GOAT – Writers & Books

 GOAT – Writers & Books

I often see lists, lots of lists. Most are a top ten or bottom ten of something. America's ten best or ten worst fast food items or places. The best football or basketball player of all time. The greatest writer or book of all time. Fortunately, all of these lists are fantasy. Can we compare Mickey Mantle to Babe Ruth or players in modern-day – different times and circumstances?

One of my favorites (favorites to be irritated by) is the ranking of Presidents of the United States by IQ. These are often drawn up by someone pushing a particular political party. And what IQ test did all of them take?

Lately, we have invented the acronym GOAT, or greatest of all time. Who knows? You get the point: Tom Brady, Michael Jordan, John Lennon, Joan of Arc, Catherine II., Shakespeare, Hemmingway, Twain.

But, what we can do is say who our favorites are, and here are a few of the writers that got me started reading westerns, and to this day, I still love reading and writing them.  

1. Elmer Kelton – I have read almost all of his westerns. Not sure I may have read them all. My two favorites – The Time It Never Rained and The Good Old Boys

2. Louis L'Amour – Some love him, others can't stand him. Some of his books seem a bit formulaic and flat, but others are some of my favorites. The Quick and the Dead, Hondo,  and Silver Canyon are favorites of mine. L'Amour sold over 200 million books, and they are still selling, leading me to believe there must be a lot of good reads among his works.

3. William W Johnstone – Johnstone wrote in many genres, but I have read only his westerns. I enjoyed his early works, with Preacher and Smoke Jensen, two of my all-time favorite fictional characters. The Last Mountain Man is my favorite of all the mountain men books I have read.

4. James Michener – Not everyone considers Michener a western writer, but he is one of the best to me. Centennial might be my favorite piece of fiction, and his novels Alaska and Journey are beautiful reads.  

5. Noel Gerson – This might seem an odd pick as Gerson wrote under nine different pseudonyms, including Donald Clayton Porter (the White Indian Series) and Dana Fuller Ross (The Wagons West series. When I read those two series many years ago, they were most enjoyable. The Wagons West series was continued by another terrific writer James Reasoner.

 

There you have it. A few writers and books to add to your reading list.

Here is a link to my books on Amazon – take a look and enjoy!

Keep on reading and keep on writing.

Photos – From our recent trip to warmer weather. 😊

 

 

A Novel Setting

Choosing the setting for a story is never easy unless you follow the old writer's adage of write what you know. That is exactly what I do, or try to do.  I set my stories in places I have been, typically many times or places where I live or have lived.

All three of my children’s books are set in my hometown in Southeast Nebraska. My historical fiction all starts in Wyoming, where I live, but often wanders into nearby states.

 Recently I read a book, supposedly set in the area where I was born and where I spent many years. I was excited to get the book and start reading. It was a pretty good story but could have been set anywhere as the story used no descriptions of the area.  At the end I got the feeling that the author might use other titles for this same book, change a few words and re-release it. When I read I like to feel like I am there, and like stories that take me away. I have never visited Hogwarts. But felt like it when I read the Harry Potter series. I also like Lee Child books, often set in big cities that I have not visited, but I feel like I know them when reading.

I live in Wyoming, grew up in Nebraska, spend time each year in Colorado, South Dakota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri and like to write about those places. We have also spent a good bit of time in Australia and Hawaii, places I someday hope to use as settings.

Take me away with a story and I love it.

Today’s photos from hikes in the nearby Guernsey State Park the past few evenings.

Thanks for reading - click here to see all my books on Amazon

Reading the Old Writers

Reading is easy, writing, not so much. My reading is forever getting in the way of my writing. That and research, research gets in the way also. I keep plugging along, reading, writing and enjoying life.

Recently I have enjoyed some, well known in their day, writers. Writers whose names may not ring a bell with modern readers, but writers I found most entertaining. The first is an English writer, although he moved and wrote for years in the United States, Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse - P. G. Wodehouse. He wrote great stories with a lot of good humor. Wodehouse created two iconic characters, Reginald Jeeves, the wise valet and the man he worked for, London Lawyer, Bertie Wooster. Jeeves and Wooster are two of the longest running characters in fiction, lasting 59 years in various Wodehouse novels and short stories. These books are not westerns, not even close, but fun, fantastic reads.

Wodehouse

A second author and one I have recently discovered is B. M Bower. B. M. for, Bertha Muzzy, was the first American women to make a big splash writing westerns. Because, both she and her publisher feared no one would read western fiction by a female, she used her initials. I am sure with the first name of Bertha, it would have given her away as a woman and as her publisher feared, drive away readers. I just finished her, Cabin Fever, an enjoyable read about two, thrown together men, searching for gold in the early days of the automobile. It is more a story of lost love and relationships than an old fashioned western. The story features no six-guns and no real action, but it still works. Not sure why.

B. M. Bower

A third writer I have enjoyed this winter is a continuation of my reading of a real old timer, James Fenimore Cooper, and his, Leatherstocking Tales. I have just started reading the fourth of these stories, The Pioneers. Can’t say that I love his writing, it seems too old-fashioned for me, but the stories are good, but I can’t read many pages at any one sitting.  If we can believe the story, Cooper became a writer after telling his wife he could write a better book than the one she was reading – and dare I say, the rest is history.

Cooper

Tonight, no reading, yet, the night is still young. I’m watching my Wyoming Cowboys basketball team play Nevada as I write this. This week I went back to work, well for two and a half days anyway. Talk about slowing down my reading and writing. 

I did take the time for a quick drive in Guernsey State Park late this afternoon

Random Thoughts About the West and Westerns

Who put the West in westerns? Sounds like a bit of an odd question, but it might be a tougher question than it first sounds. The old west, the one of so many books, is both a place and a period of time. The where is the old west is a tough question, but by most definitions it is west of the Missouri River, south to Mexico and north through Alaska. The old west as a period of time, I see as from the end of the civil war until the introduction of the automobile in America. Commonly this time period is seen as from the Gold Rush to Wounded Knee, 1849-1890.

In Wyoming, we like to say we are the last of the old west, or that we are the real west. If that is true, the west of today refers to wide open spaces. That’s the reason California and most of the highly populated Pacific coast are no longer thought of as the west. Genre westerns often were set in California, gold rush, land grabbers and city builders all made good plots. Today the west coast still makes an excellent setting for movies and books, but none are thought of as westerns. Western’s weather set in the 1800s or present day need wide open spaces.

 Today writers of westerns set in modern time seem to follow this idea. It is easier to write a western if there are wide open spaces involved, Wyoming and Montana come to mind here.  Mountains, forest, wild rivers and long lonesome highways seem to make good modern western stories.

But the real west is defined by the cowboy. If a cowboy is involved, it must be a western story. Western romance sells millions of copies each year, the book covers usually depicting a cowboy, shirt unbuttoned, hat, boots, and beautiful women. Why do they sell? Is it the western flavor, the romance element, or the wide open spaces? I would guess it is a bit of all of the above. Today the sparsely populated west is full of romance and mystery to many people, especially people from metropolitan areas.

One of the reasons we live in Wyoming is because we love the empty areas. I know, this is not for everyone. We have to drive more than an hour to the nearest Wal-Mart and nearly two hours to a Shopping Mall. For many this would be a disaster of colossal proportion. Even worse, the closest hospital is a half hour away and to find a lawyer, accountant or college we must drive at least half an hour. But we trudge on. The reason we like it here, all of the photos on this page were taken closer than the nearest Wal-Mart.

Love the west!

Ten Reasons I Can't Get Around to Writing

Writing can be pretty lonely. I write at night, sometimes late into the night or the next morning. I read many blog posts that focus on, finding your best creative part of the day. Morning seems best for most - not me. Not sure why I was never a great morning person. Seems about eight in the evening until 1 or 1:30 in the morning is best for me.

That doesn't mean I don't work during the day, I go from 10 to noon or maybe one, that's about it until the evening hours.

So, how do I spend the hours of a day when most, non-retired people are working?  

1.   I get up late (Embarrassing, but relaxing) 

2.   I play golf (Even in winter when it is 50 degrees or better)

3.   I work in the garden (Seed starting this weekend – indoors)

4.   I work in my wood shop (Many projects and a great mess)

5.   I ride my bicycle (As long as the snow and Ice are absent)

6.   I hike the trails of Guernsey State Park (Love this)

7.   I take photographs ( I average about 800 a month, and no, I don't save them all)

8.    Yes, I do work some. I work five to eight days a month as a substitute teacher in the local school district. (After being in front of the class for 42 years it is a hard habit to break).

9.   I play my harmonica (love the haunting sound, it reminds me of times past and the old west. I’m not too bad either).

10.   I watch old movies (if it’s in Black and White I will probably like it, I also DVR the old B&W Gunsmoke episodes).

There you have it, a day in the life of a procrastinating writer. I still write about 20,000 words a month, not much to some, but pretty good for me.

Fort Laramie

“Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well". 

Mark Twain