An Interview with Robert Vaughan | Wolfpack Publishing

Robert Vaughan sold his first book when he was 19. That was 57 years and nearly 500 books ago. He writes passionately about his life and memories on his facebook page, and was recently more than willing to answer some questions that I had for him.

Wolfpack Publishing: Could you give us a little background as to how you got started as a writer?

Robert Vaughan: I can’t remember when I didn’t want to be a writer. Even before I could actually read, or write, I would make scribbles on a tablet, then make my mother, grandmother, aunt, or anyone I could get listen to my stories as I “read” to them.

WP: As a writer myself, I can relate to that. You have written many historical and western novels. What is it about these genres that appeal to you?

RV: I have always loved history, and in school read novelizations of historical figures and events. I once served as the historical officer for the 7^th Cavalry, and in that position, I had access to some Custer memorabilia, including a field dairy, written in his own hand. Being a part of the 20^th century 7^th, I felt a direct kinship with the officers and men who had served in this same, storied regiment, almost 100 years earlier. My books about Custer came directly from that experience.

Also, because I grew up in Southeast Missouri, and partly in Jackson, Mississippi, the civil war has always fascinated me. Westerns, I think, grew out of the Civil War… restless men who were unwilling, or unable, to return to the peaceful civilian pursuits that occupied them prior to the war. Westerns also personify the theme of good vs. evil, and are the true morality play of America.

WP: What an interesting way to look at things! You always hear that prolific writers are often prolific readers as well. Is this the case for you? And if so, what is the best book that you’ve read lately?

RV: Like many writers, my reading is mostly for research now. For another project I’m working on, I just read: “Life on the King Ranch” by Frank Goodwyn, published in 1951. The fact that I’m reading for research, doesn’t mean I’m not reading for pleasure. Research is one of the fun aspects of writing. But I can’t let this question pass, without listing my all-time favorite novel. I have read “From Here to Eternity” by James Jones many times, and enjoy it just as much each time I read it.

WP: I love that! I too have a few favorites that I read over and over. The best part is how you take away something new each time you shut the book. It's an amazing thing, really. How do you think you’ve grown as an author since that first piece of work?

RV: I wrote my first book when I was 19 years old: it was published by Saber Books, a short-lived California publishing house. It sold for fifty cents, and it was over-priced. I certainly hope I have grown.

WP: Everyone has to start somewhere right? *laughs* Which of your books was the biggest labor of love?

RV: I’ve written over 400 books, so I don’t think I can select any single book as the biggest labor of love. [However], three single titles come to mind, immediately: Brandywine’s War – Back in Country, The Valkyrie Mandate, and The Other Side of Memory, all of which are now available through Wolfpack Publishing. I also have a series that isn’t yet available through Woflpack… The American Chronicles, which is a decade by decade novelization of the Twentieth century.

A little story about The American Chronicles: I once got a letter from a woman who said that her husband had just passed away, but he managed to read the entire series before he died. He asked her to write to me, to thank me, for allowing him to relive his life through those books. That letter means more to me than any accolade I have ever received.

WP: What an amazing story!
You recently released Brandywine’s War: Back in Country as an eBook, a book that we have been told is very dear to you. Can you tell us a little about that?

RV: I am sure that every writer draws something from his own experiences when he writes, but Brandywine’s War-Back in Country, is the most autobiographical book I have ever written. It is about the Vietnam War: but don’t think Platoon, or A Rumor of War, or even The Green Berets; think, instead, M*A*S*H or Catch-22. It is a picaresque novel with a character who copes with the insanity of war by being just a little more insane than the war itself. It has laugh-out-loud scenes, but, right in the middle of a laugh, the reader might be thrust into some gut-wrenching pathos.

I relived my own experiences as I wrote the book, and there were times when I could literally smell the burning honey-buckets, hear the wop, wop sound of helicopter blades, revisit the joy of warm beer, good friends, laughter, and the great music of the times. But I also choked up and shed tears for friends who were killed half a century ago, and whose names will be on that granite wall for as long as there is an America.

WP: Out of all the characters you have created and written about, who is your favorite and why?

RV: It would have to be W.W. Brandywine, for the reasons stated above.

WP: I'm curious: what do you think of the western genre today and what do you think the future holds for the western?

RV: I think the Western genre is alive and strong. Wolfpack’s success with their Western publishing program certainly proves that. Western Writers of America and Western Fictioneers are two strong writers’ groups whose members are putting out good books that are being well received. And I think that the TV mini-series, Legends and Lies are reaching new readers.

WP: I guess that all we can do is wait and see, but I think you're right that the genre is alive and strong. Thank you for taking the time out to answer a few burning questions that we had for you.


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You can find out more about Robert Vaughan and see a list of his published novels here and read more on his Facebook page.

This post originally appeared on Wolfpack Publishing on 6/12/2015

FRIDAY FIVE WITH ROD MILLER

An interesting fact about my genealogy.
My great-great-grandfather on my mother’s side, Benjamin Franklin Stewart, had three wives (at the same time). He was in the first group of Mormon pioneers who came to Utah with Brigham Young in 1847, but stayed behind to run a ferry across the Platte River where Casper, Wyoming, is today, so he did not arrive at the shores of the Great Salt Lake until September.

The favorite car I ever owned.
Unlike most American males, I was born without an automobile gene. I don’t care a whit about cars as long as they run. So, on that basis, I guess our current conveyance, a 2003 Toyota Camry, is my favorite. We bought it used from Enterprise Rent-a-Car and it’s just about to turn over 200,000 miles and hasn’t given us ten minutes of trouble in all that time. Not too exciting, I know.

My favorite food.
Potatoes. No matter how you cook them, they’re tasty—fried, baked, roasted, boiled, mashed, hash browns, home fries, french fries, scalloped, au gratin, chips…. You can’t hardly screw up a potato. Besides, they’re cheap. And good for you.

My favorite song.
I like lots of music. But one of the best songs ever is “Faded Love” by Bob Wills. His recordings of it are great. Unfortunately, the two most famous versions—by Patsy Cline and Ray Price—are too slow, turning it into a dirge. The best of all is a duet by Lyle Lovett and Shawn Colvin on an Asleep at the Wheel album. It swings like Western Swing is supposed to.

The words are beautifully written: “I miss you, darling, more and more everyday /
As Heaven would miss the stars above” with its subtle simile makes the faded love affair sound otherworldly. “As I think of the past and all the pleasures we had / As I watch the mating of the doves” is euphemistically magnificent. And, “It was in the spring time that you said goodbye” is just so sad—more heart wrenching, somehow, that getting dumped in November.

Something you may not know about me.
I won the trophy for Fitting & Showmanship of pigs at the Utah State Junior Livestock Show in 1970. (And I may have had a hangover at the time.)


To learn more about Rod Miller and his writing, visit www.writerRodMiller.com or his Amazon page, www.amazon.com/author/rodmiller

Friday Five With James Reasoner

1. Most exciting day of my life.

There are actually three: the day I married Livia, and the days our two daughters were born. My writing-related runner-up would be the day the box of author copies of my first novel arrived. I don't remember the exact date, but I know it was a warm, sunny day in October 1980. Livia and I were out walking when the UPS truck arrived at our house with a box. When I saw it was from Manor Books, I knew what it was. Sure enough, when I opened it, there were brand-new copies of my first novel. That was quite a rush.

2. My favorite food.

Ice cream. My favorite food for a meal, probably nachos or a really good cheeseburger. I've never been known for my healthy eating habits.

3. My favorite car.

Actually, the Chrysler van and the Honda Element we have now are probably the best vehicles I've ever had. When I was in college I had a Mercury I liked quite a bit. And I have fond memories of a car I never drove, the battleship-gray '56 Ford my parents had when I was a little kid. After they stopped driving it but it was still sitting next to my dad's shop, I spent a lot of time playing in it and pretending to drive.

4. Something you may not know about me.

Although I think I always knew in the back of my mind that I wanted to be a writer, when I was in school my plan was to become a history teacher, preferably Texas history. Later, in college, I was going to be a librarian. I guess it all ties together somehow. I've used history in a lot of my books, and I still love libraries.

5. My family's brush with history.

My great-grandfather was born in San Marcos, Texas, and grew up all over central Texas. Once when he was a boy living near Round Rock, his father sent him out to look for some horses that strayed. While he was doing that, he ran into several men, one of whom seemed to be hurt. He was a little afraid of them, but they asked him what he was doing and when he told them, they said for him to go ahead and look for his horses. They rode off, and it was only later he figured out the men were Sam Bass and his gang, on the run from the law after the ambush in Round Rock that ultimately cost Sam Bass his life. (The preceding story is one that my father told frequently. I can't vouch for the truth of it, but it's an interesting family legend, anyway.)

Western Writer Bill Crider

What was your first Western novel or story and was it published? The first western novel I did was one I called Texas Tornado.  This was before I’d published anything at all, and it was never published, either.  However, several years later I told my agent that I’d always wanted to write a western.  She said, “Go ahead.”  I wrote Ryan Rides Back, and the agent sent it to Sara Ann Freed at M. Evans.  Sara Ann bought it, and I decided to write another one.  I pulled out the old Texas Tornado manuscript, threw out some of the plot and characters and put what was left into one called Galveston Gunman.  Years after that I was asked about writing a house-name western, and most of the rest of Texas Tornado went into that one.  So while the first western I wrote didn’t get published as it was, a lot of it eventually saw print.

What Western writer or writers of the past were the biggest influence on your work? Harry Whittington, Donald Hamilton, Brian Garfield, and Elmore Leonard.  I don’t write like any of them and I don’t write half as well, but I loved their books.  Still do.

What's the first Western you remember reading from cover to cover? Will James’ Smoky the Cowhorse.  I got it from the library when I was seven or eight and read it several times.  We didn’t have many books in the house, but one slim one my parents bought me, maybe before I read Smoky, was called Little Bear’s Pinto Pony.  I must have read that one dozens of times.  I still have it.

Who is your favorite historical Western figure, and why? Buffalo Bill, the legendary one, not the historical one.  My parents had something to do with that, mainly because of my name.  They talked about Buffalo Bill a lot, and they gave me a little book with a story about him in it.  I lost that one somewhere along the way, but I still remember a couple of the pictures in it.

How much historical research do you do, and how do you go about it? It depends on the book.  I did a lot of research for Galveston Gunman, and it’s probably my most historically accurate western.  Sometimes I rely more on what I remember from books I’ve read or movies I’ve seen.  I probably shouldn’t admit that.

Do you do all your research ahead of time, or as you go along? Usually I do the research beforehand.  That’s how I did it with Galveston Gunman.  I had stacks of books all over the place as I was writing, however, so I could refer to them.  Maybe I do some research as I go along, after all.

Do you outline and plot your story or do you write as the inspiration or MUSE leads? I’m a seat-of-the pants kind of a guy.  I start with a vague idea, maybe a scene or even just a sentence, sit down, and start typing to see what happens.  Usually a book comes along and fills the pages.  I’ve discovered that by the halfway point, I know pretty much what’s going to happen the rest of the way, but sometimes surprises happen even then.

Are you a conservative in your writing and stick with traditional ideas for your characters and plots or do you like to go beyond the norm and toss in the unexpected and why? I do whatever I want to, so sometimes odd things occur.  I’ve never had singing pirates on the prairies like some people I could name, but I probably shouldn’t even mention that lesbian vampire cannibal western.  I blame James Reasoner for that one.

Do you need quiet when you write, listen to music, or have the TV on and family around? There was a time when I wrote with music playing on the computer and a baseball game on the radio.  Now that I’m an old codger, I often don’t have those distractions.  My wife still feels free to interrupt at any time, however.

Do you make a living writing? If not, what is your day job? Until I took early retirement, I was a college English teacher and administrator.  I was writing three or four books a year, writing only in the evenings.  Now that I’m no longer teaching, two books a year is about what I do.  I’ve gotten old and lazy.

What are you writing now, or plan to write in the future? I turned in a book in my Sheriff Dan Rhodes series (a contemporary crime series) on June 1.  Since then, I’ve been on vacation.

Western Writer Chuck Tyrell (Charles T. Whipple)

What was your first Western novel or story and was it published? My first Western novel was Vulture Gold. I wrote it in 1979 and entered it in a Louis L’Amour write-alike contest. Didn’t win. Decided I wasn’t cut out to write fiction and continued as a journalist, magazine feature writer, copywriter, and corporate literature writer. I don’t remember why I dusted the manuscript off and input it (it was written on an IBM Selectric). But I sold it to Black Horse Westerns in 2004. It was published in 2005, and republished in 2011. It is now available in several eBook formats and in print. Originally, the book was about 70,000 words long. Now it is 45,000 or so.

What Western writer or writers of the past were the biggest influence on your work? A bunch. People have things to say about Louis L’Amour, but I read every book he wrote. I donated my collection of LL books to a university of foreign languages in Kanazawa, Japan, some years ago.

Gordon Sherriffs is a favorite. Clair Huffaker is a favorite. Richard Wheeler and Elmer Kelton are favorites. Will Henry, too. I’m also finding Elmore Leonard’s early stories very interesting and informative.

All that said, if I were to pick a writer to emulate, it would probably be Robert B. Parker. And if a genie came out of a lamp I’d rubbed and offered to let me write exactly like any writer I chose to, I’d choose James Michener and John Gardner and ask the genie to mix them into one for me.

What's the first Western you remember reading from cover to cover? Smokey the Cow Horse by Will James

Who is your favorite historical Western figure, and why? Commodore Perry Owens. He lived the life we all write about. Named for Commodore Perry, hero of the Battle of Lake Erie. Had to leave home in his early teens. Punched cattle for the Rogers (as in Will Rogers) ranch in Oklahoma, drifted into Arizona at the age of 31. Worked as the horse wrangler for Wells Fargo at the Navajo Springs station (I have a piece of wood from the original station, no longer extant, just a swale that was once a watering hole). Ran for sheriff on a law and order ticket and won over the incumbent Juan Lorenso Hubbel, who, it was said, was in cahoots with the outlaws that used the Outlaw Trail through Apache County in Arizona. He enforced the county law with the barrel of his gun, shooting it out with nine members of the Snyder Gang in Round Valley, riding his horse to death to rescue three Mexicans held prisoner in a bar in Winslow, and killing Andy Cooper in the famous shootout in Holbrook, Arizona, in 1886. He was a dead shot, wore his blond hair down past his shoulders as a challenge to the Navajos who were constantly trying to shoot him, and he wore his sixgun on the lefthand side for a cross draw. He married at 50 and moved to Seligman where he opened a saloon. He worked as guard for the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. He died of a stroke at 61 and is buried in Flagstaff AZ.

How much historical research do you do, and how do you go about it? Depends on the novel. For the Snake Den, set in Yuma Territorial Prison, I went there and spent two days going through the prison, buying reference books, talking to the Arizona Historical Society people there, etc. Same kind of thing with Vulture Gold, which begins in Vulture City AZ, now a ghost town.

Revenge at Wolf Mountain is set in my own home country, which I know well. Most of the ranches actually exist, but I used a Mexican grant which does not exist in that area, although there are others in both Arizona and New Mexico. The same it true with Trail of a Hard Man. I create fictional towns at times, but often I use real towns as settings or as part of the narrative.

The Killing Trail takes place in a fictional setting, but is linked to Trail of a Hard Man.

Guns of Ponderosa takes place in the White Mountain town of McNary, which once was home to the largest sawmill and planer operation in the Southwest. I renamed the town, and shifted its founding back into history by about 40 years.

Hell Fire in Paradise is a prequel to Guns of Ponderosa.

A Man Called Breed is set in the desert area of southern Arizona, east of Ehrenburg and La Paz. The hero’s horse ranch is located in the Cherry Creek country just below the Mogollon Rim.

Dollar a Day begins in Sunset, which no longer exists, and ends up in Payson, again, just off the Mogollon Rim in the Tonto Basin.

These are all places I know, but I still use an Arizona flora and fauna book to make sure I get my trees and stuff right. Wouldn’t want the hero bit by a Gila Monster up in the Tonto Basin because they don’t get that high off the desert floor. 

I do a lot of looking up on guns. One character in my current WIP carries a Baker 3-barrel 10-guage. The hero in A Man Called Breed carried a Rogers & Spencer pistol, which were considered very accurate. He also carries a one-in-a-thousand Winchester ’73.

I’ve got lots of books on history and fashions and whatnot. I try very hard to put my people in places and circumstances that fit the times I’m writing about.

How important is setting? How important is it to get setting right? What's the best use of setting in a Western as far as you're concerned? I think setting can and probably should be one of the characters. I’ve been reading some early novels and it seems there’s always a rain storm. People seem to forget that places like Show Low, Arizona, get a total of 8 inches of rain a year. Chances of an all day all night rain storm in most of the southwest at least are so close to zero it wouldn’t be worth figuring out the difference. I vote for getting the setting right. Have a look at the towns. There are plenty of photos. See any alleys? Not likely. Know what’s out back? Piles of rubbish. We have the data. No reason to get setting wrong.

James Michener’s Centennial is as good a portrayal of setting as I’ve read, I believe, but there are many good stories. Some of Elmore Leonard’s early (1950s) stories have setting as one of the characters.

How do you choose where to begin your story? Do you use prologues? I have not used a prologue yet. That does not rule out using a prologue at some time.

Most often I see a character and a situation. Most often the first chapter sets up a tough situation. Mostly I know how the story starts and how it’s supposed to end, and I write the story in between. Sometimes the ending changes.

Do you do all your research ahead of time, or as you go along? Both.

Which of your characters do you identify with the most, and why?  Was there a role model for this particular character? I have a bunch of characters I like, which is why they show up as walk-ons in stories that have nothing to do with them. Ness Havelock is one. Real Lee is another. I imagine Falan “Wolf” Wilder will see more action. Lightning By God Brewster will be around, as will his sidekick Sparrow. I’m now writing the second Matthew Stryker novel.

Do you outline and plot your story or do you write as the inspiration or MUSE leads? So far, as I mentioned, I tend to have an opening and a closing in mind when I start. That said, I think I would write better stories if I thought them out somewhat more detailed in advance. I’ve not found myself adept at plotting. I think I need to learn that skill, but I’m not losing sleep over it. At this time in my life, I have no aspirations of writing the great American novel. I just hope to do a few more before I, like Robert Parker, die at my desk, trying to finish my last . . . .

Are you a conservative in your writing and stick with traditional ideas for your characters and plots or do you like to go beyond the norm and toss in the unexpected and why? I suppose I am conservative. I am in most things. I imagine my characters are much more black and white than the shades of gray that were actually the case in the times we write about. You’ve got to remember that writing fiction is a relatively new thing for me. James and Bob and others have hundreds of novels under their belts. I’m trying to hit a dozen. I write some fiction every day, but I write a lot more other stuff – everything from CSR reports to magazine articles. I have a lot to learn about writing and writing fiction. I’m constantly amazed at the young whippersnappers who brazenly purport to be able to teach people to write. How’s that for wandering far from the point? Yes, conservative, but not hidebound.

Do you need quiet when you write, listen to music, or have the TV on and family around? I tend to want the same environment every day. Doesn’t have to be quiet. Doesn’t have to be musical. Just the same. A number of my books were written at Starbucks. That’s probably why I can’t lose weight. The chocolate is totally sinful.

Have you experienced the "dreaded" writer's block and how did you deal with it? Writer’s block comes from two things, in my experience: One, a loss of confidence in your own ability to tell a story, and two, dead-ending in a story, that is, writing yourself into a corner. When your confidence goes out the window, as when you get especially nasty edits from someone, or when they tell you the story did nothing for them, you do something else. I suggest to others that they try Julie Cameron’s morning pages – three pages of handwritten whatever comes to mind first thing in the morning. Hand on paper with pen and ink tends to get your writerly blood flowing and tends to stimulate your frozen brain.

Who is your favorite fictional character that you have created? I suppose Ness Havelock is my favorite, as he’s showed up in a number of books, though only one as the main character. He was my first and so far only first-person narrator. I also like Shawn Brodie, the 14-year-old who was sent to Yuma Territorial Prison. I will pick him up in a new book if I live long enough.

Who is your favorite fictional character that someone else created? The one who sticks in my mind is Tyrel Sackett. No way you can figure out why, eh?

Do you address "modern" issues in Westerns? Racism. Feminism. Downs Syndrome. Mental disabilities. Genetic disorders. Sociopathy. Immigrant questions. Brutality. Pedophilia. Any more? Not sure if it’s an “addressing,” but often my characters have a disability. Garet Havelock, the half-Cherokee marshal of Vulture City, had a bad knee. Wynn Cahill, in Guns of Ponderosa, was a sadist sociopath. Loved to see things in pain. Judge Wilson in Trail of a Hard Man was a pedophile who “took in” orphaned boys. His pedophilia was not so much sexual as sadist. Squirly, in the present work in progress, is not very smart, but he takes care of Wildman Kelly, who is not “normal” by ordinary standards, but not violent either. I once did a story from the frist-person POV of Boo Radley. I imagine there was some PTSD following the Late Unpleasantness that is better known as the Civil War, too, but I haven’t seen a novel addressing it yet. 

What are you writing right now? A story about a man who keeps the promise he made to the town drunk.

Have you found that being able to self publish through Kindle and Nook, that you find yourself writing more of what you want rather than what the agent, editor, and publisher wants? The biggest advantage, as I’m not a terribly prolific author, is getting books that have gone out of print, such as Vulture Gold, back out there so readers can find them. My second novel, Revenge at Wolf Mountain, will also reappear in the not too distant future in its original unabridged form at about 80,000 words instead of the 45,000 version published by Robert Hale Ltd.

Do you make a living writing? If not, what is your day job? Yes. But not writing fiction. I would starve on the proceeds from my fiction at the moment. That said, I get paid well to write advertising, corporate literature, web content, and non-fiction articles, many of them in narrative form. One article brings me nearly five times as much as one Black Horse Western book, and about the same as the advance for a paperback original, if I’m not mistaken. I also write non-fiction books under my own name. Seeing Japan is a perennial seller to visitors to this country.

What do you plan to write in the future? I have two “works in progress” outside westerns. One is a saga set in an alternative version of 10^th century Japan, where all mythical creatures exist. The other is a gumshoe of an investigative journalist hero who searches for a missing woman in a Japan where a large amount of plutonium has been stolen from the Tokaimura nuclear fuel reprocessing plant. Naturally, the kidnapper and the kingpin who wants a nuclear Japan are one and the same. Trouble. Trouble.

What made you decide to write Western fiction? I was born 100 years too late. Since I made the decision to make my living with my pen, so to speak, I also set my sights on writing a Western novel. I also joined the National Association for Outlaw and Lawman History (now defunct) with a lifetime membership. The Louis L’Amour writealike contest came about three years after I started writing newspaper copy and then advertising copy, but got put on hold while I formed my own company, edited two magazines, wrote for Time and Newsweek and the Herald Trib, then became a stringer for two technology industry mags, but I kept the home fires warm, kept sending the re-edited versions out and kept getting them back. Until John Hale at Robert Hale Ltd. said he’d publish the book if I’d cut it down to less than 45,000 words. I’d already written the follow-up novel with the same protagonist. It, too, went under the knife, and was accepted by Hale. Here I am. I love writing about the West, partly as I knew it growing up in a ranch-like environment in northern Arizona, partly because I feel there was something in those people that we need to remember and emulate.