Writing - Reading and Birthdays

Well, I made it through my birthday, and am now, officially a septuagenarian. For all of the younger than me readers that fancy word means I am now 70, and yes, it is hard to believe.

Is it Spring Yet? - The weather, at last, seems to be warming and we have begun hiking in the local state park (Guernsey State Park – Wyoming) again. Feels good to get out of my chair and feel sunshine and outside air.

Writing - I am still spending most of my writing time working on my nonfiction book about Fort Laramie and all of its great stories. I also find a bit of time, every day or two and before my head explodes, to work on some of my fiction.

Reading –  Nonfiction - The Killing of Chief Crazy Horse. Good read so far, started today, and I am about a third of the way through. The book is pretty hard for me to put down.

Garden Time – I will soon be starting my garden seed flats: flowers, tomatoes, and onions, mostly. With spring I seem to get up a bit earlier, and if everything goes well, I should get more done. Then I am reminded that Day Light Savings Time, is just around the corner.

From one of my favorite writers -

You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.
 Annie Proulx

Today's photos from outings the past two days.

Keep on reading and keep on writing.

Writing Westerns and the Dreaded Contraction

The Use of Contractions in the Old West

To use, or not to use, contractions in a western that is. I ran across a review of a new western movie with the reviewer trashing it as not authentic to the old west period. The reason it was not authentic, according to the reviewer, was that the characters used contractions when speaking, which were not used in the old west.

Long story short, this is not true, the use of contractions in speaking the English language has been around for years, some can be found in English writings from centuries ago.  Mark Twain used hundreds of contractions in his works from the late 1800s.

It was all about the rhythm and cadence of the time that made the speech patterns different, not the lack of contractions.  Oh, and the absence of modern swear words that seem to have been fit into much of today's, old west literature and movies.

Some version of the old phrase, “If you got-um, smoke-um,” seems to fit here. If you have a place for a contraction and it is set in the old west, use it.  I find myself, along with many of the authors I read, using contractions more in dialogue than in the normal telling of the story – and I think that is the better place, and sometimes the only use for them.

Just my thoughts. Enjoy winter and all the time it affords to read and write. 

Now recovering, sort of - Day five of the flu, most unpleasant few days, stay healthy everyone.