Thursday, June 11, 2015

Writing Down the West



Do you have any idea how hard it is writing a western novel? I haven't read a Louis L'Amour book since I was a teenager, and my plots for historicals are usually set in England like the gothic stories I used to love by Phyllis Whitney and Victoria Holt.

On the other hand my interest in pioneers stems from my ancestors who crossed the plains in handcarts and covered wagons. And I love stories about children surviving on their own, like the ones in Seven AloneIsland of the Blue Dolphins, and Hatchet. During family hikes and car drives through the Rockies, I started to imagine a story about an orphaned brother and sister who were forced to take up adult responsibilities. How would they manage? How would it change them?


Next, the research started. It entailed much more than watching old episodes of Bonanza and Rawhide. Many readers are sticklers about what kind of weapons and ammunition were used at what time, how buffalo really react when shot, and so on, so preparing to write the novel took months of work, but it was fascinating as one topic led to another. I hope the final version of the novel recaptures the flavor of a tumultuous chapter in America's history, a time when the West was changed forever.