Western Trail Blazer Day: Kevin Crisp

Troy D. Smith

For our first Western Trail Blazer Day of the New Year, we are shining the spotlight on brand-new Western Fictioneers member Kevin Crisp. I'll turn the space over to Kevin in a moment, but first I want to say a few words about WTB.

This imprint was founded by Rebecca Vickery and her associate Laura Shinn in 2010. As of yesterday my wife Robin and I have assumed the reins, but Becca is staying on for awhile as an adviser- and truth to tell, since WTB was her brainchild, her touch will always be on it. I speak for many of my fellow authors and WF members when I sing her praises as a publisher, author, friend, and human being in general.

Robin and I are ready to forge ahead. We have a lot of exciting projects in mind... and are open for more. If you have a western novel or short story manuscript you'd like us to consider, send it to us at CaneHollowPress@gmail.com.

Now let's let Kevin introduce himself!

KEVIN CRISP:

This morning, as I write this in my home in a small town in the middle of nowhere in Minnesota, it's eleven degrees below zero.  Over a century ago, the historian Judge Charles Flandrau wrote that our state's "climate, taken the year round, surpasses in attractive features that of any part of the North American continent."  This morning, Mr. Flandrau is staring up at a couple of feet of frozen soil in a cemetery about twenty miles from here.  It never ceases to amaze me how the early settlers prospered here.  These pioneers braved furious winters as cold as sixty-five degrees below zero, and tornadic summers with heat that occasionally reached 115 degrees.   They survived famines and blizzards and plagues of grasshoppers.  They lived among the American Indians, trading, warring and intermarrying.  These men and women must have had incredible stories of courage, sacrifice and perseverance, but like pioneers everywhere, they took most of these stories to their graves with them.  I love western fiction because it immortalizes the pioneer spirit.

I grew up in the Washington, D.C. suburbs, but always considered myself a midwestern transplant.  My summers were spent between relatives in rural Illinois and at camp, where I learned to shoot, ride, camp and love the outdoors in general. On weekends, I spent countless hours watching westerns at my neighbor's, whose dad was in the army and a transplant as well.  I don't suppose today you can run around the Washington streets waving a toy gun around, but in the '80's that was still considered healthy boyish behavior and we did much of it.

I spent college between Philadelphia and London, England, but after graduation I moved west to Minnesota, and other than a brief stint in Miami have been here ever since.  I married a beautiful girl with a farm and horses, and we bought a house in the country south of the Twin Cities where things are nice and quiet, and weekends are filled with day trips to trout streams and long hikes in the woods.

I've loved to write as far back as I can remember.  When I was a teenager, I had a story rejected from Isaac Asimov magazine.  The rejection letter was personalized, which is to say it was a from letter with the words "Please proof read your next submission!" handwritten across the bottom.  I was very proud of that rejection letter, although my "next submission" was delayed a few decades by the wonderful business of starting a family, getting my PhD and then tenure, and writing a lot of science articles and book chapters.  In the last few years, I've published a few western short stories in Frontier Tales eZine, and a few horror stories here and there, and it feels great to be writing fiction again!

Perhaps not surprisingly, my first novel, Trouble at Timber Ridge, is about a cowboy named Harlan Shea who's returned after a long a mysterious hiatus.  In the book, he's working to unravel a plot against his former employer that involves a crooked telegraph agent.  This particular plot was inspired by my efforts as an amateur radio operator  to master the international Morse code, a form of electronic communication which has changed little since before the American Civil War, and has been common in radio since the 1890s.  As I started to study the Morse code, it struck me how much power these telegraphers held at their finger tips.  Imagine if every phone message, email, letter, and text message you received arrived in a code you had to trust someone else to translate!  Seemed like these agents were in a position to stir up a heap of trouble, given the right motivation...

Buy it at amazon

Buy it at smashwords

And check out these two new Western short stories, by recent Peacemaker Award nominees...

 A FIRE IN BRIMSTONE


A new short story by Peacemaker nominee Tom Rizzo, author of the acclaimed western novel Last Stand at Bitter Creek. Cass Ryan is the trusted sheriff of Brimstone -but he has a dark secret. Now the past has caught up with him, and a day of reckoning is at hand...

amazon
smashwords

 "It had been an accident—a trick of the relentless, shimmering heat—that had made Luke pull the trigger. At least, that had been the story he told, and the tale he stuck to in his own mind, until he had almost come to believe the fabrication himself."

This tense psychological thriller by acclaimed author Cheryl Pierson begins with envy and makes its way to madness, as a young farm boy on the American frontier finds his life unraveling due to a moment of rage..

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smashwords

COURAGE CLOSE-UP: THE OTHER CUSTER by Tom Rizzo

A gentle breeze brushes the wild grasses and bright yellow clover against a few of the weathered and vandalized marble headstones at Last Stand Hill. This is the spiritual resting place for those members of the 7th Cavalry who lost their lives in the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

The battle is synonymous with one man -George Armstrong Custer, who distinguished himself during the Civil War as an officer who commanded his troops from the front. Regardless of the controversy associated with his actions at the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876, Custer's courage has never been questioned. 

But, there were two other Custers who shared the courage and the agony of defeat on Last Stand Hill. In addition to George, the battle also claimed the lives of younger brothers Tom and Boston. Their bodies were supposedly found within yards of one another.

Tom Custer

George Armstrong Custer often said his brother, Tom, should have been the one awarded the rank of general.

Thomas Ward Custer, who went to war at the age of 16, stands as one of history’s forgotten heroes of the American Civil War.

Tom – let's call him the other Custer – was a two-time recipient of the Medal of Honor for bravery--the first soldier to receive the dual honor, and one of only 19 in history to earn two medals.

Medal of Honor #1

Tom Custer earned his first Medal of Honor during the Battle of Namozine Church . On April 3, 1865, he led the charge of the Second Brigade against the Confederate barricade. With bullets flying, Custer coaxed his horse over the barricade, causing the Confederates to fall back in confusion.

He seized the flag of the Second North Carolina cavalry from the bearer, and called for these around him to surrender. Custer captured three officers, and eleven enlisted men.

Medal of Honor #2

Custer’s actions at the Battle of Sailor’s Creek (also known as Saylor’s Creek) earned him a second Medal of Honor. This engagement, larger than the fight at Namozine Church, involved both cavalry and infantry. Custer, upon hearing the command to charge, urged his mount forward, and leaped the enemy barricade.

Even though surrounded by Confederates, Custer fired his pistol scattering the soldiers. When he spotted the color bearer, which some soldiers began to rally around, Custer – wounded in the face – charged, and captured the flag. Battle flags were important on the field of battle. In combat, soldiers kept their eyes on their regimental flags, and followed them during advances or retreats. 

The loss of a regimental flag was considered a disgrace to the command. Ironically, GeorgeArmstrong was the first Union soldier to capture an enemy flag in the Civil War.

Custer Arrests Custer

Interesting sidebar: General Custer had to place Tom under arrest to get him the needed medical attention. The younger Custer was also honored by being brevetted through grades to major of volunteers and later to lieutenant colonel in the regulars. After the war he was commissioned directly into the regular army and soon joined his brother's regiment, the 7th Cavalry.

Takes Command of Company C

Tom Custer wasn’t yet 20 years old when the Civil War ended. After being appointed a first lieutenant in the 7th Cavalry, he was wounded in the Washita campaign of the Indian Wars, in 1868. Later, the younger Custer was assigned Reconstruction duty in South Carolina.

In 1873, he participated in the Yellowstone Expedition, the Battle of Honsinger Bluff, and the Black Hills Expedition.

Two years later, Custer was promoted to Captain, and given the command of Company C of the 7th Cavalry.

Final Battle

Tom Custer was buried on the battlefield, but exhumed the following year and reburied in Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery.

A stone memorial slab marks the place where his body was discovered and initially buried.

Tom is author of Last Stand At Bitter Creek. Visit him at:

• TomRizzo.com
• Facebook
• Twitter

MARATHON MAN BY TOM RIZZO

Storytelling is part of our social fabric, a natural extension of the communication process. Most people love to tell stories. It's a way of connecting with each. I've written stories for most of my life. But they've been the non-fiction variety—news, sports, articles, and marketing materials. Once, however, I wrote an article that I thought might serve as the core for a novel.

Since I did have a wealth of other kinds of writing experience, I figured maybe it wouldn't be all that difficult. I think anyone who writes dreams of producing the so-called Great American Novel. The temptation hangs out there like a big curveball waiting for you to take a swing. But, it's the part before the swing that counts:

• Preparation.
• PERSISTENCE
• Realization of how vast the creative canvas
• PERSISTENCE
• Organization
• PERSISTENCE
• Mental Toughness
• PERSISTENCE
• Implementing the idea
• PERSISTENCE

My novel, Last Stand At Bitter Creek, was the first attempt at fiction. I learned a lot of lessons along the way. The creative process differs for everyone, and sometimes in amusing ways. For example, my idea for the novel came about based on a single paragraph I had written about the main character. Yep –one paragraph.

And I really fell in love with this paragraph – about six-lines long – and had planned to use it as the opening to the story. Try as I might, I was never able to shoehorn those six lines into the lead of the novel, no matter how hard I tried. It just didn’t work. One of those lessons I learned was that word's can't be forced. They have to flow in a natural progression so they reveal, and illuminate, the internal struggles, and external influences, of the characters we're writing about.

Writing a novel can be intimidating because there are so many elements involved—

• Character
• Setting
• Scene
• Sequel
• Viewpoint
• Motivation
• Core story idea

There are other components at play, too, depending on the complexity of the story. A novelist, in my opinion, has to be one-part jigsaw puzzle solver, and one-part orchestra leader.

Someone once asked why I didn't start by writing short stories, rather than tackle a novel. The question always brings to mind a story about when I decided to run my first marathon, many years ago. Among the world-class runners participating was Bill Rogers, who had won the Boston and New York City marathons four times each. I had arranged to interview him at the airport. On our walk too baggage claim, he asked me if I was running in Sunday's marathon.

"Yes, I am. It'll be my first marathon."
"First one, huh. How many 10ks have you run?"
"A 10k? What's a 10k?"
Rogers turned to me, a slight smile on his face.
"What's your goal? What do you hope to accomplish?"
"All I wanna do is finish, man. Just finish."

Writing a novel is a little like a marathon. But you gotta finish.


I'm giving away a digital copy of LAST STAND AT BITTER CREEK to one commenter today. Yep, all you have to do to be entered to win is leave a comment, and your contact information. If you just can't wait to see if you won, then go here to grab your copy:
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Stand-at-Bitter-Creek/dp/1475284446/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358208218&sr=1-1&keywords=Last+Stand+at+Bitter#_


Thanks for joining me today!