In Memoriam

Hi- Troy Smith here, publisher at Western Trail Blazer and editor of WF's Wolf Creek series. I decided to use this space to talk about something that has been on my mind as I wrapped up my first year as WTB ramrod and prepare to start my second... and that is something that I don't believe anybody thinks about when they take on a job like this. And that is... the mortality of us all. It has felt very surreal preparing sales records for authors who have passed on, and communicating about their legacies with their bereaved families. So while we're celebrating the new and recent releases we have, and the writers of the future, I wanted to take a moment to celebrate the memories of three writers who put their brand on the western genre, and on the hearts of those who knew them well.

The first such author did not leave this mortal coil in the past year, but a little before that- in September of 2012. However, WTB is still working with his wife to release his unpublished work.

I am speaking of Lee Baldwin, who wrote westerns as Lee Aaron Wilson. Lee was one of the first writers to come onboard WTB in the first months of its existence. His novels include COLORADO JUSTICE, KILLDEERE CHALLENGE, and PA'S JOURNAL. (By the way, I am deliberately not including links or cover images -they are easy enough to find, if you are interested -because I want this post to be about paying tribute rather than advertising.)

Phyllis Baldwin provided these words as a memorial to her husband:

"Lee Aaron Wilson passed away suddenly in September, 2012.   He lived for his writing and hardly a day went by that he wasn’t at his computer either writing a new story or modifying an existing one.  Lee loved discussing and recounting various scenes and became very emotional as he described them.  As anyone can see when they read his stories, his characters definitely come to life and one can imagine him being a part of some of them.  The writing world lost a good storyteller."  

Mart Shaughnessy loved horses, showing his Appaloosas in four world championships. He came late to writing- as his website informs us:

"Mart has a Masters Degree in education and spent twenty years teaching and coaching football, then went into the family business until retirement. His first published work was a short story, Frontier Justice, which won the genre fiction category of the 2OO9 Writers Digest 78th Annual Writing Contest."

WTB published his western/time travel novel PALOMINO DAYS several years ago, and he had recently completed a sequel that we corresponded back and forth via email about publishing- when I received word he had passed away on May 22, 2014. We will be releasing that sequel, ESCAPE TO THE PAST, before spring.

The third writer WTB lost recently is well known to many of us here at Western Fictioneers, and a recipient of our lifetime achievement award -and deservedly so. Jory Sherman had a long and storied career, winning a slew of awards. His novel THE RUNNING GUN has been a mainstay at WTB for some time. While I knew Lee and Mart through their work and occasional email, I had considered Jory a close personal friend for many years and was struck especially hard by his passing. I am honored by the fact that one of his last works was a contribution to the Wolf Creek novel STAND PROUD; his character Roman Hatchett only showed up a few times in our fictional town, but he was distinctive and memorable.

I am a big fan of The Highwaymen, both as a group and individually. Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash, in particular, always seemed to me to be good artistic role models- they had their own voices, and their own visions, and they refused to conform to the restraints of Nashville. This particular song by the two of them, "Heroes," is especially poignant to me, as they died in such similar circumstances and so close together in time... and because it is about the Hollywood cowboys of yesterday, and about the strength and frailty of our heroes, and of ourselves. So I'm posting a link to it below, in honor of Lee, and Mart, and Jory, and everyone else we have lost... who showed us the path to follow.

"Heroes, facing the fight

Calling for courage, trying to do right,

When the dust blows, and the light goes...

Give me a reason we all must carry on,

Like all the heroes have done."

LISTEN TO THE SONG

LOVE AND THE WESTERN HERO - Meg Mims

It may be January, but in two weeks everyone's thoughts will be drenched with loooooove.

Valentine's Day brings hearts, flowers and chocolate (of course!) to mind, but to any lovers of the western genre, it may also bring a fluttering for their favorite cowboy or soldier hero. Today I'll explore some of the movies set in the west that the ladies consider real heart-throbbers.

Look at that baby face to the left. What I found interesting was seeing images of the actors when they were young, versus being portrayed as western heroes. Oh, the manliness! Oh, the chiseled jaws! Oh, the *muscles*... er, sorry.

I'd like to start with THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, which for its time was set in "the western frontier" of the United States as depicted in James Fenimore Cooper's day of 1757 during the French and Indian War.

Notice the change wrought in Daniel Day-Lewis' face after he takes on the role of Hawkeye, or Natty Bumpo, or Long Rifle... whatever you want to call him. He looks worried. He's got major diplomatic troubles dealing with the French and British, plus the Huron scout Magua. He's supported by Chingachgook and his son (as the last of the Mohicans) and then the Delaware tribe -- since the measly British won't send reinforcements for poor Colonel Munro and his soldiers. All that worry! He looks exhausted too.

Thankfully the movie plot simplifies the book (for the better, imo) by boiling down the war between the French and British, setting up a four-way romance with the Munro daughters, Hawkeye and Chingachgook's son. When Wes Studi (Magua) is determined to kill Munro and take his daughters captive -- well, let's just say I'd jump off a cliff too. That Magua scared me to death!

Hawkeye gets the girl, that's the important point of a romance. It's all about the HEA -- happily ever after. Come on! Who wouldn't want to end up with DDL in that costume? But being a western hero sure changes a guy. Really.

As a bonus, I found this image of Daniel Day-Lewis and Russell Means.
Both of them are pretty hot here.

Every single time I watch Mohicans, I weep when Russell Means is killed and Alice chooses to fall off the cliff after him rather than remain Magua's captive. When I met Wes Studi last summer in Albequerque at the WWA convention, I changed my mind about choosing that same fate. Wes is a great actor -- funny, warm and sweet, very generous about taking photos and giving autographs. He sure fooled me when I first saw the movie! That's fabulous acting.

Let's move on to Elmore Leonard's HOMBRE with Paul Newman. Ooooh, those baby blues! Who can resist those, or that manly chiseled jaw, or those muscles... er. Ahem.

The book and movie are pretty strong (I saw the movie, but must confess I have not read the book) for the "revisionist" western genre -- meaning the underlying issues of race are brought to the surface, in this case, the hero was raised as an Apache and faced big-time prejudice after he returns to the white man's world. I guess the blue eyes didn't matter much. I had trouble believing Newman as a Native American, but his acting is decent in the film.

Still, I much prefer him as Butch Cassidy. Sorry.

How about the book DANCES WITH WOLVES by Michael Blake? Oddly enough, the Comanche tribe is switched to Sioux, and Kevin Costner acted and directed this epic western into a real classic.

Once again, portraying a hero takes a toll on youthful men. That's a very young and hot Kevin Costner on the right, versus portraying Lieutenant John Dunbar (see the photo to the left below.) He looks tired. And worried, especially given the problems he's facing...

Oh, all right -- enough of that. Kevin portrays a disillusioned Civil War soldier who wants to die and ends up an unlikely hero during a battle. He then requests a transfer to a remote western fort -- apparently to redeem his burden of guilt and serve his country after an attitude adjustment. Alas, he "goes native" after seeing how unfair the government treats "the people."

I'd say the gorgeous cinematography of the prairie along with the portrayal of the natives by wonderful actors, and even the wolves and teeming herds of buffalo (which bring to life what the early post-Civil War era of the west) are as much Western heroes as Costner's character.

Kevin also gets the girl, a white woman who was taken in by the tribe he befriends. Like I said before, HEA is what makes a real romance. They go off together into the sunset.

Next up, let's see how portraying a hero took a heavy toll on another famous western actor... the Duke. Talk about manly! Talk about a chiseled jaw!! Talk about muscles - oh, fine. On to the gallery of photos. First up, the young Marion Morrison himself.

 Such a baby-face here. He was born in Iowa but his family soon moved to California. Marion intended to play football on a USC scholarship - but a bodysurfing accident put an end to that dream. All the better for us romantics, I say! Who knows what would have happened to Duke if he hadn't turned to small bit parts at the Fox studio.

Marion's first leading role was in the western The Big Trail which came out in 1930. He kept working in other roles, a few leading, until he became a superstar in 1939 in John Ford's Stagecoach.

Based on a 1937 short story titled "The Stage to Lordsburg" by Ernest Haycox, it features several strangers who travel by stagecoach through Apache territory. I saw the film long ago and it was okay. Sorry, just my opinion! But it boosted John Wayne's career, that's for certain.

See the photo on the right - the Duke looks worried, if not tired. He portrays Johnny Ringo, a fugitive, and is attracted to the prostitute who was run out of the Arizona town and is heading east on the stagecoach to New Mexico, along with a seedy doctor, the pregnant wife of a soldier and a whiskey salesman. The stage driver and a lawman make up the "company" that meet hardships along the way, including an Apache raid, before the cavalry rides in to the rescue.

Filmed in the Monument Valley, the movie became a classic and was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress for their National Film Registry.

Let's take a look at another significant western featuring the Duke - The Searchers. Also directed by John Ford, the film is based on a novel published in 1954 by Alan LeMay, set during the Texas-Indian Wars, featuring a Civil War veteran on a quest to find his nieces kidnapped by Comanches.

The Searchers is one of the favorites of many Western Fictioneers and WWA colleagues of mine. I liked this one better than Stagecoach, although the setting is fairly similar, so perhaps it's the worry, the tiredness of hero John Wayne along with his adopted nephew (Jeffrey Hunter, who caught my eye as a hot hero - see photo).

That was one looooong search, and Natalie Wood didn't seem all that appreciative of their efforts. Yeesh.

The Searchers earned some great top honors. In 2008, the film was  named the GREATEST AMERICAN WESTERN OF ALL TIME (yep, you heard that right!)  by the American Film Institute. This after it climbed to 12th place on the AFI's 2007 list of the 100 Greatest American movies ever! Besides a few other awards, the film was named the Best Western of all time by the magazine Entertainment Weekly. Not bad! 
And BOTH heroes look like they went through HELL, all for love and loyalty. Sigh.

Here's several other young studs who looked fabulous -- until becoming heroes in famous western films. I tell you, being a hero out west is bad for your health. Look at these manly guys, the chiseled features, those muscles! Clint Eastwood looks great until he turns into a scruffy, worried, tired Man With No Name. Robert Redford looks spiffy in that uniform until he grows a thatch of beard and long hair, dons buckskin and then scalps people and eats their livers. See how Tom Selleck looks so happy, healthy and hot in Hawaii as Magnum, the ultimate private eye, until he goes FURTHER west to Australia and gets all worried, tired and grungy.

Of course, this is all tongue-in-cheek. We LOVE these hot western heroes. They're worried for good reason -- the situation needs changing! The heroine needs loving! And they can prove just how much of an American manly man they are by saving the day.

God bless American heroes!

Meg Mims is an award-winning author with two western mysteries under her Eastern belt. DOUBLE CROSSING earned the 2012 WWA Spur Award for Best First Novel, and the sequel DOUBLE OR NOTHING was recently named the First Place Winner in the 2013 Laramie Awards for Western Mystery. Her story, "A Savior Is Born," is included in the Western Fictioneers' anthology A WOLF CREEK CHRISTMAS. Meg lives in Michigan, where the hills are like driveway slopes and trees block any type of prairie winds. LIKE her on Facebook, follow her on Twitter or check out her books on her website.

WESTERN FOUR-LEGGED HEROES - MEG MIMS

WESTERN FOUR-LEGGED HEROES

After several posts featuring western film and TV show funny sidekicks, dastardly villains and sweetheart heroines, we’re going straight to the horse’s mouth. Heh.

Sure, there are plenty of heroic cowboys – John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Clint Eastwood, Robert Duvall, Sam Elliott, Alan Ladd, Tom Mix, Tex Ritter, Clayton More, Lash LaRue, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, Buck Jones… the list goes on and on. But who would dare say that the horses these western heroes rode were mere transportation? They deserve their own post. Those I haven’t named – well, they also deserve a lump or two of sugar for their hard work.

Let’s start with Tom Mix’s famous horse Tony. Born in 1899, Tony had white stocking rear feet and became a celebrity after making his debut with Mix in 1917. They made well over a hundred and fifty films together – Tony even had equal billing! The horse learned a few marvelous tricks without any extensive training; he only needed Mix to show him how to untie the cowboy’s hands, or loosen his own reins, run after trains, open gates, jump a cliff and rescue Mix from a fire. He was the original “Wonder Horse.” Tony planted his hoof prints in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater next to Mix’s hand prints in 1927. Three films featured his name in the title – Just Tony (1922), Oh! You Tony (1924), and Tony Runs Wild (1926). When the horse was 22, he retired. Tom Mix used Tony Jr. in other films he made, and Tony II when appearing in public. But the original Tony died on the second anniversary of Tom Mix’s tragic death in a car accident. Who knows – maybe they’re together riding the heavenly prairie in the sky right now.

Roy Rogers’ Trigger was the second most famous horse in films. Born in 1932, he was first named Golden Cloud due to his palomino breed. Rogers chose him in 1938 out of several “rented for the movies” horses. He bought the horse later that year and gave him the name Trigger due to his quickness and intelligence. The palomino was able to walk on his hind legs and perform over a hundred trick cues. Trigger also was featured in a Dell comic book series about his adventures. Rogers took the horse up three or four flights of stairs several times to visit the children’s wing at hospitals. Trigger did have a trainer, Glen Randall, and was housebroken – which made it easier for Rogers during public appearances. He once danced, reared up and pawed the air, and played dead at the Hotel Astor’s ballroom for an audience. Trigger planted his hooves in front of Grauman’s beside Roy Rogers’ hands in 1949. To take the strain off performing, Rogers used two other horses, Little Trigger and Trigger, Jr. After Trigger’s death, Roy Rogers had the horse stuffed and mounted. Once the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans’ museum closed, a family-friendly cable network in Omaha, Nebraska bought Trigger for display.

Silver, the Lone Ranger’s white stallion, was one of many Silvers on the big screen. The Lone Ranger radio show was inspired by the Zane Grey book before the character galloped onto film and television. According to a 1938 episode the Lone Ranger first rode Dusty, a chestnut mare. After the Lone Ranger saved Silver from a wild buffalo, the horse chose to pair up with the masked man. Silver starred in two films with Clayton More as well as the television series. And every time the Lone Ranger mounted up at the end of an episode, he would shout, “Hi-Yo, Silver! Away!” Both the Lone Ranger’s horse and Tonto’s horse, Scout, were intelligent and trained – but Silver won the “Patsy” in 1957 – the Award for Excellence given to outstanding animals in television and motion pictures.

Gene Autry’s Champion also had a radio, film and television career. The sorrel with a blaze and three white stockings first appeared on screen in Melody Trail in 1935. He could jump through paper-covered hoops and gallop and stop on command. Champion died in 1947 during Autry’s military service, so the singing cowboy had to find a second Champion. In 1949, Autry and Champion II left their marks in the famous sidewalk in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater. He used other unofficial horses, named Little Champ, Lindy Champion, Touring Champion and Champion Three, to serve as movie stunt doubles or public appearances. Autry’s famous horse also starred in his own series, The Adventures of Champion, in 1955 and 1956. Champion also had a comic book series (he couldn’t let Trigger have all the glory!) The third official Champion died in 1991 at 42 years old. But all three Champions starred in almost one hundred films and TV shows.

Buck Jones’ horse, also called Silver, starred with the actor in 50 out of the 73 films for over twenty years, from 1922 until 1942. One silent film, The War Horse, features Silver being drafted into the cavalry – and Buck joins up as well out of loyalty. In France, Buck rides Silver across enemy lines and heroically stops an ambush by German soldiers to save the outfit and win the love of a Red Cross nurse. Perhaps Silver also earned the love of a sweet mare! Unfortunately, Jones’ star as a western cowboy waned by the end of the 1930s. On November 28, 1942, Buck Jones was the guest of honor at a party in Boston’s Cocoanut Grove, the city’s best nightclub. The actor died in a tragic fire, trapped along with 491 other guests celebrating over the Thanksgiving holiday including soldiers and a pair of newlyweds. Silver must have wept out of loyalty.

Hopalong Cassidy’s horse, Topper, replaced the actor's original horse after King Nappy was injured during filming in 1939. Topper, named by William Boyd’s fifth wife Grace – who loved the popular films and books – was a white Arabian stallion with black ears. Topper starred in over 60 films with the actor. Boyd wisely bought the rights and ended up making syndication deals along with tie-in products for the new Saturday TV matinee audiences until 1953, when he retired. Since he owned Topper, Boyd interred the horse after death in the Los Angeles Pet Memorial Park, also called Save Our Pets’ History in Eternity (S.O.P.H.I.E.) in Calabasas, California.

Leave a comment about the favorite horse you remember in westerns. This website - http://www.fiftiesweb.com/horses.htm - lists many movie and television stars along with the animals associated with them. And here are a few more great websites to explore:  http://www.wildwestweb.net/horses.html; http://discovery2020.hubpages.com/hub/Horses-of-Famous-Western-Film-Stars-and-their-Sidekicks; http://thewildwest.org/cowboys/wildwestshowbizcowboys/293-moviecowboyhorses

Meg Mims is an award-winning author with two western mysteries under her Eastern belt. She lives in Michigan, where the hills are like driveway slopes and trees block any type of prairie winds. LIKE her on Facebook, follow her on Twitter or check out her books on her website. Double Crossing won the 2012 Spur Award for Best First Novel and Double or Nothing is the exciting sequel. Her story, "A Savior Is Born," is included in A Wolf Creek Christmas published by Western Fictioneers.

RESEARCHING THE WEST by MEG MIMS

I love research. Always have, always will... and I soak up lush, wonderful details in the westerns I've read. Most of them since DOUBLE CROSSING, my western mystery set in 1869, was published -- but I cut my teeth on television and movie westerns since early childhood.

Did I rely on all that when I started writing my book? Heck, no! I knew costumes, sets and such generated in Hollywood were far from accurate. I spent months delving into fashion changes from hoops to bustles, what a Bowie knife looked like, Colt revolvers, train schedules and routes, what a UP Pullman Palace car looked like versus the CP Silver Palace car, Texan cowboys, etc. etc.

I knew better than to rely on western TV and movies, where the soiled doves wore glittering gowns worthy of a Ziegfeld Follies girl. Other big problems are the cliches stemming from dime novels of the 1800s, still popping up in current western novels. Lawmen tracking murderers who kill without reason. Helpless women who sat around waiting for their man to rescue them.

Pioneer women that I've researched knew how to handle weapons and protect themselves, how to survive snakebites and nurse sicknesses or wounds, and many adapted after being kidnapped by Indians. I rather doubt they lounged around in the stable (after pitching some clean hay) with their bosom exposed like Jane Russell.

Okay, maybe that is an extreme example. But take for example the Stetson hat.

Some writers have their heroes wearing these famous hats as far back as the 1850's. Check out this link for a fascinating history on how John B. Stetson got started making the trademark hats in 1865. Yep. AFTER the Civil War. Or weapons -- here's a link to a great website on military sabres, rifles, revolvers, etc. manufactured during the 1800s. And here's another link, similar to it. With dates of when those weapons were in use.

Trains are another big pitfall for writers. I've read some books where characters found their way west on the railroad before the Civil War or immediately after it ended. The first railroad crossed the vast expanse of the American west in May of 1869, when the Union and Central Pacific lines joined together at Promontory, Utah. For the first time, travelers could ride from New York to Chicago to Omaha and then to Sacramento -- not San Francisco. That took another few years. Other rail lines to Kansas and Arizona and Montana were completed by the mid 1870s or late 1880s.

I've read and seen a wide range of stories with either the total absence of native Americans or a bloodthirsty savageness of tribes (and not always the right ones in the right spots!) set on revenge. Savagery happened on both sides. The main point is to avoid "stereotypes" --  characters need reasons for the choices they make in our stories. Readers might forgive a modern word or phrase in dialogue, but when such things add up, they're "thrown out" of the story and may give up reading the rest of the book.

I love a good, juicy western where I can walk the dusty streets or ride the prairie on horseback, smell the goods on display in a general store, taste the grit in the air or touch the sweat-soaked shirt of the hero. Go beyond the visual. Make sure your characters have a goal and a motive in mind. And for your reader's sake, do the research.

They'll thank you with great reviews and word-of-mouth sales in your future career.

Meg Mims is an award-winning author and artist. She writes blended genres – historical, western, adventure, romance, suspense and mystery. Her first book, Double Crossing, won the 2012 Spur Award for Best First Novel from Western Writers of America and was named a Finalist in the Best Books of 2012 from USA Book News for Fiction: Western.

She is currently working on the sequel, Double or Nothing, which will be released this year. Interested in a sneak peek? Check out Meg's blog for The Next  Big Thing!