Western Novels

Using Geneology As a Research Tool, by Charlene Raddon

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What? Using genealogy to research a historical novel? No way.

Way. Let’s say you’re writing a Civil War story. Your hero was born in the South but moved to the north as an adolescent. The skills he learned hiding out in the woods to avoid beatings from his father now serve him well as he sneaks through enemy lines to gather intelligence for the Union. The Rebs call him “that dang Yankee ghost.” So what is his name? Something that sounds Southern would be best, something strong.

On Ancestry.com, I clicked on military records, then Civil War Records and Profiles. There’s a box for selecting Confederacy or Union, then you choose the first two letters of a surname. I chose Ra because R names have a strong ring to them. My hero is now Stephen Dodson Ramseur. Or how about Winter W. Goodloe? These are actual names of men who served in the Confederate Army in the Civil War. Neither of these names might strike your fancy, but they can give you ideas, or you can keep looking.

Now, remember, names are not copyrighted. Even so, it’s wise to be cautious when using the name of a real person. After all, it might be understandable if someone became put out because you named your horrible, conscienceless villain Abe Lincoln.

More than one of the heroes in my books bears the name of a man who lived in centuries past, such as Bartholomew Noon (from Forever Mine, available at e-book stores now), and Columbus Nigh (from Tender Touch, to be released October 18, 2012).   

Stephen Dodson Ramseur’s father remained in the South and is buried there. Stephen missed the funeral but knows the old guy died of apoplexy, a common cause of death back then, better known now as a stroke, and was buried the next day. Why the next day? Doesn’t sound very respectful, does it? Well, morticians capable of embalming the dead were few and far between back then except in larger cities and towns. Plus, they cost money. So next-day burial was often a necessity.

Infant mortality was high, so old cemeteries tend to have more graves for children than for adults, although you can’t always tell because it was common to bury an infant or toddler with a parent or even a grandparent already buried. Babies lost in childbirth with their mothers were generally buried with Mom.

From death certificates you can learn the most prevalent causes of death and the terms used for them. Unfortunately, such certificates didn’t come into being until mid to late century. Birth certificates are even more difficult to find. Often, in rural areas, there was no such thing as a birth certificate. I couldn’t get one for my father when I was trying to join the DAR.

Census reports are a great place for gaining an understanding of how people lived in the second half of the nineteenth century. Until 1850, they reported only the name of the head of household and how many children of certain age groups lived there. The 1850 report, however, lists each member of the household. The later the report the more information is available. You can learn how long a couple has been married, how many marriages they had before the report, what they did for a living, how much land they owned, their yearly income, where their parents were from, who was literate and who wasn’t.

Does my Stephen Dodson Ramseur know how to read? Few people did back then, especially the women. Children often left school as soon as they were big enough to contribute some real labor to the farm or family business, so their reading abilities were not always good. It’s interesting to see which occupations list the most people who were literate. Farm families were generally at the low end of the scale. Those children were needed at home, and farms were out in the country, frequently too far away for children to attend school.

Another great research source available through genealogy societies and online sites is county history books and town newspapers. These require some time-consuming reading, but you can learn a lot about how people lived, what their social lives were like, and their activities, even how they thought.  County histories list the towns and give descriptions of the area, such as how the towns were laid out, rivers, fields, trees, etc.

Names of towns and counties were changed time and again. You don’t want to set your book in a town or county that didn’t exist then. The wise thing here is to consider inventing your own town. Hard to invent a county, though, and have it be credible, although a quick study of counties in various sections of the country will reveal numerous names that were used over and over. Lincoln County, for example. Washington County. But before you invent a Lincoln County, make sure there wasn’t one already in a different section of the state.

Histories also give biographical information on the earliest and most prominent citizens. Another great chance to learn about life in the time period, and to collect names.

Personal journals are also available through genealogy sites, and these contain a wealth of information. I once started a book set in Utah in 1857. My heroine was a young lady fresh out of finishing school that travels west to live with her father who is an officer at a post called Camp Floyd, southwest of Salt Lake City. As part of my research I acquired the journal of a soldier at that post, which gave me oodles of those tiny details that can make your story truly believable.

All of these sources are available through sites such as ancestry.com, genealogy.com, Cyndi’s List, Genealogy Bank, Archives.com, and many others. Most require paid yearly memberships. You can get around this by finding a local LDS (Mormon) Ward House that has a genealogy library. There you can use a computer to access sites like ancestry.com without having to pay a fee. The people who maintain these LDS Ward House libraries are usually canny about doing genealogy research and free with their valuable advice. If you need a record that is housed at the main LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City, these small local libraries can order a copy for you to study.

I’m only an amateur genealogist, but If you have questions about genealogy research, I’ll be happy to do my best to answer them, or to find someone who can.

Now, I need to excuse myself so I can write down all the plot ideas that came to me while writing this. Stephen Dodson Ramseur is going to be a very busy, very sexy, and courageous young man. Hmm, who is going to be my heroine? Looks like I need to peruse my personal genealogy, or pay another visit to ancestry.com.

How much do you know about your own genealogy?

Charlene is giving away a copy of Forever Mine (excerpt below). All you have to do is leave a comment for her.

 

Charlene’s webpage

Charlene’s Chatterblog

Charlene’s facebook page

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Charlene’s Goodreads page

 

Charlene Raddon’s love of the old west drove her to start writing historical romance novels over thirty years ago. Her first completed book was a time travel, unsalable at the time, and had not yet sold, but she’s reworking it now and hopes to have it available soon. Her second book was a Golden Heart Finalist under the title BRIANNA. Between 1994 and 1999 she had five books published by Kensington Book’s Zebra imprint. Her most popular book, FOREVER MINE, received high ratings and a Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award nomination. This book is now available as an e-book, and Charlene will be giving away a free copy today to a random winner. Here is a blurb and excerpt:

THEIR LOVE WAS FATED…

A mail-order bride from Cincinnati, Ariah Scott had traveled all the way to Oregon to marry one man…only to lose her heart to another. What would become of her now? Ever since her father died at the hands of a vengeful relative, Ariah’s life had been shadowed by dark secrets. And now her forbidden desire for Bartholomew Noon filled her with uncertainty—and a secret longing that could never be fulfilled.

AND FORBIDDEN…

From the moment Bartholomew saw Ariah at the Portland train station, the keeper of the Cape Meares Light was lost. Hopelessly in love with this angelic beauty who was fated to live beside him at the isolated lighthouse as another man’s wife, Bartholomew never dreamed that destiny would someday bring them together. Would Ariah truly be the woman he could cherish…forever?

FOREVER MINE  – Excerpt

Ariah. The name suited her. Light and airy. Perfect for a nymph. He struggled to regain his composure and remember what he was about.

Around them, passengers continuing on to Goble, where train and all would be ferried across the Columbia River before resuming the journey to Seattle, were boarding the train. Soon the platform would be empty except for porters and employees of the Union and Northern Pacific Railroads. And Bartholomew suddenly realized he too was eager to be away; he could not wait to have Miss Ariah Scott to himself.

Bartholomew glanced at Miss Scott, wondering if she could be one of fate’s tricks. Something niggled at his memory. He shrugged it away.

“Miss Scott, if you’ll point out the rest of your baggage, I’ll get it loaded while you and your friend finish your good-byes. We’ve a long way to go.”

“Oh, yes, of course.” She gestured to two small crates and a large trunk. “That’s it there.”

            Bartholomew shouldered the trunk as though it contained nothing more than bird feathers, holding it in place with one arm while he squatted to pick up one of the crates.

As he put space between himself and the two women, he chuckled silently, remembering how he had wondered what he would do with the girl during the four long days of the journey home. There was no doubt about what he wanted to do. His hands ached with the need to stroke that smooth, velvet flesh, to explore and discover its secret contours. Thinking about it, four days no longer seemed enough.

He set the crate alongside the boxed-up fancy rosewood étagère Hester had insisted he buy her, and lowered the trunk onto the wagon bed.

Hester. Bartholomew’s fantasy about Ariah burst like the seed head of a giant dandelion, scattered by the wind.

Hester was his wife—till death do us part—no matter how much he might wish things different. And Ariah Scott belonged to Pritchard.

His shoulders sagged under guilt as ponderous as a steam engine. He rested his arms on the sideboard, braced his forehead on a fist, and tried to banish the image of the girl’s sweet tempting mouth, so lush, so—

A warm hand closed over his arm. “Are you all right, Mr. Noon? Is there anything I can do for you?”

Bartholomew looked down to see Ariah Scott standing only a kiss away, gazing up at him with those unbelievable forget-me-not blue irises, her luscious lips moist and parted, her concerned expression sweetly, guilelessly intent.

And he plummeted into hell.

FOREVER MINE available at:

http://www.tirgearrpublishing.com

http://www.amazon.com

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/207071

and all other e-book stores

 

 

 

 

 

THE WESTERN LIVES—AGAIN OR STILL?

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My name is Bob Randisi, and boy are my arms tired.

Since 1981 I have been writing Westerns. Backed into it, actually. I started out as a mystery writer, but when an editor asked me if I could write westerns, I said yes. I always said yes back then. However, at the time I had hardly even read any Westerns, just watched them on T.V. and in the movies. So I went out to a used bookstore and bought about 40 books by different authors, in a variety of series, so I wouldn’t come up with anything that had already been done. As a result I created THE GUNSMITH. The first book was published in January of 1982, and they have been appearing once a month since then, under my pseudonym J.R. Roberts. I recently finished writing Gunsmith #378, and I am contracted through #384.

Westerns were red hot in the 80’s. I ended up creating series like Tracker, Angel Eyes, Mountain Jack Pike, Ryder, as well as writing books in other series like Cimarron, Shelter, The Trailsman and Canyon O’Grady. In 1982, my 3rd year as a full time writer, I wrote 27 books in 12 months. In 30 years I have written and published 585 books, a good 400 of them Westerns.

But as the 90’s came the Western genre started to die off, and the number of series being published dwindled. Soon, only The Gunsmith, Longarm, Slocum and The Trailsman were left. And although sales of these series were not what they had once been, there was a loyal readership.

Ah, but wait, of late there’s been a resurgence of the genre. How do I know that? Because for about 15 years I was writing them for Dorchester Books. 10 in all. Also two series for HarperCollins. But then Harper cancelled their Western line, and recently Dorchester went out of business.

Fear not, though. Recently, Gunsmith sales have increased. (I can’t speak for Longarm, Slocum and Trailsman. Those books are written by a stable of excellent writers, while I continue to write all the Gunsmith books.) My sales have increased, as have my royalties. And thanks to ebooks—which, as a reader, I HATE—my early books are back in print. Speaking Volumes LLC has brought back the early Gunsmiths (and plans to reprint the first 200 of them), as well as all of my Angel Eyes, Tracker and Mountain Jack Pike books. They’ll be available as ebooks and as POD trade paperbacks. In addition, some of them have been done in audio. While they all have beautiful new covers, the Gunsmith continues to appear under the J.R. Roberts name while the other books now bear my real name.

Yes, Westerns are back, and none too soon for readers of blogs like this one. Loyal readers have kept us alive, and now new readers are discovering Westerns—reprints and originals. My new book, BULLETS & LIES, is the first in as new series to feature Denver private detective Talbot Roper. The stories are set in the 1880’s. Book #2, THE RELUCTANT PINKERTON, will appear next year. Roper is a character who has appeared in many of the Gunsmith books, so the series is a spin-off. However, it is a traditional series, while the Gunsmith continues to be an Adult Western series.

And the newest development? Amazon has purchased the Dorchester inventory, which means they will be bringing back all of my Amazon Westerns—as well as many others–including last year’s CROW BAIT, my last book for them.

Every decade somebody tries to bury the Western Genre, and every decade we—the readers and writers of Westerns—successfully fight them off. (In fact, I was late delivering this blog because I had to finish two books this weekend—both westerns.)

I’m proud of all of us!

And one lucky commenter today will receive a copy of Bullets and Lies!! 

 

AMAZON

 

Lori Wilde – The Allure of the Cowboy

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Throughout my life, cowboys have surrounded me. I took them for granted, believing that everyone grew up familiar with men dressed in sharply creased Wranglers that snuggly hugged their behinds, dusty cowboy boots, belt buckles big as saucers and jauntily cocked Stetsons. I thought all men opened doors for women, said ‘yes, ma’am” and “no, sir”, walked with a John Wayne swagger, and passionately defended their family and friends.

I was never surprised to see a cowboy walk into a hamburger joint wearing jangly spurs or a catch of whiff of livestock, rope, sun and leather as he sauntered past. The men I knew wore long sleeves and blue jeans all year round and never, ever put on sandals. They loved their dogs, guns and pickup trucks all pretty much equally.

Because this was the earth from where I was sprung, I did not really take much notice of cowboys. I was attracted to the exotic and unfamiliar, never realizing that cowboys were exotic and unfamiliar to someone. It was only when I started publishing books and an editor pointed out that as a country girl from Texas, I should be writing about cowboys, that I came to truly appreciate what I had.

The stereotypical cowboy is laconic, tall, lean, stalwart, stoic and rides to the tune of his own drummer, but stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason. This is the profile of most cowboys I’ve known. They’re loyal, compassionate, practical and honest. The kind of man you can depend on. Most of them can do a mean two-step, a lot of them play guitar and almost all of them like to take their time. Giving new meaning to the phrase “slow hand.”

Don’t ask them to dress in a tux unless it’s aTexas tuxedo. They’re not big on small talk or wasting time with inconsequential things. They work hard, but know how to play when the time comes. They live by a code of honor that’s rare in the twenty-first century.

Honestly, I can’t believe I took cowboys for granted all these years. My bad. These days, I make up for it by writing about cowboys and sharing these great men with readers who aren’t lucky enough to have a cowboy of their own.

How about you? Do you love cowboys? What kind of men did you grow up with? Are there people and things from your childhood that you’ve taken for granted? Leave a comment and be entered in a sweepstakes. I’m giving away ten copies of THE COWBOY TAKES A BRIDE, the first book in my Jubilee, Texas series.

Also, Christie Craig (she writes hot, funny stories about cowboys) and I are giving away a Boot Scootin’ Basket. Here’s the link to enter. http://freshfiction.com/contest.php?id=4511. Get your cowgirl on!

Over the Edge-A Chance to Win!

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IT’S THAT MOMENT WE’VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!!!

(Well, me anyway)

Over the Edge releases August 1st and today is the first giveaway on Petticoats & Pistols.

Leave a comment to get your name in the drawing for a signed copy of Over the Edge.

OVER THE EDGE

Seth Kincaid survived a fire in a cave, but he’s never been the same. He was always reckless, maybe even over the edge, then he ran off to the Civil War and came back crazier than ever.
After the war, nearly dead from his injuries, it appears Seth got married. Oh, he’s got a lot of excuses, but his wife isn’t happy to find out Seth doesn’t remember her. Callie has searched, prayed, and worried. Now she’s come to the Kincaid family’s ranch in Colorado to find her lost husband.

Callie isn’t a long-suffering woman. Once she knows her husband is alive, she wants to kill him. She’s not even close to forgiving him for abandoning her.

Then more trouble shows up in the form of a secret Seth’s pa kept for years. The Kincaid brothers might lose their ranch if they can’t sort things out. It’s enough to drive a man insane–but somehow it’s all making Seth see things more clearly. And now that he knows what he wants, no one better stand in his way.

Over the Edge is book #3 in the Kincaid Brides Series.

 Seth is the CRAZY brother.

I had so much fun writing crazy Seth and his incredibly SENSIBLE wife. In fact marrying Seth Kincaid is the only stupid thing she’s ever done.  But she’s not putting up with any more nonsense and she’s brought her Winchester along to make sure Seth straightens up.

 Here is a trailer for Over the Edge. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeSzqacHzQM

 

http://www.maryconnealy.com

 

Welcome Guest . . . Peter Brandvold

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WHAT OUR PROSE AND CAVALRY CHARGES SHOULD HAVE IN COMMON

One of the most important things in writing words that sell, and one of the hardest things for most writers to understand until they’ve been hammering away at the craft for years, is how to make those words move.

I mean MOVE like a cavalry charge at the end of a John Ford oater. 

Like a bullet fired through the maw of Colt Lightning .44.

Like an Apache arrow slung from a gut-an’-ash bow to plunge into a cavalry’s soldier’s blue-clad chest with a hard, snapping crunch!, sending blood geysering out the poor lad’s back to paint the rock wall of the escarpment behind him.

All right, enough pulpy examples.  You get the idea. 

Let me amend that first paragraph.  Some writers, no matter how long they’ve been writing, never understand how to make their prose gallop.  To make it sell. 

Almost always as I wander the bays at my favorite bookstores or peruse the “Sneak Peek” pages on Amazon, looking for a yarn that’s sure to grab me by the throat and not let go till I’ve read the last page–oh, god, how rare is that!–I find prose that slumps on the page like roadkill, like a wet sheet blown off a clothesline. 

Twisted and slack and pale as death…

There are several causes for this amateur’s misstep, but let’s skip the causes and go to a few tricks for solving the problem–methods I’ve learned throughout my life and from writing around seventy western novels and continuing to sell and acquire new contracts and new readers.

I’ll touch on three.

First, make your prose look pretty on the page.  This sounds sophomoric, and it is.  Something as seemingly insignificant as a how those little black marks are clumped on the page makes a big difference to a reader’s eye whether they’re aware of it or not.  Those marks make a rhythm in the eye just as the sounds they create in your head form a rhythm in your ear.

Frankly, big, heavy clumps of text are just plain ugly.  Sort of like having a big, brick wall you have to climb at the end of your morning run. 

As a rule of thumb, I try to make my paragraphs between one and seven sentences long.  That keeps the final printed page from looking too black.  And I vary the lengths so that I seldom get two portly paragraphs together.  Same for one or two-sentence paragraphs, though this is less important than staggering the thick ones.

Look at this essay for instance.  This is how the pages of your pubbed novel should appear when printed.

Another of the myriad ways you can make your prose sing and dance is to make it specific and colorful.  It should be as vivid in the reader’s mind as a scene from their favorite movie.

This is a tough one.  This is the trick that separates the weanling pups from the alpha wolves.  It’s a very hard one to teach, and it really can’t be taught to someone who isn’t armed with a vivid imagination.

Think DETAIL.  And not just any ole detail, but the detail that propels that old saloon in your western novel off the page and seers it into the reader’s retina.  Okay, it’s low-slung and it’s made of adobe brick and there are two hitchracks out front.  That’s still every other saloon I’ve ever seen in books and T.V., even with a drunk cowboy passed out on the porch.

Let’s add a black-and-white collie dog with a burr-matted tail lapping up the spilled beer on the worn pine puncheons beside the cowboy.  The saloon’s missing one of its batwings and the remaining one, wearing a chipped and faded coat of red paint, has two bullet holes in it.

A clay water pot, an ojo, hangs from the porch rafters, left of the batwings, jostling under the weight of the magpie perched on its rim, drinking.

You see?  With details–with nouns and verbs as well as adjectives–we’ve pumped that old saloon back to life.  The scene’s vivid, the prosemoves.

Yet another way to make your sentences wriggle around like snakes in your readers’ hands is to write in a conversational tone.  The best way to do this is to read it out loud to yourself.  If it reads clear and easy, if it flows like a good ale over the tongue, you’ve got it.

If it’s stilted and halting, and you have too many four-dollar words and you’re not using contractions, get back to work. 

This is much harder than you’d think.  It takes time and practice and patience and, most of all, confidence in your ability to do it.  Eventually, after enough words have flowed over the dam of your mind, they’ll wear the dam away and you’ll be writing so fast and furiously–having so damn much fun!–that you’ll be blowing out one keyboard after another!

Oblige me the mixed metaphor…

Here’s my last tip.  And it’s the most important one.  When you sit down to write, you should be breathing fire.  Your fingers and toes should be tingling and you should be chuckling to yourself like a moron.

If you’re dragging around the house, avoiding your work room and lamenting that today you’ve got to get Carmody and Crystal in the bunkhouse together alone in spite of the horrible things they said to each other the night before, and they have to interact in a way that tells the reader they’re hot for each other though they themselves don’t realize it yet–forget it.

If you write with that attitude, whose going to enjoy reading it?

Take that seemingly static scene by the horns and imagine doing something so unexpected and creative with it that it puts lead in your pencil and makes your ears burn with anticipation.  Maybe you could have the two characters yack for a while and then, out of the blue, something inexplicable overcomes Crystal and, to her surprise as much as to Carmody’s, she throws herself into his arms!  

And before the reader has time to get bored with the dull conversation, Crystal and Carmody are making love while a rainstorm hammers the ole bunkhouse roof.

Or if that’s too much of a cliché…I don’t know…send Crystal into a rage.  She picks up a skinning knife and tries to stab Carmody.  Or maybe she does stab Carmody!

The idea is to mix your ideas up, paw them around like a cat with a mouse until you come up with something that has you breathing fire and making your prose chew up the sod like a thousand galloping horses at the end of a John Ford oater.

 

Since his first novel, Once A Marshal, was published in 1998, Peter Brandvold has written over seventy fast-action western novels under his own name and his penname, Frank Leslie.  Check out his website:  www.peterbrandvold.com.  Become a follower of his blog at: peterbrandvold.blogspot.com.

 

Robert Randisi Comes to the Junction

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Today, we welcome author Robert Randisi. He writes western novels and detective thrillers. His publishing list is quite long. He’s graciously let us interview him. We hope you enjoy what he has to say.

How did you start your writing career?

I started reading in earnest when I was 10. Decided to write my own stuff when I was 15. Went to the movies and saw HARPER. Read all the credits, discovered the movie was based on Ross Macdonald’s book THE MOVING TARGET. I went out and started reading Ross Mac, and all other private eye fiction. That year I decided I wanted to write private eye fiction, and I wanted to write for a living by the time I turned 30-and I did.

What was your first sale as an author?

I sold a story called “Murder Among Witches” to Mike Shayne’s Mystery Magazine when I was 22.

How did you come to write Westerns?

I backed into writing The Gunsmith series and-as a result-also backed into writing westerns. I had written my first novel, THE DISAPPEARANXCE OF PENNY, a private eye novel, for Charter Books.  It was my hope-and the hope of my editor, Michael Seidman-that I’d be writing for books in the “Henry Po” series, but one day I got a call from Michael who asked me, “Can you write westerns?” At that point I had never even read many westerns, but I naturally said, “Yes.” (This was 1981. Back then I always said yes.)  He told me to come up with a proposal for a series.

I went to a used bookstore and bought about 40 westerns, representative of at least one book in every existing series. I read them so that I would not repeat anyone’s character. I then came up with a proposal for The Gunsmith series.  The working name for the character was “Tom Sideman.”  I submitted the proposal about a traveling gunsmith who was actually a fast gun legend AS WELL as a true gunsmith.   Michael liked it and gave me a contract for two books. When I submitted the first book he said it was good, but that he was going to have to break me of my “hardboiled” style. I told him that in a western it was called “hardcase.”

Before long I got a call and Michael said they wanted to give me a contract for a third book, as well.  I said that was fine.  Within weeks he asked me if I could write a book a month. I didn’t know if I could, but I said, “YES.” They then gave me a contract for 9 more books, which made it an even dozen I was contracted for. And so, I began . . .

Oh, one morning  about 8:30 am – I had just gotten in from my real job with the NYPD and had only gone to bed at 8:00 am – Michael called me and said they had just had an editorial meeting and decided to call the character “Adam Steele.”  I told them that was fine with me, but that they should check with George Gilman, who already had a 22 book series about Adam Steele. (Really, who was doing their market research?)  He said he’d call me back.  Later that day he called and said they’d decided to name him “Clint Adams.”  I said they could call him Sue if they wanted, as long as they paid me. The first book was published January 1982, the same month I quit my job and became a full time writer.

When in the day/night do you write? How long per day?

I write every day, day and night. How long depends on whether or not I have to go out and run errands that day. Two day shifts, broken up by dinner. Two night shifts, broken up by a nap.  The longest stretch is usually midnight to 4. Usually, I’m working ion two books at one time-a mystery and a western.

What books have most influenced your life?

Private eye novels, meaning Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and Ross Macdonald.  An occasional favorite novel like NINE PRINCES IN AMBER by Roger Zelazney, REPLAY by Ken Grimwood, HEIRO’S JOURNEY by Sterling Lanier, DINOSAUR BEACH by Keith Laumer.

What do you think makes a good story?

Anything that shows an application of serious imagination.

Who is your favorite author?

I don’t have one-and by that I mean I don’t have ONLY one.  But the books I mentioned above comprise a good list-Chandler, Hammett, Macdonald, Zelazney, Laumer, lesser known authors to the general public like Thomas B. Dewey, Ralph Dennis, modern authors like Pete Robinson, Wallace Stroby and Max Allan Collins.

What is the hardest part of writing your books?

The time to write all the ones I have in my head. I generally do about 16 books a year. These are mostly books I HAVE to write to make a living. That doesn;t leave much time to write the books I WANT to write.

What are your pet peeves as a writer? As a reader?

My pet peeve used to be self published authors who thought they should be eligible for professional awards. If you put on a play in your basement should you be eligible for a Tony? But “self-published” has come to mean something totally different these days. But I still don’t approve of it as a short cut to a career. Having the disposable income to publish your own books doesn’t make you as writer. As a reader? Hmm, writers who have nothing new to say.

Do you have any suggestions for beginning writers? If so, what are they?

The business has changed a lot, but my advice has not. Write every day. Don’t look for short cuts. Pay your dues.

Where are your fans most likely to find you hanging out?

Casinos, race tracks, book stores mostly. And sitting behind my desk. A lot!

Who are your books published with?

The Gunsmith series has been published for 30 years by Berkley. My Rat Pack books were published by St. Martins Press, but have been moved to Severn House.  I’ve had some books published recently by Perfect Crime Books, Vantage Point.  I had 24 books published with Dorchester over the past 15 years until they went under. My Adult Westerns are being reprinted by Speaking Volumes LLC.

Visit me at: www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/randisi_r.html

On Facebook: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001698781430&sk=photos

Chuck Tyrell Talks Westerns

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This weekend we welcome Chuck Tyrell. He’s an international award-winning western writer who knows a thing or two about how to spin a good tale. Chuck grew up only nineteen miles from the legendary Fort Apache in Arizona.

* * *

Good morning Petticoats and Pistols. Thank you for the invite. Now, let’s see if I can say anything of import, or at least slightly entertaining.

In considering how to run off at the keyboard, I thought of Laurel Baker. She’s the woman whose story, or at least one part of her story, is in my Black Horse Western short novel called Hell Fire in Paradise.

BHW books have a word-count limit of 45,000. But that doesn’t mean you can sit down at the word processor and knock out that many words by the word counter at the bottom of the page. It means counting as if every page were full of words, chuckablock, as my dear departed mother used to say. So if you aim for 40,000 and don’t go over by more than a thousand or so, you’ve got a Black Horse Western.

Now, about Laurel.

I met Laurel when she and her husband were prospecting for gold in the hill country north of Dos Cabezas, which is 20 miles east of Wilcox and seven miles or so from Bowie. Arizona, that is. Not far from infamous Apache Pass, actually.

She and hubby Jack found a small gold deposit, just enough for them to buy the land they wanted on Paradise Creek in Arizona’s White Mountain country. While in the wilderness north of Dos Cabezas, they met and befriended White Mountain Apaches (the only Apaches never to fight the white man).

Fast forward.

Night falls on Paradise and Laurel puts her two boys to bed in the loft. Jack went to Ponderosa, the closest town, for supplies that morning. He hadn’t returned. After putting the boys to bed, Laurel saddled her horse and went out on the mail road to see if Jack needed help. She went all the way to the lip of Paradise Gorge. No Jack. She waited a while, then decided to go home. As she neared, she could see the house was on fire, boys inside. Laurel’s Black Horse Western story begins here. And it’s a long journey to the other side of grief. I don’t know what it is about the name Laurel, or in the case of Return to Silver Creek, Laura. Maybe it’s the connotation of winning that the name carries.

Just a word about Return to Silver Creek, which just came out from Solstice Westerns.

When I wrote the book, it was 80,000 words long. But it was the sequel to Vulture Gold, and BHW wanted to publish it. How to chop a story in half?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You eliminate a character. Well, not eliminate, but take out major portions written from that character’s POV. So the BHW Revenge at Wolf Mountain focuses on Laura’s husband and his search for the perp who raped and beat and cut Laura.

Now the whole story is out, and we can read Laura’s grief and shame and indecision and near inability to deal with the child her traumatic experience left her with.

Where do I stop? With Blessing?

When I started writing A Man Called Breed, Wolf Wilder was running through the Mojave Desert with four men on his back trail. They wanted to kill him for something he did in Ehrenburg. The novel opens at Adam’s Well. There’s a girl there in the company of two other people. When she opens her mouth to speak to Wolf, she says her name is Blessing. I didn’t know what her name was until she told Wolf. But that happens a lot in my stories. Often characters have to tell me what their names are. Isn’t that strange?

Blessing ends up one Wolf Wilder’s homestead in Lone Pine Canyon. I’ll not be giving away the story if I just tell you what she does in Wolf’s words.

“If that’s all . . .” The major turned toward the troopers.

“It’s not all,” Blessing said. She marched over to Reed Fowley, the tail of my shirt flapping in the slight breeze, and me standing there in my union suit. Reed just looked at her, a smirk on his face. Blessing stepped closer. She barely came up to his shoulder.

“After what you done,” she said, “I oughta kill you. But dying’s too good for your kind.” She reached up with her left hand and grabbed his nose. At the same time, her right hand brought my kukri swinging out and around, and she sliced through Reed’s nose just behind her fingers.

The blade cut flesh and cartilage like it was cutting cake, and Blessing stepped back with the end of Reed Fowley’s nose in her hand. For a split second, Reed didn’t know what had happened. By reflex, his hand jumped up to cover his nose. Blood dribbled down his chin, but the severed stump bled little, considering. Reed screamed. No one moved.

Blessing held up the end of Reed’s nose. “Now people will see you for the man you are,” she said. She wiped the kukri on my shirt and handed it to me. She turned to Major Simmons. “That’s all,” she said.

* * *

Women in the west were tough. At least those who show up in my westerns are. In a couple of months, BHW will issue my short western Road to Rimrock. One of the women in the book takes a liking to the MC, Matt Stryker. Her name is Catherine de Merode.

The name de Merode, in actuality, is Belgian royalty, as is Catherine. Be that as it may, she is well schooled in Savate, a French martial art that has its roots in the waterfront of Marseille and might be equated to Tae Kwan Do of Korea. So naturally there’s a fight scene. While maintaining her very prim character, she thoroughly trounces a major antagonist and threatens her with death if anything untoward ever happens to Matt Stryker.

Road to Rimrock is a strange western because it doesn’t have a single face-off shoot’em-out scene. It’s all about a man keeping a promise made to the town drunk.

So, I’ve rambled on about the women in my westerns, and several of them are dedicated to women. Return to Silver Creek, for example, is dedicated to Yukiko, Emma, Tina, Eve, Nanna, Maggie, Jessica, Ashley, Annie, Nanase, Lan, and Hana – the women in my life: wife, daughters, and granddaughters.

Good day. Been nice talking with you.

Charles T. Whipple Aka Chuck Tyrell

NB Black Horse Westerns are probably best purchased from The Book Depository UK, which sends the books anywhere in the world free of charge. Click HERE for the link.  A search for Chuck Tyrell will tell you where else to find my westerns, Amazon, Nook, Smashwords, Createspace, whatever. As Charles T. Whipple, I write non-fiction about Japan, and have a new series of fantasy novellas on the way (one out) from Publishing by Rebecca Vickery.

Visit me at www.chucktyrell.com for more about me and my books.

Livia & James Reasoner Share Their Writing Secrets

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COLLABORATING FOR FUN AND PROFIT

LIVIA: Thanks for having us here on Petticoats and Pistols! James and I been married for more than 35 years and writing together for nearly that long. We began collaborating professionally as well as personally early in our marriage, when James was trying to break into writing by submitting short stories to various magazines. He usually wrote his stories in longhand, and then I would type them up. (Yes, we’ve been doing this since people used typewriters.) As I would be typing the stories, sometimes I saw little ways that things could have been done differently, or things that could be added to make the story better. I would make suggestions to James, and he usually listened to them. Then he said I should write my own stories.

JAMES: But I said it in a nice way!

What usually happened was that Livia would catch some bone-headed mistake I’d made, and being the naturally lazy person that I am, eventually I realized that when she pointed something out, I could say, “You’re absolutely right. Can you just go ahead and fix that for me?” From there it wasn’t a very big leap to her coming up with her own stories.

LIVIA: Over the years we’ve developed a pretty good system that takes advantage of our individual strengths and weaknesses. I really enjoy plotting and researching, while James would rather be sitting at the keyboard pounding out words. Since he writes a lot more than I do, I can take some of the load off him by coming up with ideas and developing them. In return, he helps me with the editing of my books.

JAMES: To a certain extent nearly everything we produce is a collaboration, because we plot most of the books together and then edit and polish each other’s work before an editor ever sees it. I’m still quick to take advantage of her ability to fix the things I foul up. And she’s the greatest plotter in the world! One time an editor called me on a Friday afternoon and wanted plots for three books in a new Western series he was pitching on Monday morning. I had to go run some errands, so I asked Livia to think about it while I was gone. When I came back a couple of hours later, she handed me a piece of paper and said, “Here are six plots. Take your pick.”

The rest of the story is that while that particular series didn’t sell, eventually I used all six of those plots for books in other series, and they worked just fine.

LIVIA: One series we plotted and wrote together was WIND RIVER, six books that came out in paperback about fifteen years ago. This one we figured out ahead of time to the extent that we knew what the ending of Book 6 would be before we ever wrote a word of the first book in the series. That way we were able to plant little clues all the way through the books. We wanted to publish these books with both of our names on them, but the publisher vetoed that idea. (For some reason publishers have always given us trouble with using both of our names.) So when they came out James’s name was the only one on them. However, now that the novels are available again as e-books, we’ve been able to put both names on them as we always intended.

JAMES: Another way we collaborate is in the creation of cover images. Years ago when I was in Jackson, Wyoming for a Western Writers of America convention, a group of writers and editors went out for dinner together, and on the way we stopped at a place that made old-time photographs. They dressed us as outlaws, saloon girls, etc., and took a sepia-toned group picture of us (which we all bought copies of, naturally). Being writers, we started naming the “characters” in the photo. My name, they said, would be Big Earl.

Well, since the person in the picture next to me was a Western editor at the time, I told him I was going to write a Big Earl novel and sell it to him. It was more of a joke than anything else, but a couple of weeks later he told me he really did want me to write a Big Earl novel for him. So of course I did, fleshing out the character and making him a former stagecoach shotgun guard turned lawyer turned circuit-riding federal judge. I wrote three Western/mystery novels about Judge Earl Stark, and the first one, STARK’S JUSTICE, featured part of that photograph on the cover, making me one of the few authors to portray my own character on a book cover.

The idea came to me a while back that it was time to do another Judge Earl Stark novel, this time as an original e-book. Livia has always been a fine photographer and has also discovered that she’s a talented graphic designer. She volunteered to round up some vintage Old West clothes and came up with an entire outfit for me to wear so that she can take pictures to use in designing the cover for the new book. So the legend of Big Earl lives on! (As soon as I can find time to write the book, anyway.)

LIVIA: Being able to work together like we have has come in very handy over the years. We work at home, so we were able to raise our family together and both of us were very involved when our daughters were in school. We were both on the local PTO board (James was even the president one year) and were able to take part in all sorts of activities such as math and science team tournaments and band and journalism competitions. Plus there’s the added benefit of just being able to spend more time together. When you both write for a living, there are always books to plot, characters to create, and story problems to work out, so you never run out of things to talk about!

JAMES: I couldn’t hope for a better collaborator, all the way around.

LIVIA: Neither could I.

James is giving away two copies of his newest paperback REDEMPTION: HUNTERS. Leave a comment to get your name in the drawing.

LIVIA’S HALLAM COLLECTION IS FREE FOR THE KINDLE MARCH 3-5th. Click on the book cover and it’ll take you there. AND THE AWARD WINNING HALLAM NOVEL, WILD NIGHT, IS AVAILBLE FOR THE KINDLE AND THE NOOK FOR ONLY 99 CENTS.

It All Started With A Wagon Train . . .

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Readers and interviewers often ask about what got me interested in writing western romances. Well, there’s a reason my logo features a wagon wheel. It all started with a wagon train.

The early seeds were planted with Laura Ingalls and Little House on the Prairie, both the books and the television series. But it wasn’t until the late 80’s when I was a senior in high school that the love affair truly began. I can still recall standing in a bookstore  during one of those high school band trip time killers – you know, the ones where the bus pulls up to the local mall and lets the kids loose on the food court and shops with the only perameter being, “Meet back here by 5:30.” Well, where else would I spend time but in a bookstore? Besides, I needed something to read on the bus ride home.

I sat staring at the shelves, picking up book after book but not realy finding anything I liked. Then a friend (a boy, no less!) suggested I try Dana Fuller Ross’s Wagon’s West Series. Apparently his sister liked them. I picked up Independence!, the first in the series, and was instantly hooked. I can’t remember how many I ended up reading, but I think I read at least the first 8, up through Nevada! There were 24 total in the series.

Now that my appetite for romance and adventure on the western trail had been whetted, I sought more. Imagine my delight when I stumbled across Saturday reruns of the old westerns from the 50’s and 60’s. Bonanza. The Big Valley. The Rifleman. I loved them all.

Yet when I saw a promo for Wagon Train, teenage heart palpitations nearly sent me into a swoon. I’d thought Pernell Roberts was to-die-for as Adam Cartwright, but when I caught a glimpse of Robert Fuller as the trail scout, Cooper Smith, I was in love. And the fact that the channel only showed Wagon Train for a short time before discontinuing it, only made my heart grow fonder. We were star-crossed lovers, Cooper and I, held apart by a tragic whim of fate.

About this same time, my best friend got me hooked on old movies. We’d go to the video store and try out everything from Audrey Hepburn to Fred Astaire. I started watching the classic movie channel on TV as well. And that’s where I found it. My favorite western movie of all time. Westward the Women.

Never heard of it? Don’t feel bad. Most haven’t. It doesn’t star John Wayne or Gary Cooper. In fact, nearly the entire cast is female. Odd for a western, right? But that’s part of the reason I loved it. That and the fact that it all takes place on a . . . you guessed it . . . wagon train.

In the story, a land developer arranges for the transport of moral, able-bodied women to travel from Chicago to his settlement in California to become wives to the frontiersmen there. The women have a variety of motivations for joining the train. Some are in financial straits. Some have lost husbands and have no where else to go. Some are simply looking to make a new start. The wagon master has serious doubts about their ability to cope with the arduous demands of the journey and tries to convince the land developer to give up on the scheme. The women prove tougher than he expects, though, and with a little training on firearms and team driving, they set out. As the wagon master’s respect for the women in his care grows so do the women’s respect for themselves. The film destroys sterotypes of women as the weaker sex. And the central love story between the wagon master and the French saloon dancer who is looking to leave her past behind demonstrates that love really does conquor all.

Westward the Women came out in 1951 and was based on a concept idealized by Hollywood legend, Frank Capra, after he read an article in a 1940’s magazine about a group of South American women who crossed the Isthmus to become brides for a group of male settlers. It was filmed the Utah mountains and California desert and all the actresses were given extensive training in handling frontier weapons, bullwhip cracking, blacksmithing, horseback riding, mule driving, and assembling and disassembling covered wagons. My writer’s research heart is drooling in envy.

Alas, Netflix doesn’t carry it, so I might have to find a copy I can purchase. Because even though I haven’t seen it in probably 20 years or more, I still remember it in vivid detail. I still want to be like those women–tough, determined, and ready to take on any challenge this journey of life throws at me.

So what about you? What got you started on western romances? Books, movies, television, growing up on a ranch? I’d love to hear your story!

CELIA YEARY IS OUR GUEST TODAY!

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Celia Yeary is with us today with a great post on dime novels. Celia is a dear friend of mine and an excellent writer, with a slew of wonderful books and short stories to her credit.  A fifth-generation Texan, she’s understandably proud of her heritage and most of her stories take place in her home state of Texas.  Now here’s Celia to give us a bit of insight into where western writing all began–the DIME NOVEL. (And y’all be sure and leave a comment with contact info, cause Celia plans to give away two of her “dime novels”!)

 

A “dime novel” was an inexpensive and generally sensational tale of adventure sold as popular entertainment in the 1800s. Dime novels can be considered the paperback books of their day, and they often featured tales of mountain men, explorers, soldiers, detectives, or Indian fighters. Despite their name, the dime novels generally cost less than ten cents, with many actually selling for a nickel. The most popular publisher was the firm of Beadle and Adams of New York City.

 

The heyday of the dime novel was from the 1860s to the 1890s, when their popularity was eclipsed by pulp magazines featuring similar tales of adventure. Later, comic books had a part in the trend.

 

Critics of dime novels often denounced them as immoral, perhaps because of violent content. But the books themselves actually tended to reinforce conventional values of the time, such as patriotism, bravery, self-reliance, and American nationalism.

 

Today, Western Historical novels and Western Historical Romance novels hold to the same standards: Truth, Justice, and The American Way.ie, treat women and children with respect, as well as your neighbor, protect the downtrodden, and carry out justice within the law…if at all possible.

 

Today, Western Historical Romance novels and true Westerns are published as Dime Novels at “Publishing by Rebecca J. Vickery” through the imprint Western Trail Blazers. The Dime Novels are shorter stories, perhaps novellas, priced at 99Cents.

 

The idea intrigued me. Since I had nine full-length novels published traditionally, along with two novellas and three anthologies, I found myself writing 22,000 word stories with catchy titles. As of this moment, I have two as WTB Dime Novels:

http://westerntrailblazer.com/dime-novel-store.php

 

ANGEL AND THE COWBOY—

http://www.amazon.com/Angel-and-the-Cowboy-ebook/dp/B0058VZTWU/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1309546603&sr=1-11

 

He needs a wife…
Because the sheriff summons him, U.S. Marshal Max Garrison rides to town. He resents learning he must supervise a young man just out of prison who will work at his ranch for a time. But when he meets the beautiful young woman who owns the teashop, he knows his trip is not wasted. Max decides she’s the one for him.

She faces more loneliness …
Daniella Sommers lives alone above the book and teashop her English parents left her. When U.S. Marshal Max Garrison walks in and asks for tea, she almost laughs. Soon, her merriment turns to hope. Then Daniella learns a shocking truth about herself. If she reveals her past, will Max still love her?
Is it time for miracles and hope? 

*~*~*~*

ADDIE AND THE GUNSLINGER– 

http://www.amazon.com/Addie-and-the-Gunslinger-ebook/dp/B006LXB6GW/ref=sr_1_13?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324161074&sr=1-13

He’s not looking for anything except freedom.

Ex-gunslinger Jude Morgan lands in jail in a far-flung West Texas town. On the fourth day in his cell, the sheriff arrives with a beautiful woman dressed in men’s pants and toting her own six-shooter. Adriana Jones claims he is her worthless husband who married her but never came home.

She need a stand-in for a husband.

The young woman makes a bargain with Jude in front of the sheriff. Jude is to come home where he belongs, and she will have him released. When they’re alone, she explains his job is to pose as her husband to thwart the marriage advances of her neighbor, wealthy rancher Horace Caruthers. The older man wants her ranch to join his, because the Pecos River runs through her property.

To seal the bargain, Jude wants a kiss. During the next few weeks, however, Jude and Addie learn that the kiss meant more than they meant it to be. Then, Addie’s life is in danger.

Will Jude rescue his Addie? Or will Addie save herself and her gunslinger?

~*~*~*~

Future Dime Novel releases are:

Charlotte and the Tenderfoot

Kat and the US Marshal

 Thank you Petticoats! This site has been one of my Favorites since I found it two years ago. I appreciate the opportunity to post among so many successful authors.

Celia Yeary-Romance…and a little bit ‘o Texas 

You may find me here: 
http://www.celiayeary.blogspot.com
http://www.celiayeary.com

http://sweetheartsofthewest.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Celia-Yeary-Author/208687145867971              

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