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. 😊

 

 

Getting an Amazon Best Seller or at Least in the Top Half

I spent some time this morning doing research as to how many books Amazon has for sale. Might have fit better into, messing around on the internet, but I’m going with research because it sounds like I was working. During this research phase of my day, I could not find anything from the last few months but did see that in 2015 Amazon had 17.1 million books, in English, available for sale. The same information listed more than three million, written in English, eBooks.

If this is true, an author with a book consistently listed in the top one million seven hundred thousand will make it to the top ten percent of books on Amazon. The same eBook would need to be in top 300,000 to qualify. To be in the top half of all books listed for sale on Amazon, it would take a book in the top 8,500,000 or the top million and a half eBooks. Sounds pretty good except that a book selling near the bottom of the top half of all books on Amazon would only need to sell a copy or two each month to qualify for that ranking, maybe even less than that.

My first six books - click to go to my Amazon Author's Page

Got my proof books for my two latest novels today. Will need to make a few changes to the cover of, The Ghost Dance, I didn’t like the white font. Otherwise, it looked fine. Hope that doesn’t take long. That book will be out to first readers in the next day or so – then some final edits, and it will be published. The other proof is for the third in the series of my of kids books – Yikes, My Neighbor’s a Vampire. It is fine and should be as this is the third time I have made changes. My thought is, keep doing it until I like it.

I liked how it looked on my computer, but too light here

Now I am in the final part of my first draft of a gardening, and murder in the garden, book. It is a bit different, I hope readers like it.

I also continue the painstaking research on my second nonfiction book, still hope that I will get it out before 2018, but not sure. I am also hard at work on the third of my Blade Holmes, historical fiction- mystery novels.

Pronghorn walking the foothills west of town

The days are warming, and spring cleanup has started in our backyard. We have also made a few nice drives giving me a chance to get out with my camera.

Young Bison Bull

Keep on reading and keep on writing. 

Mule Deer running the Pronghorn off

Long Night - Short Day

Short Day – Long Night, and Our 48^th Anniversary - December 21, the shortest day and longest night of the year. That means days will start getting longer tomorrow and we can start counting down to spring. As gardening is one of my passions, I need only countdown to February 15 when I start planting inside. Today is our anniversary also, and how could it be better, with half of our six grandkids here to celebrate with us.

Winter Sky

Selling Books - On the seventeenth I started a five-day promotion, selling my book of 14 Christmas tales for .99 cents. Results have been mixed, sold very well the first day, not bad on the second, and then back to normal, still fun.  Still, time to get a copy if you are interested just hit this link.

100-year-old house and three or four-year-old buck (my estimate of years) 

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch -  I am still trying to get a bit of writing done, but with shopping, and lots of time with kids and grandkids it will not be much – but I’m not complaining. Love this time of year. I often read sites where writers talk about locking themselves away to make sure they get their work done, even over the holidays. Not me, love to write but, for me, it's family first.

Winter at Laramie Peak

2017 Resolutions - Now as I have mentioned before it is time to get my writing goals for the next year down on paper. For me, it is never too soon to start giving up or cutting back on my yearly resolutions. Especially the loose weight and exercise more ones!

One year ago Guernsey Lake

Merry Christmas everyone!

Santa's Reindeer Getting ready for trip

Back In The Saddle Again

The End of a Vacation - After a bit over two weeks on the road, we are home. Vacations are always great, and then it is wonderful to be back home. Meanwhile, my writing has been nearly nonexistent. Over the 15 days we were away, I tweeted twice, posted no blogs and wrote only about 1,200 words – not much. The good news is we had fun, a most enjoyable trip. Today's photos are all from our time in Dodge City Kansas where we spent an enjoyable day.

 Part of the Original Boot Hill

Old Town Recreation in Dodge City

A Month of Writing - Last month I wrote a few words less than 10,000 words, even short for me during my slacker writing times. Now here I sit writing my first words in November and it is the 11^th.  Seems time to get started. Recently I read that 70% of published books lose money and that cover designers and editors often are the only one’s to profit from a majority of self-published books – something to think about. I have been able to make a profit, albeit a small one on each of my books. To do this, I limit my expenses. Not preaching to the choir just reminding everyone that spending thousands on a book that will be self-published might not be the best idea.

Watching Gunsmoke on 60+ Year Old TV in the Museum at Dodge City
I  kept my feet off the table, just liked the cool effect. I find it funny.  

NANO Writers - Many years I have thought about joining the NANO writers in trying to write a 50,000-word novel in a month. Guess that is not me, can't or won't push myself that hard. A good month of writing for me seems to be around 20,000 words, but most months fall in the ten or twelve thousand area. Maybe some day.

Thought this old time printing operation fit here nicely.

Works In Progress – My biggest writing problem seems to be that I have too many stories and not enough time. When I complete the first draft, I put it away and often write another novel and several short stories before I go back to finish the first novel. As all of my loyal readers know I have three books completed and in various states of edit and completion. What do I do, you guessed it, start another. Glad novels and short stories are only part, and not my entire writing income.

Black Smith Shop

Keep on reading and keep on writing.

A few days after leaving Dodge City we were in Louisiana

Oh – almost forgot, while away on vacation I was elected to the local school board. Looking forward to serving. 

The Last Page

While working on an idea for a short story and thinking about endings, I decided there are only three endings in most all fiction. Happy, Sad or Book #2 coming soon, that’s about it. Within the three an author can do a limited number of things. I have never been a fan of sad or unhappy endings, but overly happy can be a bit much also. As I contemplated, while weeding the garden, I came up with this.  No matter if a book ends happy, or sad, there needs to be something to the last few pages. Writers talk so much about a great first page or great start, not so much the last few pages. This is what I have found.

Not Too Many Weeds In This Part Of The Garden

Book Endings

A fiction writer can end a book after the big event the book pointed at throughout and leave it at that. (Most books fall into this category).

An Author can finish the story and then tell the reader what became of the people afterward. (Romance and some historical fiction like this type of ending, with much of my reading I like this one also).

The book can end mysteriously, with readers screaming - WHAT Kind OF AN ENDING WAS THAT!!! (I see a few of these, drives me crazy).

One type of ending I do not care for is one I call the, I am out of words, ending. This one has the reader reading on and on and then in one or two pages the author tries to bring it all together, and it just ends.

What do you think? What kind of ending do you like or see most often?

A Book, Like A Day, Deserves A Great Ending

My Next Book

Maybe I will write a book on how to write a great last page. Probably not, but one thing I have found is that writing the end, for me, is easier than writing the start of a book. 

Keep reading and keep writing.

What Makes a Good Edit?

It’s not often that I edit something and am satisfied with the result. This one was pretty good. I am working on a novel with an opening chapter of 3,200 words and not very good ones at that. It is a story I like, but the first chapter has me putting it on the back shelf, time after time. What did I do? I gutted it, streamlined it back to 1,800 words, and now it works.

Thought I might need the Military to blast out parts of this book!
Took this photo on a recent walk - nice fly over

Novels do not need fillers - I should have known better, I tried to explain everything in the first chapter, even things the reader would discover later. It not only had laundry lists of facts that were not needed, it had too many things that had no relation to the rest of the story. It reminded me of the parts in newspapers and magazines that we used to call, fillers or interesting tidbits, whatever that is. For me, it was useless added information that would not become part of the story later.

Now this is pretty good filler and will make a great novel scene someday

One last comment - I like a shorter, not a longer opening chapter. Maybe that is what bothered me, a 12-page opening chapter, I like the all-new look of the now seven-page chapter. Now off to the press, not really, but I always wanted to say that.

A note on the book with the new first chapter – here is the cover (shot moments ago with my cell phone).

The Photo is Centered on the Actual Book
Not So Much Here On My Cell Photo

The book should be available in the middle of July. It has already been proofed and edited, I just did not like it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson on Editing – I love reading Emerson, and in my historical fiction book, Commitment, the protagonist, Blade Holmes quotes him, as he will in my upcoming, book two, of the Blade Holmes trilogy.

  Emerson said, “Let the reader find that he cannot afford any line of your writing because you have omitted every word that he can spare.”

Not sure he was always that sparse but he often was.

 Meanwhile - Have a great week - keep on reading, and keep on writing, and sadly we must all keep on editing and rewriting. 

My Wyoming Garden is doing fine, and thanks for asking!

Writing on a Frosty Wyoming Morning

Sometimes it takes a great frosty morning to get enough inspiration to write.

Mountainside frost in Guernsey State Park this morning

I often wonder how the mountain men and early explorers handled winter. I have read the stories but am not sure they can relate how tough it must have been.

North Platte River above Guernsey, Wyoming

Winter can be hard, but it also can be beautiful - as it was today on this frosty Wyoming morning.

Meanwhile, I am into a rewrite on a novel I put away several years ago. I am having fun with it and so far am pretty happy with the story. I am also continuing my research for my Fort Laramie book. Research is slow but fascinating.

I don't look much like a Mt. Man at Fur Trade days at Fort Laramie last summer -one of my favorite places 

Speaking to an elementary Wyoming history class later this week about mountain men. I Will also be talking about the Civilian Conservation Corps to a high school history class this week. Then what? How about some Christmas shopping, and of course, being the head sampler for my wife's Christmas goodies.

What If?

What If?

What could a fence post tell us if  fence posts could talk?

That's how I most often come up with ideas, what if?

What if this way your only ride to town?

I have two new books coming soon, one a collection of Christmas stories from out west, the other a modern-day western. The book of Christmas shorts, there will be 15 in all, 14 are finished, and it truly is a collection of what ifs. This book will be released November first and is so far without a title. However, back to the subject.

What if this guy was a Zombie? What if he lived next door?

Here are the, what ifs, I used for six of the shorts. It is important to know that this collection, all westerns, contain stories for adults and stories for kids. Some stories are of Santa Clause, and some are more traditional Christian Christmas tales. Some are a mystery, some romance and one or two may be a bit on the fantasy side. What if an old cowboy found red ribbons at Christmas time in the sage? What if the stranger was not what he seemed? What if you can go home again?  What if Santa really was? What if Prairie Dogs celebrated Christmas? What if a discontented, modern-day urban dweller slipped back into the 1800s?

What if this place was your new home?

I did this with both of my children's chapter books, Melvin the E Street Ghost and, Then Mike Said, “There’s a Zombie in My Basement." And I did it with my western mystery, Commitment, a book available as an ebook and soon as an actual novel that readers can hold in their hands and place bookmarks on the last page read.

What if you had a taste for Big Horn for supper?

Every writer comes up with lot's of great ideas and I bet most of them, somehow, start with, "What if."

What if you were here and needed to be over there?

A Good Western Mystery

I like westerns and I like mysteries, guess that is why one of my favorite type of books is a good western mystery. Here is what I believe makes up a good western tail, or for that matter, a good mystery.

1.     A crime early in the book, preferably in chapter one or two. Most readers prefer a murder mystery, makes for a much better read for many than the old fashioned cat burglar stories. (Although Lawrence Block and his character, Bernie Rhodenbarr, a burglar, is one of my all-time favorite mystery series).
2.      Draw a clear line between the good guy and the bad guy
3.     Reveal clues along the way, let the mystery unfold     Give the reader a chance to catch the bad guys using the same clues as the police, cops, sheriff, sleuth or whoever is the protagonist/good guy.
4.      Don’t solve it all until the last chapter.
5.      Above all else don’t end it with someone waking up and it was all a dream. Don’t make an unexpected turn with some kind of twin thing or a fantasy type ending when the rest of the book was not a fantasy. Readers are not that dumb.

This style of western is not always easy to find. I think a good western needs a strong plot, like a mystery it is always as much about the story as the good guys and bad guys shooting each other.

A little nervous and starting to move when they saw me

Short Westerns and Back to Work

After putting aside a writing project I always have a difficult time getting back to it. I put a western novel, tentative titled, Commitment - A Blade Holmes Novel, several months ago. Since putting it away I finished a local history book and a children’s novella. I have also went back to work on another, nearly completed western, and wrote a half dozen short stories.

Nice Setting

     What follows is the first few paragraphs of a short story from my, to be published this year, book of short western stories.

Enjoy!

Heading West - A comical and whimsical look at travel on the Oregon Trail

Arlo Slug stuffed the front of his shirt back into his trousers, picked up his lunch bucket and whistled a tune as he walked out the front door of the Cleveland Ohio Iron Works. He’d been thinking about it for a long time and today was the day, the day to tell Isabelle his plan for the rest of their lives.         “Oregon, Oregon,” Arlo shouted as he opened the front door of their, much in need of repair, house on E street.

 “Let’s go to Oregon, away from the city and the factory,” Arlo said.  

 Isabelle, somewhat surprised at Arlo's enthusiasm over something that they had never once talked about, smiled and said “and just what will we do when we get to Oregon, and how will we get there?”

“Don’t worry, don’t worry,” Arlo answered, “I’ve got it all worked out. It’ll be easy, hardly no work at all. We just set up there on the wagon seat soaking up the sun shine, and in no time we’ll be in Oregon, hardly no work at all.”

Seven weeks later it was spring and Arlo and Isabelle, well Arlo anyway, were ready to carry out Arlo's great plan. They tossed the last of their belongings atop a considerable pile of last minute, “we can’t get along without this,” climbed up on the weathered and cracked wooden seat of their old wagon and headed west.

 Lazy and Bones, their two ancient mules reluctantly pulled the overloaded, squeaking and creaking wagon to a roll. “Yes sir-ee,” Arlo shouted, “we’re headin' west, Oregon here come the Slugs”.

Cleveland was not going to get him down, not any more, no sir, and no more shoveling coal in the Iron mill for Arlo Slug. Arlo’s mind raced and filled with happy thoughts of his soon to be new life.

The wagon was a patchwork of tacks, nails, wire, rope and twine, a relic that Arlo loved and Isabelle hated. Much to the embarrassment of Isabelle, Arlo had painted, ‘headin' to Oregon’ in bright green on the wagons back board. Arlo daydreamed of the west as he held the reins and let the arthritic mules set their own pace.

A loud, CRACK, snapped Arlo’s mind back into the present. “Two blocks from home, two blocks,” Arlo muttered to himself as he climbed from the wagon seat to the ground and surveyed the damage.

 The rear wheel on the right side of the wagon had snapped one of its wooden spokes, and now looked rather more oval than round. After a nearly two-hour delay and two new wheels, one lashed to the back of the wagon, just in case, and Arlo and Isabelle were off, again.

Isabelle had fought with Arlo about this trip for weeks, finally given up a month ago, accepting the fact that they were going to Oregon. Now she reached through the knitting on her lap, patted Arlo on the knee and smiled as they rolled westward on a bright April morning. “Maybe this won’t be too bad,” she thought. But she was wrong!

Mules

Old Cowboys and New Westerns

Last evening I finished reading, A Texas Ranger, by William Macleod Raine, written more than 100 years ago but still a very good tale. Some of these older westerns seem to be somewhere in between all the pulp westerns that were so well read a half century ago and the newer, truer western of a few years ago.  The difference between the new and the traditional westerns was summed up by Elmer Kelton, an all-time favorite of mine, when he said that Mr. L'Amour's characters ''are always seven feet tall and invincible, mine are 5 feet 8 and nervous.''
Seemed to me that much of the action, in westerns today, is still the seven foot tall and invincible style but grittier in modern westerns. That’s why I read them, love the action, that’s why its fiction, it’s over the top. If I see any big changes in newer western novels it might be the removal, at times, of stereotypes of Indians, women, Mexicans and some religious groups. (See Zane Grey)The so called formula western is still alive with a fair following, the one that puts the good guys against the bad guys. More and more westerns seem to be of the romance variety and these new westerns seem to be dominated by women writers, nothing bad about that, just an observance.
Type in “Westerns,” into an Amazon book search – most interesting. You will find a mix of new and old, romance and traditional and many very cheap or free on Kindle stories. 

And like any good cowboy in the end I will ride off into the sunset.

Great Sunset Over the Laramie Range December First 2014

Research, Tom O'Day and Me

Historical research can be both fun and exasperating.  Sometimes a single tale or a single person has multiple stories, none the same and it gets difficult trying to separate truth from fiction. Working on a story dealing with lesser know members of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch led me to Tom O’Day and the most convoluted last 30 years, or so, of his life.

There are many, many, head scratchers like this in history, that’s what makes research worthwhile and fun.

Outlaw Tom O’Day rode with the Wild Bunch, or at least they put up with him, according to some Butch Cassidy experts. He is sometimes referred to as a forward scout, you know the guy who goes in and cases the joint, before the robbery. Others say he may have been kept around for comedic relief, like the time he got too drunk to even watch the horses properly.

Regardless of which Tom O’Day the real guy was, he is interesting and certainly much more than just a footnote in Wyoming and Wild West history. Almost any mention of the Wild Bunch and you will find Tom O’Day’s name.

In November of 1903 O’Day was tired of working for wages for area ranchers and decided to run off a few horses to sell for himself, something he had done in the past and was quite good at. He rustled fifteen head of fine horses and took off for the rugged lands of the Owl Creek Mountains of central Wyoming.

The penalty for horse stealing in 1903 Wyoming was five years a horse, so O’Day was looking at 75 years worth of horses. It was a good business if you got away with it. Each prime horse could be worth two or three months wages. O’Day liked his chances, a little bit of work; hide the horses for a few weeks in a mountain pass, then run them into Montana to sell. Easy street, for the next few years, was just around the corner.

But, things didn’t work out so well for Tom O’Day, he got caught, likely because he stole the horse flesh from Bryant B. Brooks, an important Wyoming politician of the day. The judge was soft hearted toward the amicable O’Day and sentenced him to six year in the Wyoming state penitentiary in Rawlins.

Well of all the crazy stuff! Bryant Brooks was elected as Wyoming’s seventh governor two years later and two years after that re-elected to a second term. And then he pardoned O’Day with a year and a half left on his sentence.

Who says politicians can’t be understanding fellows at time?  

O’Day went straight after leaving prison, moving to a Nebraska farm where he lived and worked happily ever after until his death in 1936. Or maybe he moved to Deadwood where he worked as a greater in a gambling and other entertainment business up to his death in 1930. Some Wild West historian’s note O’Day left prison, never to be heard from again until his death in Iowa in the 30s.

OK, so no one knows what become of the horse thief after leaving prison. Well at least we know he left other peoples horse flesh alone for the rest of his life----maybe.

Now get out there and research--and scratch your head too.

Great Western Novel Opening Lines

Today we will look at the first of two parts on famous, western novel, first lines. Some opening lines are great, some are all right and some are downright dreadful. See if you can guess who penned these first lines. Answers on the bottom of the page—no peaking.

1.     “It was my privilege to know the late Jack Crabb – frontiersman, Indian scout, gunfighter, buffalo hunter, adopted Cheyenne – In the final days upon this earth.

2.     “Some notable sight was drawing the passengers, both men and women, to the window; and therefore I rose and crossed the car to see what it was.”

3.     “A sharp clip-crop of Iron-shod hoofs deadened and died away, and clouds of yellow dust drifted from under the cottonwoods out over the sage.”

4.     “He rode into the valley in the summer of 89. I was a kid then, barley topping the backboard of father’s old chuckwagon.”

5.     “Lil ol’ town, you don’t amount to much,” said Harry Destry. “You never done nothing an’ you ain’t gonna come to no good.”

-See Answers Below-

 

 

 

1.       Thomas Burger, Little Big Man

2.       Owen Wister, The Virginian

3.       Zane Grey, Riders of the Purple Sage

4.       Jack Schaefer, Shane

5.       Max Brand, Destry Rides Again

 

-Another five opening lines coming up in 48 hours-

Left Handed Poems-Billy The Kid

Philip Michael Ondaatje is a Canadian novelist and poet born in Sri Lanka, whose novel, “The English Patient,” was made into an Academy Award winning movie, may not be well known to readers of westerns. May not be known at all to most of us who spend our time in the old west, but he does have one fun and readable and very different western work.

In 1970 he published his collection of prose and poetry,”The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: Left-handed Poems.” After reading a study diet of westerns and modern mysteries this is a refreshing read.

Short enough, at just over 100 pages, to be read in a few short hours, this book is well worth it. At first look it might seem a bit disjointed, and it does jump around some, from poetry, to prose then photos, but what fun. Ondaatje has a wonderful command of the language, and for this ol’ western boy, it is downright pretty.

The book follows the adventures or misadventures of Billy the Kid and the rather shady characters he hangs out with, friends, lawmen, women, cohorts in crime and others. His has the ability to paint some unbelievable pictures with his words, making me reread several pages.

This one is fun-the guy can really write.