YOUNG GUNS: Passing the Torch Without Getting Burned---by Marc Cameron

       

      I got this text from my youngest son the other day, bringing me up to speed on his adventures in the police academy:

     “Got punched in the face today. Failed to block a left hook. It was awesome.”

     That’s my boy.

     Of course, his mother wanted to know the name and badge number of the recruit who hit her baby, but his words brought a tear of nostalgia to my eye.

It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was in his boots, attending a regional academy in Texas with officers from a dozen different departments. At twenty-two I couldn’t grow the middle of my mustache, but I tried anyway because cops had mustaches—and I was a dead ringer for Opie Taylor without one.

When my son tells me about his day of firearms training and shows me how he’s put so many rounds through his Glock over a two-week period that he’s had to superglue the wound on his trigger finger closed, I’m transported back to dirt berms in a rural pasture, avoiding rattlesnakes and stepping over cow patties as we advanced on our targets.

            When he shows me a new move he’s learned in defensive tactics or a certain handcuffing technique, I envision the ginormous dude who will spin on him someday and bark (or slur or slobber or scream), “You’re just a @*%#& cop! I think I’ll take your gun and…” Anyway, you get the idea.  Thankfully for the folks my son will have to arrest, this new generation of lawdog has Tasers where we only had big honkin’ metal flashlights for the in-between times not covered by open hand or resorting to our sidearm.

            When he tells me about the naiveté of some new recruits, I remember a freshly graduated Highway Patrolman and a Texas Ranger. The two of them walked behind my captain, the Trooper sergeant, and me. It was daybreak and we were all on our way to breakfast. Unbeknownst to us, the Ranger asked to see the new Trooper’s revolver, saying something like: “Is that one of the new 586s they’re issuing at the Academy?” Now, an old salt knows you don’t go handing your sidearm off to someone else in the middle of town—but this kid was new, and it was a Texas Ranger doing the asking. Innocent as a lamb, the young Trooper handed his revolver over so the Ranger could take a look. The Ranger, always a joker, fired a round into the grass, then, quick a wink, passed the gun back to the astonished Trooper. When we all turned, we saw the flushed Trooper holding a smoking Smith and Wesson, a big divot in the courthouse lawn, and a twinkle in the Ranger’s eye.

            Poor kid.  He learned an important lesson that day.

            I just returned from Bouchercon, a conference for Mystery and Thriller writers. Great fun, it afforded me the opportunity to associate with incredibly talented and successful authors. I could name drop here but the list is just too long.  There were a handful of former law enforcement officers in attendance, and oddly enough, we all tended to gravitate toward one another, sometimes without even knowing each other’s background. Call it radar for like-minded thinkers. All of us having either retired or quit to write fulltime, we sat for hours telling tales, cussing the system, and reminiscing about favorite partners who’d had our backs during the toughest of times. Often, we’d each end up staring into space, locked in thought about some past adventure or nightmare that would never make it into a war story.

            You certainly don’t have to have a law enforcement background to write about gunfights, fistfights and evil men—but it doesn’t hurt.

As luck would have it, there was an international motorcycle show next door to the conference.  Since my characters are often found on the back of a bike, I snuck away from the author panel discussions and belly-up-to-the-bar chats long enough to walk around the show and do some research.

Along with the BMWs, Ducatis, Triumphs and Harleys, there were, of course, hundreds of vendors. A college-age kid pointed to the Maui Jim sunglasses resting on top of my head and asked if he could demonstrate his lens-cleaning product.  Happy to get free stuff, I handed them over. He was a nice guy, chatting about motorcycles and all the famous writers next door while he cleaned—one lens. He gave back the glasses and let me look at the world as I had been seeing it, along side the new world through the clean side. I handed the glasses back to him for the rest of the cleaning and asked if he would please take my money. 

One of the most important things they teach at any law enforcement academy is clarity—seeing things as they truly are rather than the way we wish they were.  My son stopped by the other day to talk to me about his officer survival class. When he parroted back that little truism, I knew he was going to be okay.

          It’s astonishing to watch the kid who used to run around in those little baby gowns, pin on a badge and strap on a pistol. It will be two years next month since I’ve hung up my own badge—and there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t miss it. Don’t get me wrong. I love this writing life. But the people I met in my former life—both heroic and heinous—all inform my writing to one level or another.  My knees are achier these days, I need trifocals if I want to be able to see the computer and the front sight of my pistol, and the ring finger of my right hand feels like someone attacked it with a ballpeen hammer—but when my son regales me with stories about ground-fighting, arm bars and shoot-and-move exercises, I forget about getting old, remember the way it was—and put it in a story.

Marc Cameron is a retired Chief Deputy US Marshal and 29-year law enforcement veteran. His short stories have appeared in BOYS’ LIFE Magazine and the Saturday Evening Post. He's published eleven novels, six of them Westerns.   
TIME OF ATTACK fourth in his USA Today Bestselling Jericho Quinn Thriller series, is the newest release from Kensington February of 2014. DAY ZERO will hit the shelves February 2015.
Marc lives in Alaska with his beautiful bride and BMW motorcycle.

Visit him at:
www.marccameronbooks.com 

http://www.facebook.com/MarcCameronAuthor  

Review Roundup: A Ranger Rides Again

West of the Big River: The Ranger
By James J. Griffin
The Western Fictioneers Library, July 2013
$8.99 paperback, ISBN 1491065117
$2.99 Kindle, ASIN B00E5RCV4M
$2.99 most other e-formats, ISBN 9781301580088
187 pages

For J.S. Turnbo, life in crime-ridden West Texas is a running gun battle. Outsmarting outlaws is just part of the job for a Texas Ranger … until one little mistake puts him at the mercy of a ruthless gang hiding out in plain sight.

When author James J. Griffin writes about Rangers, readers know what to expect: a steady stream of testosterone and no safe haven for the evildoers. Griffin’s lawdogs are indisputably good; their quarry indisputably rotten. Lots of gunplay takes place, but the violence is never graphic, and there’s nary a foul word to be found. The formula is tried and true, and Griffin wields it like no one else.

The Ranger is classic Griffin, white hats, black hats, trusty equine sidekick and all. Though the story is fictional, readers will have no trouble imagining Turnbo, a real-life nineteenth century Texas Ranger, actually might have experienced something similar. As usual, Griffin puts readers inside the story with uncommon details and dialogue that rings true to the period, and equine characters get better than a fair shake. In fact, some of the best moments in the story occur between Turnbo and his horse, a Medicine Hat paint named Hat.

The story itself moves along at a spritely pace, opening with a stagecoach robbery Turnbo triggers by throwing around his considerable law-enforcement weight. From there it’s off to the races, as the Ranger sets about cleaning up a West Texas landscape lousy with rustlers and bank robbers. Turnbo is undeniably in his element amid a hail of lead … which probably is why little things get by him during an evening of socializing in town. Those things return with big teeth later.

For traditional western storytelling about larger-than-life, tough-as-nails characters who dog a trail until their blisters have blisters, The Ranger is hard to beat. Turnbo probably would have approved.


Kathleen Rice Adams is a Texan, a voracious reader, a professional journalist, and an author. She received a review copy of West of the Big River: The Ranger from the publisher. Her opinions are her own and are neither endorsed nor necessarily supported by Western Fictioneers or individual members of the organization. Links in the review are for convenience only; they do not produce affiliate revenue.

Ranger Jim’s Ramblings for December

First of all, Merry Christmas, a belated Happy Hannukah to those who have already celebrated, and Happy New Year and best wishes to those who don’t observe either. I think that covers just about everyone.

Now, back to the El Paso Salt War. You’ll recall when we left off that Texas Ranger Major John B. Jones had departed El Paso, leaving the Rangers there under the command of newly appointed Lieutenant Tays, a man who would prove unequal to the task of commanding a contingent of Rangers and other law enforcement personnel facing a mob. When the mob first began to form, Tays requested help from the U.S. Army in El Paso, under the command of Captain Blair. In the meantime, Tays and Charles Howard, the man who had precipitated all the trouble by buying the rights to the Salt Lakes and refusing to allow the Mexicans access to salt they had been harvesting for years, reached the Ranger quarters in San Elizario. They were put under siege by the mob. Captain Blair and fourteen men reached the vicinity of the Rangers about nine o’clock in the evening, where he was intercepted by a mob of, by his estimate, one hundred and twenty men.  The mob leaders accused Blair of coming to protect Howard. Blair denied this, and assured the Mexicans he would not interfere in the affair at all, and marched back to El Paso.

In the first hours of the siege, on a Wednesday night, Lieutenant Hays put out a double guard. Howard and some of his friends went to Ellis’ store nearby to spend the night. They came back saying Ellis had left and not returned. Ellis’ body was brought in two days later, wrapped in  a gunny sack. His scalp, eyebrows, and beard had been cut off and his throat slashed from ear to ear. He had also been stabbed twice in the heart.

On Thursday morning, daylight showed the Rangers’ quarters was surrounded by three picket lines, with squads of horsemen in between. The Rangers’ and the men with them stretched ropes across the openings in the buildings and cut portholes into the adobe walls. John Atkinson, one of Howard’s bondsmen, arrived with eleven thousand dollars. Atkinson, who spoke Spanish, then had a parley with one of the Mexican leaders, Cisto Calciedo. Calciedo told him if Howard wasn’t handed over within three hours the Mexicans would shoot Howard and burn Atkinson’s house. Ranger Sergeant Mortimer was shot and fatally wounded as he crossed from one building to another. Tays, under fire, dragged in the dead Ranger’s body. The firing from the Mexicans became constant and at such close range the Rangers could not even attempt to reach the roofs in order to return fire. About four o’clock in the afternoon, the justice of the peace came with a flag of truce, passing along a request from the Mexicans for a ceasefire for the night. The truce lasted only a short while before Ranger Santiago Cooper went to the roof to get some blankets and had his hat shot off and his coat perforated with a shower of bullets. The Rangers opened more portholes and placed men in each room of the building. During the night firing became merely sporadic.

Next month: The only time a contingent of Texas Rangers surrendered to the enemy on Texas soil.

Six Sentence Saturday - TWO OF A KIND - Matthew Pizzolato

TWO OF A KIND is a collection of ten Western short stories featuring the outlaw Wesley Quaid, the
assassin Sabrina and Texas Ranger Jud Nelson.  It contains a variety of stories, including the very first Wesley Quaid story, "Pack of Wolves."  Most of the stories are new works and a couple were originally published in BEAT to a PULP and FIRES ON THE PLAINS e-zines. There are themes of bullying, racism and disability.

Part 1 of the collection contains some older stories and Part 2 advances the Wesley Quaid and Sabrina story line after the events in the novella, OUTLAW.

Ranger Jud Nelson appears in the stories, "Vengeance Trail", "Gone But Not Forgotten," and "One Riot, One Ranger." The mysterious assassin Sabrina reveals some of her background in "Kill the Envious Moon."  Of course, the outlaw Wesley Quaid has several adventures of his own.

Book Blurb:

Wesley Quaid returns to Texas with the assassin, Sabrina, riding at his side. Will the deadly pair embark on a new outlaw career of will Ranger Jud Nelson catch up with them?

Here is an excerpt from the Wesley Quaid story, "Six-guns and Pitchforks."

     A passel of kids scattered, several of them darting in front of my horse. The animal pranced, but I got him under control with a firm hand.
     The crack of a fist on flesh drew my attention to two struggling boys.
     A strapping big man wearing overalls offered encouragement from under the awning in front of the mercantile. “Good punch, son. Hit him in the stomach!”
     The victim of the fight appeared to be several years younger than the larger boy and was making no attempt to fight back... continue reading

TWO OF A KIND is available on Amazon for just $0.99.

Leave a comment along with your contact info to be entered into a drawing for a free copy of TWO OF A KIND for the Kindle.

Matthew Pizzolato's short stories have been published online and in print. He writes Western fiction featuring his antihero character, Wesley Quaid, that can be found in his story collection, The Wanted Man and the novella Outlaw. 

Matthew is the editor and webmaster of The Western Online, a magazine dedicated to everything Western and can be contacted via his personal website or on Twitter @mattpizzolato. 

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. 

         

Ranger Jim’s Ramblings James J. Griffin

First, thanks to Cheryl for giving me an extra chance at the blog, and as always thanks to Livia for getting these missives posted.

Since this is out of my usual slot, I’m just going to jot down some random thoughts and information.

We’ll start off with a quiz. This is from the files of today’s Texas Rangers. A couple of years back, my Ranger buddy Jim Huggins had to investigate and solve what became known as the “This Little Piggy Murder”. So, can anyone come up with an idea as to what the case involved? Answer will be on my regular blog slot on March 14th. And if anyone comes up with a guess that is even close, they’ll win an autographed copy of one of my Jim Blawcyzk Texas Ranger novels.

Back to horses. I want to bring up horse gaits, and hopefully prevent at least one western author from making a mistake I see over and over again in Westerns. A cowboy NEVER, EVER “canters” his horse. I repeat, a cowboy NEVER, EVER “canters” his horse! A cowboy “lopes” his horse. The three gaits of a Western horse are walk, jog, and lope. Walk, trot, and canter are the gaits of English horses and riders. You can get away with saying a cowboy trots his horse, although you really shouldn’t, unless you say jogtrot, but canter is completely, totally, absolutely incorrect. In fact, if you go to a horse show, in the western classes you will always hear the judge instruct the riders to “walk their horses”, then “jog”, then “lope”.  And while a lot of people think the gaits are the same, there are differences. An English horse’s trot is generally faster than the Western horse’s jog, and an English horse’s canter is generally faster than the Western horse’s lope. Hence the reason English riders have to post to the trot, to keep from being bounced all over the place. So, no more cowboys cantering their horses. Next time I see that the author gets forty lashes with a rubber horseshoe.

While we’re on the subject of horses, I did one of my Western talks, reenactments, and a book signing at the Torrington, CT Public Library this past Thursday. One of the people who showed up was Eric Van Leer, a friend from college whom I hadn’t seen in over forty years! Turns out he lives only a few miles from Torrington, and saw the event listed in the local paper. He and I were both in the college’s Equestrian Club, in fact both of us bought our first horses while we were in school. Like me, he still has horses, and after the event was over (he helped me with the shootouts, doing a fine job of killing me, and later an excellent job of dying when I tried to arrest him and when he went for his pistol gunned him down) invited me back to his place to see his horses. We ended up talking for hours, catching up on old times and making plans to visit regularly. He now has a Morgan horse, and he reminded me that most people don’t realize the Morgan was a very popular horse in the frontier West, being used for cattle work, pulling stagecoaches, and as a general riding mount. The Morgan was the first true American breed of horse, and a rarity in that every Morgan can be traced back to a stallion named Figure, who was owned by a Vermont farmer named Justin, you guessed it, Morgan. Figure passed his traits to every mare he was bred to. Morgans are compact and tough, gentle and intelligent, so were well suited to life on the frontier.

Back to the Texas Rangers. Did they in fact hand-carve their badges? Were there Hispanic and African-American Rangers? Native American Indian Rangers? How about females? When were they founded, 1823 or 1835?

For answers to these questions and more, tune in Thursday March 14th, same blog time, same blog channel (with apologies to the old Batman TV series)

Six Sentence Saturday--Death Rides the Rails James J. Griffin

Howdy, and welcome to this week’s edition of Six Sentence Saturday. I’m Jim Griffin, and I’ll be your host for today. Later on, I’ll be placing names in my Stetson and drawing one name at random from all today’s commenters and visitors. That person will receive an autographed copy of my latest book from Solstice Publishing, Death Rides the Rails, A Texas Ranger Jim Blawcyzk story (or an ebook if the winner is from outside the United States, since the Postal Service has just jumped shipping rates tremendously). So make sure to leave a comment before you check on out. And speaking of Death Rides…

   “Conductor, I insist you tell me why this train is being delayed. Immediately!”
     In vain, a flustered Mike Hardy, chief conductor on the Texas and Pacific’s Shreveport-El Paso Limited, looked around the crowded Dallas station platform for help.
     “I’m sorry, Miz…”
     “It’s Mrs. Mrs. Isaac Hollister,” the middle-aged matron snapped. She waggled her finger under his nose. “I demand to know when we’ll be on our way.”
     “As I’ve already explained, Mrs. Hollister,” the harried conductor replied, “I really don’t know any more than you. I can only tell you we have orders to wait for the local from Austin, and it’s late. There’s a passenger on that train who must make his connection with this one. I checked with the station agent a few minutes ago, and he assured me the Austin train will be here within a half-hour. Once it arrives and the passenger transfers, we will be on our way, I assure you.”

All right, I’ll admit there’s a couple more than six sentences. Math never was my strong suit. Mea Culpa.

So, fairly innocuous start to the story, right? We have an fast passenger train being held for some V.I.P., probably an important businessman or prominent politician. After all, it must be some really high and might muckety-muck for the Texas and Pacific to delay their crack express.

The only thing is, the person the train is being held for is Texas Ranger Lieutenant Jim Blawcyzk, and his one man horse, Sam. Jim will be riding the train to what should be a routine assignment up in the Texas Panhandle. Unfortunately, a gang of outlaws have other plans. They wreck the train, kill the engineer, fireman, and messengers, and loot the express car safe of $20,000.00.

Jim barely survives the flaming wreckage, but after helping the survivors, the badly injured Ranger goes after the men responsible for so much death and destruction. However, what at first appears to be a simple train robbery turns out to be something much more sinister. The robbery is part of a much larger plot to destroy the Texas and Pacific Railroad. Jim finds himself in a race against time to ferret out the men behind the plans, before they cause even more mayhem.

Death Rides the Rails was originally released as a self-published book, Trouble Rides the Texas Pacific. Nik Morton at Solstice liked the original and picked it up to add to the Solstice catalogue. Thanks to Nik and fellow Western Fictioneer Charlie Whipple, who did a fantastic job of editing, this is a much improved version of the novel.

Since I’ve always been interested everything Western and particularly in the Texas Rangers, when I started writing (thanks to the encouragement of another Western Fictioneer, James Reasoner), it was only natural I would write Texas Ranger novels. Jim’s unusual last name is Polish, a tribute to my Polish ancestors on my mother’s side, and to the many Poles who settled in Texas in the 1850s. Like all my stories, there is plenty of action, and good guys who are unequivocal good guys. Most of my books are suitable for anyone from age ten and up. You can let your grandma read them and not be embarrassed.

If you like a good, traditional, action-packed Western, (and you want to learn how to pronounce “Blawcyzk”) I hope you’ll order a copy of Death Rides the Rails. It’s available in print and as an ebook from the publisher at www.solsticepublishing.com, through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other online retailers, and autographed copies are available through my website at www.jamesjgriffin.net, or drop me a note at PO Box 1714, Keene, NH 03431. If you get a chance, check out my site for information on my other books, and also to see me and my horse Yankee doing some of our therapy work and tricks.

Next time I’m blogging here at Western Fictioneers, February 7th, we’ll be talking horses. Want to know what a pie-biter is? Stop by and find out.

Adios for now. See ya down the trail, and thanks!

Jim

Photo credited to Susanne Hall

Jim Griffin: Horses, Dogs, and Texas Rangers

 Howdy,

My name’s Jim Griffin, and I’ll be the regular 2^nd Thursday of the month contributor on the Western Fictioneers blog.

As a brief introduction, my main loves, not in any particular order, are horses, dogs, (especially small dogs), the Texas Rangers, and New Hampshire, particularly the southwest corner, otherwise known as the Monadnock region. Now, some of you are no doubt scratching your heads and saying, “horses, dogs, Texas Rangers, all right. But what in the world does New Hampshire have to do with anything Western?” The answer is, not much, except for this. The first use of branding to identify livestock, which just about everyone assumes started with the large free-roaming longhorn cattle herds in Texas and then spread throughout the West, actually was in New Hampshire. And the livestock branded weren’t cattle, but those critters anathema to the old time cattleranchers, sheep. Yes, sheep… woolies…mutton. Branding sheep in New Hampshire and later other parts of New England started back in Colonial times, even before the United States existed as a country. Just like western cattlemen grazed their herds on common land, identifying ownership by brands, in colonial New England animals, mostly sheep and swine, were pastured on common land, usually called the town common. Unlike the typical image of a nice patch of green land surrounded by neat white houses and a white-steepled church, the common or green was usually either dusty or muddy (depending on the weather and time of year) from grazing and rooting livestock, and trash-strewn besides. But we can still thank the farmers of New Hampshire for introducing branding to the New World. And of course some New Hampshire folk headed West to help settle the frontier. Several fought at the Alamo, and many in the Civil War. As people from New England’s land, never very fertile to begin with and extremely rocky, played out, plenty of New Englanders headed West to start again.

Now on to things more Western. I’ve had horses most of my life, and can’t imagine having to live without one. I still think the infernal combustion engine is the creation of the devil, and the world would be better off with fewer cars and more horses. Maybe we’d all learn to relax a bit more and get along with each other better, too, if more of us rode horses. It’s hard to stay angry when you’re on the back of a good horse.

As far as the Texas Rangers, I’ve been fascinated by the organization since I was a kid. Have a friend who just retired from the Rangers, and got to know enough about them that I’m considered an amateur and unofficial historian of the outfit, although I sure don’t claim to be an expert. I’ve collected a whole passel of Texas Ranger artifacts over the years, which are now in the permanent collections of the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco, Texas. It’s a great museum to learn about the Rangers. If any of you are down Waco way be sure to stop it, and see some of my stuff. Most is in the Texas Rangers in Popular Culture Gallery, and the items get rotated in and out.

And that’s the lead-in for the chance to mention my books. I’ve got two series of Texas Rangers novels in print, plus one stand alone book, and some more in the works. Not to mention a whole bunch of stuff all over the web.  And of course stories in both Western Fictioneers anthologies, and am one of the contributors to the WF Wolf Creek series. My novels completely traditional Westerns, no avant-garde edgy stuff or western mixed with science fiction ala The Wild Wild West. You’ll find straight-shootin’ good guys, nasty bad guys, brave women, smart horses, and plenty of fist-fighting action and shooting in my stories. You won’t need to be afraid to let your kids (or your mama) read most of ‘em.

One other passion of mine is traveling all over the West, although I don’t have the chance to do that as much as I used to. My first trip west I was headed to a job in San Diego, and at an overnight stop in Midland, Texas my hosts offered to take me on a trail ride to let my horse stretch his legs, since he’d been riding in a horse trailer behind my ‘65 Impala for three days, and the previous stops only had small corrals for him. Started the ride, and after a couple of miles of sand and more sand I finally had to ask where was the beach? Here, where there’s sand, there’s usually a beach. Not in west Texas.

Other big surprise was when I first saw the Rocky Mountains. Kept wondering why they didn’t look all that high, not much higher than a lot of the mountains here in northern New England. Then it hit me that when you first see the Rockies you’re already a mile or more above sea level. So, a 12,000 foot mountain seen from 6,000 feet altitude on the plains doesn’t look much higher than one of our 6,000 footers seen from 700 feet above sea level.

So, enough of this introductory stuff. Next time around I’ll promise to talk Rangers, horses, books, and maybe even a dog or two. Not all at the same time, of course. And if any of you have any questions on the above subjects, I’d love to hear ‘em.

Jim

The Rattlesnake Season a 2010 Best Books of Indiana Finalist

Larry Sweazy’s THE RATTLESNAKE SEASON is a finalist for The 2010 Best Books of Indiana. Here's the link.

Comments for finalists' entries from the fiction judging panel:

Sweazy immerses readers in the adventures of Josiah Wolfe, a former Texas Ranger who is lured back to his previous lifestyle after the deaths of his wife and daughters. This carefully crafted and perfectly paced novel hooks readers with Wolfe's dramatic personal conflict: an old friend and comrade is now an outlaw whom Wolfe must bring to justice. Excellent historical details and rich characterization of Wolfe's struggle to fulfill his duty make The Rattlesnake Season an excellent start to a new Western series.

Winner to be announced on Friday, October 15, 2010