Those of you who have followed Petticoats & Pistols for a while know how much I love discovering old weapons. A couple of weeks ago I was watching a program on the Outdoor Channel where one of the experts displayed a Duck’s Foot pistol.
The duck’s foot pistol was named for obvious reasons: the multiple barrels are arra
nged in a configuration that resembles a duck’s foot. It falls into the category of volley weapons, meaning it fires multiple bullets from multiple barrels either in sequence or simultaneously with the pull of only one trigger. They were designed for maximum coverage with one firing. [The one to the right is from the 11th or 12th century.]
The duck’s foot pistol was designed to be used by one person against multiple assailants. Because of the coverage, it was favored by bank guards, prison warders and sea captains in the 19th century and early 20th century. Sea captains were said to carry a brace of these pistols to discourage mutiny and quell potential riots. The sound of three 50-caliber shots going off simultaneously would make even the most committed mutineer stop and question his course of action.
During the Napoleonic Wars, the British Royal Navy used a volley gun made by gunsmith Henry Nock of London, a seven-barreled gun capable of firing seven .50 caliber pistol balls at the same time, intended for use in repelling boarders or to clear an enemy deck in advance of friendly boarding parties. I’ve fired a 50 caliber rifle. One bullet. The recoil slid me backwards down the shooting bench more than a foot. And I was braced for it. And that was a long barrel—the shorter the barrel the harder the kick. I can’t imagine standing and pulling a trigger and having seven barrels fire off at once. It could make for quite a comedic moment, I suppose. Embarrassing and potentially painful, too.
It wasn’t a practical weapon, though. Besides the immense recoil which only a very strong person could handle, it took nearly two minutes to reload—and eternity in a fire-fight.
The Duck’s foot pistols were made in many combinations, most of large caliber (the diameter of the cartridge) like .45 or .50. Sometimes the middle barrels were tipped up or down, changing the angle of fire and the field of coverage.
All in all, an odd little gun—but could be an interesting plot device.
Published January 29th, 2012 by Felicia
What a shoot-from-the-hip guy. I sure enjoyed riding the range with him.
And now what you’re all waiting for………..
CAROLYN
is the winner of CALEB’S PRICE!
I’m kicking up my heels for you, Carolyn. Someone will contact you for your mailing address so Mr. Troy can mail the book to you.
Mr. Troy thanks everyone who stopped by this weekend and hopes you never get tired of a good western.
Hi Everyone,
I want to introduce you to a dear friend of mine, Troy Smith, who
writes some of the best western fiction you’ll ever lay eyes on. I’ve had the privilege of editing some of Troy’s work, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Not only is Troy a fantastic writer, he’s also a wonderful person, and I’m excited to introduce him to y’all here today at Petticoats and Pistols. He’ll be giving away a copy of CALEB’S PRICE at the end of the day, so be sure and leave a comment along with your contact information!
Now here’s a bit about Troy Smith:
Troy D. Smith was born in the Upper Cumberland region of Tennessee in 1968. He has waxed floors, moved furniture, been a lay preacher, and taught high school and college. He writes in a variety of genres, achieving his earliest successes with westerns. His first published short story appeared in 1995 in Louis L’Amour Western Magazine, and he won the Spur Award in 2001 for the novel Bound for the Promise-Land (being a finalist on two other occasions.) He is currently teaching American history at Tennessee Tech, and serving as president of Western Fictioneers -the first national writing organization devoted exclusively to fiction about the Old West.
Tell us about your current release.
Caleb’s Price is a very serious story –about the longing that echoes in all of us –that is told in a humorous and sometimes bittersweet way. My goal when I started it was to take all the standard themes, even stereotypes, of the western story and give them a surprising twist. The plot is reminiscent of Shane, Pale Rider, and dozens of B Westerns: an orphaned boy named Joey, raised by his aunt and uncle, is befriended by a mysterious stranger while the whole area is caught up in a range war. Romance seems to develop between the stranger, Caleb, and Joey’s sad and lonely, neglected Aunt Sally. But there are major twists. The “evil cattle baron” is not quite what he seems to be, and Joey (as well as the reader) begins to wonder if Caleb really is there to save them, or if he is there to destroy them. Pretty heavy plot. Yet while I was writing it, the characters took on a life of their own –even the villains (and sometimes it’s hard to tell who they really are) –and the story was imbued with a simultaneous mixture of comedy and tragedy. The only way I could explain it is: imagine if Shane had been written by Thomas Berger, the guy who wrote Little Big Man. It’s at the top of my list of favorites among the things I’ve written.
How did you start your writing career?
Totally by accident! I have always told stories, even as a kid, but it never occurred to me to be a professional writer. When I was in my early 20s I had a job buffing floors at K-mart and Wal-mart stores- in those days the stores were closed from 9pm till 9am, and I was locked in there alone for 12 hours to do a 4 or 5 hour job. I filled the empty hours by reading everything I could get my hands on (including a whole lot of westerns.) While I was buffing, my mind wandered to the stories I was reading- how would I do them differently? So for my own entertainment I started writing those stories down. I was on my 3rd or 4th novel before it dawned on me that I could try to get them published. I started taking the writing seriously, reading every how-to book I could find, and developed my craft.
What was your first sale as an author?
A western short story called “Mourning Glory.” It was in the Nov. 1995 issue of Louis L’Amour Western Magazine. I remember looking at that first paycheck -328 bucks –and thinking that, no matter what happened for the rest of my life, nothing could change the fact that I was a professional, published author. The magazine took several more of my stories –but unfortunately it folded not long after that.
Has someone helped or mentored you in your writing career?
From about 1998 to 2003, there were a number of people I met through Western Writers of America and online Western forums who helped me enormously. Robert J. Randisi included me in several anthologies he edited in that time, and was very encouraging. The list is very long, and I’m bound to slip up and leave someone out… but it included Jim Crutchfield, Dale Walker, Peter Brandvold, John Nesbitt, and more. Some of them introduced me to agents or editors, or read my manuscripts. Jory Sherman and Frank Roderus were especially helpful and encouraging when I was at the bottom of the barrel, devastated both emotionally and financially by a bad divorce. One veteran writer, whom I won’t embarrass by naming, sent me a computer and printer when he learned I no longer had such things, and the only repayment he would ever accept was a promise to do the same for another struggling writer someday (I did just that eventually, when I no longer needed that equipment.) I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the people I named above don’t even remember helping me, it was such second nature to them –but I remember, and I always will.
Tell us about a favorite character from a book. How did you develop that character?
My favorite character I have ever created was Lonnie Blake, a supporting character in Bound for the Promise-Land. I wanted my hero, an escaped slave-turned-Union soldier named Alfred Mann, to have two army comrades who could play the roles of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X to his everyman. Blake was the MLK character- tormented by his human frailties, yet saintly in his love. I grew quite attached to him –he was the sort of man I’d like to be.
What do you think makes a good story?
Conflict. You can’t have a story without conflict –not much of a story, anyhow. And the best stories have both inner and outer conflict; something is challenging the character in the outside, physical world, and that is mirrored by some inner challenge that the hero must overcome in order to defeat the physical obstacle. I also believe that the hero must be changed inside somehow, if only a little, at the end of the story or else you (and the reader) have just been passing time.
Where do you research for your books?
I used to do a lot of research in actual libraries, but nowadays it is possible to find even the most obscure items and documents online. Five years ago I spent an entire summer going from archive to archive in Oklahoma and Arkansas; everything I looked at then can now be accessed digitally. Of course, it’s still good to get a feel for the landscape, and you can’t do that in your computer chair looking at j-pegs. A lot of the western stuff I’ve written lately, and most of what I have planned, has been set in Indian Territory (Oklahoma), Arkansas, and Kansas –the area I researched intensely for my history dissertation, so I’m already pretty familiar with it.
Who are your books published with?
A crime novel I am very proud of, and which I hope grows into a series –Cross Road Blues –was published last year by Perfect Crime Books. My whole Western backlist is in the middle of being re-issued in both paper and e-book format by Western Trail Blazer, with new stuff upcoming as well. So far they’ve done four of my western novels, with four more in the chute, as well as several short stories- I hope to be with WTB for a long time to come. Rebecca J. Vickery is a treasure for our genre, and hopping on her WTB bandwagon when it was first rolling out was one of the smarter things I have done.
Do you have any suggestions for beginning writers? If so, what are they? 
Read a lot. Read to gain factual information, to stir your muse, to examine how other people construct plots and characters. If you want to write good prose, in addition to telling good stories, also practice writing and reading poetry- notice meter and rhythm, and imagery.
And stick with it. Be persistent. Most “overnight successes” had been trying for years –and no one had heard of the ones who quit just before their big break came along.
Do you have a Website or Blog?
I sure do. My official website is www.troyduanesmith.com –there’s info there about my books, and some biographical material. I also blog at http://tnwordsmith.blogspot.com –sometimes about writing, or about westerns, pop culture, history or politics (as a historian, I don’t separate history and politics into different compartments, it’s all part of the same beast!)
How about an excerpt from the book you’re giving to some lucky commenter today, Caleb’s Price?
Glad you asked! Here it is.
EXCERPT FROM CALEB’S PRICE:
“You homesteaders are a stubborn breed,” Caleb said.
“We’re not stubborn,” said Burt. “Our dreams are. Some dreams die hard, and others don’t die at all –so long as they have a bit of rich soil to sink into. Surely you can understand that, Caleb. Even you can’t be as hard as you sound. We all have dreams.”
“I manage to sleep pretty sound, myself. If I have any dreams I don’t remember ‘em.”
“You’re an unfortunate man, then. A man who never dreams is a sad thing.”
“How about women?” Caleb asked.
“What do you mean?”
“How about women? Do they have dreams?”
Burt laughed. “Not bein’ one myself, it’s hard to say.”
“Have you ever asked one?”
“Asked one what?”
“About her dreams.”
“No, Caleb, I haven’t. What are you gettin’ at?”
“Nothin’ in particular. I was just wonderin’. You bein’ so big on dreams, I just wondered if you ever noticed anybody else’s.”
Burt frowned. “At least I notice my own.”
“What about your wife, Burt? Does she have any dreams?”
“What do you think?”
“I think that if she does, they’re not about land. Or sheep.”
“Perhaps you’d be good enough to tell me what you think my wife dreams about.” Burt’s voice had taken on a rough edge.
“Oh, I don’t know. The sea, maybe.”
Burt laughed again. I think his laugh was beginning to irritate Caleb. It had been irritating me for years.
“So that’s it,” Burt said. “Sally’s been entertainin’ you with those fairy tales of hers. It’s getting’ plain to me that you have no experience with women. If we had stayed in New Bedford she would have dreamed about the West, and complained about never havin’ seen it. That’s just the way women are. They don’t know what they want. They only know that it’s always somethin’ they’ll never have. It’s different with a man, he dreams about somethin’ simple and sets about gettin’ it. Like me. I know exactly what I want.”
“Then your dreams are important enough to risk your family’s lives over.”
“Yes,” Burt said, in a voice that was softer than normal for him. “That’s how great nations are built. I’m only sorry that you don’t understand any of the things I’ve been tellin’ you.”
“I probably understand more than you give me credit for.”
“I was right about you, wasn’t I, Caleb?”
“What do you mean?”
“About what I said earlier. That you’re a wanderer.”
“I’ve never denied it.”
Burt’s face took on a cold expression. “Then I think that it’s only fair I warn you now, Johnson. Don’t try to include my wife in your wanderin’.”
Caleb chuckled. “What on earth brought that on? The last I knew, we were talkin’ about sheep.”
“All that fancy talk about what her dreams are,” Burt said, his tone hot. “They’ll not come true from the likes of you, I’ll warrant.”
Caleb shook his head. “You sure take a lot out of a little polite conversation.”
“Just don’t fawn over my wife, that’s all.”
“I wasn’t fawnin’ over her, I was just tryin’ to make a point. The point being, you’re risking her life over something she doesn’t even want.”
“I’ll be the judge of what my wife wants, not you. Women are like sheep. All they really want is to be directed. Anything else that comes from ’em is just mindless bleating. And besides, it’s none of your bloody business to start with.”
“I can’t argue with that,” Caleb said. “I was just offerin’ some friendly advice, that’s all.”
“Save your advice for the polar bears. The way you talk, I’d almost believe Ike Majors sent you here as a spy.”
Caleb stared at him for a moment, silent, then said, “If Ike Majors had sent me here, somebody would be usin’ this little wagon as a coffin, and you’d be a lot closer to God’s green earth than you ever wanted to be.”
“Aye. Or else you’d be.”
Troy, thank you so much for being our guest today here at Petticoats and Pistols. We hope you’ll come back and join us again sometime! You’ve got a lot of wonderful work out there and some beautiful covers, for sure!
Published January 27th, 2012 by Felicia
Wasn’t Miss Ann fun and so full of interesting things? I certainly enjoyed her.
I put all the names in my ten gallon hat and shuffled them all around.
The winner is………………
JUDY B.
I’m dancing on my tippy toes for you, Judy B! Someone will contact you for your mailing particulars and Miss Ann will get to you on the next stage out.
Everyone come back tomorrow for Mr. Troy Smith. It’ll be fun!
Many thanks to Karen Witemeyer for inviting me to be a guest blogger today to spread the word about my newest novel for Revell, Where Wildflowers Bloom.
Wildflowers is the first in the Sisters at Heart series and is set in Missouri shortly after the end of the War Between the States. When I worked up the proposal for this series, I had my characters and their occupations set in my mind. I planned that one of the characters, Rosemary Saxon, would be a nurse during the war, and then would follow the same occupation afterward.
Well, surprise, surprise. When I began to research nurses in the Civil War, I learned that very few of them were women, and the ones who were female were generally older and/or widows. For a young unmarried woman to touch men’s bodies, even to tend to wounds, was considered vulgar. Throughout the war, male nurses outnumbered female nurses 4 to 1. The general public believed women would only be a nuisance and get in the way of the doctors.
Where female nurses were allowed, they were required to be plain-looking women. Their dresses were to be brown or black, no bows, no curls, no jewelry, and no hoop-skirts. The last prohibition made sense, since the hospital aisles were narrow.
So, where did this leave Rosemary, who was to be a continuing character in the series? Using my artistic license, she’s attractive, not plain, but I
did make her “old.” She’s twenty-seven. J In addition to her God-given gift of mercy, she’s also determined to the point of being headstrong. She needs to be to stand up to the prejudice she encounters.
In Where Wildflowers Bloom, Rosemary is the best friend of the story’s protagonist, Faith Lindberg. Oh, and did I mention Rosemary has a brother, Curt? How many of us remember having girlfriends with handsome brothers? I’ll just say that through Rosemary, Faith and Curt end up spending quite a bit of time together.
So, like Rosemary, have any of you taken a job in what is considered a man’s field? Did you encounter prejudice? On a more romantic note, did any of you ever fall in love with the brother of your best friend? How did it work out?
I hope you’ll look for Where Wildflowers Bloom at your local bookstore, or through an online retailer. Please visit my website at www.annshorey.com for more information about Where Wildflowers Bloom, as well as my other books.
Where Wildflowers Bloom
How far will she go to follow her dreams?
The War Between the States stole a father and brother from Faith Lindberg—as well as Royal Baxter, the man she wanted to marry. With only her grandfather left, she dreams of leaving Noble Springs, Missouri, and traveling west to Oregon to start a new life, away from the memories that haunt her. But first she must convince her grandfather to sell the family’s mercantile and leave a town their family has called home for generations.
When Royal Baxter suddenly returns, Faith allows herself to hope that she and Royal will finally wed. But does he truly love her? Or will another man claim her heart?
Ann has graciously agreed to give away a copy of Where Wildflowers Bloom today, so be sure to leave a comment in order to be entered in the drawing!
Published January 26th, 2012 by Felicia
Hello Darlings,
Western writer Mr. Troy Smith has strapped on his spurs and will gallop into the Junction on Saturday, January 28th.
Mr. Troy has written a slew of western fiction so he knows a thing or two about what life in the old West must’ve been like. He’ll tell us how he came to write and a lot about his books. He’ll share the good times and the bad as he progresses through life.
And that’s not all. Mr. Troy is toting a book to give away to one lucky person. All you have to do is leave a comment. As easy as falling off a slippery log.
So, hitch up your wagon or climb on your horse and ride along with him.
Saturday’s the day and the Junction is the place.
I’ve owned my Ki
ndle for just over a year now. I use it every day, though not quite like I expected when I found it under the Christmas tree. I thought I’d buy lots of ebooks, and that my paperback shelves would be a thing of the past. I’m sure my husband had that thought when he bought it for me. When we moved from Virginia to Kentucky, he loaded dozens of heavy boxes of books into the storage pod. By volume, the only thing outnumbering my book-boxes were the Christmas decorations. By weight, the b
ooks won.
The Kindle was supposed to eliminate some of those books, but it hasn’t. Six months into owning it, I gravitated to buying paper again because I like to loan books. I know you can loan Kindle-to-Kindle, but that’s not same as just handing someone a book and saying, “Here, take your time.”
Here’s what most surprises me . . . About 80% of the stuff on my Kindle consists of freebies. I check out the Amazon giveaways almost every day, and definitely at the first of the month. I’ve downloaded tried-and-true authors, new-to-me authors, and self published authors. Most recently I started reading a history of Alcatraz Island. What a wild place! I also read Water for Elephants, a book I’ve wanted to read for ages but just never did. Then there’s the Young Adult fiction that got my attention. What fun to revisit the past with stories about girls and horses!
Those freebies have a strong appeal. I can’t say I’m as enamored with the price of regular ebooks. There are bargains to be had, but I get a little miffed when a bestseller in e-format costs almost as much as a hardcover at Sam’s Club. I thought ebooks were supposed to cost less…maybe not. The market’s still finding its footing.
Here’s another cool Kindle feature: I’ve used it to store and read unpublished mss, both my own and those from fellow authors. It’s handy for the last read-through. Typos show up, especially missing words. I tend to miss that stuff on the computer screen.
Right now, I have 105 items on my Kindle organized in Collections labeled: Historical Romance, Contemporary Romance, Mainstream, Series, YA, Non Fiction, Women’s Fiction, Classics, Reference, Book Club, and Hubby’s Books. The romance categories have the most titles, of course. And that number is growing . . . One-click shopping is the easiest thing in the world.
I also have a couple of games. Is anyone else hooked on Every Word? My high score playing the timed version is 34,930. Just 70 points shy of 35K! I like Scrabble, too.
Anyone else have thoughts on e-readers? Kindle vs. Nook? They’re here to stay for sure.
The Women of Swan’s Nest Series…Available in the Amazon Kindle store…
Published January 25th, 2012 by Felicia
Miss Ann Shorey has boarded the stage and will arrive here Friday, January 27th.
This marks the lady’s first visit to the Junction and Fillies would like your help in making her feel right at home. She’s a woman after our own heart. She loves writing western romance and the special love between a cowboy and his lady.
Miss Ann wants to tell us about her new book, WHERE WILDFLOWERS BLOOM. This isn’t her first rodeo. She’s written three others with no plans to quit soon.
So come and help us roll out the red carpet. That dern thing is heavy!
And we’ll see you right here on Friday.
Do you have a “collection” of special people in your life? People that helped
you in ways maybe you hadn’t really given much thought to, but that turned out to be extremely important? One of the first milestones in my writing career—becoming a finalist in the EPIC Awards with my first novel, FIRE EYES—brought this realization home to me. I got curious. I know there are incidents in people’s lives that are pivotal to their entire careers, dreams, and goals, that, perhaps at the time, don’t seem that important. Later, looking back on it, it becomes an “aha” moment—you understand that THIS was the moment when you made the decision to do something you might not have done otherwise, or because of a word of encouragement you continued on when you’d been ready to stop.
Most people that I’ve met in the last half of my adulthood would never describe me as “shy,” but as a youngster, I was—horribly. That’s one reason I turned to writing. It was a great way for me to get my feelings out without actually having to say them. I could have someone else say it all for me.
I imagine that’s how many of my fellow writers started, too. I sometimes wonder what might have happened had we all known each other when we were younger. Would we have developed into the writers we are today, or would we have found our “niche” with one another and NOT turned so much to writing?
If you can relate to the “shy” part, then maybe you felt this way, too: I was never competitive. Not like so many sports contenders might be. The things I enjoyed, writing and music, were open to everyone, I felt. I am not a “joiner” and I am not one to enter a lot of contests. I entered FIRE EYES in the 2010 EPIC Awards competition, and something odd happened when I did.
From the moment I entered, my attitude about myself changed. BEFORE I entered, I thought, “I probably don’t have a chance.” But my mom always used to say, “If you don’t enter, you certainly are NOT going to win!” I remembered those words, and sent in my entry that very day. Once it was sent, I began to feel some confidence growing. As I analyzed WHY, here’s what I came up with.
FIRE EYES was a joint project. I wrote it, but I couldn’t have if I hadn’t had the cooperation and support of my family—my kids and my husband. While I was writing it, my oldest sister, Annette, was constantly asking about “how it’s coming” and she was the one I could bounce ideas off of. Once written, my business partner read it for glaring mistakes, and my best friend of 45 years read it for moral support. The Wild Rose Press accepted it, and my editor, Helen Andrew, was so phenomenal in helping me mold it and shape it into the story that was released last May. My cover artist, Nicola Martinez, did a superb job on the beautiful cover. My family and friends were all pulling for me, and constantly offering encouragement. With all these people behind me and my story, my confidence rose. Whatever would be, would be—and entering the competition was a win/win situation. Even if I didn’t make it to the finals, I would still have taken the chance and had the experience.
When I received the news that my book was, indeed, a finalist, I thought immediately of all the people who had helped me get to this point; people in my life who had faith in me, and in my ability, and in the story itself. I thought of that saying, “It takes a village to raise a child.” It’s true, even in the broader sense of our lives as writers. The experiences we had growing up, people who encouraged us even then, our spouses, our children, mentors and teachers we’ve had along the way, and peers that have helped and encouraged us. Editors, artists, publishers and organizations such as EPIC that give us a chance to compete and strive to be better and better, along with our readers, are all part of the completed circle of a successful writer’s endeavors.
Though FIRE EYES didn’t win that year, the experience of entering the
competition and finaling in it was more important that I could have realized when I sent my entry in. It was the thing that made me understand just how many people had been involved in the entire process of writing that book. And it gave me the impetus and encouragement to move forward with the rest of my writing projects since that time. That realization was far more important than winning the contest, and has been with me every day, like a component of myself that I didn’t have before; another part of my make-up.
Does anyone have a “special person” that helped them along the way? Not just in writing, but in your life’s goals and dreams? What about a “collection” of special people? My “collection” of special people in my life is the thing that I am most thankful for above all else. Without them, my dreams could have never happened. I could never have done it alone.
Cheryl’s Amazon Author Page:
https://www.amazon.com/author/cherylpierson
It wasn’t a practical weapon, though. Besides the immense recoil which only a very strong person could handle, it took nearly two minutes to reload—and eternity in a fire-fight.
