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Western Writers September 2003 Newsletter
SEPTEMBER 2003 Vol. 7 No. 9
Someone said; "There are no new plots in writing." Interesting, yet there are ways of using the same plot thousands of times over and never have the same story. How has your writing been going? Do you find enough time to create? Keep the lights burning and the computer going until "wee" hours? Well, that's the writer for you -- the creative juices continue to seethe. Let's read the newsletter and enjoy the talent of those who devote their time and share their creativeness.
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THE LAUNDRESS
by Frazer Williamson
Again, the small, dark-haired, oval-faced laundress brought Lieutenant
Philip St. George Cooke his laundry. Her name was Liz and she was a widow. He'd never succeeded in engaging her in anything more than monosyllabic conversation. He'd almost stopped trying to.
On this morning, however, before leaving she hesitated at the door.
"Will you write me a letter?"
For an instant he wondered why she should want him to write to her, then realized she wanted him to write a letter for her, not to her.
"I can't write," she said.
He got pen, paper, and ink, and set himself at a table inviting her to sit
opposite. She sat but moved the chair to his side of the table, apart from,
and behind him.
"To whom do you wish me to write?"
"My Papa. No! Don't look at me!"
Here is the letter to her father that the laundress dictated to the
Lieutenant. Afterwards, he wrote it again from memory, for he felt it should
not be forgotten.
Fort Leavenworth.
15th April 1846.
Papa,
In the first lines of this letter, which is being writ (Lieutenant
Cooke decided to write it as she dictated and not correct her grammar) for
me by a officer of the army, I want to beg for your forgiveness.
I'm miserable. You was right. You didn't want me to marry O'Casey. When I met him I thought he was wonderful, but you were right when you said he'd bring me nothin' but sorrow. He sure brung me that, and you too. It ain't enough that me runnin' off with him lost you a daughter and me a Papa, but my brothers what he got to join the army, you've lost them as well for they're both dead. There you are. Maybe the army's told you they're dead. I don't think they'd tell you how they died. That's what I'm goin to do.
Forgive me, Papa for if it hadn't been for me both Aram and Saul would be back there workin' the farm with you. You see, once he got back in the army he became somethin' else. I thought him bein' a Sergeant Major we'd a had somewhere to ourselves, but it wasn't like that. Instead of me bein' able to tend to our needs in a place we'd call our own and get ready for children, he brung me to Suds Row where he got me the job of washerwoman to a company of Dragoons. He wanted the extra money and the extra rations that the army gives to them what does the laundry.
The brothers were in that company so I was doin their laundry along with
lots of others. I never saw a cent for O'Casey took it all.
Anyway, that wasn't the worst. He takes to drinkin', and comin' home sozzled and when I tells him not to be doin' that no more he gives me a thumpin' and I walks about for a while with black eyes and bruises.
Natcherly I tell Aram, him bein' my biggest brother and him and O'Casey gets to fightin' over it and O'Casey comes home with black eyes. O'Casey has Aram up on a charge and he doles out the punishment. Poor Aram was bucked and gagged. I don't know if you know what that means, Papa, but it's terrible. O'Casey done it himself. He ties Arams hands and feet, then, pushes this thick stick under his knees and over his elbows. I have to watch Aram lyin' there with his arms and legs locked together. Then O'Casey; forces a tent peg between Arams teeth and ties it in place. He should have been left there only a couple of hours, but O'Casey leaves him out all night sufferin' pain and thirst. Saul tries to get to him and so do I, but O'Casey locks Saul up in the guardhouse, and he ties me up all night.
In the mornin' they takes Aram to the surgeon who keeps him in the
infirmary, but he never gets out of there for he catches somethin' either
durin' the night or from the others that are coughin' in there and he dies
within the month. It ain't right they should punish soldiers like that.
Anyway, now, about Saul. He's dead too, like I said. Hung like a criminal
for killin' O'Casey, not only for what he done to Aram but for what he done
to me. I never told Saul what he done to me, but O'Casey did. Saul got mad
and smote him.
You see, O'Caseys drinkin' got worse and one night he comes home with three sergeants, and he points to me and says: Thar' she is, boys, you paid for her, she's all yours. I try to get out the door but he stands with his back to it, laughin' as the three of them chase me round the room 'till Im exhausted and can't fight them off no more.
"I been sellin' yer sister," he tells Saul. "She's good for a few years
yet." I'm filled with shame. "Again my will," I says. "I was forced." Saul says nothin', just looks at O'Casey and turns away.
He comes back, walks in through the door without knockin' and puts his
pistol to O'Caseys head. O'Casey goes down on his knees and pleads for his
life. I tell Saul to let him live.
"I let him live and he'll do to me what he done to Aram," Saul says.
"I won't. Honest I won't." O'Casey says. "I'll quit drinkin' and treat yer
sister decent."
"You can go to your father in Hell," Saul says, and blows a hole right
through his head.
Papa, forgive me for what I done to you.
* * *
"How do you want me to sign it?" Lieutenant Cooke asked.
"How'd you do it?" Tears streamed down her face.
"How about, 'Your repentant child'?"
"Do you think he'll forgive me, ever?"
"If he's a good father."
"I got no other."
"They used to take your horse and if they were caught they got hung for it. Now if they take your car and if they are caught it's a miracle."
Will Rogers, September 11, 1932.
A TOWER IN THE DESERT
by Betty Wilson
A stately tower in the desert, the saguaro stands as a silhouette against the desert sky. Birds build nests in her arms and carry seeds about the desert floor, so the magnificent saguaro will continue to grace the desert. The children of the Tohono O'odham would never deface the saguaro, which have a great ability to store water during the dry years and continue to survive while still producing fruit that the desert people could harvest and eat, thereby surviving.
At one time developers bulldozed up some saguaro forests. The saguaros are now protected under state law against vandalism, defacement, or target shooting.
In 1983, a shooter was killed when he damaged a saguaro by repeated gunfire and the saguaro fell on top of him.
The Tohono O'odham know when the doves call that it is time to harvest the saguaro fruit. It is June or moon of the saguaro harvest. The Tohono O'odham will leave their villages so they may travel to where the saguaros grow dense.
In the past the harvest would last for 2 or 3 weeks. Today the saguaro food is a treat. Trips for the harvesting are very short.
The families have the same duties as in the past. Grandmother tends the fire while the men gather wood and haul water. Women work in teams to gather the fruit. Children learn the importance of the saguaro in the lives of the desert people.
A saguaro can produce as many as 40 million seeds in its lifetime. The Tohono O'odham harvest the fruit with buckets and poles made of saguaro ribs. They have wired cross pieces at he top of the poles to dislodge he fruit which may be 30 feet above the ground.
The entire fruit is used. The fruit is mixed with water and kneaded by hand. The pulp and seed will be dried and the fruit boiled into a thick syrup. Pulp can be used for jam. Seeds are parched and they're made into meal cake or chicken feed.
Saguaro syrup can be kept in airtight containers such as well made Native American pottery or canning jars. It can also be frozen.
Information obtained from: Wild Foods of the Sonoran Desert, Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum Press.
Freelance Writer
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http://www.hometown.aol.com/betnaz/myhomepage/business.html
WRITERS IN DELAND, FLORIDA
Robert Fulton, (Rvrgzr) just got back from the Florida Outdoor Writers Conference in Deland, Florida. He reports that he had a good time and met many competent successful writers. FOWA gave him First Place in the Excellence in Craft Awards for Humor. His story was "Amateur Photography" and published in Paddler Magazine. In keeping with Robert's usual humor he said, "The plaque is nice but the check is better."
Website: Robert Fulton
His book: But...You Know What I Mean! An Editor's Point of View, Second Edition (Tillie Ink) by Robert Fulton. At Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or www.rivergeezer.com for a signed copy. ($15.00 + $2.50 S&H)
Like Robert to speak to your writing group? Contact: Jeri Dunlap, E-mail: pegasus2@ptd.net, Phone: 570-568-0264.
E L M E R
by Jim Etter
Elmer McCurdy is remembered as the Oklahoma outlaw who gained his Old West fame long after he died with his boots on. And he isn't through yet.
McCurdy, a luckless train robber killed in a shootout with an Osage County posse Oct. 7, 1911 - and whose mummified body was discovered 65 years later used as a side-show dummy in California - will soon be featured on national television.
As part of the recent production for the program on Point TV, several Oklahomans, using guns and horses, were filmed in a local dramatization of the shootout; and Dr. Clyde Snow, noted forensic anthropologist of Norman, participated in a re-enacted examination of McCurdy's body in Los Angeles. "This thing has taken a life of its own. It's a heck of a story!" said Ralph McCalmont, now director of the state Tourism and Recreation Department - and who has long been involved with the Elmer McCurdy saga.
Twenty-six years ago, McCalmont, then a Guthrie banker and civic leader, and Fred Olds, an artist and sculptor who for years was director of the Oklahoma Territorial Museum in Guthrie, went to Los Angeles to arrange to have McCurdy's body shipped to Oklahoma. McCurdy, who had been killed at about age 32, was buried on April 22, 1977, in the Boot Hill portion of the Summit View Cemetery in Guthrie.
Both McCalmont, 68, and Olds, 87, were also was interviewed about McCurdy for the Point TV program "North Mission Road," expected to air in late winter or early spring, said Vantage Point Productions spokesman Julio Moline in Sherman Oaks, Calif.
McCurdy, reportedly born in 1880 in Washington, Maine, came west in about 1900 and became a small-time, hapless criminal in Missouri, Kansas and finally Oklahoma - where on a rainy early October night in a lonely spot near Okesa, he and a few cohorts - their horses tied nearby and their guns blazing - held up a train on the MK&T (Katy) railroad. It was McCurdy's last fiasco - the robbery netted them little more than $45 and some whiskey - and proved a fatal one. A few days later he was cornered by lawmen where he had holed up in a barn near Pawhuska and shot and killed.
McCurdy's body, after being embalmed with arsenic at a Pawhuska funeral home, and put on public display there for a time, was reportedly taken by someone claiming to be a relative - and, as it apparently didn't resemble a human corpse, wound up traveling with side shows, carnivals and the like for more than two decades. Finally, covered with fluorescent paint and used as a prop on the "Six-Million-Dollar Man" TV series, it was discovered for what it was in a Long Beach, Calif., carnival fun house in December 1976. Along with McCalmont and Olds, Snow also went to California in 1977 - to assist Dr. Thomas Naguchi, chief medical examiner for Los Angeles County, in identifying the body.
After McCurdy's burial in Guthrie that year, the dead outlaw became the center of a local issue in the early 1990s when some residents - some making allegations of "witchcraft" -- complained because his grave was visited by guests of the Stone Lion Bed and Breakfast Inn as part of the inn's "Murder Mystery Weekend" program. Rebecca Luker, owner of Stone Lion, said visits to McCurdy's grave are still a part of her programs in May through August, and said of the upcoming program on McCurdy: "I think it's wonderful."
While the story of McCurdy has been told several times throughout the world, the recent work by Vantage Point Productions may mark the first time a re-enactment of McCurdy's fatal shooting has been filmed in Oklahoma, said Whit Edwards, education and programs director with the Oklahoma Historical Society. He said the re-enactment of the McCurdy shootout, held in early August, involved several in the drama before the cameras. The action was staged at a barn owned by A.V. Smith Jr. near Lexington. Edwards' son, 19-year-old Jay Edwards, played the role of McCurdy.
Snow was in California Aug. 18 for the filming and re-enactment of his part of McCurdy's identification. McCalmont said McCurdy "has been a lot of things to us - a legend, and a big help economically." And, he said, while the bandit failed at his chosen trade, "it's his afterlife that made him so darn important." Snow, 75, who over the years has acted as a consultant to medical examiners, agreed that McCurdy "had a second chance -- in his first life he was a total loser, but in his second life he was a smashing success."
However, he also compared the outlaw to some others of the Old West, such as Billy the Kid, whose name "has a ring to it" - while McCurdy's doesn't. "With a name like that," he said, "if the man, with pistols drawn, ever stomped into a financial institution and said, " 'I'm Elmer McCurdy!' - "they'd laugh him out of the bank."
"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing." Abe Lincoln
Guide Points to Lewis-Clark Fishing Spots
By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS
Associated Press
SPOKANE, Wash. -- At the end of a long day exploring the Louisiana Purchase, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark often wet a fishing line.
Now, in using the 200th anniversary of the expedition to promote wilderness protection, the Sierra Club has produced a guide to 10 great fishing spots along the Lewis and Clark Trail.
``Fishing in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark is a lot more fun than reading a history textbook,'' said Drew Winterer, a fishing guide in Missoula, Mont., who wrote the booklet.
The fishing holes run from the Great Plains to the Pacific Ocean. They are on the Missouri, Niobrara, Yellowstone, Jefferson, Bitterroot, Lochsa, Clearwater, Grande Ronde and Columbia rivers.
Fishing was a matter of both survival and science to the Corps of Discovery. Fish were both studied and eaten. Lewis and Clark ordered thousands of hooks and fishing lines and appointed Pvt. Silas Goodrich as the expedition fisherman.
Goodrich every night would try to catch fish for the corps. Sometimes the leaders would join him.
The rivers he fished are much changed these days. A series of dams, for instance, has dramatically changed the character of the Columbia-Snake river system, and helped kill off most of the salmon runs that existed during the time of Lewis and Clark, the Sierra Club said.
Logging, industry and housing have also affected the rivers.
``When people discover the fishing holes used by Lewis and Clark, they will want to do something to help protect them,'' said Mary Kiesau, coordinator for the Sierra Club's Wild America campaign.
Those who try to fish the same streams these days are advised to bring a rain jacket and lots of bug spray. ``The mesquiters are terrible,'' Lewis wrote 200 years ago, and that remains true today, Winterer said.
Some highlights of the fishing spots:
Niobrara State Park in Nebraska. The catfish, white bass and northern pike the Corps of Discovery caught remain abundant, and the river is little changed.
The Missouri River in the corner of South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa, where catfish were so plentiful, ``we catch them at any time and place in the river,'' Clark wrote.
The Bitterroot River in Montana, which contains populations of Oncorhynchus clarki lewisi, a cutthroat trout species named for the explorers.
The Lochsa River in Idaho, which runs between the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Area and the last remaining roadless portion of the Lewis and Clark Trail. The remote area is largely unchanged from 1805, and offers salmon, steelhead and trout.
South Fork of the Clearwater, in Idaho, where the corps spent 10 days in 1805 recovering from its journey over Lolo Pass in the Rockies. Switching from an all-meat diet to dried fish and grains also caused the men to suffer violent dysentery for 10 days. This river is a centerpiece of conservation group efforts to remove dams from the Columbia River system to restore salmon runs.
On the Net:
http://www.sierraclub.org/lewisandclark/fishing-guide/
ON THE TRAIL WITH ROD TIMANUS
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HERE HE IS . . . .
Pointed out by The Alamo Society member, Rod Timanus
Rod Timanus was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, raised in Cutler Ridge, Florida and currently lives in Durham, Connecticut. He has an Associates degree in Commercial Art from Middlesex Community College in Middletown, Connecticut and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design from Paier College of Art in Hamden, Connecticut.
His artwork, maps and diagrams have appeared in several books, including Eyewitness to the Alamo, Battlefields of Texas and Death of a Legend by Bill Groneman (Republic of Texas Press) and The Alamo Story by J.R. Edmondson (Republic of Texas Press). His work has also appeared in The Alamo Almanac and Book of Lists and The Davy Crockett Almanac and Book of Lists by William R. Chemerka (Eakin Press).
He has contributed cover art, illustrations and written articles for The Alamo Journal, official publication of The Alamo Society. From that career he began to write and illustrate his own books about the Old West. He has retraced the last journeys of David Crockett, from Rutherford, Tennessee to the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas and Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer from Fort Lincoln, North Dakota to the Little Bighorn valley in Montana.
On the Crockett Trail (Pioneer Press) is a history/travel book released in November of 1999 , On the Custer Trail (Pioneer Press) was released in 2001, in time to coincide with the 125th. anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Also in 2001, An Illustrated History of Texas Forts (Republic of Texas Press) was released. Released in early 2002 was an illustrated battle of The Alamo (JBS Publishing) in computer CD format. In January 2003, On the Lewis and Clark Trail (Pioneer Press), a retracing of the Corps of Discovery exploration of the Louisiana Territory, was released to coincide with the 200th. anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
He is currently seeking a publisher for his first Eastern, the story of Connecticut native Nathan Hales life and last journey through Long Island behind British lines that led to his capture and execution on Manhattan Island in 1776. Additionally, he is seeking a publisher for The Runaway Scrape, a book he co-authored that deals with Sam Houston's retreat from the Mexican army after the fall of the Alamo.
He is now working on a book about the Nez Perce War of 1877. He is a member of The Western Writers of America, The Alamo Society, The Texas State Historical Association, The Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, The Huguenot Historical Society, The National Museum of the American Indian, The Veterans of the Vietnam War, Inc. and The Disabled American Veterans.
NEW BOOKS:
JACKPOT RIDGE
by Ralph Cotton
"Revenge is the biggest gamble"
Jack Bell left Elk Horn seven hundred dollars richer after a poker game against Early Philpot. What Jack didn't reckon on was Philpot being such a sore loser and sending a gang of lowlifes into the mountain after him to get the money back. Luckily for Jack, a gunfire-triggered avalanche stopped his pursuers - with one dangerous exception.
Delbert Hanks was humiliated after Jack Bell rescued him from a frozen grave and sent him running back to Elk Horn with his tail between his legs. Now he's woven a web of lies about Bell's prowess as a gunslinger and his thirst for revenge that Early Philpot cannot possibly ignore. And with a band of merciless cutthroats eager to finish off Bell, Hanks believes he won't even have to get his hands dirty.
Ralph Cotton, copyright 2003
Ralph sends a special thanks to the men and women serving in the armed forces. "Our hearts and our spirits are with you."
Ralph's website: www.ralphcotton.com
Also,
Webb's Posse was released this summer, visit the website for details or local bookstores. Looking ahead, Sabre's Edge is scheduled for released this winter.
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NEW BOOK COMING SOON
FROM iUNIVERSE:
RIDE TO RATON
by Marsha Ward
iuniverse
Trade Paperback
A marriage of convenience. A young man estranged from his family. A young
girl nurturing a sacred vow. Will their journey to Santa Fe end in
committment or disaster?
Review:
"Marsha Ward has one foot in the 21st century and one in the 19th. Her
characters hew closely to those wild days, portraying their lives and times.
Readers love her for that. Other writers marvel at her use of the most
modern of means to present her stories." Gary D. Svee ~ two-time Spur Award Winner and author of The Peacemaker's Vengeance
Marsha's website: http://www.marshaward.com
The Official Website of prize-winning writer, poet, and novelist Marsha Ward
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BOOK REVIEW:
LIAR'S TRAIL
by C.K. Crigger
Amber Quill Press
Trade Paperback
ISBN 1-59279-905-1
September 2003
Reviewed by Marsha Ward
C.K. Crigger does it again!
A well-portrayed setting, a young woman fighting for all she holds dear, a
loyal Indian, a couple of hands who are more than they seem, and a suspenseful, intricately-crafted story with just a touch of romance all
combine to make this fast-paced Northwest frontier novel a winner like her
paranormal novels.
The time is 1883, the dilemma is "Save the Ranch," and Morris Tate has a
deadline to pay off a note to William Blau. When Tate is bushwhacked, his
daughter Gincy must get a herd of horses and mules to the Army at Fort
Spokane to raise money. The young woman hires two men to help, but can the party overcome distrust, stalkers, natural disasters, and horse thieves? Do
her hands really work for Blau? Can she beat the deadline and redeem the
ranch? When can she stop telling lies that conceal her father's death?
Crigger's smooth narrative, imaginative plot, and appealing characters mark
her as an up-and-coming author, one I'll gladly read in the future. Five big
stars!
C.K. Crigger's website: Home page of CKCWW
http://hometown.aol.com/ckcww/myhomepage/
OUR GROWING-UP COWBOY
JACK S. BOGGS
~going on three ~
Borrowing Daddy's hat --
That hat doesn't fit yet ...
Watch out you western writers out there --
This young cowboy is going to be the
magnificent writer
That's all for this month, pards. Special thanks to all our contributors whom without them we would not have a newsletter. Keep writing and publishing.
Best wishes,
Marge, Sandy, Kim
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