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Western Writers July 2003 Newsletter
JULY 2003 Vol. 7 No. 7
Celebrating the birthday of our nation, July 4th, was indeed colorful with many explosions from fireworks that appeared more impressive than earlier years. From 1776 to 2003 a glorious celebration continues. Happy Birthday America!
BIG SKY
WESTERN WRITERS OF AMERICA ANNUAL CONVENTION
THE 50TH GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY
by Margaret Bzovy
Western Writers of America annual writers convention met in Helena, Montana on June 24 - 28, 2003 at the Red Lion Colonial Hotel. Approximately 280 people arrived to enjoy the golden anniversary of one of the finest writers groups known.
The events began with registration and welcome by Richard Wheeler, and Karyn Cheatman, hosting the event along with their well-organized committee. Writers were handed their badges that were worn throughout the affair along with carry-bags that held informative brochures about Montana and the tours that would be taken.
New members were welcomed at a special meeting with Larry Brown, membership chairman officiating. He welcomed each member and asked each one to give their name and relate what they enjoyed most in Western writing. A mentor had been assigned to each member to answer any questions and guide them throughout the conference. Larry Brown called on several known authors such as Elmer Kelton to speak about the organization and give informative advice.
Wednesday of the next day, all members attended a delicious breakfast and met old and new friends. President, Paul Hutton welcomed everyone and expressed his desire that each member assist the newer members whenever possible and make them feel welcomed. He explained that badges with a small green dot attached designated the new member. Future writing conferences for the year 2006 were then pitched with Cody, Wyoming and Springfield, Missouri in the offering. Voting on the choice would be held later in the conference.
Sign-ups were offered for authors to meet with certain editor/publishers to review their latest manuscripts. The first panel meeting held was entitled, GREAT BEGINNINGS with Debra Morgan as monitor and panelists: Loren Estleman, Elmer Kelton, and Lucia St. Clair Robson. They informed everyone how beginning a story is the utmost importance in having a salable book. The first sentence must grab your reader or editor and attract their interest to read more. Keep the story flowing with interest to the final page.
After lunch, the second panel was held, STORIES THAT MOVE US AND WHY with Win Blevins as monitor and panelists: Lucia St. Clair Robson, Meredith Blevins, and Gary Svee. They revealed interesting information about story beginnings and how the story itself must attract the reader with the first sentence. Directly after was the third panel, RESEARCHING FICTION AND NONFICTION with moderators Charlene Porsild and Clark Whitehorn and their panelists: Candy Moulton, and D. Claudia Thompson. They expressed the importance of researching properly and agreed that getting correct information to write about was most important for a successful book. Their opinion was to research several books that agreed upon the subject to be written about.
There was also offered a "drive yourself tours" that members could go on if they brought their cars and desired to see Montana surroundings. The first driving event was to Virginia City and then directly after to Marysville. After lunch they drove to Gates of The Mountains.
Later, everyone attended the Montana Historical Society museum with a wine and cookie reception. Enclosed in glass cases were the 1800s era working tools for the miners, such as the hydraulic water pump, sluice boxes, picks, and shovels. The furniture and heating apparatuses on display gave an account that the miner used little for his comfort. Interesting medical items used for animal care and dentistry equipment indicated to the viewer what was available. Period costumes worn during those times presented an exactness of style and types of materials. Interesting gambling items explained the games played. An excellent gun collection of Tennessee long rifles, revolvers by Colts and other manufactured type guns held everyone's interest.
Thursday, there were two different trips that members could choose from. One, to Deer Lodge to visit an old time working ranch, then later to explore an ancient prison. The second trip was to Butte to view an old mine. Later, after the trips, the members attended the Holter Museum that depicted exceptional works of art. The museum curators offered refreshments of wine, cheese and crackers.
Returning to the hotel, everyone viewed the items to be auctioned and enjoyed a delicious banquet. There were many interesting items donated by different members to the Western Writers recently formed HOMESTEAD FOUNDATION. WWA member, Dusty Richards, a professional auctioneer, officiated and led the exciting, fast moving auction. The auction brought in approximately $6,000. All proceeds from the auction will go to the benefit of Western Writers future needs.
The Homestead Foundation, directed by WWA Vice President Rita Cleary, supports the educational and award winning functions. They seek contributions from all interested in the preservation of Western culture, history and traditions. Donations are welcomed from writers, non-writers and interested members of the public. All donations are tax deductible. Interested people may contact rmcleary@mindsprings.com
Friday began with the author-editor interviews. The fourth panel was, WRITING ACCESSIBLE HISTORY monitored by Paul Hutton with the panelists: David Dary, Dale L. Walker and Charles Rankin. The panel offered information to accessible history (popular history) designated to be "borrowed" with intent of offering truthful stories about an era or historical person. They explained one should write colorful descriptive historical events (not to be overdone). When using dialogue to use correct quotes. Keep the story moving with actual information and don't back track to other ideas on the subject. Writing in chronological events was suggested as a good idea to keep the facts straight. Stay away from fictionalizing the story and keep with the true aspects found in researching.
A walking tour to Reeders Alley and Last Chance Gulch was conducted for those not attending the panel. The fifth panel, EDITORS, AGENTS AND MARKETS offered national and regional editors and publishers, who gave interesting information. There were approximately twelve or more attending to offer an insight to writers. They explained what they were looking for from writers and the best way to send in their manuscripts.
At noon the grand finalist luncheon was held and the announcement of the finalist winners. An excellent luncheon was served and enjoyed.
For those not attending the panels, there was also a movie offered by the Dorothy M. Johnson films in the theater named for movie actress, Myrna Loy. The sixth panel was REACHING READERS: DISTRIBUTORS AND WESTERN LITERATURE with monitor, Lori Van Pelt and the panelists: Pam Nelson, Bill Golliher, Charles Rankin, Roland Cheek, Larry Martin. They expressed ideas of the importance of writers reaching the public with proper advertising methods.
Everyone was shuttled to the MONTANA CLUB in downtown Helena, an old established restaurant where everyone enjoyed good food and talked with old and new friends in celebration of the Golden 50th anniversary of Western Writers of America.
Saturday came too quick. A continental breakfast was served with a general business meeting directly after. President Paul Hutton officiated and members were asked to vote on the future convention. The votes were tallied and the place decided was Cody, Wyoming for the year 2006. At noon there was a continuance of editor/author meetings. The bus took everyone to the Walden bookstore for the book signing event. The mall entrance walkway was lined with tables for each author from A to Z. Shoppers could not miss all the books and authors on display. The event went smooth and with considerable interest from Montana people who were very gracious and friendly. A Montana Radio station interviewed several of the authors. Excellent newspaper coverage of the whole affair was covered in the local Montana newspaper. Each author was given a fantastic gift of a hardback coffee table book entitled, BISON portraying the Montana buffalo, plus a very nice pictorial calendar of Montana for the year 2004, both donated by the Riverbend Publishing Company of Helena, Montana.
The Award Banquet was held later that evening to honor all those with outstanding books. Many authors received awards with author Don Coldsmith accepting the highest writer's award, the OWEN WISTER trophy of life long contribution to the history and legend of the American West. (to view the names go to http://www.westernwriters.org see Award Winners)
With solemn good byes to all and promise to see everyone again next year in Mesquite, Nevada for the next annual conference hosted by Bob Wiseman, the 50th Western Writers of America annual convention came to a close for the year 2003.
BACK AT THE CAPITOL
By Frazer Williamson
General Winfield Scott was clicking his heels and awaiting President Polks pleasure. His appointment had been for nine sharp, and he had been there on the dot, but now it was going on eleven, and he still had not been summoned.
General Scott knew James Knox Polk as a successful lawyer who had swiftly climbed the political ladder due to the social prominence of his wife Sara Childress. Without her he would just have been one of the dozens of aspiring lawyers instead of the eleventh President of the now twenty-eight states of America.
Polk had been a compromise candidate because the Democrats could not reconcile their differences, and if the presidential campaign had been run on personality instead of issues, Polk, a difficult and unlikeable man, would never have been President. Scotts politics as a Whig were opposed to the principles of Polks mentor, Andrew Jackson.
The Commanding General of the United States Army thought he would give Polk another two minutes, and then depart. Scott looked at his gold watch, then closed the lid. He judged the time before looking again. One minute and forty-five seconds had elapsed. He began counting off seconds.
General Scott. The secretary had opened the door. President Polk will see you now, sir.
Scott strode in with compressed lips.
Winfield. Polk came forward and grasped his hand. Good of you to wait. You will understand when I tell you I am once again, plagued by the British negotiators over Oregon. Now, about this war with Mexico. Please, sit. It would appear from General Taylors reports that Mexico has a greater army than our own.
It would have been better if John Slidell had succeeded in the mission you sent him on.
I did not expect him to succeed. Mexico was not going to concede any of her territory. He has however paved the way for later negotiations when we have won the war which they started by invading our territory.
They claim the territory below the Neuces River as their territory. They see us as starting the war.
Do you not agree that Texas ends at the Rio Grande, not the Neuces. We were in our own territory.
Im indicating their point of view. Of course I recognize the benefits of territorial gain, but I think that going for Texas and California at the same time will stretch my Army to its limits.
Our Army. These Mexicans would appear to be ill-equipped and poorly trained. General Taylor beat them at both Palo Alto and Rasaca de la Palma, against greater odds.
None the less, to fight on two fronts will require more men.
Then more men we must have. How many more do you reckon?
It will mean raising taxes.
Polk shrugged. If Im to talk Congress into giving more money, I need to know how many men youll need.
At least seventy-five thousand.
Ill tell them you want that number, but Ill ask for fifty-thousand. Ill reckon youll get more.
Conscripts?
I hate the idea of conscripted men. Conscripted men make poor fighters. Your harsh discipline necessary to keep them in line only makes them want to desert, and shooting deserters is a waste. This war will be fought better with volunteers.
How will you make it worth their while?
By an appeal to their patriotism. The cowardly Mexicans have violated their territory and killed their fellow countrymen.
I think youll need more than that.
Ive had a team working on it. Polk opened a drawer of his desk and handed Scott a sheet of paper. Scott read it. It was a call for volunteers that would appear as a poster. Underneath the American Eagle and E. Pluribus Unum there was a call for men from each State. It told them how Santa Anna reeking with the generous confidence and magnanimity of their countrymen, is now in arms and eager to plunge his traitor dagger into their bosoms. They must rush to arms and with undaunted bravery crush the dastardly Mexicans on the plains of San Luis Potosi. Those who enlisted in the Regiments of Volunteers would get $10 per month with an advance of $30. Not only that, each man at the successful conclusion of the war will be granted a handsome bounty in money and ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY ACRES OF LAND.
Well? Polk asked when Scott finished reading.
Clever, Scott said. "Especially sixty, instead of fifty. Will Congress agree to it?
It will be land taken from Mexico. Land from Texas, California, Arizona, western Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.
Polk watched Scott whom he knew to have designs on the Presidency when election next came up. Scott would want the war to go well. A successful campaign against Mexico would increase his popularity with the common people especially those from the army who survived the war and had benefited in a small way from what was estimated to be more than half a million square miles of territorial gain. Scott, Polk knew, would not urge the Whigs in Congress to oppose what the Democratic President would be asking for.
When do you take this to Congress? Scott asked.
Tomorrow.
Im sure youll get what you ask for.
Ive no doubt I will.
I still dont like the idea of a simultaneous attack for California and Texas.
Kearny is resourceful and is on his way to New Mexico.
His troops are not seasoned, and he will be outnumbered. I have had no dispatches from him since he left Fort Leavenworth.
Let me know when you do. Polk brought the meeting to a close. Now I must get back to dealing with the British now that they have been distracted by their Irish problem. Did you know that Queen Victoria has a fear of fire and never travels anywhere without two fire engines from the London Fire Brigade?
I did not know that, Mr. President, Scott said.
When James Knox Polk addressed Congress he was granted $10,000,000 and 50,000 volunteers.
THE OLD RODEO RIDER
he dusted off
what was left of
his senses. brushing
the dirt out of his hair,
he grabbed his warped
cowboy hat and hobbled
out of the arena.
sensing it was his last
ride, he started to cry
the emotions carried him
deep into the night
he sat sad and
depressed feeling sorry
for himself while looking
for the bottom of a
cheap bottle of whiskey
Joe Meneley
C 2003
(Joseugmen)
M E M O R I E S
POSTHOLES AND SUNSETS
by Charles T. Whipple
Whenever I visit my folks in Show Low, Arizona, we work. One year, I helped Dad build a granary shed to replace the one struck by lightning. The
concrete floor was still good so we built the new shed right on top of it --
same size and same shape as the old one, and, three years later, the same
shade of iron gray.
Today we dig postholes. Dad wants to put ketch pens with a loading chute in the corner of the field on the bench so he can load yearlings and haul them out to the section east of town. I crowbar the sandy loam loose and then shovel it out of the hole to make a pile on the side. Unearthed worms wriggle their way back underground. Dad supervises. We rest a lot, I'm a city boy and Dad's in his eighties.
Between shovels full of dirt, we talk a lot about the way things used to be, or how we imagine they were. The meadowlarks ask if we've planted the wheat, and the smell of new-mown alfalfa from Chet Adams's field is stronger than the sound of his John Deere.
There was a time when we'd have refreshed ourselves from a canvas waterbag cooled by wicking and evaporation. Now we drink cold pop from a cooler in the back of the pickup. Back then, a dozen yearlings would have been fattening in the field. Now there's just a sorrel horse named Red, and a
stray dog. Dad's too old to ride Red to exercise him, so he stands around
and gains weight. The dog's just there.
A gravel road runs north between our field and Uncle Howard's. Killdeer flit in and out of the dry grass on the ditch bank alongside the road. Across the way to the west, I see the forge Grandpa built. Behind it, the land climbs a bit so the horizon is west of the Robson place. I don't know how many
degrees there are in a man's field of vision, but from the big Ponderosas on
the hill east of the State Highway yard to the junipers that mark the drop-off into Show Low Creek, the horizon pretty much fills a man's eyes from one side to the other.
In July, the sun goes down right in the middle, sinking through the knobs of one-seed juniper that dot the ridge. There's not all that much color until
the sun gets about halfway into those junipers, and then God simply upends
the paint box and the whole western sky turns into a flaming mixture of
oranges, reds, ochers, purples, and deep, deep blues.
All day, cotton-ball clouds have been marching northwest across the sky from the Blue Mountains over near New Mexico. Now the sun is gone, but it's left a lot of gold painted on those clouds.
Well, my Dad and I stand there with five or six empty postholes in the
ground and watch. As the dusk gathers, we can hear the cows lowing to be
milked at the barn. Dad looks at me and says, "Oh, my, son, wasn't that
grand?"
Dad left in '95
But horses, dogs, and sunsets
Keep him alive
REWRITING TO FIND YOUR WRITING PROBLEMS LEADS TO
WRITING POWER.
Lorene Poe
(MizTinny)
HOW DARE HE?
by Maggie Oake
Once upon a time, in a Western Romance novel that should never be written, a princess stamped her dainty feet in anger as she did at least three times per chapter.
"How dare he?!?!" Princess Rusalka of Pettyvainia glowered at the handsome stranger's back as he clambered up the rocky side of the canyon. Her violet eyes flashed with fury, her rosebud mouth pouted peevishly, and her silver-blonde curls danced as she shook her head.
"How dare he stare at me in such a vulgar fashion?" Worse yet, the arrogant man had had the audacity to smile and say that if she didn't wish to be stared at, she shouldn't wear boy's clothing that fitted so snugly over her voluptuous body and long legs. The Princess had flushed angrily at that, for she felt that her bosom was too large and her waist too small and she disliked anyone calling attention to the fact. It might, she reflected, help if she wore a corset and fastened the top three buttons of her shirt. However, no buckskin-clad barbarian had a right to gape at her so lustfully no matter how she dressed. As for legs - well, in decent society even the lengths of wood that supported a table couldn't be called anything less delicate than "table limbs." A gentleman would never speak of a lady having legs, even if she were garbed in form-fitting trousers that displayed every curve.
"How dare he?" Princess Rusalka muttered yet again, further outraged that this uncouth ruffian had ordered her - as if she were a common serf - to remain here while he went up on the ridge to see if they were still being pursued. Their pursuers were Pettyvainian rebels, and it was hardly any business of this mannerless lout to tell her how to deal with her own countrymen. Her would-be protector was probably too stupid to handle the task by himself, anyway. Showing the streak of stubborn spirit that had led to her exile in the first place, Rusalka decided she should take charge of matters herself.
So the Pettyvainian princess climbed to the crest of the ridge and stood up to get a good look, letting the wind whip back her silvery curls. Silhouetted against the flamboyant aubergine and tangerine glory of a desert sunset, she was a beautiful sight. The handsome stranger glared at her, his sensual mouth turned down in a feral snarl, and barked out a foul curse as he gestured for her to get down. While the princess was composing a suitably royal reply to this disrespectful outburst, a Pettyvainian rebel focused his rebellious gaze on her porcelain face right between her violet eyes and pulled the trigger on his Sharps carbine.
NEW BOOKS
WEBB'S POSSEE
by Ralph Cotton
When the Peltry Gang swoops into Rileyville, the attack is sudden and merciless. Before the townsfolk know what hit them, one of their own lies dead in the dirt street, Deputy Abner Webb is caught with his pants down, and just for good measure, the desperadoes shoot the sheriff and leave him for dead as they head out.
Webb knows he must capture the outlaws for what they've done, but that won't be easy for the inexperienced lawman. Yet with the help of a shady horse trader and an ornery schoolmaster, Webb just might bring the gunslingers in on their feet - or slung over their saddles.
Looking ahead, JACKPOT RIDGE is scheduled for release this Fall. Most bookstores are accepting preorders for Jackpot Ridge. A preview of the cover is posted at the website http://www.RalphCotton.com
Action and excitement as only Ralph Cotton can write, you will thrill to all of his books. WEBB'S POSSE is now available at your book dealers or online with Amazon.com. Be sure to get JACKPOT RIDGE, Cotton's recent book coming this fall.
NOTE:
Please see the Western Writers 50th Convention photos at:
Hyperlink.--> WW at Helena 2003 Photos
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or
Go to Our WW Homepage. Click Pow-Wows then Helena.
Hyperlink--> WesternWriters New HomePage -Aug.-2003
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It takes a minute plus to open because there are 35 photos.
Enjoy
Thats all for this month, Pards. Many thanks to all our contributors for their great writng efforts. We could not have such a great newsletter without them. We appreciate their help. See you next month.
Keep writing,
Marge, Sandy, Kim
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