Meet Me in St. Louis! #WFcon15

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First Ever Western Fictioneers Convention!

The St. Louis Arch
Photo credit: Diane Garland

I’ve been looking forward to the first Western Fictioneers convention for a year, and it’s almost a dream that I’m actually here in St. Louis, Missouri, with some of the best writers of the 20th and 21st Centuries. This convention is filled with talented, productive powerhouses. It’s definitely an honor to get acquainted with these awesome authors.

Let’s have a look around and see who’s here a little early. 

Kathleen Rice Adams, Cheryl Pierson, James Griffin, Jacquie Rogers, Vonn McKee

First, special thanks to Vonn McKee, convention chair, who pulled this whole thing together. Believe me, the first convention is tough because she had to lay all the groundwork, and there’s no previous experience to know what works and what doesn’t. She’s also the program chair, entertainment director, IT Gal, and singer. Other than doing all the work, she’s been slacking. Hahaha.

Then there’s our fearless leader, Western Fictioneers President Cheryl Pierson, who co-owns Prairie Rose Publications with Livia Reasoner (she couldn't attend, unfortunately for us).  Cheryl is both a terrific author and an excellent editor.  She has a couple of characters in the Wolf Creek series, and writes western historical romance as well as a few genre blends.  We've been online friends for years, and when I started my Romancing the West blog, she was the very first author I booked, so we go back a long way.  It's definitely a pleasure to finally meet her.

WF President Cheryl Pierson directing traffic,
with Vonn McKee and James Griffin 

One person I've been dying to meet for the longest time is Troy Smith.  He's a wonderfully talented author and the head wrangler of the Wolf Creek series.  He wrote one of the top five best books I've ever read, Bound for the Promise-Land, which will be reissued shortly.  And he loves Have Gun - Will Travel, which puts him right up there with those of us who have good taste in good old TV shows.  So here is the moment I've been waiting for... the chance to get my picture, two, actually, with Troy.  Just wow... rubbing shoulders with such a gifted person is quite a feather in my cap.

Troy Smith and Jacquie Rogers

There are some people in life who just click.  It took about five seconds of online communication with Kathleen Rice Adams (we call her Tex) to know she's one of those people that I could work with easily.  We've done several Facebook events together, and we have quite a system set up for the Prairie Rose Publications Fandangos.  It's always a pleasure to work with her , but please don't tell her that lest she get a big head.  No, that won't happen--her Chihuahuas make sure she knows her place.

Look for us to be planning another Fandango for the holidays.  We always have a blast!

The convention hasn't even started yet--we're still gathering--but watch for more pictures of incredible authors on my Facebook page.

Hearts of Owyhee

Much Ado About Madams

Much Ado About Marshals

Much Ado About Miners

Much Ado About Mavericks

Much Ado About Mustangs

Amazon Author Page

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Ranger Jim’s Ramblings for August.

Where has the summer gone? Seems like only yesterday it was Memorial Day, and now Labor Day is less than a month away. Been an exceptionally hot, rainy, and buggy summer in my neck of the woods, so Yank and I haven’t been hitting the trails as often as we’d like. This month’s subject: The Texas Rangers - Good or Bad? For probably close to the first century of their existence, the Texas Rangers were considered an organization of men fighting for the common good, defending the people of Texas from their enemies, namely outlaws, Indians, and quite often Mexican raiders. Of course, what was overlooked was how often the Rangers were fighting people for no reason other than the color of their skin or their ethnic backgrounds. This tendency became more pronounced as the 20^th century approached, and reached its apex during the period of the early 1900s through World War I, when the people of the southwestern United States, particularly those living in close proximity to the Rio Grande and the Mexican border, feared an invasion of Mexican and German troops. While there was at least a bit of cause for this fear, it led to many reprehensible acts against Texans of Mexican descent. This tendency to suspect all Mexicans or Texans of Mexican ancestry would only slowly fade away, and in some cases it still exists. Then, starting in the 1960s, the revisionist historians started to rewrite the history of the Rangers. In their view the organization was nothing but a bunch of white thugs who spent their lives oppressing minorities, basically anyone who wasn’t a white Anglo, and Protestant to boot. These histories conveniently overlook the fact that right from the start there were Hispanic, Native American, and Roman Catholic and even Jewish Texas Rangers, who came from many countries and ethnic backgrounds. In fact, Kleberg County is named after one of the first Jewish Rangers. Just like the revisionists twisted the history of the Native American Indians to make them appear as if all Native Americans were peace-loving, hippie flower children communing with nature and living in peace and harmony with all the tribes and the land, despite the fact many Native American tribes were warrior societies, they painted the Rangers with a broad and black brush. The truth, of course, as it always is, is somewhere in the middle. The history of the Texas Rangers is chock-full of brave men who sacrificed much, including in many cases their lives, to help make the Lone Star State safe for settlers. Without the Rangers settlement of Texas would have taken place much more slowly. On the other hand, the history of the Rangers also includes many episodes and incidents that were tragic, disgraceful, and inexcusable. These cannot be ignored in any serious study of the Texas Rangers.

In 1935, Walter Prescott Webb wrote what was to be considered the definitive history of the Rangers. With the Rangers having just come under the jurisdiction of the newly formed Texas Department of Public Safety, it was fully expected the Rangers would be dissolved. However, as happened many times, the reports of the Rangers demise proved to be premature. Webb’s history, while thorough, unfortunately reflected the prejudices of the Rangers at the time, and Webb too often took them at their word, to the ignoring of any other viewpoint. Their prejudices against Mexicans and blacks are apparent throughout the book. Later, Webb himself admitted that. When the Rangers were still going strong in the 1960s, Webb planned to write a new and revised history, but died before he could start the project.

 Over the next few months, I’ll be discussing some of the more interesting events in the history of the Texas Rangers, both good and bad. In my September posting, I’ll be talking about one of the sorriest episodes in their history, the El Paso Salt War. This was a fight which involved intrigue, deceit, and corruption, by both Mexicans and Anglos, including a disgraced, defrocked priest and a ruthless Anglo businessman. To close, here’s this month’s surprising horse fact. One of the hardiest breeds used in the frontier West was America’s first true breed, developed right here in New England from one stallion named Figure. The breed is the Morgan, which was named after Figure’s owner Justin Morgan. Small, hardy, gentle, and intelligent, the Morgan was well suited to the harsh life of the frontier West. Quite often it would be a team of Morgans pulling a stagecoach. Until September, stay in the saddle and keep those guns loaded. 

“Ranger” Jim

West of the Big River: The Ranger by James J. Griffin

           nook    Smashwords

Ranger Jim’s Ramblings

Just finished reading fellow Western Fictioneer Larry Sweazy’s The Gila Wars, the (regrettably) last volume in his Josiah Wolfe Texas Ranger series. If anyone wants to see a fine example of how to write a fine Texas Ranger novel, read any of Larry’s Josiah Wolfe stories.

Which brings us to the subject of today’s blog: How to write a Texas Ranger novel. I’m hardly an expert on the subject; however, I’ve penned a few in my time, and have come up with some pointers on what to and not to do. Quite a bit of what you’ll see here is already known by most of us, but some will undoubtedly be new, and some will bear repeating.

I’d like to say, to begin, that a novel is fiction. Sounds stupid to say that, but with so many people willing to nit-pick the smallest thing in a novel, it’s worth saying. Of course you want to avoid major errors, but it’s perfectly all right to come up with places, towns, and businesses that didn’t exist, and shift things around. That’s why it’s fiction.

First, and most important: Never, EVER have your Texas Ranger wearing a uniform. The Rangers never have and never will wear uniforms. Putting your Ranger in a uniform is a dead giveaway you have no idea about your subject.

Which brings us to Second: Badges. Despite popular legend, the Rangers never officially adopted badges until well into the 20^th century. Yes, some Rangers did start wearing badges in the late 1800s, but not all. As far as Rangers hand-carving their badges from Mexican five or ten peso coins, that’s most likely untrue. The more likely story is some men commissioned badges to be made.

Get past those first two items which have tripped up many a writer of Ranger tales and you’re well on your way.

Now for some other thoughts and advice.

I personally would say don’t write a novel with the main character being any of the more famous frontier era Rangers, such as Big Foot Wallace, “Rip” Ford, Leander McNelly, Jim Gillett, and such later Rangers as Bill McDonald or Frank Hamer. There’s already been plenty written about them, plus there are plenty of people willing to point out any error you make. If you want to use an actual historic Texas Ranger figure as the main character in your novel, I would suggest using any of the thousands of lesser-known Rangers. There are plenty to choose from. And in most cases it’s hard for anyone to dispute anything you might write about any of those lesser-known Rangers. You see, the Texas State Capitol burned down in 1881, and the flames destroyed most of the records of the early Rangers. So quite often you can take your actual Ranger and put him (yes, him, no female Rangers until the 1970s) in any setting you wish, and describe him however you’d like.

Which brings us to research. Obviously, the loss of those records dealt a severe blow to researching the Rangers prior to 1881. However, it may be difficult, but it’s not impossible. One of the best sources is the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco. They have the most complete records in existence of the Texas Rangers and their members from the organization’s founding to the present day, and are more than happy to help writers, researchers, and historians. Depending on how much information you want, there can be a fee, but as a source the Museum can be invaluable.

And of course there are plenty of books which can give you a ton of information. Walter Prescott Webb’s classic history of the Rangers is probably the most well-known. Others who have written excellent histories of the Rangers include Charles Robinson III, Robert Utley, and Michael Cox. Cox’s series of Texas Ranger Tales books includes both verified and possibly apocryphal tales, all of which are highly entertaining. A true story from his Texas Rangers Tales II is the basis for my forthcoming entry in the WF West of the Big River Series, The Ranger. Mr. Cox was gracious enough to grant me permission to use his work.

Also, don’t forget some of the overlooked resources available to the modern writer, resources which didn’t exist fifty, even twenty or thirty years ago.

One of my most valuable go-to sources is the simplest of all: The excellent annual Texas State Travel Guide put out by the Texas Department of Transportation, along with its accompanying road map. If you need basic information about nearly any community in Texas, it’s in there. One especially important piece of information included in the city entries is the founding date. That’s one thing anyone writing a novel set in frontier Texas needs to be especially careful about. Many towns in Texas that folks assume have been there since the days of the Texas Republic simply weren’t. For example, say you want to set your Texas Ranger story in the Texas Panhandle, in the year 1881. You start off your book by having your Ranger ride into Lubbock. Uh-uh. Lubbock wasn’t founded until 1909. Okay, we’ll move the story down to Amarillo. Again, wrong. Amarillo was founded in 1887. I’ve been tripped up once or twice in this area, or nearly so. So have some other writers I could mention, including some native Texans. A quick glance at the Texas State Travel Guide for the town you want to use will let you know if it existed at the time frame of your story. Saves a lot of grief later. And the road map can give you a basic idea of distances between points, which fools a lot of folks. Texas is a lot bigger than most people realize.

While I’ve been to Texas a number of times, and have been through most of the state, I can’t claim, like Louis L’Amour liked to brag about his settings (his claims were exaggerated, by the way) that if there’s a place in my story I’ve been there. However, if I haven’t, and need to get a good look at the landscape and geography of the area, I just go to Google street view. Bounce the little yellow guy around the roads in the territory where your story is set and you’ll get a good idea of what it looks like, good enough so your geographical descriptions will be accurate. After all, you don’t want to have high, pine covered mountains if your story is set in far south Texas. Another advantage of Google maps is if you need an idea of how far your character has to ride from one point to another, get the directions from Google maps. The mileage won’t be the same as a hundred and fifty years ago, when the roads which existed were dirt and much less direct, but with what Google provides you can work out a good idea of how far your character would have to travel.

It’s also helpful to have friends who know the Rangers, plus others who know things you may not. I count on my buddy retired Texas Ranger Jim Huggins for a lot of background on the Rangers. Then, I count on my friends Karl Rehn and Penny Riggs for information about weapons of the period I’m writing about. My knowledge of firearms is limited, so their help is invaluable. So if you have anyone who can help your research, cultivate that resource. Give them credit in your book, and you’ll find most folks are eager to help.

So there you have it. Get your basic knowledge of Texas, write a story with plenty of action, ridin’, and shootin’, and you’ve got your Texas Ranger novel. With the Rangers being one of the most legendary law enforcement agencies ever, and with lots of people still being fascinated by the Rangers and their history, you’ve already got a ready-made base audience. However, when it comes to marketing that book, you’re on your own. If I could solve that problem I’d be rich and retired.