The Outsider
December 31
10:30 AM ET
10:00 PM ET
HALLMARK CHANNEL
She’s an unyielding woman born to the righteous laws of God and tradition. He’s an uncompromising gunfighter born to raise hell. In the ever-shifting panorama of the Wild West, human emotions can shift as well, but seldom without a price.
I love writing “preacher” heroes. Even before I made the leap to Steeple Hill Love Inspired Historicals, my Harlequin Historicals all had preachers with grit and purpose. They had faults, too. And courage. And hearts as big as the sky. I can’t think of anything more “alpha” than a man who’s willing to die for a cause, and that’s the kind of preacher I write.
Next in line for hero status is Reverend Joshua Blue. Josh and his wife Adie are side characters in A Bounty Hunter’s Bride (Love Inspired Historicals, May 2008). They get their own story in A Maverick Preacher (LIH, February 2009). Josh isn’t shy. He’ll ride into an outlaw camp or preach in a saloon. He’ll take a punch if it’s called for, but he’s just as quick to protect the people in his care.
Old West preachers ministered to people where they lived. Like his real life predecessors, Josh starts a church in a saloon. He’s a peaceful man, but he carries a gun. It’s a calling card of sorts, his way of meeting men on their own turf. When he rides into outlaw camps, he’s quick to tell the story of Jonah and the whale. He believes in second chances, mostly because he very much needed one for himself. That’s one of the things I love about westerns. Everyone gets to start over.
My preachers are fictional, but I’ve borrowed bits from historical accounts. One of my favorite stories gets mentioned in Of Men and Angels (HH, July 2003). When William Merritt, a maverick preacher in his own right, leads a church service in July, the men sing “Silent Night” because it’s the only church song they know. Reverend John Leaf (Abbie’s Outlaw, April 2005) is a reformed gunfighter. He walked into my mind fully formed, a mix of the violence and humility that come from staring down the gun barrel of eternity.
Old West preachers weren’t wimps. They traveled for miles in storms and brutal heat. Along with their wives (there’s more to be said there!), they started churches and towns. They lived with purpose and brought hope to the far edges of the world. They weren’t perfect men, but more than a few were hero material.
AVENGING ANGEL
DECEMBER 29
9PM ET
HALLMARK CHANNEL
When a preacher (Kevin Sorbo) defends a local town from greedy land-barons, his church is destroyed and his family is killed. Now known simply as “The Preacher,” he picks up his long-forgotten gun, leaves town, and heads out into the desert to begin a new life as a bounty hunter. Returning years later, he discovers his town has been overrun by the same scoundrels who destroyed his quiet existence. The Preacher can no longer stand by and watch as innocent people suffer the same fate as he. Justice must be served.
You already know Lonesome Dove is one of my all-time favorite movies. Even though Dead Man’s Walk didn’t awe me in the same way, I haven’t been as excited about a mini-series or a movie release in a long time as I am about the upcoming Comanche Moon. Val Kilmer, Steve Zahn, Rachel Griffiths, Karl Urban, Linda Cardellini, and Wes Studi star in this new six-hour mini-series based on the book by Larry McMurtry. It’s the final chapter in the “Lonesome Dove” saga to be made into a movie, and will be broadcast Sunday, Jan. 13, Tuesday, Jan. 15 and Wednesday, Jan. 16 (9:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT, each night) on the CBS Television Network. To help you get the time line straight in your head: Chronologically, this story takes place after Dead Man’s Walk, and before Lonesome Dove, and is of course taken from the book by Larry McMurtry.
Steve Zahn realized he had some big shoes to fill when he was cast as Gus McCrae, who was previously played by Robert Duvall. “Duvall played this incredible character; it was almost as if you were playing Teddy Roosevelt,” Zahn says.
ER fans will recognize Clara, as Linda Cardellini, better known to us as “Sam” on the hospital set. Talk about some big shoes to fill! Angelica Houston played Gus’s love in Lonesome Dove and a very young Jennifer Garner was cast in Dead Man’s Walk.
Comanche Moon follows Texas Rangers Augustus “Gus” McCrae (Zahn) and Woodrow F. Call (Urban), now in their middle years, as they continue to deal with the ever-increasing tensions of adult life: Gus with his great love, Clara Forsythe (Cardellini), and Call with Maggie Tilton (Banks), the young prostitute who loves him and bears him his son, Newt (Joseph Castanon). Val Kilmer plays Captain Inish Scull, a Yankee aristocrat and hero of the recently concluded Mexican War. Rachel Griffiths plays Inez Scull, the Captain’s sexy wife who doesn’t hesitate to fill her time with other men when he’s away from home. Wes Studi plays Comanche Chief Buffalo Hump.
Two proud but very different men, McCrae and Call enlist with a Ranger troop in pursuit of three outlaws: Buffalo Hump, the great Comanche war chief; Kicking Wolf (Jonathon Joss), the celebrated Comanche horse thief; and Ahumado (Sal Lopez), a deadly Mexican bandit king with a penchant for torture. Assisting the Rangers in their wild chase is the renowned Kickapoo tracker Famous Shoes (David Midthunder). They are joined by their comrades-in-arms, Deets (Keith Robinson), Jake Spoon (Ryan Merriman) and Pea Eye Parker (Troy Baker), in the bitter struggle to protect an advancing western frontier against the defiant Comanches who are determined to defend their territory and their way of life. The Rangers also encounter Buffalo Hump’s violent outcast son, Blue Duck (Adam Beach).
I read the blog of a hairstylist who worked on the set in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The conditions were tough, with wind storms every afternoon and altitude issues. The team had to turn young rodeo riders with crew cuts into 1880s Native Americans. They did so with wigs, glue, tape and pins. Black hairspray was needed to cover the highlights of the women. The stylists learned to make scalp locks - braids that hang from the crown of a man’s head. Ten hair stylists and ten to fifteen make up artists worked on hundreds of cast extras in a tent on the side of a mountain. Make up and hairspray billowed out the sides of the tent. Wish I could see something like that one of these days. Behind the scenes are my favorite parts of DVDs.
An article by Wolf Schneider in Cowboys and Indians Magazine says: “By all accounts, the most dramatic sequence in the six-hour miniseries Comanche Moon is going to occur at the end of Night One as more than a hundred Comanche Indians thunder down the plains toward Austin on horseback, hell-bent on revenge. The scene will continue on Night Two with the warriors raiding the Texas town. In real life, many of the Indian riders took buses down from Montana to New Mexico to gallop into the battle bareback with mere rope bridles.”
“It was beautiful and terrifying,” says executive producer and co-screenwriter Diana Ossana. “It’s going to be very powerful—coming over the ridge and into town. And then there’s this great sequence where they’re riding out of town after they’ve captured all the horses. It’s really like nothing you’ve ever seen. The men painted themselves and their horses, and it was part of their getting into the moment and feeling their power.”
With scenes like that, Val Kilmer couldn’t resist signing on. He hadn’t done network television before, although he has appeared on HBO’s Entourage and a Gore Vidal-scripted Western for Turner. One draw of this particular prequel may have been the fact that it was filmed so close to Kilmer’s property in Pecos, New Mexico, that he could arrange for some of the scenes to be shot on his ranch.
Director Simon Wincer and producer Dyson Lovell, who directed and produced Lonesome Dove respectively, served in those roles on Comanche Moon.
CLICK ON THUMBNAIL PHOTOS TO SEE FULL SIZE
SET YOUR TiVo! CBS January 13 - 15 - 16
I can’t tell you how excited I am to be ‘blogging’ with you. I am honored to be here and look forward to a fun weekend.
This year marks my 25th year as a published author. So much has changed since 1982 when I sold my first book Rapture’s Rage to Zebra. Back in those days, manuscripts were 550-600 pages long - typed on a manual typewriter and using a lot of white out, and everybody was reading. As a romance fan myself, I used to go to three or four different stores every month just to make sure I saw all the titles that were available.
And cover art! What about the changes we’ve seen there? The Flame And The Flower was the first ‘romance’ I ever bought, and I remember being a little embarrassed to check it out because there was a couple embracing on the cover. (Granted they were only about 2 inches tall and very modest, but that was back in the mid to late 70s and Fabio hadn’t shown up yet.)
Do you remember the Fabio cover in the 80s - I think it was a Johanna Lindsey - where he was naked with the girl pressed against him? My Kmart store went around and put stickers over his rear so no one would be offended. I was very blessed to have David Alan Johnson on the cover of my book Heaven. He was the first hunk winner from RT, and we got to tour together. He’s a real gentleman and a lot of fun.
My covers from Leisure have been awesome. Lately, they’ve gone to the ‘guy only’ look, and I think they’re terrific. Take a look at the cover art for ‘Wanted! The Half-Breed’ my June ’08 release from Leisure. It’s gorgeous!
Speaking of Wanted! The Half-Breed, Walker Stevenson is our hero. He’s framed for murder and sent to the penitentiary. While he’s working on a chain gang, he manages to escape and returns home to track down the real killer with the help of our heroine Roni. Roni is a doctor, and it was fun doing the research of women doctors back then. There was a lot of prejudice against them, that’s for sure. The story is set in Texas and hopefully a page-turner for everybody!
Thanks to Cheryl St.John and the rest of the ladies for inviting me on! Feel free to ask me anything! We’re going to have a fun weekend!
ANNOUNCEMENT!
Bobbi will be sending two autographed copies of her newest book to two lucky winners, drawn from the names of those who post comments on her blog. Good luck, ladies!
Sorry I’m late this morning! We had a storm and power outage last night, which obliterated my first draft of this post, and kept me off line and off my computer until this morning.
I’m currently working on the third and final book in my Wild trilogy and with MAVERICK WILD just three short weeks from mass release, my thoughts have been monopolized by my Wild bunch. My blog topic this morning is going to be a comparison of my Wild heroes – three very different archetypes, some of whom were more difficult to write than others. Something this series has taught me is to always look ahead—especially when developing secondary characters who could possibly take on a lead role in their own stories. I get asked quite often 
what draws me to a hero and what are my favorite characteristics in a sexy hero. My answer is always his smile, a telltale sign of his ability to bring humor, hope and a positive spin to an otherwise hopeless or dreadful situation . MUSTANG WILD started with a vision of Tucker Morgan lounged at a poker table, his lips tipped in a crooked grin, a mischievous glint in his eyes. That smile didn’t let me down–he proved to be a fun hero to chase across the page.
Despite my personal preference of hero, not every hero is quick to smile. That could not be more true than with Chance Morgan, Tucker’s straight-faced twin brother. In MUSTANG WILD, Tucker describes his twin as ‘truly my other half. My boring half.’. Compared to Tucker’s playful nature, there 
could be some truth to that statement from an outside point of view—which was all fine and dandy when Chance was secondary back-up to his light-hearted brother. But as a hero…I was suddenly asking myself, “What have I created?” I was crazy about Tucker, and Chance is nothing like his twin–nor did he have any desire to emulate his brother. How was I going to take this silent pillar of strength, caution and conviction and make him loveable? I had heard about this technique of sitting down with your characters for a little interrogation…or interview, if you will. So I figured I’d give that a shot with Chance. We sat across a table and stared at one another for hours…and hours, but I’m telling y’all, he was a tough one to crack. The man did nothing but stare and fidget. One cool thing about being an author is having telepathic powers *g* — the ability to get into our characters minds, and that was where I began to unravel this hero, to find his humor and wit, and the bruised heart he guarded like Fort Knox. In MAVERICK WILD, Chance doesn’t suddenly become chatty or playful–he’s his usual solid, silent self, and it’s through the introduction of his heroine that Chance is forced to remember a time when he was whole. A time when he used to laugh and find some joy amid the daily struggles of life.
I’m a true believer in opposites attract. My heroes and heroines, while they do share certain 
characteristics that give them a sense of understanding with one another, they are generally at opposite ends of the personality spectrum. Watching them spark, clash and finally meld is great fun for me. In MUSTANG WILD Tucker is wild and reckless, whereas Skylar is wild by her own right, but in a strictly no-nonsense, get-the-job-done sort of way. Together they bridge the gap in one another and bring out the best in each other. Chance needed a heroine who was as soft and gentle as he was hard, and Cora Mae Tindale is the epitome of feminine primness in a woman—everything Chance believes he hates in a woman. As he discovers, Cora Mae is hardly a pushover and far from hapless. She posses every bit of his strength and determination, something he identifies with. And for every one word that Chance utters, Cora Mae prattles off fifty. Because these two had so much shared hurt and history, MAVERICK WILD turned out to be my first real emotionally-driven story. While there’s certainly plenty of external troubles these two have to deal with, their biggest journey is finding a way into each others hearts.
The hero of INTO THE WILD (working title for Wild 3) is Garret Daines, Skylar’s younger brother, and he’s shaping up to be a good 
blend of Tucker and Chance. He has a light-hearted nature that’s visible in MUSTANG WILD and still strong in the beginning of MAVERICK WILD, but by the start of his own book, his light-hearted outlook has been dampened by heartache in his recent past. Growing up in the shadow of Tucker and Chance hasn’t been easy on his ego and he’s out to prove he’s every bit the man they are and is ready to fight the world to prove it. He’ll have to, seeing as mother-nature’s winter fury and ruthless cattle rustlers are out to take all he has. Readers will catch a glimpse of Garret’s wild-woman-to-be in MAVERICK WILD. But Garret was raised by a wild woman, so no matter the snark and attitude this mountain recluse throws his way, he’s along for the ride–and he’s going to fight for his woman whether she wants him to or not. This book promises to be a rip-roarin’ ride as Garret and Maggie spark, clash and ultimately meld 
For anyone who missed the first book in the Wild series, let me know in your post today and you’ll be entered in a drawing tonight to win a signed copy of MUSTANG WILD!
So, do you have a favorite hero archetype? The warrior? The romantic? The jokester? A certain feature or characteristic that really draws you to a hero?
Tanya Hansen!
CONGRATULATIONS Tanya!!!!!
Send your address to stacey@staceykayne.com and I will send you my LAST early copy of MAVERICK WILD
Thank you so much to everyone who stopped by today to share your thoughts and comments!
Be sure to come by tomorrow — Kathryn Albright will be here! Kathryn and I were Golden Heart finalists together and I’m super excited about her debut novel THE ANGEL AND THE OUTLAW — officially released tomorrow!
Warm Wishes,
Holy smokes, this was a fun topic! Smooches to all who came by and discussed such a deep subject with me.
And now my little gift for you.
I don’t need to say, “ Enjoy.” I know you will.
Left click to see him large as life. Right click to save.
Yes, those men and their marvelous mustaches. And I’m talking *real* mustaches, not thin scraggly excuses or unshaven stubble or five o’clock shadows. No, let’s take a look at some mustaches that have taken time and testosterone to cultivate.
So what is it about a cowboy with a mustache that sets him apart from all the rest? Mustaches are often culturally associated with wisdom and virility, and it’s not difficult to understand why. There’s something about a mustache that sings of maturity…masculinity. A subject that comes up often among writers is the youthful appearance of so many celebrities, cover models and singers. While there’s no disagreeing that Matthew McConaughey and Ben Affleck are fine-looking fellows, there’s something about maturity that speaks to us as women.
Now I know there are those of you who will disagree, in fact a recent survey discovered that an alarming number of women would refuse to kiss a man with a mustache. So, is facial hair a matter of taste?
A big argument against mustaches has been that they’re out of style because so many men wore them in the seventies. The seventies? Men have been shaving — or not shaving — selectively since the stone age! Shaving with stone razors was technologically possible from Neolithic times. The oldest portrait showing a shaved man with a mustache is a Scythian horseman from 300 BC.
Historically, military men have often worn moustaches; in fact the number of nations, regiments and ranks were equaled only by the number of styles and variations. Generally, the younger men and lower ranks wore the smaller and less elaborate moustaches. As a man advanced in rank, his moustache would become thicker and bushier, until he was permitted to wear a full beard.
I’ll bet you didn’t know there’s an American Mustache Association. Neither did I, but they’re gung ho on protecting their rights to bear whiskers.
At The World Beard & Moustache Championships 2007 there were 6 subcategories in the moustache category: Natural Moustache - may be styled but without aids.
Hungarian Moustache - Big and bushy, beginning from the middle of the upper lip and pulled to the side.
Dalí - narrow, long points bent or curved steeply upward; areas past the corner of the mouth must be shaved.
English - narrow, beginning at the middle of the upper lip the whiskers are very long and pulled to the side, slightly curled; the ends are pointed slightly upward; areas past the corner of the mouth usually shaved. .Imperial - whiskers growing from both the upper lip and cheeks, curled upward
Freestyle - All moustaches that do not match other classes.
Other types of moustache include:
Fu Manchu - long, downward pointing ends, generally beyond the chin
Pancho Villa - similar to the Fu Manchu but thickerHandlebar - bushy, with small upward pointing ends.
Horseshoe - Often confused with the Fu Manchu style, the horseshoe was possibly popularized by modern cowboys and consists of a full moustache with vertical extensions from the corners of the lips down to the jaw line and resembling an upside-down horseshoe.
Moustachio - bushy moustache, with hair sometimes growing down the sides of the mouth.
Taylor moustache - a thin row of fine dark hairs along the upper lip.
Pencil moustache - narrow, straight and thin like a pencil, closely clipped, outlining the upper lip, with a wide shaven gap between the nose and moustache. Also known as a Mouthbrow.
Walrus - bushy, hanging down over the lips, often entirely covering the mouth. Popular during the American Civil War.
The GG - bushy hair grown only over the corners of the mouth, shaved in the middle.
Grooming is essential. Sideburns are optional. But I prefer a man with a mustache any old time.
So, what’s your preference? Clean-shaven or sporting a cookie duster? Who is your favorite mustachioed hero? And my final question — have you seen any mustaches on book covers?
Stop back for my follow-up gift for you! :::wink:::wink:::
Where have all the cowboys gone?
I was raised on Westerns. Bonanza, Rawhide, High Chaparral, The Virginian, The Big Valley and Lancer just to name a few. For me as a child, the Wild West was as close as my TV and my imagination. My favorite toys were my Johnny West, Jane West, Chief Cherokee and their horses, Thunderbolt, Thundercolt and Flame. I even had the cardboard bunkhouse and all the accessories. It’s really too bad a basement flood destroyed all that.
My fantasies were about Heath Barkley, Little Joe and oh my gosh, Johnny Lancer. Does anyone remember the scene were he jumped his palomino over the fence when the opening credits came on? My heart broke when the actor, whose name escapes me at the moment, lost his arm and leg in a motorcycle accident.
Then came a more modern western. Alias Smith and Jones. Both guys were hot and some fancy camera work made Kid Curry the fastest gun in the west. Yummy. And I was so in love with Pete Duel who tragically killed himself.
John Wayne movies could always be counted on for a great mud-slinging, name calling fight, usually with Maureen O’Hara winding up in the mud. And one movie was so good they made it twice, the Rio movies, one with a young hot James Caan and the other with a young hot Ricky Nelson.
Then suddenly westerns disappeared. Occasionally, you could catch one on a Saturday matinee on some random cable channel but they were hard to find until the Hallmark channel came along.
Thank goodness for Silverado. And while I’m not a big fan of Lawrence Kasdan’s screenwriting abilities, the cast was awesome. Brian Dennehy, who was so good, Scott Glenn, a young, hot Kevin Costner, Jeff Fahey as bad guy personified and James Gammon as the leader of the outlaws who had the best line in the movie. “I think there’s only a couple of guys up there and this asshole is one of them.” Loved it!
Young Riders. Young Riders fulfilled my Western needs. With a cast full of hunky guys who knew how to shoot and ride I was hooked. It also got me to thinking about my childhood western fantasies. The one about a girl named Jenny and her brother…
And Chase The Wind became a story. A six book series about cowboys and Indians and the joys and desperations of living and building a nation. I was inspired by Cowboys.
But inspiration is hard to find these days. Open Range was pretty good. I loved the scene were Kevin Costner didn’t waste any time and just killed the bad guy.
Outsider. Tim Daly. Enough said. Nope. Sigh…….Was he great in that movie or what? And somehow my copy is missing. I’ll just have to buy a new one.
And just recently, 3:10 to Yuma. If anything revived the Western, this movie was it. Everything you could want. Well it would have been nice if Christian Bale lived but still, a great, great film. I haven’t seen the new Brad Pitt movie with the impossibly long name but hey, it’s a western and Brad Pitt is in it so it’s got to be good.
In my books I have several cowboys. Jamie, Chase, Ty, Caleb, Jake and Zane. These guys are based on some real life heroes. My sons and their friends. If we lived a hundred and twenty years ago, I’m pretty sure this is how they’d act.
Cowboys. You just gotta love them. I’m pretty sure there’s still several of them around. I even know a few, which is kind of strange considering I live in North Carolina.
Now if I could just find my copy of Outsider….
Cindy Holby author of
Chase The Wind
Wind Of The Wolf
Crosswinds
Windfall
Forgive The Wind
Whirlwind
And her newest release, Rising Wind, which is not about cowboys but frontiersmen who have their own stories to tell.
