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. 😊

 

 

Write Fast Edit Slow & Zane Grey Too

 Confessions of a Writer of Westerns

January 17, 2022

We are back from a short trip to see family in southeast Nebraska. Always nice to catch up and, for us, an excellent time to refresh. I didn’t get much written during our short trip, but as always – some good ideas.

Editing westerns can be tricky, especially when using old west slang or vernacular of the day. I am often asked about editing. Most wannabe writers are as worried about this as they are writing. Today I want to talk a bit about it. First, it is hard. Second, find some great, before publication readers.

Zane Grey

Zane Grey, often credited as writing the first western – The Virginian – started as a somewhat stiff and grammatically poor writer who told great tales. His wife Dolly was his manager and first and often only editor. Like most editors, she made it better. Some historians believe she made his writing more stiff and proper, but it was likely the other way.

Dolly Grey worked much like many writers of today’s first readers. Let them read it and make suggestions. Most importantly, listen to what they tell you.

Before letting it out to my first readers, I also use two, yes two, and sometimes three, grammar, spell, and proper-use software programs.

 

Flicker puffed up in the cold.

Reading – The Old Editor Says, by John E. McIntyre. Yep, that is where I got the idea to write a bit on editing today. It is a tiny little book of 76 pages packed with wisdom from the long-time editor. My best takeaway from the book? Take your time when editing – like the adage. Write fast, edit slow.

Noticed – It is always nice to be seen and appreciated, and last week I received word that this blog is now listed in FeedSpot as one of the Top 25 Western Fiction Blogs & Websites. Click the link to see the list. I read several of these sites – good stuff.  

 

Weather – Almost spring-like today. Lovely, but it is January and will not last. We are enjoying it! Yesterday we were in the 40s. Today we are in the mid-fifties.

Quote of the day – “Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.” T.S. Eliot

 

Buddies

Today’s Photos – January photos along the North Platte River ¼ mile from our home in Wyoming.

 

Have a great week. Keep on reading, and keep on writing.  

Working - Resting & Distancing

What's going on? – For me, and I expect many others, the answer is the traditional, "not much."

With all the extra time on my hands, I should be getting more, not less accomplished. I do get in about two hours each day writing or editing, an hour or so in my shop, gardens, or yard. The rest of the time, I waste. Maybe not all of it – I have done a good bit of reading – on the deck in the sunshine when I can.

I think he might have found me

Typing Skills – My typing skills, with a broken finger, have deteriorated recently. Took me years to become a proper typist, now I am one hand regular, and one hand two fingers.

Social Distancing – Much has been made of distancing ourselves from others recently. Everyone I know takes this quite seriously, but it can be kind of funny here. We live in a 2,111 square mile county with 8,391 other folks. Using my handy phone calculator, that means we have 3.98 people per square mile. Our county has two stoplights, both 26 miles away in Wheatland. As Wyomingites have been saying all along – "we have always social distanced." It is easier here - where standing or waiting in any kind of line is an oddity. 

 

Backyard Goldfinch Battle

Meanwhile – It is getting close to spring flower and garden time – a time for rejuvenation for all. And now would be an excellent time for me to get back to work. Book 13, another nonfiction book on aging, and all of the joys that go with it will be finished this month.

Newell Bay in Guernsey State Park

Photos – Wyoming's few people do make it possible for us to get out and walk/hike on nice days. Today's photos are from recent hikes in Guernsey State Park and from my backyard deck.

Take care, my friends!

Back to Writing

Writing - It seems like I should be writing more, not less, now with so much time at home. But that does not seem to be the case. Not sure why - worrying too much about the state of our country and the world might be the problem.

The good news -  is the past week, I have started turning it around and getting some work done.

What else have I been doing? Cleaning up the yard and garden and attempting to make some organizational sense our of our garage. Oh - I have got quite a lot more reading done. I usually read about a book every 10 days, now I am reading about twice that amount. 

Staying in Shape - We have also been actively walking/hiking. We live in a sparsely populated area of the least populated state in the United States, makes it easy to get away. On our hikes and outings, we have encountered zero people, and only saw a handful of vehicles. 

Our little town on the North Platte River

Stay Safe - Please stay safe and distance yourself from others. Find new hobbies, read a few new books, enjoy every day.

The CCC Museum at Guernsey State Park

A Look Back and a Look Into the Future

A Look Back and a Look Into the Future

2020 has got to be a better year than 2019. For me, 2019 will be a most forgettable year. A writer's life is not always easy, and I hope for each lousy year, I will have two or three good ones. One exciting thing for me is that I now have lived in every decade except the 30s. It might be a stretch for me to make that one, but who knows?

After years of writing around 300,000 words, this year was but a few thousand.  The consequences of writing less showed up in my sales, which were about half of the past few years, as were my Kindle Unlimited pages read. At times I thought maybe I had given up writing, but now I’m not sure. It might have had more to do with me than with writing. I not only wrote less, but I also gave up on a few other pursuits and hobbies. Physical ailments kept me from walking much and slowed me down from other things like photography and playing golf – looking back at 2019, I really didn’t do much of what has become my norm. But, there is always a bright side, we did some traveling, and I read quite a few good books, watched many fantastic movies, smoked some meat, completed some woodworking projects, and liked our terrific garden. I also enjoyed birthday number 71 – at my age, every birthday is excellent.

Writers are as bad as any other group at making and then not keeping New Year’s Resolutions. I have never lasted over a few weeks on any that I made. I do hope that the New Year will be a good one. Maybe I will get around to finishing and publishing the two books I have that have sat gathering dust for the past year.  Each of these books is within a few days of being completed.

My New Year’s Resolution – Enjoy life   --- As Dr. Seuss so aptly said, “Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.”

Today's photos are from an outing earlier this week in Guernsey State Park a few miles from where we live.

Here is the link for all my books on Amazon

Back to Work

I may be back, or at least I hope I’m back. With a little luck, a fast horse, the grace of God, and lots of fair weather and sunshine, I am going to attempt, again, a five or six times a month blog post.

It’s been a long year. I have dealt with things I never wanted to, none of us do. Family, health, finances, aging, the same things all of us have, or will have to deal with at some point in our lives. I didn't handle any of them well and wrote only a handful of blog posts and little of anything else in an entire year. I have several books in various states, one a finished rough draft, one 80% complete and another off to a good start. Goal - I will finish something before the year's end.

Did I learn anything from my time off? Yes. The less I did, the more my sales fell – I know, shocking. I also kind of missed the three or four thousand words a week I was writing.

Thank you to all my patient readers who keep asking when the next book or blog is coming. Looks like there will be more.

Wanna take a look? Find all my books, available in softcover, and eBook here. 

Today’s photos are from an enjoyable drive and hike last weekend into Wyoming's Laramie Range west of where we live.

Now back to work on the third in the series of my Blade Holme’s Western Mysteries, this one, tentatively titled after a completed rough draft - Wendover

Writing Slow Down

No writing in March, zero words on my WIP, and only one blog post. I did get out with my camera and took a few photos, but not many of those either.  The photos on today's post are from a trip to Guernsey State Park one afternoon last week. I am spending most of my time getting the yard ready for summer, organizing and cleaning the garage, and working on some, inside the house, projects.

I did quite a bit of writing in January and February but have, temporarily, I hope, lost my motivation. I am, however, enjoying working on the house, finished a new floor in the family room and, I must say, it looks great.

It is possible I will take off this month from writing as well, then see how it goes in May. I still enjoy writing, but too much going on right now to do anything.

Enjoy the warming of Spring.

My Amazon Author Page

Words

I have always been a goal setter, but not much of a New Year’s Resolution writer. When I did try to set a resolution or two, they were often so general that even if I reached them, I would not know. Things like, exercise more, get in shape, or lose weight, really are not goals. This year I decided on one, and it is a writing goal. This year I will write at least 250,000 words.

How Many? - I follow one writer that consistently writes one million words a year. For me, that is unrealistic, I am much too lazy to work that hard. For three or four years, I wrote 200,000 to 250,000 words each year. Lately, that has slipped to 100,000. This year I am recording when and how much I write each day. In this case, when is what days, not the time of day. I am an afternoon and evening writer, not sure why other than when I worked full time that was when I wrote.

So Far - Through yesterday, I have written 41 of 52 days, mathematically about 80% of the time. Writing, on average, four out of every five days is not bad for me.  Total words this year, so far – 37,030 words. That puts me on pace for more than my goal of a quarter million words this year.

Keeping On – I know it might be tough to keep writing at this pace, especially when I get to the editing phase of books and stories I am working on. I also am an avid amateur photographer, taking upwards of 10,000 photos each year. Most of my photos I take with fixed lens cameras with good telephoto range. I use these because I take most photos while we are hiking, or from my pickup as we travel backroads and explore new places. My favorite camera is wearing out after 25 or 30 thousand shots. Looks like I will be ordering another soon.

Looking Ahead - Now we head into March, and at last, we have snow covering the ground. I have already started some of my seeds that will be nice plants by mid-May. Spring cannot be far away.

Photos – on this post, I took this week, and with my dying cameras, still works if I am patient enough. I do have a couple others, so am not camera destitute.

Have a great week, get outside, and enjoy the end of winter.

Writing & Publishing

One thing I have learned is that when I am not feeling well, it is hard to write. Other than a handful of blog post, like this one, and a bit on social media I am nearly down for the count. A bad cold is whipping me, every day I think it will be better but, so far, not much. Enough about how I feel – read on.

Writing Quote – Write while the heat is in you. … The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with.

Henry David Thoreau

What Am I Working On? Two weeks ago I had a book nearly ready to go to my first reader – it is still there. Hopefully, who knows, maybe today, I will feel like working on it again.

Christmas Books – Don’t forget about my newest book, a book of Christmas short stories – G rated and fun. This one follows volume one that I published a few years ago. Both books, each containing 14 stories, are available on Amazon. Brighten your Christmas season and read a few short Christmas tales, all with happy endings.

Reading - I am doing some reading, presently enjoying C. J. Box’s Trophy Hunt. I thought that I had read all of the books in the series, then discovered I had missed one from several years ago. Like all of Box’s books, this one is an excellent read.

From the Old West – When a cowboy's too old to set a bad example, he hands out good advice.

 Photo of the Week – Like my writing, photo opportunities have been few the last ten days. I did get out this week for two sunsets and found some interesting opportunities.

As always, you can find all of my books here on Amazon

 Or

Follow me here on twitter at @wyohistoryguy

Keep on Reading and keep on Writing

& 

Have a terrific week.

Time Out

As some of my regular followers may have guessed, after ten books and hundreds of blog posts, I am on a long-term writing hiatus. I have decided to step away, at least for a few more weeks or months.

Sometimes things happen in life that seems to require a change in perspective. I hope to write, and get back to photography someday - not sure when.

Meanwhile, I am still reading books, and blogs, and working in the garden and around the house as we sort things out.  Have a terrific rest of the summer.

Writing Westerns and a Trip to the Laramie Range

The garden is planted, the flowers are blooming and summer is here. I remember watching so many old (maybe as old as me), characters in TV westerns when I was a kid. They often talked about the sun making it easy on their old bones, now it’s my old bones enjoying the warm weather. Think I must have reached that point in my life. I spend time every day in the sun, and more in the shade, but still outside on these terrific summer days.

Writing – Blazing away on my third Blade Holmes western mystery, or at least working along on it. I have also taken some time to polish my second book of Christmas short stories this week. Kind of fun sitting in the sun and writing about cold and snow.

Reading – Much of my reading is centered around research for the books I’m working on, but I always take time to read for relaxation also. Right now I am enjoying, William Kent Krueger’s, Minnesota adventure, Iron Lake.

Selling Books – As is to be expected this time of year, sales are slow, glad my writing income is only part, and presently, a small part of our income. I have had a few weeks with only a handful of sales and darn few KDP pages read, but in the end, it will all work out when fall arrives.

Writing tip – Start with a character, preferably your protagonist, and put them in a mess – yep, create conflict, keeps readers turning pages. Here is how I started my second Blade Holmes novel, The Ghost Dance.

The man riding alone on his horse should have heard the shot, but he was already dead. The huge .52 caliber slug had torn through his shirt an instant before the sound reached his lifeless body. The noise from the big gun reverberated through the canyon, but only the shooter heard it.

Less than an hour later U.S. Marshal Blade Holmes found the body, vultures looked to have arrived shortly after Jimmy Spear had been blown from his saddle. The young, smallish Appaloosa he’d been riding was grazing oblivious a hundred yards away.

Todays Photos – From west of town on our Sunday drive and from our backyard.

It’s hot outside, super time to get in some extra reading and writing. 

Late May Writing Update

Seems pretty quiet around here. Schools out, and the pool and golf course are busy. I am spending time working on my lawn and garden, and my wife is planting flowers. As far as my writing, I am doing some, but not as much as I should be, churning along at a pace of 500, or so, words a day. I am still working on both a fiction, and a nonfiction project at the same time, most often working nonfiction sometime during the day and working the fiction story late at night when I should be sleeping.

Another Book About to Go – An odd time of year for it, but I am putting the finish touches on my second volume of Christmas stories, to be released in mid-October. It has been complete, except for one last story, since January, right now I am adding the front and back matter.

Book Sales – After a slow couple of weeks, sales are picking up once again. Happy Days.

Now Reading – I should say looking through, Encyclopedia of Western Gunfighters, by Bill O’Neal, interesting nonfiction read.

Photos today from our Memorial Day trip up into the Snowy Range.

Meanwhile, enjoy the start of summer, and keep on reading and writing.

Find all of my books here on my Amazon Site.

Writing Snacks and Other Nonsense

 

It's Warming Up and I Am, Once Again, Up and At Um

So much has been written about the habits of writers, so much, that I decided to make a list of some of my writing habits. Seems since most who write do it differently than others, we all might be a bit odd – but here we go.

1.  Most of my writing is on my laptop, (touchscreen, no mouse) sitting in my favorite recliner with the television on. (Seldom could I tell anyone details of what was on, I like the noise I guess)

2.  When writing in my office, about 10% of my writing, I also turn on a television

3.  Writing snacks – Salted peanuts, black licorice, dried cherries, hot or iced tea

4.  I always have both fiction, and a nonfiction project going on

5.  My best writing time – afternoon, evening and late – too late

6.  Mornings I use for news, and social media, and new research

7.  I try to walk a mile or more or play golf, usually 9 holes, every day. (When playing golf I ride, I figure I get plenty of steps along with twisting and turning in the 90 minutes I am on the course)

8.  I spend time in my gardens, or out with my cameras, whenever possible

9.  I spend an hour or two each morning reading, outside in the sun when possible

10.              I sign books with a black rollerball pen, I sometimes use fountain pens when I write personal notes from home.

11.              Last, I check my online sales twice a day – morning and evening

12.              Another last, my wife and I take lots of day trips when we do I take one of my cameras, but no writing when we are out enjoying the day.

There you have it,  as Frank Sinatra put it, My Way.

So how do you write? Anything that seems a bit far left or right of the norm?

Feeling Better – Writing More - I am spending more time writing, the past two weeks, than I have for several months. At last, I feel well enough to think and write. Seems the older I get the tougher it is to get through the winters without various health problems. Nothing serious, just the same old, cold and flu stuff, to which I added an ongoing problem with my left foot.

Writing – Still spending most of my time on the third book in my Blade Holmes western mystery series. I changed the tentative title yesterday and also a bit of the focus of the book. Now working on an updated character list and outline of events for my famous marshal.

Reading – Still reading Sioux Dawn, by Terry C. Johnston, also taking my time reading, A Guide to Photographing Rocky Mountain Wildlife, interesting and with so many terrific photos.

Today’s Photo’s – From the mountains 20-30 or so, miles west of town

Keep on reading, and keep on writing, see all of my books on my Amazon author site – here.