BEATS and PAUSES by Ken Farmer

I mentioned in my last blog that I would talk more about dialogue and beats…well, here' tiz. 

I learned a long time ago in my acting career about what actors call, beats, pauses and hitches. I'm only goin to focus on beats and pauses here because I have yet to figure out how to effectively write a hitch. I suppose I'd better explain. A hitch is a very short beat, more of a quick closing of the throat between words.  An example almost everyone in the world is familiar is from John Wayne. I'm not sure that it was ever intentional as was possibly just his speech pattern: "Now listen and listen tight/pilgrim." The quick closing of the throat between 'tight' and 'pilgrim' gave him that recognizable quirk in his speech. 

Another well-known celebrity that used it was Paul Harvey, most notably in his signature sign off for his featured The Rest of the Story: "And now you know/the rest/of the story."

So, in this piece I'll just break down uses of patterns in writing dialogue. As I mentioned, in my acting career…over forty years worth…not only did I learn how to perform written dialogue so that it sounded like impromptu conversation, but also how to write it. Almost any character, unless they are reciting something from memory, such as a passage from the Bible or maybe Shakespeare or Keats, creates their dialogue on the fly. 

No one knows exactly what they're going to say much past three seconds. A famous boxer once said, "Everyone has a plan until he get hit in the mouth." To demonstrate this, I used to ask my acting students in class a question: 

"Eryn, do you ever fight with your boyfriend?" 

She would reply, "Sure."

Did you ever know there was going to be a fight over something before it happened…like say, putting the lid back down on the toilet?"

"Oh, yeah."

"Did you ever plan what you were going to say in the forthcoming argument?"

"Uh, huh." 

"How did that work out for you?"

"Uh…not very well…after the first sentence."

"Yep, because you can't control what he was going to say…'The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley', to quote Robert Burns."

I would tell my actors, "Even though you have a script provided to you…for the conversation to sound 'unscripted' and natural…you must allow the character to create the dialogue as it happens." That bears repeating, "You must allow the character(s) to create the dialogue as it happens." As it is with acting…so it is with writing.

I see far too much dialogue written like a writer might write…not how people talk. A conversation between or among characters is nothing more than constant improvisation and we, as writers, even though we write down every word…it should sound like the characters are creating it at the moment…in my opinion. All conversations have natural beats, hesitations and pauses. Why? Because the characters are thinking of what they're going to say next. They are creating dialogue…and to sound natural, the writer should get the hell out of the way and let them do it.

Alrighty then, how do we do that? Well first, very few people actually speak in complete sentences. A writer might write: 

"I'm going in to town, Bill, do you need anything?" asked Barbara.

"Not really, Barbara, thanks, I'm fine."

But, an actual scene between two real characters would go:

"Goin' to town…need anything?"

"I'm good." 

I will write the dialogue, then, playing each character, do the dialogue out loud. It either sounds right or it doesn't. If it doesn't, I start removing things like pronouns and nouns and inserting ellipses. I like to insert them where a character would hesitate, much like an elongated comma or a quick thought process. I only use ellipses in dialogue and use EM dashes in exposition, but that's just me.

Here's an example of putting hesitations in dialogue from our upcoming novel, Bass and the Lady:

"It doesn't matter whether I squat or stand to pee…I'm wearing a Deputy United States Marshal's badge…and that trumps just about everything else I know…So, looks like I've taken this pot."

I use the ellipses for thought and for emphasis…Oh, it's also used for interruptions:

"I'd be for figuring out a way or you're going to lose your right ear…You got five seconds. Two…three…"

"Hey, what happened to one?"

"Four…" Her steel-gray eyes flashed.

The use of the 'Pause' can also be effective in breaking up long stretches of dialogue and for emphasis:

"If you all are through getting acquainted…Bass I'm afraid I have some more bad news." The judge paused and glanced out the window, and then turned back. "Your eldest son, Bennie, caught his wife with another man last week. He shot and killed her and is now on the run."

When I write, I see and hear a movie in my head and I'm the writer/director. I just write down what happens…when and where the characters pause or hesitate. I suppose it's the actor in me.

I also like to make use of the EM dash in exposition, many times in place of commas and or semicolons—hate semicolons:

Deputy US Marshal Jack McGann—accompanied by his big white wolf-dog, Son—worked his red and white Overo paint down the steep slope along the side of Turner Falls. An eight point buck was draped across the horse's rump—tied on by the long saddle strings behind the cantle—as they headed back toward the cabin.

To me, it gives the reader a better opportunity to visualize the scene as it unfolds. I never mix the two, EM dashes and ellipses. I only use the EM in exposition and the ellipses in dialogue…with one exception. The cliff hanger at the end of a section break or chapter: (From the Laramie Award winning Haunted Falls)

Angie knew that her husband's people held this cave to be sacred, very spiritual and some even thought it to be haunted. She couldn't help but wonder as she crossed herself again, Where did that hat and other guns come from? I know they were not here before…and who or what is he…

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Excellence in storytelling depends less on rules of grammar

 than on the sense of what just sounds right.

SOMETHING TO EASE YOUR PAIN? - Tom Rizzo

A man who dubbed himself “The Rattlesnake King” stood before a crowd in colorful western attire in the 1890s killing dozens of rattlesnakes, telling onlookers he needed the venom to process his all-purpose-cure: Clark Stanley’s Snake Oil Liniment.

 

Earlier this year, I published a blog post about Clark Stanley’s exploiting the so-called curative powers of snake oil, powers he learned from a Hopi medicine man --at least according to a pamphlet he wrote.  

Stanley ranks among the top ten peddlers of wacky cures for a gullible public. 

A number of American fraudsters - labeled snake oil salesmen - traveled across the frontier from town-to-town extolling the healing powers of snake oil and other elixirs.

The boasted their products would ease pain from rheumatism, aching muscles, joints, inflammation, high blood pressure, cholesterol, and anything else that ails you, even deafness.

  (Typical Newspaper Advertisement)

  

Obviously, these products couldn’t possibly work as advertised—or there wouldn’t be any need for physicians (such as Western Fictioneers Vice-President Dr. Keith Souter). 

The sales of these magical compounds were fueled by an impressionable and unsuspecting public. In some cases, entire families got into the act. For example, Barnum & Bailey Circus promoted a sideshow called the Seven Sutherland Sisters in 1884. 

This act featured sisters ranging in age from 18 to 36 who sang a variety of songs. 

Their harmony, while good, took a back seat to their hair. 

At the end of their performances, the sisters would turn in unison, lettering their combined 36 and 1/2 feet of thick hair cascade down the backs of their white gowns into the orchestra pit—followed by thunderous applause.

P.T. Barnum of the Greatest Show on Earth, referred to them as the “seven most pleasing wonders of the world.”

The Rev. Fletcher Sutherland, the girls’ father, shrewdly created and patented a hair-growing tonic. Since a lot of Victorian women craved the same kind of hair, sales went through the roof. According to Lisa Hix, in an article for Collectors Weekly, the popularity of these hair-care products came “at a time when disease and bad medicine caused men and women’s hair to fall out…” 

A shrewd marketing scheme aimed at promoting the line of products as a miracle cure for balding made the family millions. The sisters’ popularity skyrocketed to a point where they dominated the front page of newspapers—until their tragic end later in life. 

In 1905, Collier's magazine featured an expose of these quacks and their lucrative cures. 

In the article - The Great American Fraud - Samuel Hopkins Adams wrote: 

“Gullible America will spend … millions of dollars in the purchase of patent medicines … huge quantities of alcohol, an appalling amount of opiates and narcotics, a wide assortment of varies drugs ranges from powerful an dangerous heart depressants to insidious liver stimulants; and, far in excess of all other ingredients, undiluted fraud.” 

Itinerant con men became known as snake oil salesmen.

This collective term applied to any shyster who peddled miracle cures to the public. 

Characters of the same ilk were so fascinating, they were written into scripts for American westerns. 

NPR’s A History of ‘Snake Oil Salesmen’ suggests the term “first appeared in

Stephen Vincent Benet's epic 1927 poem John Brown's Body, when the poet refers to ‘Crooked creatures of a thousand dubious trades ... sellers of snake-oil balm and lucky rings.’"

Playwright Eugene O'Neill, about thirty years later, according to NPR, referred to snake oil in his 1956 play The Iceman Cometh, when a character suggested a rival was "standing on a street corner in hell right now, making suckers of the damned, telling them there's nothing like snake oil for a bad burn."

In 1917, a federal government sized a shipment of Stanley’s Snake Oil Liniment and found its  “pain destroying compounds” consisted mineral oil—containing about one percent of fatty oil—camphor and turpentine—probably to impart a medicinal smell—and red pepper, to make the liquid feel warm and soothing to the skin. 

In reality, most products didn't contain much snake oil. And, the ones that did used the wrong snake oil.

The origin of snake oil containing healing power started in the 19th century when Chinese immigrants came to this country to help build the Transcontinental Railroad. At the end of grueling days working with hammers and pickaxes, and crowbars, these immigrants would apply a liquid compound they brought with them to help sooth sore muscles and aching joints.

The key component in the curative liquid was snake oil. When Americans learned how well the treatment worked, snake oil began being touted as an all-purpose remedy for most of everything. 

Dozens of rattlesnake farms were started. In 1885, rattlesnake oil sold for $4 an ounce. In 1891, the Wheeling (West Virginia) Register reported rattlesnakes went for $25 to $50 each—as long as they were four-feet or longer. 

The products that actually contained authentic rattlesnake oil (most did not) weren't as effective as Chinese workers’ oil. But there was a good reason. 

The problem: American snake oil salesmen did not use the right snake.

The Chinese oil came from water snakes. Not rattlesnakes. Since water snakes were aquatic, they ate mostly fish, something rattlesnakes in the desert never do. 

Oil from Chinese water snakes proved particularly useful in fighting inflammation and other health issues because the oil was "rich in the omega-3 acids that help reduce inflammation."   

Public furor over useless, fraudulent, and sometimes dangerous elixirs led to passage of the Pure Food and Drugs Act in 1906. 

The feds flexed their regulatory muscle against Clark Stanley for violating the food and drug act. 

Charged with “misbranding” and “falsely and fraudulently” misrepresenting his product “as a remedy for all pain,” Stanley was fined $20 (about $429 in today’s dollars). 

Stanley elected not to dispute the charge and paid the pittance of the fine gladly—probably with a sigh of relief. 

_______

For more true tales about the characters and events of the fascinating American West visit Tom's StoryTeller Blog. 

_______

The Story Behind Six-Gun Salad

by Richard Prosch

From an everyday greeting as people pass each other on the street, to organized community efforts, small town America often overflows with an abundance of kindness and generosity. But like anywhere else, it can be rife with contention, often hidden, often held tight just below the surface until one wrong word or action sets off a powder keg of enmity. 

When guns are involved, bad feelings can turn deadly in the space of a heartbeat.

You don't have to follow the news closely to know there's been a lot of media coverage about racial tension. 

Students of history know this is nothing new. 

The countries of origin may change, but even in the old west, old-country grudges kept new generations at each others' throats.

All of these thoughts came together writing my new Jo Harper story, SIX-GUN SALAD from Painted Pony Books. Community picnics, but arguments in the street. Individuals working to get along while others held to old their old cultural bias. 

Guns to bring destruction. Or guns to bring justice.

It all got tossed together in the bowl and served up as danger for Jo, Frog and Abby, and hopefully, a reminder of the best and worst of our natures --qualities that often aren't what they might first seem to be. 

Working through the contradictions is important for young and old alike. Another reason I like to think of these stories as good for all ages.

Blurb

Would you cry over spilled potato salad? Would you risk your life for it? Jo Harper can't contain her frustration when a determined Danish lawyer and a hard-headed German farmer get ready to square off with guns over just that.

It's an Elizabethan tragedy-in-the-making unless Jo, Frog and Abby can unravel the threads of a dangerous plot that threatens to tear apart not just two families, but the entire town of Willowby, Wyoming.

Excerpt

"Karl! Karl, that's enough."

To his credit, Svensen listened to his wife and backed away from Schultz. But not before delivering another rotten threat.

"Stay away from us, Kraut. Stay away from my family, away from my house and business. We don't need your kind."

But Schultz wasn't having it.

He stood up with a clumsy stagger and, brushing himself off, delivered a counter-threat.

"You are all mouth and all knuckles because you are bigger than me. But how are you with a gun, counselor? Let me get my gun and we'll see who is better."

Jo thought she saw where Mr. Schultz was going, and though she was an innocent bystander, she was also Abby Drake's deputy constable. She ran between the men.

"Go home, Mr. Schultz. Go home, before you say something you'll regret."

"Stay out of this, Jo," said Svensen, reaching out to brush her aside.

Jo sidestepped the lawyer's reach and again tried to appeal to Schultz.

"Think of your family, sir. Think about Buster. You don't want to do this."

For the first time that night, Schultz seemed to see Jo, really see her, and the look in his eyes didn't belong to a bleary-headed drunk, but to a hurt man hoping to regain his pride.

"I have to, Jo. Sometimes, a man has to do these things."

Jo let Schultz gently push her aside. He stood tall and, in front of her and Mrs. Svensen, said, "Tuesday morning. Seven o-clock in front of the Filter Building. Find a weapon, you scurvy Dane. Find a weapon and prepare to pay the price for your insults."

It wasn't going to be such a quiet week, after all.

Schultz had just challenged the lawyer to a gunfight!

 Leave a comment for a chance at a free copy of Richard Prosch's Six-Gun Salad.

 Buy Links  B&N Nook   Amazon   Smashwords    Kobo

Meanwhile, the first book in the Jo Harper series, WAITING FOR A COMET, is free for Kindle until August 14.

After growing up on a Nebraska farm, Richard Prosch worked as a professional writer, artist, and teacher in Wyoming, South Carolina, and Missouri. His western crime fiction captures the fleeting history and lonely frontier stories of his youth where characters aren’t always what they seem, and the windburned landscapes are filled with swift, deadly danger. Read more at www.RichardProsch.com

Wild West Words: Them’s Fightin’ Words

By Kathleen Rice Adams

"Busted," Charles M. Russell, c. 1920

Fighting—over insults, over ideals (as in war), or just for fun—has been a popular pastime since the first person drew the first breath. There’s a reason the American West was called “wild”: Folks on the frontier seemed ready to throw a punch or unshuck a weapon with the slightest provocation, at least if popular myth is anywhere near the truth.

Nineteenth-century words and phrases relating to fighting, things that could provoke a fight, and means of stopping a fight are below.

At outs with: no longer on friendly terms with; from about 1826. Became “on the outs with” around 1900.

Bantam: small, aggressive person; first documented in 1837. Extension of the 1749 name for a a breed of chicken discovered on Bantam, a Dutch colony in Java. As a lightweight class in boxing, use is attested from 1884. “Banty” is a dialectical corruption of the word.

Beat the living daylights out of: thrash, punish, chastise. Americanism; arose 1880s based on the late-18th Century threat to “let daylight into” a foe. The original phrase meant intent to kill by sword, knife, bullet, or other deadly weapon, but as the force of law began to catch up with the U.S.’s western frontier, the phrase was softened to lessen the perceived risk of hanging for murder should the target of the threat be found dead.

Below the belt: unfair; arose 1889 from boxing.

Bulldozer: person who intimidates by violence. Arose during 1876 U.S. presidential election, along with related “bulldose,” meaning “a severe beating” (literally, “dose fit for a bull”). Both were slang associated with aggressive intimidation of Negro voters in the North and the former Confederate states. Bulldozer acquired its current meaning, “ground-clearing tractor,” in the 1930s based on the image of bulls shoving one another around during dominance displays.

Call [someone] out: challenge, especially to a duel or fight. Arose c. 1823.

Cold shoulder: icy reception; deliberate coldness or disregard; a snub. Arose mid-1850s, evidently as a sarcastic reference to the European elite setting out hot feasts for their guests while the poor were able to afford only a cold shoulder of mutton (not a well-regarded meal). Sir Walter Scott is credited with creating the figurative sense c. 1816 by using “cold shoulder of mutton” to convey a deliberate intention to be rid of an unwanted guest. Americans, as usual, clipped the phrase.

"Not a Chinaman's Chance, Charles M. Russell, 1894

Come off the rimrock: back away from a discussion that has turned unfriendly. Attested from the 1860s in the American West.

Comeupance/comeuppance: Get what’s coming to you. 1859, presumably rooted in the phrase “come up,” meaning present oneself for judgment or trial.

Crotchety: irritable, contrary, grouchy. Arose c. 1825 from late-14th Century French crotchet, literally a small hook. In English, crotchet came to mean a perverse, capricious or eccentric notion c. 1800.

Dander: ire, irritation, temper, strong emotion. Entered American English c. 1831: “Don’t get your dander up.” Exact origin unclear, but may have been based on the slightly older (1825) shortening of dandruff (loose flakes of skin; mid-1500s), Spanish redundar (to overflow), or West Indies dunder (fermentation of sugar).

Dustup/dust-up: fight; brawl. Arose c. 1897; Americanism. Most likely a colorful reference to brawlers raising dust as they duked it out, but also may have roots in the late-16th Century usage of dust to mean confusion or disturbance. In the 1680s, to “dust [someone’s] coat” meant to deliver a sound thrashing.

Faceoff/face-off: disagreement (often silent, using only eye contact) that might turn physical. Arose c. 1893 as an extension of the boxing term that first appeared in 1867.

Face the music: Arose 1850 in U.S. congressional debates, probably as a reference to actors facing the orchestra pit—which sat between the audience and the stage—when delivering particularly dramatic lines or soliloquies.

Fired up: angry; arose c. 1824 in the American West. The meaning “throw someone out of a place”—a saloon, for example—arose c. 1871, probably from a play on the two meanings of “discharge”: “to dismiss from a position” and “to fire a gun, the latter of which dates to the 1520s.

Fistiana: anecdotes about pugilists; boxing lore. From 1839.

Get in [one’s] hair: persistently annoy, vex, or irk. First appeared in print in the Oregon Statesman in 1851, though the expression undoubtedly is older. Etymologists speculate the phrase originally may have compared an irritating person to head lice.

"Smoke of a .45," Charles M. Russell, 1908

Gunfight/gun-fight: combat with handguns. American English c. 1889; combination of “gun” and “fight.”

Hold your horses: settle down; take it easy; be patient. Original usage was literal: During harness races at American county fairs, horses picked up on their drivers’ nerves, often resulting in a false start. Consequently, announcers frequently admonished participants to “hold your horses.” First appearance in print: New Orleans Times Picayune, 1844.

Hot air: unsubstantiated statements; empty, exaggerated or pretentious talk; boasting. Probably from observation of a flaccid balloon puffing up and rising as it fills with heated air. Colloquialism; may have arisen as early as 1835-40 but was in common use during the latter half of the 19th Century.

Humps and grumps: surly remarks; a fit of ill humor. Arose c. 1844 from the adjective “grumpy” (c. 1778), which most likely arose as an extension of “grum,” meaning morose or surly (also possibly related to Danish grum, meaning cruel). By 1900, the “humps and” had dropped off and “grump” had become a common term for a disagreeable person. (In this case the adjective appears to have given rise to the noun, instead of vice-versa as was more common.)

Keep your shirt on: be patient; calm down. The Americanism arose c. 1904 from prizefighting. Because organized boxing was illegal in much of the U.S. until the 1920s—not because of the violence, but because gambling and organized crime quickly attached to the sport—pugilists waited to remove their shirts and engage until they were reasonably certain a police raid would not be forthcoming. Men fighting fully clothed was considered a spontaneous brawl; men fighting half-naked indicated forethought.

Knock-down drag-out: violent fight. Arose c. 1859 in the U.S.

Knockout/knock-out: as pertains to general fighting, arose 1887 from the phrase “knock out,” meaning “to stun by a blow for a 10-count,” in boxing. Slang meaning “attractive person” is from 1892. To knock oneself out, meaning “make a great effort,” is from 1936.

Lather: state of agitation. Arose c. 1839 from the 1650s application of the Old English word for “soap suds” to the violent sweating of horses under stress.

"Buccaroos," Charles M. Russell, 1902

Lock horns: Arose 1839 in the American West from observation of the way cattle butted heads during dominance displays.

Manhandle: to handle roughly. First recorded use 1865, from the earlier nautical meaning “to move by force of men” (instead of using tackle or levers). The nautical connotation arose from the mid-15th Century meaning “to wield a tool”; the 1865 connotation seems more closely related to the late-15th Century common usage meaning “to attack an enemy.”

Mexican standoff: stalemate; impasse. First documented use 1891, though the expression may be older. “Stand-off,” meaning draw or tie, arose c. 1843. Though some sources claim “Mexican standoff” is Australian in origin, a more likely source is Texas, where Mexican bandidos routinely crossed the border for nefarious purposes. Originally, the idiom referred to three mutual enemies facing each other with drawn weapons. If A shot B, C would shoot A, thereby winning the conflict. Everyone wanted to be C, so nobody fired—leaving the dispute unresolved.

Pull in your horns: calm down; back away from a fight. Mid-1800s among cowboys in the American West as a reference to cattle battling with their horns.

Pull up: check a course of action. First recorded use 1808 as a figurative reference to pulling on the reins to stop a horse.

Rough/rough up: beat up or jostle violently; first documented use 1868.

Roundhouse: blow delivered by the fist with a wide sweep of the arm. Arose latter half of the 19th Century from the 1856 use of roundhouse to describe the circular shed with a turntable at the center for repositioning locomotives.

Scrap: fight. First attested 1846, possibly as a variant of scrape, which came to mean “abrasive encounter” or “scheme, villainy, vile intention” in the 1670s.

Scrappy: inclined to fight. First documented appearance 1895, from scrap.

Sockdolager: a heavy, finishing blow; a conclusive argument. First documented appearance 1830 from the 1700s “sock,” meaning “to beat, hit hard, pitch into.” Sockdolager is assumed to have arisen from the conflation of “sock” and “doxology,” meaning finality. The word shifted meaning to “something exceptional” in 1838. “Sockdologising” (confronting with a forceful argument) likely was one of the the last words Abraham Lincoln heard. During the performance of Tom Taylor’s Our American Cousin, assassin John Wilkes Booth—an actor who had performed in the play—waited for the humorous line “Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, you sockdologising old man-trap.” Amid the laughter that erupted from the audience, Booth fired the fatal shot.

Smack: hit with an open palm; slap. Attested from 1823; presumed to be imitative of the sound of flesh meeting flesh with force.

Spat: petty quarrel. Arose c. 1804 as American slang. Of unknown origin, but perhaps from the notion of “spitting” words.

Wild and woolly: untamed; rowdy. Americanism first documented in 1855 in The Protestant Episcopal Church Quarterly Review and Register (“wild and woolly-haired Negrillo”). In the post-Civil War years, as dime novels and newspaper accounts popularized sensational tales about Indians, outlaws, lawmen, land and gold rushes, etc. in the new territories, the alliterative phrase “wild and woolly West” became a popular way for Easterners to describe the entire region west of the Mississippi River.

Winded: tired; out of breath; rendered temporarily breathless. Arose c. 1802 as a boxing term used in reference to the effect of a punch in the stomach.

Yank: sudden blow; cuff. American English from 1818.

A Texan to the bone, Kathleen Rice Adams spends her days chasing news stories and her nights and weekends shooting it out with Wild West desperados. Leave the upstanding, law-abiding heroes to other folks. In Kathleen’s stories, even the good guys wear black hats. Her short story “The Second-Best Ranger in Texas” won the 2014 Peacemaker Award for Best Western Short Fiction.

Visit her home on the range at HoleInTheWebGang.com.

Whooping it Up: Poker

 When a new town popped up in the Old West, recreation was among the first of the services offered. And that recreation typically involved the "Three W's" -- whiskey, whoring and wagering. We've already dealt with the first two subjects, so let's talk about some of the many ways a cowboy could be parted from his money in a gambling hall.

Poker

The game we know today as poker got its American start in New Orleans. In the early 1800's, French settlers played a card game that involved bluffing and betting, called Poque. From there, the game spread to the Western frontier via riverboats, on which gambling was a common pastime. The exact origins of the game are unknown. Poker may have evolved from a 16th Century Persian game called As Nas, which was played with a 25 card deck containing five suits, with rules similar to today's five card stud. However, the game may also have been invented by the Chinese in 900 A.D. An early form of the game, called Brag, was played with three cards per player, and involved a lot of bluffing.

In 1829, Poker was played with a deck made up of just 20 cards: Ace, King, Queen, Jack and 10 of each of the four suits. Each game had only four players, who were dealt a hand made up of five cards. There was no draw in the original game: you played the original hand you were dealt.

Poker hand rankings were different in the Old West, too, with combinations called things like “full” and “triplets.” These were similar to today’s full house and three-of-a-kind, respectively. Because of the cards involved in the game, the only straight flush in the game was a Royal Flush. The lack of cards below 10 made straight flush hands irrelevant, and this hand ranking was only added after the expansion to a 52-card deck.

During the California Gold Rush of 1849, San Francisco replaced New Orleans as the gambling center of the United States. Around this time, the 52-card deck had been adopted for poker, along with new rules that included draw poker and the flush. The straight was not added to the game until after the Civil War, and a non-drawing, "stud" version of the game was introduced. The first "wild card" poker was seen around 1875.

The type of poker game most typically played west of the Mississippi would have been "Jackpots," an old-fashioned term that referred to what is now called Five-Card Draw, Jacks or Better." It was this game that Doc Holliday and Wild Bill Hickock played, and which replaced faro as the card game of the Wild West.

Ante: a small bet each player is required to make in order to stay in the game

Bluff: to attempt to mislead other players about the strength of your hand, especially if you are trying to convince them that you have a better hand than you actually do

Call: to contribute the minimum amount of money to the pot that is needed to continue playing a hand; this depends on the amount bet by the initial player

Check: to pass on a bet until the other players have gone; at the end of the round, you must either call, raise or fold

Dealer: the person who shuffles the deck and passes out the cards

Draw Poker: a variation of the game in which players are dealt a complete hand at the beginning of the game, and then given the opportunity to replace some of the cards with a second deal in an attempt to improve their hand

Flush: a hand consisting of five cards of the same suit

Fold: to withdraw from the game, giving up whatever you may have bet so far; the signal is to place your cards face-down onto the table. You only fold when there is no chance that your hand could win

Four of a Kind: a hand containing all four cards of the same rank, such as four jacks

Full House: a hand containing three of one type of card and two of another

Hand: the cards dealt to each player

Hole Cards: in stud poker, the cards dealt face-down

Pair: two cards of the same rank

Pot: the money bet by players, traditionally piled in the center of the table

Raise: to bet more than the minimum required to call, forcing other players to put in the difference between their bet and the new bet in order to remain in the game

Ranking: From highest value to lowest value, the possible hands are

• Royal Flush
• Straight Flush
• Four of a Kind
• Full House
• Flush
• Straight
• Three of a Kind
• Two Pair
• One Pair
• High Card (if nobody has any of the above, whoever has the card with the highest value wins)

Royal Flush: Ace, King, Queen, Jack and Ten of one suit; the highest possible hand in standard poker

Show-down: if more than one player remains in the game until after the final betting round, players must turn their cards face-up to determine which hand is the winner

Straight: a hand with cards in numerical order, but not of the same suit

Straight Flush: a hand with cards in numerical order and of the same suit

Stud Poker: a variation of the game in which some cards are dealt face up and some are face down, with several betting intervals in one game.

Suit: one of four categories that the cards are divided into; consists of spades and clubs (black cards) and hearts and diamonds (red cards); each suit contains cards numbered 1-10, along with a jack, queen, king and ace.

Three of a Kind: a hand containing three cards of the same rank

Wild Card: at the beginning of the deal, one card rank may be announced to be "wild," meaning that cards of that rank may be declared by their holder to be any other rank needed to complete their hand.

J.E.S. Hays

www.jeshays.com

hays.jes@gmail.com

Sources:

http://holdemrealmoney.com

Legends of America website

http://realmoney.durrrchallenge.com

World Series of Poker website

My apologies

I must apologize for being negligent, the past three months, in getting my blog done. Time just keeps getting away from me. Even with a big reminder note on my desk, I plumb forgot again.. I promise, next month, I will talk about the Texas Rangers and their role in the development of the Colt revolver.

"Ranger" Jim

Storytelling for Author Marketing

My books (and most fiction, certainly most Western Fiction) are about values and how values are lived and kept alive across the years and the generations.  I mentioned once before in this blog that I thought those themes create the foundation for a marketing program.  I’m still working on it, but something interesting happened.

A wealth management firm (called a multi-family office) sent me a brochure, a “White Paper” entitled “The 25 Best Practices of Multi-Generational Families.” They sent it, not because I am wealthy, but since I used to be in that profession, they thought I might help them find some more clients.  It struck me that it was exactly on the point I was suggesting for brand building and marketing of Western Fictioneers (the authors, not the organization.)

Below, I pick five of their 25 and discuss how western fiction can demonstrate best practice.
 

Shared Values

Any western fiction that shows the influence of prior generations demonstrates shared values.  My books are built on shared values because three generations founded a county and every one of those three generations was aware of their role, the role of all who came before, and their expectations of the role that would be played by those who came after.  It is just as true for the story of a single generation.  Remember the teenage girl avenging her father’s death?
  

Conflict Resolution

Facing conflict, reasoning it out, and recognizing that it is never resolved until the “right” solution is achieved is the model that western fiction contributes to everyday life.  Of course, there is often the initial period when one or more parties attempt to avoid, ignore, or duck the conflict.  There is the middle period when someone tries to bully his way through.  And there is the risk that the final stage will be elongated because the wrong view of the right solution holds sway for an extended time and a number of tries.  

No family wants to think of an armed showdown, but even the Gunfight at the OK Corral follows this pattern.  For sure, you can read it to generate a discussion of what the family should prefer to do.
 

Planning for Major Life Events

How many major life events are there?  I will assert there are five. Birth, marriage, death, success, failure.  In any person’s life, this may be multiplied generationally, so there may be 10 or 15, but they are the same five, repeated.  Not every western deals with every life event.  Some only deal with death and failure. 

My bet is your story shows how your characters planned for major life events.  They may not have done it well.  That is as valuable in discussing best practices as when he or she sails through life’s events prepared in advance and responding perfectly. 

Parenting Skills

My favorite, bar none.  Every western has a parent and a child, whether they are both on the page or not.  Parenting skills in my books are front and center because my characters know they are creating a place and a society in which their children will live.  That also requires preparing their children to live in the place and society they have created. 

The lack of parenting skills or the lack of attention to parenting skills also shows through clearly.  I hope “shows” is the conclusion my readers draw because I think the lack of attention to parenting is evil and I want to go as far as I can in exposing that without making a journalistic statement of opinion.  Hence, in my stories, showing it is all that is allowed.  In this blog, saying it outright is o.k.

Support for Philanthropy

This is such a big word, no one in any of my books could ever get his tongue around that many syllables.  What he, and particularly she, would do, however, is demand that their family be generous.  The offer of a meal at a campfire by people who have no idea where their next meal will come from is about the same level of generosity as the widow’s mite story in the Bible. (Mark 12:41-44 and Luke 21:1-4)  It is not an argument for living in poverty, it is an example of true generosity, a rebuke of the highly publicized sizable gift by the wealthy who won’t miss it. 

People in Western Fiction are generous.   Let me make that more precise.  No bad guy ever makes a generous move or act.  The second he does, the reader has to suspect that he is not all that bad.  Indeed, if ever a good guy makes a selfish move, that same reader suspects he is not all that good. 

I am not arguing for superficial characters; I am asserting that in what you have written, you will find characters who are generous in word and deed and, perhaps not always, but often, they are teaching others – especially the reader – how to behave, how to support philanthropy.
 

You’ll notice there aren’t any particular examples in the above.  I can give you a load of examples from my work, but my hope is this blog will spark you and you will create ideas/examples out of your work.  I’ll give you one example, on parenting skills, and, admittedly, it is a grandparent:

Sheriff Simms liked to tell stories.  It gave the boy a chance to learn something without being taught so damn much.

With a moment’s thought you can see how this can generate a long discussion ranging from parental behavior to how to teach, with teaching by example always being preferred.  A Best Practice!

Promote Your Writing by Storytelling

This notion of how to promote your writing by storytelling has 1,880,000 more Google hits than me.  I’m as much a novice here as I am with my own writing, but I think it has broad application for commercial reasons and for charitable purposes.  I’m hoping this will stimulate your thinking – and I’m hoping it will stimulate my sales.  

 E-mail Edward Massey with comments, author of 2014 Gold Quill winner, Every Soul Is Free and Amazon ABNA 2009 Quarter-finalist, Telluride Promise.