local lawmen are at a loss, but Lin knows just how his old nemesis thinks. And he’s out to prove no matter how many years have passed, he can still take down his man.”

November 1st

The Argonauts of North Liberty by Bret Harte
The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey

November 4th

.45-Caliber Deathtrap by Peter Brandvold
Ricochet by Thom Nicholson
The Trailsman: #313 Texas Timber War by Jon Sharpe

November 6th

Honor of the Mountain Man / Preacher’s Fortune by William W. Johnstone
The Town Called Fury: Judgement Day by William W. Johnstone
Smonk by Tom Franklin

November 13th

Ranger’s Law: A Lone Star Saga by Elmer Kelton

November 14th

Crucifixion River by Bill Pronzini and Marcia Muller

Man from Durango by Lauren Paine

Synopsis from Mike Blakely’s Come Sundown:

“Reluctant hero, Honore Greenwood, has a knack for embroiling himself in the most violen conflicts of the Southern Plains. Known as Plenty Man to the Comanches, Honore serves as ransom negotiator for captives among the Indians. As if his life wasn't in danger enough, Honore has offered his services to the New Mexico Volunteers in the Civil War. But as Honore's luck would have it, he's in the same unit as Luther Sheffield, a man whose grudge against Greenwood knows no boundaries, even though they are fighting on the same side.”

November 27th

Come Sundown by Mike Blakely
The Gunsmith: #312 Under a Turquoise Sky by J.R. Roberts
A Long and Winding Road by Win Blevins
Longarm: #349 Longarm and the Colorado Manhunt by Tabor EvansS
Slocum Giant: Slocum and the Celestial Bones by Jake Logan
Slocum: #346 Slocum’s Revenge Trail by Jake Logan

Synopsis of H.H. Cody’s Redemption in Inferno:

“Lew Faulds got himself talked into taking the job of deputy sheriff in the town of Blind Bend by his two-timing sweetheart. However, he had no idea the job would get him into so much trouble. A set of outlaws came to town and killed the sheriff. Then they put a hunk of lead into Lew's hand, figuring they'd crippled him. Scared, Lew ran, only to meet up with a stranger who helped him out. Now the pair went hunting the outlaws and caught up with them in the town of Inferno. Would they survive the showdown and would Lew regain his self respect?”

Black Horse Westerns

November 30th

The Bounty Killers by Owen G. Irons
Dead Man's Journey by Frank Roderus
Killer's Kingdom by Greg Mitchell
Peace at Any Price by Chap O'Keefe
Redemption in Inferno by H.H. Cody
Running Crooked by Corba Sunman

Audio Books from Brilliance and Five Star

November 28th

The Bells of San Fillipo by Max Brand

The Chains of Sarai Stone by Cynthia Hasselhoff
Deadly Pursuit by T.V. Olsen
Fire at Spider Rock by Les Savage, Jr.
In Alaska with Shipwreck Kelly by Dan Cushman
The Last Campaign by Tim Champlin
Night of the Comanche Moon by T.T. Flynn
Outlaws All by Max Brand
Ronicky Doone’s Reward by Max Brand
Ronicky Doone’s Treasure by Max Brand

Synopsis for Tim Champlin’s The Last Campaign:

“It's 1886 and General George Crook is holding a peace conference with the last wild band of Apache renegades and their chief, Geronimo. Will the Apaches really lay down their arms and go peacefully to Arizona? Everything seems to be going according to plan until Geronimo disappears into the night with a small band of warriors . . .”

Sixteen in Nome by Max Brand

Soldier in Buckskin by Ray Hogan

Speedy by Max Brand

Tears of the Heart by Lauran Paine

Timbal Gulch Trail by Max Brand

Tincup in the Storm Country by Lewis B. Patten

Trouble in Timberline by Max Brand

The White Chip by Nelson Nye

The White Wolf by Max Brand

Saddlebums Interview: Ed Gorman

2007-10-22T19:59:00.000-04:00

Ed Gorman has been writing professionally since 1983, when St. Martin’s Press purchased his novel Rough Cut. Since then he has proven to be one of the most reliable and prolific writers—I use the word prolific in a positive sense—working. He has published novels in several different genres, including mystery, suspense, science fiction, horror, and western.

Mr. Gorman has been nominated for several writing awards, and he won the Spur Award in 1993 for his short story “The Face.” He has been called “the poet of dark suspense” by Bloomsbury Review, and “a master storyteller” by the Dallas Morning News. I have been an avid reader of his work for several years, and no matter what Ed Gorman chooses to write, you can count on one thing: it will be very entertaining.

He lives in Cedar Rapids, Iowa with his wife, writer Carol Gorman.

I have been reading your work—everything from westerns to mysteries to horror and science fiction, and I’m impressed with its overall diversity. My question, is there a specific genre you most prefer to work in?

Mystery and suspense, I suppose. But I’ve worked in horror and science fiction with great pleasure.

“I could never come close to finishing a novel until I met Max Allan Collins who gave me two great pieces of advice—look at each chapter as a story and never look back until you’ve finished the book.”

I want to talk a little about your publishing history, what is the first novel you published? Was it a long time coming, or did you hit print pretty quickly once you decided to write it?

I wrote a lot of stuff for men’s magazines in the Sixties and Seventies. I could never come close to finishing a novel until I met Max Allan Collins who gave me two great pieces of advice—look at each chapter as a story and never look back until you’ve finished the book. Then worry about revisions. I finished Rough Cut and shopped it around. Agents felt that the narrator was more psychotic than the villain. I sent it to St. Martin’s Press where it was fished out of slush and bought. This was 1983.

When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?

Probably around age eight. The nuns fed me Jack London and I discovered Ray Bradbury on my own. After reading those guys I never faltered in wanting to be a published writer.

It is my understanding that you have written several novels under house names, mostly in The Trailsman series. When you write under a house name do you approach it differently than your other work?

I do the best work I can on every project.

Most of your western fiction is non-traditional. You seem to use many of the same elements as one would find in a mystery novel. Your Noah Ford character from the Cavalry Man novels has more in common with a modern mystery protagonist than he does with the traditional western outsider. Is this an effort to move away from the traditional western, or simply expand the definition of what a western is? Do you think these novels would be more popular if they were marketed as a western mystery rather than a traditional western?

I think you have to find a special angle to sell crossover books. Steve Hockensmith with Holmes On The Range brought something fresh and exciting to the crossover and has been very successful for doing so.

Is there a book, or a few books, that you have written and are particularly proud of?

My favorites are The Autumn Dead, Blood Moon, The Night Remembers, and Cage of Night in suspense; Wolf Moon and Ghost Town in westerns.

Most writers are voracious readers, and I’m wondering what you read for pleasure?

On my nightstand presently I have the Collected Short Stories of William Faulkner, Ten Stories from Detective Aces pulp magazine, a history of the Homefront during World War Two and a huge volume of the original Jonah Hex comic book stories by Michael Fleischer.

“Mine is the last generation that really grew up on westerns. I saw them in the theaters and on television and I read them in comic books and paperbacks.”

Now I want to turn to the western genre specifically. What first led you to the genre?

Mine is the last generation that really grew up on westerns. I saw them in the theaters and on television and I read them in comic books and paperbacks. Writing them came naturally. I owe Bob Randisi a lot for first getting me published as a writer.

What are a few of the western writers who have most influenced your work?

Max Brand, Elmore Leonard, Loren D. Estleman, Clifton Adams, Dorothy Johnson would be a few of them.

If you could bring back the work of one western writer who would it be? Is there a specific title?

I’d bring back six or seven of the best Clifton Adams novels.

You also write mysteries, and it seems there has been—both historically as well as today—a significant amount of authors who do good work in both genres. Do you think there is a relationship between the mystery and the western that promotes this crossover, or is it simply the economics of professional writing?

Again, I think it’s generational. You don’t find many—or any that I can think of—of the Thirty-somethings writing westerns and mysteries today. Loren is the last of the breed. He’s in his Forties I think. And he’s one of the all-time best, too.

The mystery genre is thriving, but many believe the western is in decline. What do you think about the western genre today, and what do you think the future holds for the western story?

I’ve been asked this a couple of times. I wish I had some wisdom on the subject. But I don’t. To me cops replaced cowboys.

Okay, now lets get down to your current work. What is your latest novel?

My current novel is Fools Rush In. This is my take on how small town Iowa responded to the Civil Rights movement of the early Sixties. I have another novel called Doom Weapon, the last in my Cavalry Man series coming in paperback from HarperCollins. It’s probably out now though I haven’t seen a copy. In the spring I have a St. Martin’s novel called Sleeping Dogs, a political whodunit. I used to write speeches for congressman. Lots of anger in this book.

Can you tell us about the novel—or any other projects—you are working on now?

My next novel will be in the suspense realm. I never talk about work in progress.

I have one last question, and I must warn it is a little vague. If you could chose any project to work on, what would it be?

That’s a good question and you know, I have no idea. My best stuff seems to have just happened without much planning on my part. I wrote three or four novels that were part of a Big Plan to increase the size of my audience. I think they were adequate, one of them I like, but somehow they weren’t as much fun to do as the work that somehow seems to get done on its own.

Saddlebums Interview: Tim McGuire

2007-10-17T05:28:00.000-04:00

Illinois-born and Texas-raised Tim McGuire has always had a fascination with history. He aptly translates it into his novels, action-filled yet character-centered stories that have earned him the accolades of Western greats such as Loren D. Estleman and Larry McMurtry.

Mr. McGuire presently resides in Grand Prairie Texas. His next novel, Texas Cowboys, is scheduled to release from Berkley in late 2009.

What led you to start writing in the Western genre?

As I've posted on my website and in other interviews, I am a product of the '60s where the Western was as common as the current "reality" shows. My mother loved Westerns and before cable TV, that's what was always in syndication. My father was a history buff, especially Civil War era, so I absorbed his love for the study and developed in my mind just what a character I would dream to be. That, and a lot of respect for history put together The Rainmaker. The character and subsequent plots developed into a series swirling around in my head.

You have written two series of books with regular characters: The Rainmaker novels and the Texas trilogy with Rance Cash. While the aforementioned Clay Cole, a.k.a. "The Rainmaker" is a rugged, tough, no-nonsense character, Cash's depiction is more lighthearted, him being a gambler rather than a gunslinger and his troubles often leading to comic situations. Was this shift from a gritty traditional Western novel to one that incorporates more humor a deliberate one?

I didn't want to create the same character and call him by a different name. In the Texas series, I started the storyline ten years earlier when the West was just a rumor to those in the East. Rance Cash is intended as a less than deadly serious fellow to follow with a bit of spicy behavior to his way. Les and Jody were meant as the focal point, but Rance was the one that kept you reading. I tried to think as a gambler must have thought in a game of cards and of life. He's not as cruel as those in accurate history, but I've tried to present him as a fortune seeker which is the prime motivation of most of those flowing west.

"I do believe that a well told story has a place for every interest"

Can you tell us more about the campaign to "Save The Rainmaker"?

I was trying to test the waters as it were to measure just what type of support I had to continue the series to the last four books. At current, I am still counting. It's understandable publishers measure success in copies sold. Although I have been pleasantly gratified with the personal responses I have received through my guestbook, more numbers are needed to the left of the decimal point to make publishers notice.

You have been described by Loren Estleman as a "traditional Western" writer. Do you agree with that assertion? Have you ever thought about trying your hand at other type of stories such as historical novels or even other genres?

Let me first say, Loren was incredibily generous with his praise. That said, I am a fan of a well told story and am actively seeking to expand into other genres. I am a particular fan of the thriller genre in which I have a few projects brewing. As a far as a lecture on history in novel form, I don't feel qualified to write that sort as a form of entertainment which a novel should be.

Many of your books include a blurb from Larry McMurtry that I think describes your novels perfectly: "Tim McGuire writes a good western, the story fast-paced, the characters vividly drawn." Was he referring to any particular novel of yours?

Mr. McMurtry was also very gracious to lend his name to my works and I have always sent him a copy of every book in which it appears. I am confident his comment is aimed at Danger Ridge, my first novel. How I am confident of that will remain between he and I.

What are your thoughts about the present state of the Western genre and what do you think the future holds for the Western story?

In regard to the present Western novel in printed novel form, I'm afraid to say that the future is not VERY bright, but there is hope. First, reading novels in general is a fading medium due to the lack of free time required. Reading takes time. Watching is much easier which is why the success of most novels is amplified by the parlay to film.

I do believe that a well told story has a place for every interest. Look at the upcoming films and the original printed works they are based on. However, I do feel there is a stigma to overcome. Most people that I have asked what they read respond that they read everything - except Westerns, which their grandfather/uncle/dad/or other older relative used to always read. When I ask what they like in a story, they respond intrigue, suspense, and a little romance. Younger readers appear attracted to fantasy, where their minds can wander.

The accurate truth is that the historical west was a fantasy to those whom observed it first hand. Imagine the landscapes of Western Montana or Southern Arizona seen for the first time. Describe that in detail, and then develop characters who resonate to the current reader and there is hope for the genre. I've been contacted by more than one person whom told me they seldom or never read a Western but felt compelled to tell me how much they enjoyed the story. See my guestbook and archive page.

Most writers are voracious readers and you are probably not the exception. What do you read for pleasure?

I must confess, I read mostly nonfiction for research. I seldom read fiction for two reasons. One, I don't want to be tempted to copy another style and, two, if I have time to read, I have time to write.

"Imagine the landscapes of Western Montana or Southern Arizona seen for the first time. Describe that in detail, and then develop characters who resonate to the current reader and there is hope for the genre"

Do you have any writing influences? How about influences in the Western genre?

I don't have a writer that I follow for the reasons above. I did greatly enjoy True Grit.

Are there any Western writers you would like to see back in print?

Most of those names are still in print. I'm not sure of the stories meantfor readers of the '30s, '40s, '50s, '60s will sell well in today's market.

Are you writing anything right now? Can you tell us more about any other projects you are currently involved with?

I have a few irons in the fire. I am presenting a continuation of the Clay Cole series. Also, I have project which continues the Texas series in the progress of the set timeline and may include a familiar character in his early years as well as a few famous names. Also, I have heard from the film world in California.

What is the greatest satisfaction of your writing career? Is there anything else you still feel you need to accomplish?

My greatest feeling of accomplishment is knowing my stories are well received from those whom I've heard from. As far as yet to accomplish, I want to get all the stories in my head onto a printed page, both comtemporary and historical, mystery, humor, raw life and poignant moments.

Scouting the Web

2007-10-15T21:50:00.000-04:00

■ A group of Black Horse Westerns authors have partnered with other fellow Western scribes to unveil the new anthology Where Legends Ride, “14 new tales of hot lead, cold hearts, and more leather-slapping action, adventure and edge-of-the-seat danger that you could ever hope to find on either side of the Mississippi.” The book will be available from Lulu.com on Nov. 30. For more information, visit the Express Westerns website.

■ The nice fellows at Bookgasm have a number of items of interest to readers of this site. First is a fine review of a title chronicling the history of that goofiest of all Western film subgenres: the singing cowboy flicks. The book is Singing Cowboys by Douglas B. Green. Next is the always entertaining section Bullets, Broads, Blackmail & Bombs with a review of three so-called adult Westerns, including two early Longarm titles and one installment of its spin off series, Lone Star.

■ Speaking of adult Westerns… or is it porno Westerns as Richard S. Wheeler calls them in this interesting discussion he started at fellow Western scribe Ed Gorman’s blog? Check it out as authors like Bill Crider, Robert Randisi and James Reasoner weigh in on the subject.

■ Here’s an interesting post at Pulpetti on Western author H.A. DeRosso.

■ On NPR’s All Things Considered, writer Benjamin Percy dwells on the seminal Western, The Virginian. According to White, “[the novel’s author] Owen Wister, like some great and terrible Moses draped in leather and carrying a buffalo gun, taught me to re-examine what it meant to be a man.”

■ Pat Hawk, the author of several invaluable reference books on Westerns and other fiction genres, has launched a very timely website: Western Reference.com.

■ Western author Jim Griffin informs us that his latest novel, Big Bend Death Trap has been officially released.

■ Here’s an excellent site to watch classic Western films online: Rope and Wire. Just click on the titles. There’s plenty to choose from, including Ride Ranger Ride (1936) with Gene Autry and even a silent comedy starring Stan Laurel.

■ Russell Davis announces in his blog that he has just finished editing his second Western anthology for Kensigton, Ghost Towns of the American West, including stories from Elmer Kelton, Margaret Coel, Steve Hockensmith, Loren D. Estleman and many more. The book should be out in late spring, 2008 and if it is anything like his previous anthology, Lost Trails, we are in for an excellent read.

■ The name Francisco González Ledesma might not say much to readers in the English-speaking world and yet he is probably one of the most prolific Western writers ever. The author of literally hundreds of pulp Westerns under the colorful nom de plume Silver Kane, his novels were published and sold in Spain during the Gen. Francisco Franco years as well as distributed all over Latin America.

Many of his titles are still in print, including his first novel, Sombras Viejas (Old Shadows), a mystery that earned him a prestigious literary award, accolades from authors like W. Somerset Maugham and censorship from the Franco regime given its allegedly “pornographic, subversive and red (ie. communist)” contents. Given the governmental suppression of his work, González Ledesma resorted to write pseudonymous Westerns, one of the few viable means of subsistence for a professional author during the lean dictatorship years. Thus emerged one of Spanish pulp fiction's best scribes.

Sombras Viejas, which was first published in 1948, has been just reissued in Spain and comes as a belated homage to González Ledesma's legacy. To read more, click here (the link is in Spanish).

■ This is only tangentially related to this blog, but what the heck. This clip, retrieved from The New York Times’ book blog Papercuts, brings us Dean Martin, Truman Capote, James Stewart and Jack Benny as they answer the question: What’s Your Favorite Country Song?

Saddlebums Review: The Outcast by Luke Cypher

2007-10-12T15:55:00.000-04:00

Thomas Cade is a young man without a home. His father sent him away when he was seventeen to avoid a feud with another family in the hill country of Tennessee, and as the novel opens we find Cade working as a hunter for the railroad. When he finds a critically wounded man on the prairie his life changes forever. The man’s name is Sam Killian, and he is a sometime lawman, and sometime gun for hire.

Tom nurses Killian back to health, and in return Killian teaches Cade the trade. He tutors him how to use a pistol, how to judge a man, and how to get himself in and out of fights. They partner up until they settle in the booming town of Walker, Kansas where Thomas Cade finds everything he expects, and whole lot more.

The Outcast is a traditional western. The characters are everything we expect: tough, sensible, mean and—at least in the case of the protagonist—fair, and honorable. There is plenty of gunplay, and the town of Walker is populated with the good and bad of any small town. The businessmen are getting rich off the cattle herds coming north to the railroad. The trail herd cowboys come to town looking for fun, but usually find trouble, there are cardsharps eyeing an easy game, and the townspeople just want a quiet place to raise their children.

I had a difficult time reviewing The Outcast, because it represents the best and worst of the genre all in one package. There were moments when I loved it, but there were also moments when I didn’t even like it. Thomas Cade is an interesting character, but his stoic, dour personality felt oppressive at times. He seemed more alive and real when certain characters—Sam Killian for one—crossed the stage, but none of them stuck around long enough to keep him there. There were two brief sections of the novel that I thought nothing would ever happen again. There was too much dialogue and not nearly enough action. These were the bad points, but there were also good points.

The opening chapter is one of the most well written segments I have read in a western. The scene is so powerful and alive that I could nearly hear the rustle of wind through cornfields; the rough jingle of a cowbell, and feel the oppressive, wet heat of a Tennessee summer. The action, throughout the novel, was well rendered, and the characters were drawn nicely. If the plot had been just a bit tighter The Outlaw would be a serious contender for my list of westerns to remember.

There is good news. The Outcast is advertised as the “first in a new series,” and it felt like the back-story to something really terrific. We saw Thomas Cade grow from a boy to a man. He learned to shoot like a pistoleer, and back a man down without ever touching his gun. While my recommendation for this novel is lukewarm at best, I have hope the second will be a better piece of work.

An additional note: Luke Cypher is a pseudonym for Randy Eickhoff, the author of the Western Heritage winning novel And Not to Yield. The second novel in the series, The Outcast: Red Mesa, is scheduled for release in March 2008.

Saddlebums Review: Vengeance Valley by Richard S. Wheeler

2007-10-08T00:11:00.000-04:00

This is a review that appeared on Gravetapping in May of 2006—it is less review and more rant, but Vengeance Valley is a quiet, entertaining, and above average western that anyone should enjoy. It is the type of storytelling that should add readers to the genre and focus the attention of critics less on the old traditions of the western novel and more on what the modern western story can be. If you can find a copy, I recommend Vengeance Valley to everyone.

I read a western a few months ago titled Vengeance Valley by Richard Wheeler. It is a mining camp story about a prospector named Hard Luck Yancey. It is a quiet story of perseverance, love and ultimately triumph. It won the 2005 Western Writer’s of America Spur Award for best paperback original.

And no one read it! The sales numbers were terrible, which got me to thinking—and on this subject I am less than original and far from expert—about why such a sweet and charming novel would do so poorly.

First let’s start with the title: Vengeance Valley. This is an obvious throwback to the heyday of the western. Those old Ace Doubles, Gold Medal and Signet originals (all of which I love) that portrayed the west as a palace of helpless women, bad men and loner heroes. Unfortunately in this case the title is so misleading that if that were the type of book you wanted, you would be angry that it never took shape. There is no valley in the story—the town of Yancey, where the novel is set, is literally on the side of steep mountain ridge. And as for vengeance? Nope. None. Maybe there is a touch of poetic justice when Hard Luck Yancey earns back his mine, wins the girl and saves the town, but not much in the way of six-gun vengeance here.

Now the cover. There is a duded-up gunman with six-shooters in hand getting ready to exact a bit of vigilante justice on the bad guys. When I got about halfway through this novel it dawned on me that I had yet read about a gun—any gun, let alone a six-shooter—so in fun I made a count of just how many firearms showed-up in the telling of this story, and there was exactly one: A shotgun that was pointed, but never fired.

The publisher (in this case Pinnacle) marketed this book for failure. It narrowed the audience to a group of about five guys in Arkansas (Bill Clinton not among them) by the title and cover art, when it easily could have found a much wider audience. There is much in Vengenace Valley to admire: there is a tender and beautiful love story; a very basic good versus evil strain; great characters; greed and innocence. This is a novel that could easily be enjoyed by both men and women, so why is it marketed as an action novel for men?

Why do the major publishing houses insist on marketing westerns like it is still 1955? Vengeance Valley is but one example of how publishers are active participants in the decline of the genre through incompetence, neglect, or outright literary snobbery. I guess the old saying is true: You truly can’t judge a book by its cover. Maybe those romance novels with bare-chested Fabios aren’t so bad either—well, maybe?

Saddlebums Review: Peace at Any Price by Chap O'Keefe

2007-10-05T12:00:00.000-04:00

Jim Hunter and Matt Harrison are best friends and the owners of the once-thriving Double H ranch in Trinity Creek, Texas. Their cowpunchers have heeded the call of the Civil War and now they are trying to keep the enterprise afloat in lean times. It does not help that the Double H’s cattle is a frequent target for rustlers and that the sole remaining member of their crew is disabled Mexican-American War veteran Walter Burridge.

When the raiders take their pillaging a step further and burn the ranch to the ground, killing Old Walt in the process, the partners have no option but to leave the area and look for a job in the nearby port city of Brownsville. Matt and Jim soon realize that the war has also exerted its toll on the once-busy border town as work is hard to come by. Matt, a Union sympathizer, joins the Northern Army while the pro-Confederacy Jim chooses to stick around. He soon hooks up with the sensuous Lena-Marie Baptiste and her brother Raoul whom, among other business ventures, smuggle guns for the southern forces.

Peace at Any Price by Chap O’Keefe is the quintessential action-packed Western and as such it seems to fit right in with the rest of the Black Horse Western (BHW) line. Sparsely written and at times frantically-paced, it introduces the characters with a few broad strokes and then wastes no time in pitting them against all sorts of challenges. Jim returns from the war but the Double H and Trinity Creek no longer feel like home, not in the least because his former darling Alice Cornhill has married someone else in the interim. Fate leads him right back to the Baptistes, their dubious business concerns and a face-to-face encounter with the ruthless Woodson Waldrop, the man he suspects burnt down the Double H.

In this age of bloated techno-thrillers and three-page chapters designed not to upset MTV-addled attention spans, Peace at Any Price is a refreshing story that delivers genuine, non-stop entertainment. Its rhythm might play against itself at times and perhaps the climactic ending – involving a mandatory shootout, a damsel in distress and a catastrophic natural disaster – could have been resolved in less haste. Nonetheless, this is a highly recommended yarn that can only lead the Western reader to ask himself why BHW titles are for the most unavailable in the American market. Published since 1986 by Robert Hale Ltd. with a packaging and glossy covers that are almost as attractive as their action-oriented storylines, this is a line that provides a venue for many authors that are not only talented and passionate about Westerns, but well worth the effort to track down.

Saddlebums Review: Smonk by Tom Franklin

2007-10-03T15:44:00.000-04:00

Eugene Oregon Smonk had “several bullet scars in his right shoulder and one in each forearm and another in his left foot. There were a dozen buckshot pocks peppered over the hairy knoll of his back and the trail of a knife scored across his belly.” His left eye was gone, “replaced by a white glass ball two sizes small. He had a goiter under his beard. He had gout, he had the clap, blood-sugar, neuralgia and ague. Malaria. The silk handkerchief balled in his pants was blooded from the advanced consumption the doctor had just informed him he had.”

Smonk’s grotesque figure and author Tom Franklin’s descriptions, vivid to the last eschatological detail, set the tone for this curious Western, owing more to grand guignol or perhaps Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian than to a traditional Western yarn. Hovering between the farcical and the ultra-violent, Smonk, set to come out in paperback in November, tells the story of the seemingly aimless yet vicious title character starting with the bloody episode of his trial in Old Texas, Alabama in 1911. Tired of being terrorized by this savage one-eyed dwarf with a penchant for stealing other people’s wives, the townsmen have come up with a plan. As soon as he sets foot on the improvised court, they will mob him and deliver swift justice. Smonk, however, sees through their ploy and, sword and derringer in hand, slaughters his way out of town.

Franklin then introduces us to Evavangeline, an androgynous prostitute who is often mistaken for a man and is presently on the run from a caricaturesque gang of religious vigilantes known as the Christian Deputies. Their leader, the self-righteous Phail Walton, is pursuing her for allegedly engaging in homosexual acts.

The paths of all three main characters are bound to cross but in the meantime we are treated to a series of vignettes that accentuate the violent nature of both the story and the milieu it is set in. Evavangeline fends off a rape attempt and swiftly disposes of a doctor with dubious credentials who tries to take advantage of her. Smonk evades his pursuers, the last two male survivors of the Old Texas massacre, as houses are blown with dynamite and more people get killed. Walton fights both his feelings of sexual inadequacy and the constant danger of insubordination from his men.

Franklin develops the plot threads with a colorful language that seems a perfect fit for the over the top scenes he depicts. And yet the excesses do manage to backfire once it becomes evident that two thirds of the novel are nothing but a protracted setup for a revelatory ending as the characters converge in Old Texas. There we learn of the town’s hideous secret, how is it related to Smonk and in turn what are his ties to Evavangeline. The problem here is two-fold: the story’s denouement is to a large extent predictable and, in view of what the reader has been exposed to so far, one cannot help but wonder why the author did not tie-up the plot threads at least 50 pages and countless scenes of debauchery earlier.

Franklin’s previous titles include the Western novel Hell at the Breech and the short story collection Poachers, whose title story was picked by mystery fiction editor Otto Penzler for the anthology The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century. Having garnered enthusiastic recommendations from authors such as Philip Roth, Richard Ford, Dennis Lehane and Deadwood creator David Milch, Franklin’s work and Smonk in particular seemed an inviting prospect. It is, nonetheless, a mixed bag at best, its engaging and imaginative prose and ensemble of quirky characters unable to give consistency to the novel’s extremely thin plot.

Polling time

2007-10-02T12:47:00.000-04:00

The people have spoken. On our last two polls, that is.

First, they voted for Robert J. Randisi (aka J.R. Roberts)’s The Gunsmith series as their favorite adult Western. More recently, they chose Quigley Down Under as their preferred Tom Selleck Western film.

Now it’s time to split hairs on which is the best Western movie score. We are proposing four entries Per un Pugno di Dollari (A Fistfull of Dollars) by Ennio Morricone; The Magnificent Seven by Elmer Bernstein; Lonesome Dove by Basil Poledouris; and Per qualche dollaro in più (For a Few Dollars More) by Ennio Morricone) plus the highly imaginative category of “other” since it’s very likely that many of you will have their own picks and some others might even wonder what were we thinking of when we omitted your personal favorite.

If you think we have ignored other worthy Western soundtracks (How The West Was Won by Alfred Newman, The Big Country by Jerome Moross, The Alamo by Dmitri Tiomkin or Silverado by Bruce Broughton come to mind) you can vote for “other” and then list the name of the film score on the comments section of this post. We will catch up at the end of the month.

Let the voting begin.

Saddlebums Review: Wyoming Wind by Jon Chandler

2007-10-01T00:53:00.000-04:00

A guest review by Corinne Joy Brown

Historical fiction in the hands of a master storyteller can prompt new ways of looking at both fact and myth. Such is the effect of the fictionalized account of Tom Horn in the novel Wyoming Wind, a story built on fact but embellished with creative imagination, created by Colorado author Jon Chandler. Chandler gives voice and depth to the life of one of Wyoming’s most infamous outlaws, creating a unique look at the psychological factors that shaped the life of a killer.

Horn, an army scout, a civilian under Army command in Cuba under Roosevelt, and finally a Wyoming stock detective during the end of the cattle and sheep wars at the turn of the 20th century, allegedly met his death at the gallows in Cheyenne in 1903. He was accused of the murder of 14 year-old Willie Nickel, a sheepherder’s son. Both Horn’s responsibility for the crime and the exact circumstances of his death remain in question, but he was convicted due to incriminating circumstances, a scapegoat, in fact, for larger forces.

In spite of Horn’s earlier accomplishments as a hired gun for the US military, his eventual lust for killing branded him a dead man. As a mercenary, he felt above the law, taking it in fact, into his own hands. He intimidated and helped decimate the encroaching squatters eating up the cattle range.

Chandler writes a compelling scenario. In a desperate attempt to forestall his execution, Horn wrote a letter to the press exposing all those who hid behind his treachery. An effective blackmail tool that actually forced a rescue attempt (a rigged hanging), the letter was intercepted before it could do any public damage. Horn’s edge was reduced to nothing.

The reader may find it hard to separate truth from fiction, but can refer easily to numerous Wyoming history sources for the documented account if wanting more. Wyoming Wind reads like a Western thriller. A man on death row, reminiscing through the circumstances of his life while counting the hours to his own demise. His vigil and attempt to escape creates enough tension to keep the reader turning the pages, wondering if Horn will meet the same fate as his many victims, or get away with blackmail, his last act of treason.

Chandler, an accomplished songwriter and musician, and an award-wining author, knows how to write musical lyrics where the message is not only in, but also, between the lines. His narrative prose is just as successful. With vision and clarity, he creates a believable West in time and place and a thoroughly plausible character for whom we actually develop a kind of empathy. Having read numerous historical accounts of this very same event, I’d choose Chandler’s fictionalized version any day. This is one story of Tom Horn a reader can never forget.

Forthcoming Westerns: October 2007

2007-09-27T20:00:00.000-04:00

Another month is behind us, which means there is another full slate of new releases set to hit bookstore shelves. And there is no disappointment in this list of upcoming titles. We have a few classic writers—Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey, Bret Harte and Les Savage—and a few new favorites—J. Lee Butts and Joseph A. West. There is something of the traditional western represented, and even a few that probably don’t fit perfectly into that mold.

Overall, October looks to be a terrific month for Western reading, and as the days—for our North American, or should I say Northern Hemisphere, readers anyway—begin to shorten we can look forward to a few extra evening hours to buddy up with a novel or two. Enjoy.

October 1st
A Protégées of Jack Hamlin’s by Bret Harte
The Argonauts of North Liberty by Bret Harte
The Bell-Ringer Angel’s by Bret Harte
Trent’s Trust and Other Stories by Bret Harte
The Everlasting Whisper by Jackson Gregory
The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey

Description for Holding the Ace Card:

“Hired gun Lou Bellanger has just started his poker game when the law catches up with him. But the fastest draw in Arizona Territory manages to make a daring escape and is just starting to breathe easy when he hears the sheriff had been killed in cold blood. The last thing Lou wants to do is go back to that hostile town and clear his name. Besides, he had a job to do—a job that ends up leading straight into an all-out range war. With a posse ready to string him up for murder at his back and a gang of bloodthirsty hardcases ahead of him, Lou better have more than an ace up his sleeve if he hopes to stay alive.”

October 2nd
The Baron Brand by Jory Sherman
The Baron Range by Jory Sherman
The Barons of Texas by Jory Sherman
Bitter Wind by Wayne D. Overholser
Holding the Ace Card by Lauran Paine
The Lawless West by Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey, and Max Brand
Nate Coffin’s Revenge by J. Lee Butts
West of the Law by Ralph Compton and Joseph A. West
The Trailsman: Shanghaied Six-Gun (#312) by Jon Sharpe
Trouble Hunter by Fred Grove
Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth by Henry Nash Smith
The Zane Grey Frontier Trilogy: Betty Zane, The Last Trail, & The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey
Last Gunfighter: Hell Town by William W. Johnstone

Description for Ralph Compton’s West of the Law:

“Ordered to head west when a New York gangster puts a price on his head for killing his son, Detective Sergeant John McBride ends up in High Hopes, Colorado-a lawless boomtown where McBride quickly runs afoul of corrupt saloon owner Gamble Trask and his vicious hired guns.”

October 9th
The Collected Bowdrie Dramatizations: Volume 3 by Louis L’Amour

October 16th
The World in Pancho’s Eye by J.P.S. Brown

October 17th
Melody and Cordoba by Max Brand
Wolves of the Sundown Trail by Les Savage

Description for Longarm in Hell’s Half Acre:

“After U.S. Deputy Marshal Custis Long blasts a killer to hell in an epic gunfight, he seeks respite in Hell's Half Acre, home of barely dressed women, drunks, gamblers, tinhorns, and outlaws. Looks like Longarm's vacation is gonna be a working one.”

October 30th
Bar-20 Days by Clarence E. Mulford
Bar-20 Three by Clarence E. Mulford
The Coming of Cassidy by Clarence E. Mulford
The Collected Short Stories of Louis L’Amour, Vol. 5 by Louis L'Amour
The Gunsmith: To Reap and to Sow (#311) by J.R. Roberts
Gunsmith Giant: The Knights of Misery (#12) by J.R. Roberts
Hangman’s Creek / Jury of Six by Matt Braun
Longarm in Hell’s Half Acre (#348) by Tabor Evans
Slocum and the Widow’s Range War (#345) by Jake Logan

Black Horse Westerns scheduled for release in October

Description for No Second Chance:

“The name, Cole Adams, was known to too many people - lawmen, outlaws, kin of folk he was said to have murdered during violent robberies.But was he guilty of these crimes or had someone been using his name? Riding innocently into town, beard-shagged and buckskin pockets bulging with gold nuggets, he walked right into trouble.There were bullets with his name on them - and, always, the shadow of a noose hanging above him.”

October 31st
Man of Blood by Lee LeJeune
No Second Chance by Clayton Nash
A Place Called Jeopardy by Eugene Clifton
Winter’s War by Matthew P. Mayo

A Note: It can be difficult to find upcoming release dates for small press titles, so if you are an author or a publisher and would like to see your book listed on our monthly Preview post send me an email.

Scouting the Web

2007-09-26T01:50:00.000-04:00

■ The next big Western release is upon us. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is one strange beast: a $30 million film which for some odd reason went the limited release route. Based on the 1983 novel by Ron Hansen, it's generated relatively favorable reviews as well as some interesting media coverage. Among the latter figures this piece from The Washington Post on the "real" Jesse James.

■ Ivan Doig will receive the 2007 Wallace Stegner Award for his contribution to the American West.

■ Some of the commentaries in this blog have alluded to the need to expand the number of topics that Westerns traditionally deal with. Others have suggested mixing Westerns with other genres such as mysteries (for some examples, see this excellent January Magazine article by Bill Crider from a while back) or even horror and fantasy. While this might attract newer readers it can also alienate some Western purists, among whom I tend to count myself.

Emma Bull brings us a Western with fantastic elements in her latest novel, Territory. Described as "a 'retelling' of the events between Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Ike Clanton and the McLaury brothers in Tombstone," it is the subject of a glowing review in the latest edition of Bookslut (don't be deceived by its name. It is a pretty good online publication and its blog was once listed by The Guardian as one of the top 10 literary blogs on the web).

■ The latest issue of True West magazine is out. Its online version includes an in-depth article on 3:10 to Yuma but I'd recommend everyone to grap a copy of the magazine, if only for its excellent article on Frederic Remington and his use of photographies in some of his paintings.

■ Last time, I mentioned Many Books.net as an excellent resource for online, out-of-print Westerns. Well, here's another one: Munseys.com. Its Westerns section is a sight to behold.

■ The latest online issue of Western writer Chap O'Keefe's Black Horse Extra is also out. The September - November 2007 edition includes an interview with Black Horse Westerns (BHW) cover artist Michael Thomas as well as its very entertaining news and trivia section, "Hoofprints".

I can not stress enough what a remarkable job the UK-based publisher Robert Hale Publishing is doing to help keep the Western alive via BHW and its monthly output of new titles. BHW authors maintain a robust presence on the web, including the online magazine The Black Horse Express as well as a very lively Yahoo Group.

■ The 59th Primetime Emmy Awards were recently unveiled. In spite of leading in the number of nominations, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and Broken Trail did not win nearly as many awards. The ones they did earn, however, speak for themselves.

Broken Trail obtained the Emmy for Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special as well as for Outstanding Miniseries. Cast members Robert Duvall and Thomas Haden Church earned statuettes for leading actor and supporting actor, respectively. Meanwhile, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee was named best made-for-TV movie.

■ The Overlook Press has issued a new edition of Charles Portis' classic True Grit with an afterword by Donna Tartt (not a Western writer but the author, nonetheless, of one of my favorite novels: The Secret History). The reprint is the subject of an interesting commentary in Paper Cuts, The New York Times' book blog.

■ In his blog, Robert B. Parker muses some more about the upcoming feature film based on his Western novel Appaloosa. The project was green lighted by New Line Cinema in April and it will star Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen. According to the MTV Movies Blog, Jeremy Irons has just signed on to join the all-star ensemble.

Saddlebums Interview: James Reasoner

2007-09-24T12:04:00.000-04:00

James Reasoner is a prolific writer who has written in several genres—including westerns, mysteries, thrillers, and historical fiction. He recently received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly for his private eye novel Dust Devils, and no matter if he is writing a house name series western or something under his own name, his work is dependably tight, well-plotted, and extremely readable.

He is married to fellow western writer Livia Washburn, and they live on a working ranch in Azle, Texas.

First, I want to thank you for taking the time to chat with us James.

I’m happy to do it.

“One of the biggest changes in the publishing world since I started writing has been the consolidation of publishers, with huge multinational corporations now owning half-a-dozen or more imprints that used to be independent publishers.”

I recently read that you finished your 200th published novel. Congratulations. When you typed “the end” on number 200, did it feel differently than your 100th, or 50th novel? How has the publishing world changed between your first novel and 200th? And if you can tell us, what was the title of number 200?

Reaching 200 novels was a milestone I enjoyed because it meant that I’ve been able to stay around in this business for quite a while. When I started out I thought writing 100 novels in a career would be pretty good, but I’ve had to revise that number upward over the years. Now I don’t really have a numerical goal like that anymore; I just want to keep writing good books, books that I enjoy, for as long as I can. However many that turns out to be is just fine with me.

One of the biggest changes in the publishing world since I started writing has been the consolidation of publishers, with huge multinational corporations now owning half-a-dozen or more imprints that used to be independent publishers. This has led to the shrinking of the mid-list, with lines that were still profitable being cancelled because they weren’t profitable enough.

From the technological end, though, things are much better now. My first two novels were written with a fountain pen in spiral notebooks, then typed up on a manual typewriter. Writing on a computer is so much easier, and the ease with which you can revise a manuscript makes for better writing in the long run, I think. Plus some of the publishers prefer that books be delivered to them via e-mail now, and I love that. Press a few buttons, and like it had wings, that manuscript is on its way to New York.

As for #200 on my list of books . . . it was a house-name Western (as was #100, but in a different series), so I can’t really get too specific about what it was.

While we’re talking about your publishing history, what was the first novel you published? Was it a long time coming, or did you hit print pretty quickly once you decided to write it?

My first novel was Texas Wind, a private eye novel set in Fort Worth. I’ve always loved mysteries, private eye novels especially, and wanted to write one. But I didn’t know anything about Los Angeles or New York or San Francisco, where most such books are usually set, so I decided to follow the old adage about writing what you know. I grew up in the Fort Worth area, so I decided to set my PI novel there.

The book was written (with a fountain pen, as I mentioned) between November 7, 1978, and February 14, 1979. I think this is the first time those exact dates have been mentioned in print. My wife Livia typed the manuscript, I revised it a little (based on some suggestions she made), and she typed up a final draft. Then we went to a drugstore with a coin-operated copy machine and copied it, page by page, so I wouldn’t have to submit my only copy of the final draft.

I began sending it to publishers I found listed in Writer’s Market. No luck. I sent it to a well-known agent and paid him a couple of hundred bucks to read it. (I know, never, ever do that, but I was young and ignorant.) No luck. I’d been buying and reading some paperbacks (mostly mysteries and action/adventure) published by a company in New York called Manor Books. I sent the manuscript of Texas Wind to them. This would have been sometime in late 1979.

They sent me a contract.

Once I got over the shock of seeing an actual publishing contract in the mailbox, I looked at the advance Manor planned to pay me for the book and said, “Is that all?” It wasn’t much. $600.00, if I remember correctly. I thought books earned a lot more than that. But I signed the contract anyway and sent it back. If nothing else, at least I would have a published novel to my credit. I’d sold quite a few short stories by then and was also writing some of the Mike Shayne stories in Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine under the name Brett Halliday, but this would be a real book. And so it was, in October of 1980, when the book came out—exactly at the time when Manor’s distribution contracts collapsed, so that very few copies ever made it to the stands.

They never paid me the six hundred bucks, either.

You have had a long career—you have written in several different genres and published extensively in both novel form and short stories. Is there a specific genre or format you enjoy working in the best? If you could choose would you concentrate on shorter works or novels?

I started out as a mystery writer, so I guess that’s really where my heart is. I get bored easily, though, so I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being able to write in many different genres. They all have their own particular appeal for me. I love writing the occasional short story between novels, but if I had to pick one or the other it would be novels because I like having that bigger canvas to work on. Luckily, I don’t have to choose.

“The actual writing process is pretty much the same for me regardless of what name is going on the book. I take a lot of pride in the work and I have to entertain myself as I’m writing, first and foremost.”

You have written a great number of novels under house names such as Tabor Evans, Hank Mitchum, and Jon Sharpe, but you have also published extensively under your own name and pseudonyms. When you write under a house name do you approach it differently than your other work? Do you enjoy writing them, and if you can would you briefly explain how the series writing works? Do you have any responsibility for promotion, or does the publisher prefer you stay quiet about your authorship?

The actual writing process is pretty much the same for me regardless of what name is going on the book. I take a lot of pride in the work and I have to entertain myself as I’m writing, first and foremost. Everything else comes after that. There is a certain sense of freedom in writing a book when you know your name won’t be on it. You won’t get any of the blame if it’s terrible. But that’s balanced out by the fact that you don’t get any credit for the good ones, either. And I don’t want to write terrible books, anyway. I want them all to be as good as I can make them.

Most of the contracts for house-name books specify that the author can’t claim them publicly, so those of us who write them do very little, if any, publicity or promotion for them. As time goes on, though, and series end, the need to keep quiet about such things loosens up considerably. A lot of the house-name books I’ve written in the past are now listed on my website (http://www.jamesreasoner.com/). I ghost-write books for other authors on a fairly regular basis, and those deals, by necessity, are pretty much a secret and are likely to remain so.

Most writers are voracious readers, and I’m wondering what you read for pleasure?

I read well over a hundred books every year and have for more than forty years now. I can’t imagine life without a steady diet of fiction. Most of my reading is genre fiction, with an emphasis on mysteries and Westerns, but really, I read a little bit of everything.

Now I want to turn to the western genre specifically. What first led you to the genre?

I’ve been a Western reader for as far back as I can remember, having discovered Clarence E. Mulford (the Hopalong Cassidy books), Max Brand, and Zane Grey at an early age. I also read a lot of Western novels from the pulp era that were reprinted during the Sixties, such as the ones about Texas Ranger Jim Hatfield, the Rio Kid, and the Masked Rider. And I’ve always loved Western movies and TV shows. How could I not, growing up in the late Fifties and early Sixties, when they were so prevalent? One of my early, early stories (we’re talking fifth grade here) was a Western. I wrote about 25,000 words of a Lone Ranger novel when I was in high school. (The manuscript is long, long gone, I’m sure.) But I never gave much thought to being a professional Western writer.

Then, after selling Texas Wind and three novels written in collaboration with my wife Livia (a historical romance called The Emerald Land, published by Fawcett Gold Medal in 1983 under the pseudonym Livia James, a contemporary romance that a major publisher bought and paid for but never published for a variety of reasons, and a novel ghosted for another author that remains a secret), I hit a dry spell. I had gotten an agent, but that relationship never really worked out. I wrote proposal after proposal but couldn’t sell any of them. My short story markets had dried up to the point that I was thrilled to get $60.00 for a pseudonymous sale to a men’s magazine.

While looking through Writer’s Digest I saw an ad from a book packaging company called Book Creations Inc. that was looking for writers. BCI was run by Lyle Kenyon Engel, a book packager who had been around for a long time. I was most familiar with him from the Nick Carter, Killmaster series published by Award Books, which I’d been reading for years. Engel had put that deal together with Award back in the Sixties and hired numerous paperback authors to write the books anonymously. After seeing that ad I wrote to Mr. Engel, sent him copies of Texas Wind and The Emerald Land, and told him that I’d be interested in writing books for his company. He agreed to take me on, and the first assignment I got from BCI was for a book in the Stagecoach series, which they were currently producing for Bantam. That turned out to be #27 in the series, Pecos. I had no trouble with it and found that I really enjoyed writing Westerns. I got along well with all the editors at BCI, I had a habit of turning my books in early, and they gave me more and more work, so that I wound up writing around fifty novels for them, in half-a-dozen or more different series, mostly Western or historical. My work for BCI gave me enough credits and contacts in the publishing business that I was able to expand to working for other publishers on other house-name series, as well as selling quite a few books under my own name.

“Robert E. Howard, who wrote a lot of things other than Westerns, of course, has had a huge influence on my writing. A. Leslie Scott, Tom Curry, and Walker Tompkins, who wrote most of those Jim Hatfield novels under the house-name Jackson Cole, certainly had an influence on me. I went through a long period where I read a lot of novels by Luke Short (whose real name was Frederick Glidden) and Walt Coburn.”

Who are a few of the western writers who have most influenced your work?

In addition to the ones mentioned above, I’ve read practically everybody who was published in the Western pulps during the Twenties, Thirties, Forties, and Fifties, as well as all the authors of paperback originals from the Fifties on (and there’s some overlap in that group). Robert E. Howard, who wrote a lot of things other than Westerns, of course, has had a huge influence on my writing. A. Leslie Scott, Tom Curry, and Walker Tompkins, who wrote most of those Jim Hatfield novels under the house-name Jackson Cole, certainly had an influence on me. I went through a long period where I read a lot of novels by Luke Short (whose real name was Frederick Glidden) and Walt Coburn. In recent years I’ve become a big fan of Lewis B. Patten.

If you could bring back the work of one western writer who would it be? Is there a specific title?

Most of the really good Western authors from the pulp era have had work reprinted in recent years—Walt Coburn, T.T. Flynn, Peter Dawson (who was really Jonathan Glidden, Fred Glidden’s brother), H.A. De Rosso, and others I’m sure I’m forgetting at the moment. But they were so prolific back in those days that there are still plenty of good stories that haven’t been reprinted. So I hope more of their work continues to show up in new editions.

You also write mysteries, and it seems there has been—both historically as well as today—a significant amount of authors who do good work in both genres. Do you think there is a relationship between the mystery and the western that promotes this crossover, or is it simply the economics of professional writing?

I’m sure economics has something to do with it, but the private eye genre supposedly grew out of the Western dime novel tradition, so if there’s any truth to that theory—and I think you can make a case for it—the two genres are naturally intertwined and always have been. Plus there’s nearly always some sort of crime or mystery element in Western novels, so people who can do a good job in one genre are usually a good fit in the other, as well. One of my favorite writers, for example, is Ed Gorman, whose Western novels are, if anything, more noirish than his mystery novels and always concern crimes of some sort.

The mystery genre is thriving, but many believe the western is in decline. What do you think about the western genre today, and what do you think the future holds for the western story?

The Western genre has been hurt more than any other by the consolidation of publishers, the shrinking mid-list, and the best-seller mentality. There are also problems in the distribution system that keep Westerns from getting out there into the discount stores, grocery stores, and drugstores, where they’re most likely to sell. A considerable number of Westerns are still being published, they’re just harder to find than they used to be. And with Western readers generally being older, they’re probably less likely to buy their books on-line. But Westerns are still out there if you make the effort to locate them, and as far as I can tell, their sales numbers seem to be in a sort of holding pattern, having fallen considerably during the second half of the Nineties but staying fairly steady since then. Publishers who have done all right with Westerns continue to do so. New lines start up every now and then, and while none of them have caught on and been really successful, they give the genre an upward bump for a while. So, while there is a continuing gradual decline in the popularity of Westerns, it’s slow enough so that I don’t think they’ll ever go away completely, at least not in our lifetimes. That’s certainly my hope, anyway.

As for the quality of the Westerns being written today, well, I’m not sure it’s ever been higher. I’d start naming names, but practically everybody in the field is a friend of mine and I’m afraid I’d forget somebody. I think you can pick up just about any new Western and be confident that you’ll get a very well-written, entertaining story.

Okay, now lets get down to your current work. What is your latest novel?

I’ve had two novels published under my name this year: Dust Devils, a crime novel published by Point Blank Press that received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and excellent reviews from some of the leading websites; and Death Head Crossing, a Western with strong mystery elements that’s just been published by Pinnacle Books.

Can you tell us about the novel—or any other projects—you are working on now?

It’s one of those ghost jobs that has to remain top secret as far as title and by-line go, but I will say that it’s a big contemporary thriller.

Beyond that I have a number of house-name books and ghosting projects lined up, plus lending a small hand to the plotting and editing of the novels my wife writes.

I have one last question, and I must warn it is a little vague. If you could chose any project to work on, what would it be?

Another Texas-set crime novel along the lines of Dust Devils. I’ve got my title and some of the plot, now I just need to find the time to write it.
Also, I wrote three novels about World War II—the Last Good War series, published by Forge Books—and I would love to write something else about the war, probably an espionage-oriented thriller. (So if there are any editors reading this who are looking for something like that, give me a call!)

Saddlebums Movie Review: Cimarron

2007-09-19T16:18:00.000-04:00

(Saddlebums is glad to present the first of what we hope will be many contributions by Doug Bentin, redoubtable Western fan who hails from San Antonio, Texas and presently lives in Oklahoma. Doug writes film reviews for eFilmCritic! and book reviews (mostly Westerns) for the most indispensable website Bookgasm. His personal blog is The Long Saturday of the Soul.)

2007 is Oklahoma’s centennial year so I thought I’d take a look at a movie that explores what it took to carve a state out of some pretty wild country.

The movie is “Cimarron,” released in 1931 and based on the 1929 bestseller by Edna Ferber. Richard Dix stars as Yancy Cravat, based on the real life Temple Houston, son of Sam Houston. Temple was a lawyer in Woodward, OK, from 1894 to his death in 1905, and a couple of moments in the movie draw on Temple’s court room style. During his defense of soiled dove Dixie Lee — Minnie Stacey in real life — Yancy says of his trial opponent, “Your honor, the prosecutor is the first man that I've ever seen that can strut while sitting down.” His closing argument to the jury is also taken from Temple’s defense of Minnie Stacey in 1899.

It’s too bad “Cimarron” doesn’t depict my favorite Temple Houston anecdote, as retold in Glenn Shirley’s fine biography of the man. Once, Temple asked to use the judge’s chamber as a place he and his client could talk in private. The request was granted but, after lawyer and client failed to reappear in court in a reasonable amount of time, Temple was discovered sitting alone in the room with the window wide open. “I gave him the best advice I could,” Houston quipped.

Okay, all this is fun but it only comments on the movie by pointing out that much of the characterization, plot, and background are drawn from times that had passed only 40 years before the film was made. The filming of “Cimarron” is much closer in time to the great Oklahoma Land Run of 1889 than it is to us today and most of the pleasure the movie delivers is due to its authenticity.

The Internet Movie Database reports that the land rush scene took a week to film, using 5,000 extras, 28 cameramen, 6 still photographers and 27 camera assistants. It holds up beautifully today and if young people watching the movie think they’re seeing newsreel footage of the actual event, it’s almost understandable.

The picture follows footloose Yancy and his bride Sabra (the always luminous Irene Dunne) as they travel west so Yancy can set up a newspaper and practice law. They arrive first in the bustling frontier city of Osage, one of those Insta-Cities that popped up out of the prairie after the first land run.

These early scenes in Osage are fascinating in their depiction of the noise, confusion and crowded conditions. We meet many of the human types who made the run—good guys and bad guys—but most prominently for dramatic purposes a Jewish peddler, a stammering printer’s devil, and a young African-American boy who the Cravats discover stowed away with them.

The movie lets us know that yonderin’ fellas like Yancy, who took their brains and skills from one frontier outpost to the next, were what the west needed if it ever hoped to settle down. The tragedy for civilizers like Yancy was that they couldn’t feel at home when civilization did grow roots, and they were doomed from the start to run out of room and out of time. The new state they created didn’t need roughnecks and pioneers.

“Cimarron” was the first western to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Dix and Dunne were both nominated for Oscars, but neither took one home. About a lot of older movies you say metaphorically, “Well, that one is just an historical document,” but “Cimarron” is special because it actually is an historical document.

Oh, and one more note about something that is neither here nor there. Sabra Cravat’s mother, featured in one early scene in the movie, is played by a stage actress named Nance O’Neil. If you’ve ever heard of her, it probably isn’t in connection with her career as an actress but for the fact that during the early 20th Century she was the best friend of the infamous Lizzie Borden. Were they really, as some folks claim, lovers? Don’t axe, don’t tell.

— Doug Bentin.

Saddlebums Interview: Elizabeth Fackler

2007-09-17T18:09:00.000-04:00

Western and mystery writer Elizabeth Fackler is best known for her critically-acclaimed Seth Strummar series, which has been described as a saga of sexual politics on the American frontier. Her Westerns are characterized by a grittiness that owes to careful historical observation and realistic characterizations, making her novels truly groundbreaking depictions of the West.

According to Ed Gorman, "Elizabeth Fackler has a unique approach to the novel and speaks in a voice all her own. She takes familiar elements and makes them seem startling and new through the dazzle of her prose and the humanity of her forgiving gaze."

Mrs. Fackler has also written several historical novels including Billy the Kid: The Legend of El Chivato and Texas Lily, both of which are set against the backdrop of the Lincoln County War. Most recently, she has authored a series of contemporary mysteries for Five Star Publishing.

You have alternatively written both mysteries and Westerns with similar critical success. In this, it seems that you are not alone as numerous authors from Elmore Leonard to Harry Whittington to Robert Randisi and several others have done the same. Are there any affinities between the genres that have led so many talented writers to try their hands at both?

The affinities are structural. The plots of both revolve around a protagonist at odds with the world. As the story unfolds, the protagonist subdues the disruptive forces and regains a sort of stasis that lasts as long as it takes the reader to close the book. By that I mean, the stasis is momentary, and if we could follow the story farther than the author allows, the stasis would soon be lost. Perhaps all this could be said of any novel; maybe it is the energetic drive to conclusion that distinguishes the two genres. In both mysteries and Westerns, no words are squandered on self-indulgent asides, each is a stepping stone on the protagonist’s path toward whatever he finds on the final page.

Your novels tend to have strong male lead characters (Seth Strummar, Frank James, Devon Gray) and yet they are usually counterbalanced by equally strong secondary female characters. Is this a conscious decision on your part?

A story arrives from behind the eyes of the protagonist. Like the melody and the lyrics when I write a song, the protagonist and the story arrive together. My male protagonists are attracted to women who are worthy of them and who interest me. Writing a novel requires many hours spent in your characters’ company, so I try to find entertaining people to hang out with.

What led you to start writing in the Western genre?

I love men on horses and women in long skirts.

The study of the historical West has undergone drastic changes in recent decades as academia has attempted to demystify supposedly entrenched preconceptions about this period of American history. This has resulted in innovative research on subjects such as the role of women in the West and history from the point of view of Native Americans. On the other hand, it has led to demonizing from some academics that see the expansion to the West as a particularly bleak episode in the history of this country. Would you agree with this assessment and, if so, do you think these new perceptions and attitudes have influenced modern-day Western fiction?

To paraphrase an Englishman, it was the best and worst of times. Maybe they all are. I can’t see that what we as a nation are doing in the world today is any kinder than what we did in the nineteenth century. I can’t think of any era that was less bleak. Are they referring to the so-called Revolutionary War, slavery, or the Civil War? Are they less bleak? Or the two world wars, the Great Depression, the Mexican-American or the Spanish-American War? The history of civilization is bleak. The acknowledgement of that has influenced all thinking. The beauty of the nineteen-century American pioneers is that they truly believed the future would be better. That’s an enviable attitude and imbues them with a buoyant optimism that keeps the story afloat.

What role does research play in your writing especially when it comes to novels such as Billy the Kid: The Legend of El Chivato and Texas Lily?

Both of those novels were based on thirty years of research. For Texas Lily, I did additional research on New Mexico cattle ranching in the late nineteenth century. I read everything available on the Lincoln County War before it ever occurred to me to write the story myself. I did so because I felt no one had told it the way it was meant to be told.

Although there are precedents for demythologized portrayals of the West, the grittiness of novels like Blood Kin and its frank depiction of violence and sex makes it seem in many ways a Western ahead of its time. What was the feedback from your editors when you first turned in the manuscript? What about critics and readers when it was finally published?

The publisher initially demanded that I delete all the “kinky” (their word) scenes. I protested and my editor went to bat for me and the publisher acquiesced. The reviews were amusing. One was by a nun who, although she called my writing “powerful,” took exception to my harlot comparing herself to the Blessed Mother. My favorite said Blood Kin took its inspiration more from Last Tango in Paris than Dry Gulch Ambush. I still use that in my promos. I know I offended many traditional readers of the genre, and I’m sorry they can’t see the value in my stories. Readers often have the same reaction to my mysteries — that the sex is too graphic — but I like writing about passion.

What are your thoughts about the present state of the Western genre and what do you think the future holds for the Western story?

The Western story will survive, if only as a peripheral genre with a small but loyal readership. The trick is finding publishers who will keep the work in print. People now are in love with technology and that leads authors to set their stories on the cutting-edge of progress if not in the future. Some of those stories are transplanted heroic plots that work well in any era. But there are those of us who will always enjoy horses and canyons, stars and mountains, and the flattering glow of candlelight.

Most writers are voracious readers and you are probably not the exception. What do you read for pleasure?

Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Wild West, The Sun are magazines we receive; I read most of each issue. Right now I’m reading The Life and Death of Colonel Albert Jennings Fountain by A.M. Gibson. I was led to it by reading another book about Fountain, Corey Recko’s Murder on the White Sands. Before that I read N. Scott Momaday’s The Man Made of Words, and before that, Penelope Lively’s Moon Tiger. I am also sporadically reading from Sallie Tisdale’s Women of the Way, stories about women Buddhist teachers. All reading I do is for pleasure, unless it’s the instruction book for a new appliance or a contract or such.

Do you have any writing influences? How about influences in the Western genre?

The whole world, every word I’ve read, and every experience I’ve known is a writing influence. I read Zane Gray as a child but my landscape descriptions don’t compare to his. My favorite author and book of my formative years was Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment.

Are there any Western writers you would like to see back in print? Likewise, are there any new writers that have caught your attention?

I would love to see my Westerns back in print. None of them are except El Chivato which I have to push constantly to keep available.

Are you writing anything right now? Can you tell us more about any other projects you are currently involved with?

I have a nascent publishing company called Western Star Books. So far we have published the first, never-before-published novel of my Seth Strummar series, Bone Justice, and A Calendar of the Lincoln County War. Both of them are available through my website. I have a mystery starring Elizabeth Garrett, the daughter of Pat Garrett, nearing completion.

What is the greatest satisfaction of your writing career? Is there anything else you still feel you need to accomplish?

The greatest satisfaction is that I did it. And I’m still here, still being published. I am working on achieving calm abiding at the moment of my death so I will have a good rebirth.

Saddlebums Review: Tales from Deadwood by Mike Jameson

2007-09-14T17:27:00.000-04:00

Tales from Deadwood is the first in a series of three novels featuring a lavish mixture of dime-novel mythology, historical fact, plenty of action, and a whole lot of the Old West, which sums to an original and fresh novel. It chronicles the lives of several men and women who make their way to Deadwood, South Dakota in search of wealth on the newly discovered gold of the Black Hills, including all of the regular players: Wild Bill Hickok, Charley Utter, Al Swearengen, Calamity Jane; and a few new ones as well.

Dan Ryan is the central character in the story, and the novel opens with him defending a wagon train from an Indian attack. He, along with the other men in the party, repel the attack, and Dan makes a new friend in the process. He and Bellamy Bridges decide to partner up, and when they finally reach Deadwood they purchase a claim. The relationship between Dan and Bellamy—plus a few whores, a madam, a gambler, and an old general—is the main storyline, but it isn’t the only storyline.

The other plotline follows Wild Bill Hickok and his entourage as they travel from Cheyenne to Deadwood. Wild Bill doesn’t make it to Deadwood before the end of the novel, but Mr. Jameson does an admirable job of painting him as a strong, courageous, patient, and kind man who protects his friends and shows uncommon patience with his admirers.

Tales from Deadwood is not a rip-off of HBO’s Deadwood, but instead it is story that stands on its own merits—the characters are portrayed significantly different, and the storyline focuses on places and people the television series does not. It is a traditional western with enough action, lore, and suspense to please the core readership of the genre, but the characters and simple, sparse prose is done with the economy and expertise that will also appeal to nearly anyone who enjoys a well-told tale.

Saddlebums Interview: Stephen Lodge

2007-09-10T00:01:00.000-04:00

Stephen Lodge is an old hand in Hollywood. He was introduced to “B” Westerns as a young boy, and he has loved the genre ever since. He began acting professionally at the age of twelve, and when he was sixteen he performed at the Corrigan Western Movie Ranch. His first writing credit came on the James Coburn film The Honkers, and since then he has written or directed three major film productions including the Kenny Rogers television film Rio Diablo.

Mr. Lodge has also written several Western novels, including Shadows of Eagles, Nickel-Plated Dream and Charley Sunday's Texas Outfit. The Midwest Book Review has described his writing “like dripping pigments on a canvas, Mr. Lodge’s descriptive phrases bring the characters to full-size dimension.”

You have had an impressive career in Hollywood, as an actor, writer, director, and even stuntman. What are a few of your most memorable moments working in film and television?

First was finding out I sold my first script. Number two was getting the call telling me that I’d sold number two. And since I’ve only had three produced, you should already know the answer to the third.

Also, when I walked onto the CBS Studio Center lot for the very first time, knowing full well it had been Republic Pictures in years past; then walking the back lot and seeing all the old Western sets I had been in love with since childhood.

Doing the same thing at the Columbia Ranch; MGM Lot #2; The Warner Bros. back lot; Universal Back Lot; walking around the Hal Roach studio right before it was demolished; visiting Iverson’s Ranch for the first time; Melody Ranch; same with Corriganville, etc. etc. etc. You can see I was almost as impressed by the sets and locations as I was the actors.

You wrote the Kenny Rogers television movie Rio Diablo. It had a large and impressive cast including Stacy Keach, and musicians Travis Tritt and Naomi Judd. What was your experience working on this film? Would you do it again?

I was recovering from a serious illness when Rio Diablo was shot. I didn’t work on the show; but my wife and I flew to location in Brackettville, Texas, and spent time on the Alamo Village set with my writing partners, Frank Q. Dobbs, and David S. Cass, Sr. I took a lot of photos which are available on my Behind the Scenes web site; you can get there through: http://www.stephenlodge.com/

Most writers are voracious readers, and I’m wondering what you read for pleasure?

I read mostly non-fiction politically oriented books; but when I read fiction it’s usually Western based.

“I learned to write by reading every script my aunt and uncle brought me. My aunt worked for Columbia Pictures, so I had access to every script Columbia produced and released.”

I have read that you were enthralled with film and theater as a boy. Are there any films or plays that had a particular impact on your development as a writer?

I learned to write by reading every script my aunt and uncle brought me. My aunt worked for Columbia Pictures, so I had access to every script Columbia produced and released. My uncle worked in TV, so I got to read a lot of television scripts, too. The one script I have used as my bible over the years is Carl Foreman’s The Guns of Navarone.

Now I want to turn to the western genre specifically. What first led you to the genre?

Without a doubt it was getting our first television set when I was five years old. Because early television needed to fill all those empty hours, they showed old B-Westerns from dawn to dusk. I fell in love with Westerns (the western genre) the very first time I saw one.

What are a few of the western writers who have most influenced your work?

First and foremost, Clair Huffaker (The War Wagon, Rio Conchos, Flaming Star); a friend introduced me to him when I was writing my first novel 25 years ago, and he was kind enough to walk me through the basics; second is Burt Kennedy, who wrote some really great Western movies. Today I like reading Elmer Kelton novels.

If you could bring back the work of one western writer who would it be? Is there a specific title?

Burt Kennedy–the stories he wrote for those Bud Boetticher-Randolph Scott Westerns are unbeatable. My favorite of Burt’s is The Name is Buchanan; plus The Tall T, his screen adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel.

“Western novelists are still turning out some really good stories. But I can’t say that much for Hollywood. The Westerns I’ve watched recently are all too touchy-feely for me.”

What do you think about the western genre today, and what do you think the future holds for the western story?

Western novelists are still turning out some really good stories. But I can’t say that much for Hollywood. The Westerns I’ve watched recently are all too touchy-feely for me. As for the future of Westerns, I hope they become popular once again; but who knows–our nation’s youth just doesn’t seem to be interested in reading Westerns today like they did in the past. Plus, there is a certain element in this country who continue to put Westerns down; in particular the Cowboy. Until something really big Western comes along to convince this country that Western novels and movies aren’t so bad after all, I’ll just have to keep plugging along.

Okay, now I want to get down to your current work. What is your latest novel?

The current title is Whiskey Tears. Two young and boastful Texas racecar drivers are hired by a fading country star’s new manager to retrieve the intoxicated thrush from a low-life cantina in a Mexican border-town where she has ended up after one of her booze-filled tangents. Whiskey Tears is looking for a publisher.

Can you tell us about the novel—or any other projects—you are working on now?

Besides Whiskey Tears, I have several other novels in the works; that way I can switch from one to another whenever I go blank.

At present, I’m putting together a book that will include all of my Hollywood Western essays, plus behind the scenes photos I’ve taken on various movie sets throughout my life.

Is there a particular novel of yours you would recommend to a reader who is unfamiliar with your work?

Nickel-plated Dream is based on a period in my life that I still hold dearly–when I worked as a stuntman-gunfighter for Ray “Crash” Corrigan, at his movie ranch, Corriganville. Though the story is fiction, it is based loosely on my personal experiences.

Charley Sunday's Texas Outfit is about a sensible, sober-minded Texas grandfather who imparts the American Cowboy legacy to his only grandchild as he and several of his grizzled cronies concoct a 1,000-mile longhorn cattle drive across 21st Century America.

Both should give anyone a nice introduction into my writing.

I have one last question, and I must warn it is a little vague. If you could choose any project to work on, what would it be?

I would love to work in some way on the movie version of my very first novel, Shadows of Eagles, which is presently out of publication. It’s a 1944-era Western that pits escaped Nazi prisoners against a posse of determined Texas Rangers. It’s historically correct in the fact that the United States had POW camps on US soil during World War II. And it's set in the Texas Big Bend, one of my favorite places to be.

Scouting the Web

2007-09-06T14:50:00.000-04:00

It’s 3:10 to Yuma weekend and naturally all things West in the media are revolving around its screening this Friday.

■ Here’s a very thorough piece on the making of the film from the Hollywood Reporter. While we’re on the subject, The New York Times recently ran a very interesting article on Elmore Leonard’s Westerns on the screen, focused (as expected) on 3:10 to Yuma. And here’s an extensive interview with the film’s screenwriting team of Derek Haas and Michael Brandt.

■ The New York Post takes the opportunity to touch on the business (or, to be more exact, box office) side of film Westerns, focusing on how Hollywood is banking on four movie releases (two of which I wouldn’t technically consider Westerns, but what the heck) to “bridge the gap between this summer's $4 billion box office and the release of the end-of-year award contenders.”

According to the brief article, “Only three Westerns have grossed more than $100 million at the box office since 1980, and aside from ‘Brokeback Mountain,’ none of the Western-themed films released since 2000 has touched $70 million.”

■ It seems that 3:10 to Yuma has inspired everyone to make its own list of favorite Westerns. Here’s one from movie website Joblo.com, while First Showing.net enumerates its “Top Four Recommended Westerns to Watch Before Seeing 3:10 to Yuma.” Not to be one-upped, The Onion comes up with its own list of “17 Truly Grim Westerns.”

■ For Western art lovers, there’s a new magazine in town: Western Art Collector. Its voluminous first issue reads like a veritable fine art catalog with pages and pages of beautifully reproduced illustrations. You can take a sneak peek at its contents here.

■ The Spring 2007 issue of the Claremont Review of Books has an article on Larry McMurtry and the American West.

■ An excellent online resource for out-of-print fiction, Many Books.net has a vast Westerns library, including several turn-of the-century titles as well as novels and audio books from Max Brand, Bret Harte, Zane Grey, James Oliver Curwood, O. Henry, Clarence E. Mulford, Owen Wister and personal favorite Karl May (best known for his character Winnetou).

■ Ozarks Magazine recently ran a very nice profile of Dusty Richards.

■ Even if it’s not strictly Western-related, Astonishing Adventures Magazine, a new online publication dedicated to reviving pulp fiction, includes two items that might be of interest to Saddlebums readers: an interview with Texas writer Joe R. Lansdale and a very entertaining short story from newcomer Brad Reed, entitled “The Rude Tin Star.”

■ And finally, Venice’s film festival pays tribute to the "Spaghetti Western" this year by screening more than 30 Italian cowboy flicks.

Saddlebums Interview: Johnny D. Boggs

2007-09-05T00:30:00.000-04:00

Two-time Spur Award winner Johnny D. Boggs could be considered the quintessential man of the West. One of the most talented contemporary Western writers, Boggs is also a prolific chronicler, often contributing historical articles and features to publications such as True West and Wild West.

A former sports journalist and editor, Boggs won the Spur Award from the Western Writers of America for his novel Camp Ford in 2006 and for his short story “A Piano at Dead Man’s Crossing” (featured in the anthology American West: Twenty New Stories from the Western Writers of America) in 2002. He was a Spur finalist for his novels Ten and Me in 2000 and The Hart Brand in 2007 and he also won the Western Heritage Wrangler Award in 2004 for his novel Spark on the Prairie.

What led you to start writing Westerns?

I grew up on the tail end of the Westerns TV heyday, so series like Gunsmoke and The Virginian fueled my interest. I’d always been an avid reader, and once I discovered writers like Dorothy M. Johnson, Jack Schaefer and Will Henry, my mind was pretty much made up to write Westerns.

Can you tell us more about your Spur Award-winning novel Camp Ford? Would you consider it your best fiction work so far?

Camp Ford is best described as a Civil War-Baseball-Western, about a baseball game between Union prisoners of war and their Confederate guards at a P.O.W. camp in Texas. The idea began fermenting while watching a big-league game in Kansas City, and, like most of my projects, it turned into some kind of obsession and I had to write the story.

‘Bests’ are always open to the interpretation of the reader. At least a couple of reviewers have called Walk Proud, Stand Tall my best novel, but Camp Ford is probably my favorite one. It was a challenge to write, a lot of fun to research, and personal. I still think my best piece of fiction is a short story that also won a Spur, "A Piano at Dead Man’s Crossing."

Writing, however, is like most other jobs. You should get better the more you work at, so I hope my best piece of fiction is still to come.

You have written – and continue to write – nonfiction about different aspects of American culture and the West in particular. Where does this interest in the West stem from? (On a completely unprofessional note, let me tell you how much I enjoyed your recent True West article about country music. I couldn’t agree more with your assessment about Kenny Rogers’ “Lady” being a key moment for country music going downhill).

I’ve always been interested in the West, the physical place, the spiritual place, the history, the people, the land, everything about it. I think it all goes back to growing up in the South, surrounded by forests, swamps and tobacco fields, and dreaming of those wide-open spaces and rugged mountains that I saw on TV or in John Ford’s Westerns, or pictured in my mind reading Louis L’Amour or A.B. Guthrie, Jr.

I know I’m quite lucky. Many writers I know have to write about just about everything to pay the bills. I get to write, in both fiction and magazine nonfiction, about what I love. So I’m blessed.

Thanks for the kind words about the True West piece!

"I’ve never tried to be politically correct, but historically correct."

Has your experience as a journalist had any influence in your development as a fiction writer?

Definitely. All those years in daily newspapers taught me the importance of deadlines and the fact that there’s no such thing as writer’s block, or there had better not be. You also learn the value of words, and the economy of words. I also have a strong discipline – not exactly sure where that came from – so switching from working on the chapter of a novel to writing a travel story for True West isn’t hard. You’re supposed to be a ‘trained observer’ as a journalist, so I’m always picking up things on magazine projects that I can file away for future use in a novel or short story.

The study of the historical West has undergone drastic changes in recent decades as academia has attempted to demystify supposedly entrenched preconceptions about this period in American history. This has resulted in both innovative research on the positive side as well as in demonizing from some academics that see the expansion to the West as a particularly bleak episode in the history of this country. Would you agree with this assessment and, if so, do you think these new perceptions and attitudes have influenced modern-day Western fiction?

Sure, I’d agree with that. History is always changing. Most people probably find that hard to believe, but it’s true. Historians uncover new information, or they put historical events in a different perspective. Custer goes from hero to villain and back and forth again. I still think one of the most important pieces of nonfiction to come around in years is Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. That certainly led to more histories told from a sympathetic view of the Indian Wars. More recently, Hampton Sides’ Blood and Thunder is a great narrative account of our westward expansion in which Kit Carson isn’t really glorified or vilified, but shown as a rather complex man in really complex times.

I like good writing and great research. I tend to favor a journalistic approach in covering all angles. I really have enjoyed what we might call revisionist histories, but at the same time I might toss away other revisionist accounts.

Certainly, you can see some influence of this in some fiction, but it really varies from writer to writer, publisher to publisher. I’ve never tried to be politically correct, but historically correct. And often I try to tell my stories from different viewpoints, showing what a Comanche warrior trying to protect his family thinks of buffalo hunters or what a Texas homesteader would think of Comanches after a bloody raid.

I’ve often said that I don’t write that often about good guys and bad guys. I write about people with strong feelings about what is good and bad, right and wrong, and often the people differ – strongly – about what’s good and bad, right and wrong.

What role does research play in your writing?

Research is half the battle, maybe even more. I’ll spend hours reading histories, tracking down bits and pieces, studying maps, visiting locations, wooing librarians and archivists for help.

Readers of historical fiction and Western fiction know their stuff a lot these days, and if you make a mistake, they’ll let you hear about it. The shelves on my bookcases are overflowing, and I keep adding books.

At some point, however, your imagination has to take over, and you have to make choices about what piece of history is important and what details are going to bog down the story. That’s the big challenge in writing historical fiction.

"For the past few decades, Westerns have been branded an ugly stepchild of the genres. And, honestly, I’ve read a lot of Westerns that I haven’t liked at all (...) Westerns are a genre, but the great ones (...) go beyond that. Westerns can be, and often are, great literature. And the future’s always bright for great literature."

What are your thoughts about the present state of the Western genre and what do you think the future holds for the Western story?

It depends on what you call Western. I’ve never been a big fan of literary rules, boundaries and fences. Some publishers think a Western has to be set west of the Mississippi River between 1865 and 1900, but today we’re seeing Westerns set before European contact. And certainly I think the contemporary mysteries by Tony Hillerman and C.J. Box are Westerns. They’re about men with hats and guns bringing law and order to the West; the heroes just happen to be Navajo policemen in Tony’s case and a Wyoming game warden in Chuck’s. Those novels seem to do pretty well.

The traditional Western story has a loyal reader – writers like Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey and Max Brand still sell a lot of books – but I’m hoping we can reach out to others. The biggest thing we have to do is hook young readers, get them interested in, well, first and foremost, reading! Then get them interested in our Western heritage and our history, and keep them reading into adulthood.

We do this, I think, by giving them strong stories they can relate to. Great writing. Wonderful characters. We transport them to another time, educate them while entertaining them.

I think you’ll see more crossover types of Westerns. I mean, Camp Ford is probably more a baseball novel than anything else, and I’ve written two novels (The Despoilers and Ghost Legion) set in the Backcountry of the Carolinas during the American Revolution. That’s not what most people would consider the West, but in 1780 that was definitely the frontier. Historical-Western crossovers, Western-mystery crossovers, and I’m reading Emma Bull’s Territory, which blends fantasy elements into a Western (Tombstone, Arizona) setting.

Another factor for Western fiction could be the success this fall of movies like 3:10 to Yuma, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and the TV miniseries Comanche Moon.

For the past few decades, Westerns have been branded an ugly stepchild of the genres. And, honestly, I’ve read a lot of Westerns that I haven’t liked at all. Too predictable. Poorly written. Cardboard characters. Clichés. No sense of history and no sense of geography. Westerns are a genre, but the great ones – Monte Walsh, Lonesome Dove, The Big Sky, Warlock, The Time it Never Rained, From Where the Sun Now Stands, Welcome to Hard Times – go beyond that. Westerns can be, and often are, great literature. And the future’s always bright for great literature.

Most writers are voracious readers and you are probably not the exception. What do you read for pleasure?

I read a lot. Tons of nonfiction for research. Fiction, both for pleasure and to hone my craft. Look what this writer did. Why did this writer do that? I’m still a big fan of Will Henry/Clay Fisher, John Jakes. I like Elmore Leonard a lot, both his early Westerns and his crime novels. Sherman Alexie to Alice Sebold, Robert Frost to Johnny Cash. I always have a book nearby.

Do you have any writing influences? How about influences in the Western genre?

Mark Twain remains my favorite writer, probably my biggest influence. Alexandre Dumas probably was the first writer to take me out of that South Carolina bedroom and show me another world. I think you can probably see the influences of Charles Dickens and Jack London in my fiction. In the Western genre, I’ve already lauded Dorothy M. Johnson, Jack Shaefer and others. Elmer Kelton has always been an influence. So has Fred Grove. Jane Candia Coleman and Tim Champlin probably don’t get the praise they deserve, and my mother’s a big fan of Cotton Smith. Mike Blakely and David Marion Wilkinson are great friends and great Western writers, and I love ol’ Max Evans, who has been my mentor, even though he doesn’t know it. Red Shuttleworth’s Western poetry never fails to inspire.

"The biggest hurdle to convincing booksellers that the Western isn’t dead is seeing shelves full of dead authors. But Louis L’Amour, Max Brand and Zane Grey sell a lot of books (...) So do Raymond Chandler and Agatha Christie, but nobody’s calling the Mystery dead. I don’t know how we get past that."

Are there any Western writers you would like to see back in print?

Ah. Now there’s where we come to the double-edged sword. The biggest hurdle to convincing booksellers that the Western isn’t dead is seeing shelves full of dead authors. But Louis L’Amour, Max Brand and Zane Grey sell a lot of books, and other dead authors like William J. Johnstone and Ralph Compton have become brand names with others writing under those names. And they sell. So do Raymond Chandler and Agatha Christie, but nobody’s calling the Mystery dead. I don’t know how we get past that.

On the other hand, I’ll read a lot of Will Henry/Clay Fisher titles. And Five Star and Leisure Books have done a great job reissuing the works of Les Savage, Jr., which is great for his legacy. He ran into hurdles when he was writing in the 1950s because editors and publishers forced him to follow their guidelines, but now his books are appearing, long after his death, the way he wanted them to appear. So I’m glad to see that. And enjoy reading his novels.

Are you writing anything right now? Can you tell us more about any other projects you are currently involved with?

We launched Northfield, an historical novel about the James-Younger Gang’s bank-robbery debacle in Northfield, Minnesota, this summer. A young-adult novel titled Doubtful Cañon comes out from Five Star in December. I just finished a period mystery set in the 1880s titled Killstraight, about a Comanche tribal policeman who returns to the reservation after years of boarding school. That’ll be out next summer, and I’ve just started a coming-of-age story set in New Mexico Territory at the outbreak of the Civil War. That one’s called Soldier’s Farewell. And I’m supposed to contribute an original short story to an anthology for Pinnacle Books. Plus tons of magazine work. I’ve no complaints being busy.

What is the greatest satisfaction of your writing career? Is there anything else you still feel you need to accomplish?

The greatest satisfaction is finishing a novel. And then starting another one. I think most writers would say the same thing. That’s the best and worst thing about writing. You always start with a blank page.

And I have plenty I want to accomplish. There’s a list of ideas and titles on my computer, and the list keeps growing. I know I’ll never get to every idea. The biggest challenge is picking what to write next. I’m doing what I’ve always wanted to do, and that’s greatly satisfying.

Saddlebums Review: The Savage Gun by Jory Sherman

2007-09-03T12:36:00.000-04:00

Described by fellow writer Loren D. Estleman as a “national treasure,” Spur Award-winner and Pulitzer Prize-nominee Jory Sherman is a unique author. His prose approaches poetry and even when chronicling a violent and gory revenge story in The Savage Gun, a reader cannot help but be wondered at his command of the language and the ease with which he evokes a given setting through a mixture of imaginative metaphors and fast-paced action.

The Savage Gun tells the brutal coming-of-age story of John Savage, a young man who sees his family and closest friends slaughtered by a gang of bandits while working at their gold claim in a place known as Cripple Creek, high in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. The ruthlessness exhibited by the assassins, led by the fierce Oliver Hobbart, steels the protagonist’s determination to avenge his loved ones.

As the story unfolds, John Savage - still called “Johnny” by his reluctant partner and the other survivor of the Cripple Creek massacre, Ben Russell – becomes an unfeeling yet obsessed individual, tracking Hobart’s gang through the wilds of Colorado. It is in these passages that Sherman’s prose shines, as in this rare moment of quiet when John lays to rest after catching up with the first of the killers. John disposes of him remorselessly, burying all shreds of his adolescent innocence for good:

“John slept deep beneath an ocean of soft rain and whispering wind through spruce boughs. He floated through October hills with the sumacs and the maples blazed with a vermillion fire and the oak leaves yellowed and browned in shady hollows and on the ridges where the white-tailed deer nibbled the last of the acorns while gray squirrels chattered on the slopes, their bottle-brush tails flickering nervously as they scurried through the skeletons of fallen leaves like fugitive church mice.”

The young Savage is becoming familiar with his father’s Colt, a finely-crafted weapon whose barrel reads in Spanish: “Ni me saques sin razón. Ni me guardes sin honor” (Do not draw me without reason, nor keep me without honor). The Colt rightfully instills fear in the surviving bandits who are heading for the town of Pueblo to cash in on the looted gold. There, they are to meet with the alluring Mexican cantina owner Rosa Delgado, as John comes to terms with a secret that connects her with both his father and the killer Hobart.

The Savage Gun is an old-fashioned Western with all the necessary elements of high adventure and drama plus a writing style that, while contrasting with contemporary genre writers’ penchant for barebones prose and quick scenes, makes for an engaging read.

Forthcoming Westerns: September 2007

2007-08-31T18:13:00.001-04:00

This is a list of westerns scheduled for release in September 2007—it can be difficult to put together a complete list of every western being published, which is the long way of saying it is not an exhaustive list. It is however a pretty darn impressive list. There are 27 books being published with a good mixture of originals and reprints, and hardcovers and paperbacks. Who says the western is dead?

September 1st

Assassination of Jesse James by Ron Hansen
Blood of Bass Tillman by Cotton Smith
The Fugitive: A Western Trio by Max Brand
Night Riders: A Western Duo by Giff Cheshire
A Phyllis of the Sierras by Bret Harte
Wilderness #53: The Rising Storm David Thompson
A Threat to Justice by Chuck Norris & Ken Abraham
Pride and Code of the Mountain Man by William W. Johnstone

Description for Blood of Bass Tillman

No doubt about it, Bass Tillman is getting old. It’s been years since he killed a man in a gunfight. He’s respectable now. A lawyer, not a gunfighter. He should be taking it easy, enjoying life with his family. But he has only one thing on his mind—tracking down the men who murdered his son and daughter-in-law in cold blood. Tillman swore on his loved-ones’ graves that he would bring their killers to justice, and with only a few clues to go by, that’s what he’s going to do…even if it means going back to a life he left behind.

September 4th

Matt Jenson: Last Mountain Man by William W. Johnstone
Montana Revenge by Dusty Richards
The Thunder Riders by Frank Leslie
The Trailsman #311: Idaho Impact by Jon Sharpe

September 5th

Coming Storm by Tracie Peterson

September 11th

Welcome to Hard Times by E.L. Doctorow

September 15th

Avenging Victorio by Dave DeWitt

September 16th

Ride the Trail of Death by Kenneth L. Kieser

September 19th

Forgotten Range by Robert J. Horton
Gunsmoke: A Western Quartet by T.T. Flynn
The Devil’s Rangers by Jim Grand
Wind River Kid by Will Cook

September 25th

The Gamblers: Denver Draw by Robert J. Randisi
Longarm and the Guns of Fort Sabre (Longarm #347) by Tabor Evans
Longarm Giant #26: Golden Eagle Shoot-out by Tabor Evans
Slocum in Shot Creek (Slocum #344) by Jake Logan
Way with a Gun (The Gunsmith #310) by J.R. Roberts

Description for The Gamblers: Denver Draw

On the run from the assassins who murdered his family, Ty Butler found a new way to survive: with a few good hands, a loaded gun, and a little luck. But lying low and keeping out of his hunters' gunsights is getting harder to do since he started earning a serious rep at the poker table;and especially now that he's made some new friends . . . named Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and Doc Holliday.

September 30th

Who’s Who in the Western Novels of Zane Grey by John Donahue

September—release date unknown

Big Bend Death Trap by James J. Griffin

Saddlebums Interview: Robert J. Randisi

2007-08-28T22:06:00.000-04:00

Robert J. Randisi is the author of more than 400 novels—some 300 are in the western genre. He is the creator and writer of The Gunsmith series, which is published under his J.R. Roberts pseudonym, as well as numerous westerns under his own name and others. He is the co-founder of, with Ed Gorman, Mystery Scene magazine, and he is the founder of the Private Eye Writer’s of America (PWA). He also created the PWA’s Shamus awards, as well as the “Eye”—which is the PWA’s Life Achievement Award.

Mr. Randisi is a versatile writer who has written in the mystery, thriller, horror, adventure, and western genres. He received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly for his excellent mystery novel Alone with the Dead, and he has been called the “next Louis L’Amour” by author Jake Foster. He is prolific; he has published one novel a month since 1982, and if that isn’t enough, he has also edited numerous anthologies, including the First Cases series of crime anthologies.

First, I want to thank you for taking the time to chat with us Bob.

It’s my pleasure. Always willing to talk about writing and about writing westerns.

I’ve been reading your work, both westerns and mysteries, for seven or eight years and I’m impressed with both the quantity and the quality of your work. My question: what is a typical workday like for you?

I’m usually working on two books at one time, so during the day I’ll work on, say, a western. At some point I stop for dinner. After dinner I watch a little TV, and then I take a nap. After the nap it’s on to the mystery novel I’m working on. I have a TV in my office, so I usually watch while I’m working. Last week I watched all three Magnificent movies on tape while I worked on a western. Also some old Warner Bros. westerns like Cheyenne and Maverick. Then, while working on a mystery I’ll watch some Sunset Strip or Hawaiian Eye tapes, maybe some British mysteries or movies, like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, or American films like Harper or Chinatown. I work until about 4 a.m., then read for an hour before going to bed. Up at 11 am, breakfast and start over. Some days errands—like the bank, the P.O.—take me away from the work for a while. Also going out to dinner with friends. But I work every day.

"Keeping myself interested got to be a problem in the 90’s—not the 1990’s, but when I reached Gunsmith #90. So I started playing some games, like doing some Gunsmiths that borrowed plots from favorite movies, or doing some Wild, Wild West type stories.”

You created The Gunsmith series, which is published under the pseudonym J.R. Roberts. It first appeared in 1982, and there are currently somewhere in the neighborhood of 320 books in the series. Have you written each book in the series? If so, how do you keep yourself interested in the stories and the characters?

Actually, back in 1983 when Berkley bought out Charter books they wanted to bring in a couple of other writers so we could build an inventory and get about a year ahead. So there were a few years there where I did 8 a year instead of twelve. Also, while two other writers were doing some Gunsmiths I was doing some ghost work, or house name work like Nick Carter Books, or helping someone else write their series. So it was pretty much a wash there, and when I do a bibliography—like I did last year for the Stark House reprint of my first novel—I don’t mention the ghost work and some of the series work. It all comes out even in the end. I’ve still done over 430 books since 1982. But there are probably about 30 Gunsmiths in that first hundred that I didn’t do. I own them, though, as I own the entire series.

Keeping myself interested got to be a problem in the 90’s—not the 1990’s, but when I reached Gunsmith #90. So I started playing some games, like doing some Gunsmiths that borrowed plots from favorite movies, or doing some Wild, Wild West type stories. I started one Gunsmith with the line, “Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl,” to see if the editor would catch it. They either didn’t, or they did and thought it was funny. So you need to entertain yourself as well as your reader to keep everybody interested.

Since we’re talking about your publishing history, what is the first novel you published? Was it a long time coming, or did you hit print pretty quickly once you decided to write it?

My first novel under my own name was called THE DISAPPEARANCE OF PENNY. It was a mystery that was published in 1980. (I did a ghost job on a book that came out in ’79). I sold my first short story in 1972, sold my first novel in ’79 on basis of an outline. I’ve sold all my novels that way, have never sold a completed manuscript. I met my first editor at an MWA [Mystery Writers of America] cocktail party where I used to tend bar so that everybody in the room had to come to me, and I’d meet everybody. We got along and I pitched him on the book. He liked it and bought it, and he’s the guy who asked me if I could write westerns, which led to The Gunsmith. So I’d say when I decided I wanted to do novels instead of short stories it took me about two years to get a book of my own in print. And I’ve never looked back. I’ve had a book published every month since January of 1982 (including those ghost and house jobs).

When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?

That happened when I was 15. That was when I not only decided I was gong to be a writer, but that I was going to be a full time writer by the time I was 30. When I turned thirty I had about 12 Gunsmiths under contract, so I quit working to write full time. That was a fifteen year plan. My second fifteen year plan was to be a millionaire by the time I was 45. Didn’t work out as well as the first plan.

You have had a long career—you have written in several different genres and published extensively in both novel form and short stories. Is there a specific genre or format you enjoy working in best? If you could choose would you concentrate on shorter works or novels?

I prefer to write novels, and my first love has always been the mystery. Specifically the hardboiled private eye novel.

It is my understanding that you have written several novels under house names—other than your long running series The Gunsmith. When you write under a house name do you approach it differently than your other work? Do you enjoy writing them, and if you can would you briefly explain how series writing works? Do you have any responsibility for promotion, or does the publisher prefer you stay quiet about your authorship?

First, the Gunsmith name “J.R. Roberts” is not a house name. It’s a pseudonym. That means it’s still mine, I get royalties. When I wrote 6 Nick Carter books in the 80’s I got a flat rate, no royalty. Usually when you write under house names—like the guys who write Longarm and Jake Logan—the publisher keeps quiet about it, so you have no input into promotion. They want the reader to think that “Tabor Evans” is really a guy who writes Longarm. If you look at the copyright page of a Gunsmith, it has my real name on it.

So writing under a housed name is different than writing your own series. You do the best you can when writing a house name series, but you have more invested in your own. I’ve done some Trailsman books, and I finished out the Canyon O’Grady series (the last seven) and a series called Shelter (3 books when the author, Paul Ledd [Paul Lederer], wanted to quit).

Is there a book, or a few books, that you have written and are particularly proud of?

THE HAM REPORTER was published in 1985 by Doubleday Books, and reprinted last year by Stark House (as a double with my first book). It features Bat Masterson when he was a sports writer in New York City in 1911, and he solves a mystery with a young Damon Runyon. The first Keough, ALONE WITH THE DEAD, got a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly. It’s one of my favorites. Also CURTAINS OF BLOOD, my Jack the Ripper meets Bram Stoker book. (Actually, I wrote that as a “Bram Stoker” novel, but the publisher put it out as a “Jack the Ripper” novel). And a little western called THE GHOST WITH BLUE EYES.

Most writers are voracious readers, and I’m wondering what you read for pleasure?

I read what I write, mysteries, westerns, some science fiction, and also read non-fiction for research.

Now I want to turn to the western genre specifically. What first led you to the genre?

My first editor—after we did PENNY—called me one day and said that his publisher wanted to get into the adult western market. This was 1981. He asked me if I could write westerns. I said yes. I’d never read one up to that point, but I got where I am by never saying “no” to an editor. I went out and bought 40 westerns, one of each in as many series as I could, so I would not repeat a character. I did a proposal for the Gunsmith. First they bought two books, then a third, and then they said they wanted to get it on a monthly basis and gave me a 9 book contract. Nobody ever asked me if I could write a book a month, and I never asked myself. Once I got the Gunsmith I just kept creating series (Tracker, Angel Eyes, Mountain Jack Pike, The Bounty Hunter, Ryder, all published during the 80’s) and writing them, until it got to the point where, in 1984, I wrote 27 novels in 12 months.

What are a few of the western writers who have most influenced your work?

When I finally did start reading westerns I read a lot of series, like the Buchanan books by “Jonas Ward.” I really enjoyed the Fargo books by John Benteen (a pseudonym for Ben Haas). I read the Sackett books by L’Amour, and some of the Silvertip books of Max Brand, but my preference ran to reading stuff like Jory Sherman’s Gunn series, or George Gilman’s Edge and Steele books.

If you could bring back the work of one western writer who would it be? Is there a specific title?

I learned a lot about writing adult western by reading the Gunn series. Jory Sherman is a helluva writer, and I saw that I could write good westerns around the sex scenes. I’d like to see those books reprinted.

You also write mysteries, and it seems there has been—both historically as well as today—a significant amount of authors who do good work in both genres. Do you think there is a relationship between the mystery and the western that promotes this crossover, or is it simply the economics of professional writing?

Well, the economics of doing this for a living makes it necessary to write in multiple genres, but there seems to be a symbiotic relationship between mysteries and westerns that appeals to a lot of writers. A lot of my westerns ARE mysteries at the same time. Same can be said for the work of Ed Gorman, Bill Pronzini, James Reasoner and others. There are similarities between the lone gunman (badge or no badge) and the P.I.

“There IS work out there for western writers—up to last year I was still writing them for five publishers. Every time one publisher decides to cancel a line, somebody else starts one up.”

The mystery genre is thriving, but many believe the western is in decline. What do you think about the western genre today, and what do you think the future holds for the western story?

I’m afraid that the further we get from the old west the less people are interested in it. That doesn’t happen with Mysteries, and is certainly not a problem with Science Fiction. The young writers of today did not grow up watching western movies or TV, so the interest is not there. There IS work out there for western writers—up to last year I was still writing them for five publishers. Every time one publisher decides to cancel a line, somebody else starts one up.

Leisure has proven that there is a market, but I wouldn’t look for anyone other than McMurtry and the late L’Amour to hit any best seller lists. Harper Torch just ceased publishing westerns, and I had done two series for them, THE SONS OF DANIEL SHAYE and THE GAMBLERS (these books are just starting to appear). The books made money, but they canceled the line, anyway. Sometimes, they just don’t make “enough” money for the publisher. I’m still writing westerns for Leisure and Berkley.

Okay, now let's get down to your current work. What is your latest novel?

Lately I’ve been writing mysteries about the Rat Pack in Vegas in 1960. The first was out last year called EVERYBODY KILLS SOMEBODY SOME TIME. It centered around the filming of the original Ocean’s 11. My character is Eddie G., a pit boss at the Sands who the “guys” go to for help. The second book, LUCK BE A LADY, DON’T DIE, will be out in December of this year.

I’m also writing books that combine the mystery with the current Texas Hold’em craze. My co-author is Vince Van Patten, the commentator for the World Poker Tour. The first book, THE PICASSO FLOP, was out earlier this year. It will be out in paper in 2009, as will the next book, THE JUDGMENT FOLD.

I’ve got a new western out from Leisure called THE MONEY GUN; [and] the first in a new series called THE GAMBLERS: BUTLER’S WAGER. Actually now it’s a trilogy. (Leisure has reprinted 3 of the books I wrote in the 80’s as “Robert Lake” and the 4th is coming out, all under my real name. I’m trying to get them to reprint some of my old series, under my real name.)

I’m working on the first in a soap opera mystery called THE YEARNING TIDE. My co-author is Eileen Davidson, one of the top actresses in the soap world for 20 years. Right now she’s on The Bold and the Beautiful. We’re doing two books right now, maybe more. It won’t be out till next year.

I’ve got a mystery anthology coming out this month called HOLLYWOOD AND CRIME, stories set during the history of Hollywood.

And I’m still out there pitching.

Can you tell us about the novel—or any other projects—you are working on now?

Right at the moment I’m working on the 13th Giant Gunsmith novel, and the first of the soap opera mysteries, and I’m about to start the third Rat Pack book.

I have one last question, and I must warn it is a little vague. If you could chose any project to work on, what would it be?

I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you. If I mentioned it some wise guy would steal it. I’m enjoying the historical aspect of the Rat Pack books. It was what I enjoyed about writing THE HAM REPORTER. So I have some other historical mysteries I’d like to do, and some western novels that deal with actual historical figures.