HAYBALE HORSES & WOODEN CROSSES By Shayna Matthews

     Someone asked me recently, "How on earth do you get your ideas for these stories of yours?" The truth is, I don't know where they all come from, nor am I always conscious of when an idea strikes. What I do know is this: stories come to me. Not all at once, of course; that would be too easy. But they do come in visual flashes; sometimes quick as a lightning strike, other times more like a slow, steady burn, like glowing coals from a perfect smores campfire. I fly by the seat of my pants when I write, and I begin each session wondering what my characters will reveal to me this time. Often, if the session goes well, I become lost within their world and lose all sense of time and place. Just last night my main character finally decided to reveal her story to a group of eager Texas cowboys, and before I knew it,I had written straight through the night and shut my light off at 5:00 a.m. Sure, I know where I went last night-1880's Texas- but I don't know how I got there. Where did these brand new ideas come from? My MC revealed details of her life I certainly knew nothing about, and I created her. Or, so I as the writer, would like to think. Sometimes I wonder, but that's for another post entirely.

      It's a funny thing, one's subconscious. We writers conjure up all manners of past experiences, conversations, people, places and faces. And yet, details show up we have no recollection of having experienced ourselves, in any sense of the word. So when someone asks me where my ideas stem from, I just smile and murmur an answer about knowing how to look for, and listen for, a good story. You see, my training in listening for stories began when I was three, and has sculpted me throughout my life to become what I am now, a historical fiction writer.

My training? I was essentially born into the world of living history. I suppose not many of us can boast experiencing life's day-to-day adventures of the 18th Century, but my fondest memories still bring me back to my youth...when kids still plugged into their own imaginations.
 

My favorite smells in the world are woodsmoke, leather and horse sweat. Combine the three and I'm a little girl again, running through meadows in moccasins and a little deerskin dress, dodging teepees while catching grasshoppers in tin lanterns and picking ox-eye daisies to decorate my braids. By 1986, (I was seven) I knew how to row a canoe, drive a team of mules, and con absolutely any man with a horse to give me a boost, saddle not necessary. When no horses were available, a bale of hay holding someone's saddle sufficed, and I imagined I was on my trusty steed, gallivanting off into the sunset. Ladder-back chairs made for the perfect train, and when enough of us kids got together around the woodpile, teams were chosen and a very serious game of "Patriots and Lobsterbacks" always followed. We were always the Patriots, and being that I was often the only girl, I was always the one tied up, time and again, waiting for my Patriots to break through enemy lines. Sometimes, the boys fighting over me got a little bit too real. Wielding fire-pokers, they dueled, and I wound up with the tip of a hand-forged fire-poker embedded in my shoulder. I still bear the scar, and it brings me nothing but bittersweet joy for the memories I've gained. I miss those times, terribly. Years have a way of changing things, and I do not often adjust well to change. Lifelong friends have been made and lost over the years. We still reenact, and I still sit around campfires at night, passing the jug, and quietly listen to my friends reminisce over the good old days.
 

In the old days, my solitude during the campfires was two-fold. If I was quiet enough, maybe my parents would forget I was there and I wouldn't have to retreat to the tent for the night. I wanted to stay up, because I wanted to hear the adults tell their stories. One can pick up on grand stories, if one knows how to listen. Over the years I learned to listen intently. To this day I am often labeled as quiet and shy, but usually I'm just listening for a juicy tidbit...a damn good story.

Sometimes, those damn good stories turn into scenes which, no matter how much you love them, you wonder if they are meant for the story. A decision must be reached...do I scrap the scene, or keep it?

One day I came up with the idea for a small, insignificant scene involving a small wooden cross. I could see the cross clearly in my mind. It was handcarved out of a wood with tiny mottled holes, and handwrapped with black sinew. I began jotting down the framework for the idea revolving around this cross to be gifted to my main character, a young woman from Philadelphia. (You’ll hear more of her later). The original scene didn’t seem to blend too well with what was going on in the story at the time, so I had decided, pretty much, to scrap it. Two days later, my uncle had an appointment in town and so he came for a short visit and a crash on our couch. The appointment also took him out of our place long before my husband and I rolled out of bed the next morning. I was going through my morning routine when I heard my husband ask “What’s that on the floor?” and I saw him bend down to pick something up. He carried the unknown object over to me and I held out my hand. He dropped the item in the palm of my hand; I looked down at it and the breath hitched in my throat. I started to quiver and I can only imagine the look on my face. There it was, the very same little wooden cross wrapped in black sinew… the very same mental cross I had written, and thought of scrapping, only days before.
 

You see, when my uncle found out about his illness, his brother carved that little cross for him, and he has worn it under his shirt ever since. This is why I have never seen it before. I gave the cross back to my uncle, shivering as I told him the story. And in case you are wondering? No, I did not scrap the scene. It will be there, bold as print, in my WIP  novel. I took a picture of my uncle's cross, the cross I envisioned my character wearing days before it fell into my reality...just to remind myself that the stories we write belong to our characters, it's their story as much as ours. Sometimes it pays just to stop, listen, and let them tell it.

Tell me, where do you gather your greatest inspiration for your own stories?

     ~Shayna Matthews

 

#CHRISTMAS TIDINGS - Meg Mims

Christmas Tidings

Merry Christmas from the Western Fictioneers! Have you been following the Wolf Creek series? It's an exciting string of books by Ford Fargo, who is a "conglomerate" of WF members writing varied protagonists who populate the fictional 1871 Kansas town of Wolf Creek - "a wild, wide open town where no one asks about your past, because almost everyone has a secret." So soon after the "War of Rebellion", many residents have moved west and now scrape out a living in the prairie-tough town... but not everyone survives the dusty streets, back alleys and sometimes dangerous saloons.

Book 1: Bloody Trail, starts off with a literal bang - when a a small army of former Confederate guerrillas rob the bank, leaving many innocents dead after their hasty departure. Sheriff G.W. Satterlee and his posse must overtake the outlaws before they reach Indian Territory—but the chase is complicated by the secret pasts of several members… The series continued the adventures from Book 2: Kiowa Vengeance, Book 3: Murder in Dogleg City and all the way through Book 8: Night of the Assassins. You can bet the latter has some sinister action! It's such a great series, and best to read them in order - except for the Christmas anthologies. Those will give a reader a taste of just how interesting these characters are, and what kinds of trouble they face.

Some of the authors participating in the Wolf Creek series include Troy D. Smith, Bill Crider, Phil Dunlap, Jory Sherman, James J. Griffin, L. J. Martin, Cheryl Pierson, Charlie Steel, Robert J. Randisi, James Reasoner, Clay More, Chuck Tyrell, L. J. Washburn, Big Jim Williams, Matthew Pizzolato, Jacquie Rogers, and many others. 

I introduced a new character in last year's Christmas anthology - Book 9: A Wolf Creek Christmas. Phoebe Wright, who is always right, is a widow who arrives in town to make sure her niece, Lucy, is safe. No letters have arrived from either Lucy or Phoebe's sister Ann Haselton, the town's teacher.

Unfortunately Phoebe soon learns that Ann died months ago during the guerrilla bank raid while protecting a child - and that Lucy has vanished. Phoebe knows her niece had very little money, so the search is on... She soon runs into other problems including the greedy saloon owner Ira Breedlove - whose place breeds only the love of money, and who doesn't appreciate Phoebe's righteous and judgmental attitude.

Phoebe definitely has her hands full in "A Savior Is Born" (written by Meg Mims).

But Book 9 also includes many other interesting stories featuring Roman Hatchett, a world-weary trapper (written by Jory Sherman), Gib Norwood, a dairy farmer (by Jacquie Rogers), Indian scout Charley Blackfeather and deputy marshal Quint Croy (by Troy D. Smith), and livery owner Ben Tolliver (by James J. Griffin) -- everyone seems to get a holiday surprise. The anthologies, as stated before, give readers new to the series a taste of great characters.

And the fun doesn't end there. Another Christmas anthology is Book 10: O Deadly Night, which explores more holiday happenings. Hutch Higgins needs a doctor (written by Big Jim Williams), new arrival Kelly O’Brian finds an unholy welcome (by Charlie Steel); town doctor Logan Munro just wants to celebrate Hogmanay (by Clay More), Billy Below and his favorite soiled dove team up for the holiday (by Chuck Tyrell), while Derrick McCain's sister slowly recovers from trauma (by Cheryl Pierson), and Marshal Sam Gardner stays busy (by Troy D. Smith) during the not-so-peaceful post-Christmas season in Wolf Creek.

While the series has slowed down a bit, with two books out since last year, it still continues the adventures of the town's embattled law officers dealing with a devilish rancher in Book 11: Stand Proud and Book 12: The Dead of Winter. And more books should be coming in 2015, according to Troy D. Smith, the series' editor - a tough job, given the interweaving of so many characters and so many viewpoints in a complex plot and setting. It's masterful, to say the least.

Once again, Merry Christmas, happy reading of the wild and woolly west, and a prosperous New Year in 2015 from the Western Fictioneers!

Mystery author Meg Mims lives in Southeastern Michigan with her husband and a 'Make My Day' Malti-poo dog. Meg loves writing novels, short novellas and short stories, both contemporary and historical. Her Spur and Laramie Award winning books - Double Crossing and Double or Nothing - are now among the Prairie Rose Publications book list. Meg is also one-half of the D.E. Ireland team writing the Eliza Doolittle & Henry Higgins Mystery series for St. Martin's Minotaur. Wouldn't It Be Deadly, Book 1, is out now! Book 2, Move Your Blooming Corpse, will be out in 2015. You can find Meg (and D.E. Ireland) on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. If you're in the mood for short, sweet Christmas novellas with rescue dogs and cats, check out the following:

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The Western Fictioneers Library Presents IRON HEART by Jory Sherman

Violence stole young Ben Brand's family from him, but blessed with uncanny speed and skill with a gun and befriended by an old mountain man, Ben sets out on a bloody quest for vengeance. As he tracks his enemies over the years and the miles, Ben battles men and the elements—and risks his own soul—to become the avenging nemesis known as Iron Heart!

Long out of print and originally published under the pseudonym Walt Denver, IRON HEART is another classic Western from Jory Sherman, winner of lifetime achievement awards from Western Fictioneers and the Western Writers of America. No author combines the poetry and savagery of the American frontier better than Jory Sherman, and the Western Fictioneers Library is proud to make this thrilling tale of obsession and adventure available again.

    Barnes & Noble NOOK Link   Smashwords Link

MAKEOVER FOR WESTERN GENRE? By Tom Rizzo

Do you know who said: "I've always acted alone like the cowboy . . . the cowboy entering the village or city alone on his horse . . . He acts, that's all."

John Wayne? Ronald Reagan? Alan Ladd?

Nope. Henry Kissinger made this remark to the late Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, during a 1972 interview, although her style more closely resembled an interrogation, which often prompted intriguing answers.

Nevertheless, Kissinger's remark, in his own way, perpetuated the myth of the lone cowboy as the reality of the west.

Much of the perception of the American West was shaped by stories that presented a mostly romanticized view, pitting cowboys against Indians, and lawmen against outlaws. Even though most writers today offer more compelling and realistic views of the Old West, it's difficult to breakdown the barriers of perception.

Novelist Jory Sherman, the Western Writers of America's 2013 recipient of the Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Contributions to Western Literature, contends that "As long as they label our books westerns" publishers are "locking us into a sub-genre that does not appeal to wider markets."

He believes such stories should be called American novels, and many labeled as mainstream.

"We are the only country in the world that has a West. The western is our Native American literature. We have an exclusive on the West and it’s the richest part of American history. And, the books should not be confined to a certain locale or time period."

Using Jory Sherman's comments as a benchmark, several authors and author-publishers were asked to respond to three questions:

• How limiting is the Western classification in attracting new readers to the genre?
• How much merit is there to changing, or re-defining, the name of the genre and would it make a difference in attracting new readers?
• Would expanding the appeal of the Western involve more than changing the genre classification?

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Rebecca J. Vickery, Author & Publisher, Western Trail Blazer

In the minds of most new readers, if you say Western they think only of gunfights, Indian wars, or trail drives. 

This in itself is pretty limiting as to which new readers would be attracted.

And in using the same style covers and the same style blurbs, how are new readers to know that these Westerns are exciting, well told, and worth their time?

Parents, many teachers, and politicians often discourage young people from reading Westerns because the stories contain guns and violence, can be racist toward Native Americans and blacks, are often a bit religious, and most contain some lessons on morality.

At Western Trail Blazer, we've had some success in attracting new readers by adding sub-genres to the classification of Western - Western Romance, Paranormal Western, Contemporary Western, Historical Western, Western Adventure, Traditional Western, etc.

But as a publisher, when we upload books, the classification choices are limited and we are often stuck with Western as the only choice, which fits.

Changing the name of the genre Western as a whole might help, but readers might also feel misled, or that it was another publishing marketing trick, and it could backfire.  My recommendations to expand the appeal of the Western to new readers are fairly simple:

·       Be honest with the readers about what they are getting by using sub-genre classifications and tags when possible

·       Make the covers and blurbs stylish and as true to the story as possible

·       Offer blogs, discussions, and interviews which will be interesting and draw from outside your normal followers

·       Use social networks to make "virtual" friends who often will become customers

·       Cross-promote with other Western authors, publishers, and organizations for the good of the entire genre

·       Don't be such a "traditionalist" that you can't see the merit in the Western sub-genres which are actually drawing in new readers.

      

Nik Morton, Author / Editor

One part of me abhors labels. It's as if authors have to be pigeonholed. That's why some resort to pen names. Some publishers don't want their crime authors to be seen to write westerns etc.

The publishers and critics are to blame, I suspect: western literature isn't - literature, that is, in their view.

Yet labels do appeal to readers who want that type of book. If a reader lives by the credo 'I don't read westerns', simply removing the label isn't going to win him over, unless he's particularly dense, as the blurb alone will tell him what the story is about.

Although I write westerns, they're aimed at any reader, not only a western aficionado; a very few of my readers who haven't read a western before have been pleasantly surprised. So what am I saying? Would those readers have picked up my western if it had been labelled differently? I don't think so - the blurb tells them it's a western, and they don't read westerns...

It's not the classification; it's the public perception of the genre that needs work. There are plenty of readers out there who don't read crime, or sci-fi, or mysteries, or romance. They have set ideas, set perspectives, and it's difficult to shake them.

All we writers can do is strive to produce a quality product that can stand up against any other genre in storytelling, style, appeal and narrative flow. Word of mouth can sometimes help. Occasionally, a book becomes a breakout novel - it transcends its genre. If it happens to be a western, then maybe that will help others too.

Cheryl Pierson, Author,  & Publisher, Prairie Rose Publications 

What an interesting perspective from one of the masters! I never thought about it this way until Jory put it in these particular words.

American Novels—what an all-encompassing term that does justice to our writing about OUR COUNTRY!

When you think about it, novels that take place in other parts of our country aren't labeled as such.

What WOULD you call a story that takes place in the 1800's in Boston, New York or Philadelphia? A "patriotic" novel? An "Eastern"? What about a novel that takes place in the 1800s in New Orleans?

These are all "American" novels, and so should the story of the western history of our country be called, as well!

Johnny D. Boggs, Author

The perception can be limiting. For most people, and quite a few publishers, Western brings to mind Louis L'Amour, Matt Dillon and Randolph Scott. If you write those kinds of stories, great. It depends on how you want to market yourself.

You can say, 'I write Westerns,' or 'I write historical novels set in the American West.' When I'm introduced as an historical novelist, the reaction can range from 'Cool' to 'Boooring.' Yet when someone introduces me as a 'Western' writer, the most common reaction I get is eyes-open-wildly-curious-WOW!

So there is immediate name recognition there. Like Jory Sherman says, 'We are the only country that has a West,' and people everywhere know what the West is."

An attempt was made several years ago to use the word Americana. It went nowhere. They have tried Novels of the West, which did a little better.

But you have to be careful about changing a brand, a known commodity. If nobody knows what the label means, you're doomed to obscurity and remainders.

Good or bad, people know what Western generally means. I think the best thing writers can do is write the best story they can, be it contemporary, historical, frontier, literary, mystery, young adult, romance, horror, crossover, whatever.

I was just talking to a couple of editors and an agent—none who represent me —while in New York recently about that very thing. Bottom line seemed to be you have to write something that will appeal to mass audiences, particularly female, and definitely not just the older male Western reader.

You have to have great blurbs from powerful people on the cover. You have to have a publisher that will release it in hardback and do some promotion for it. And you have to have a tremendous amount of luck and timing. None of which comes easy.

But there is a tremendous amount of popularity and sales in Western nonfiction, which seems to be intriguing publishers in Western fiction. Best-selling nonfiction writer Jeff Guinn (Go Down Together, The Last Gunfight, Manson) has signed a three-book deal with Putnam for Western fiction. I'll be interested to see how those novels will be marketed. But if they do well, the exposure should be good for all of us.

Robert Vaughn, Author

During an interview for this blog's StoryTeller's 7, novelist Robert Vaughn addressed this same topic:

Jory Sherman once wrote a brilliant piece about the Western, and how it is the true American art form, a morality play of good verses evil. 

And, and there is nothing I could say that could possibly add a thing to that.

I know this: The Western is Americana, but it is certainly not limited to Americans. 

I met fans of the genre when I was in Germany, I know there are fans in Great Britain, and I have sold them in England, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Japan, so they are there too.

I think a lot of readers, who haven’t read Westerns, may not understand the scope and richness of the stories.

Some may remember the “B” Western Saturday Matinees and equate them with Western novels.

But anyone who has read Frederic Faust (who wrote as Max Brand, and was killed in Italy during WWII) Owen Wister, Louis L’Amour, or Jory Sherman, knows that a well-written Western can have the depth and richness equal to any work of literature.