September is a busy month for book events and I am looking forward to them after such a long a break. The first is Words on the Street in Lethbridge on 17th September.
It will be great to see the local authors I know there and meet new ones. There is always so much to do and enjoy centered around literature and writing.
The second event is more local, Words in the Park, in Sherwood Park. The event will be celebrating 15 years, which is a fantastic milestone! With local authors, artisans and musicians showcasing their creativity, the event is part of Alberta Culture Days and there is something for all the family.
If you are a writer, author, or reader this is the event you must attend. The pdf form to apply for a table is on this page – just scroll down. Link:
Invite your friends, family and colleagues and discover local talent.
Western fiction is set in the American Old West frontier and typically ranges from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century. The genre peaked around the early 1960s, largely due to the popularity of televised Westerns. Readership began to drop off in the mid- to late 1970’s and has reached a new low in the 2000’s.
In pre-1850’s the predecessor of the western in American literature emerged early with tales of the frontier. In the 1850’s–1900’s the Western became a specialized genre starting with “penny dreadfuls” and later “dime novels”. In the 1900’s–1930’s it had a new medium of pulp magazines, which helped to relay these adventures to easterners. By the 1940’s several seminal Westerns were published and the genre peaked around the early 1960’s, largely due to the tremendous number of Westerns on television.
In the 1970’s the author,Louis L’Amour began to catch hold of most western readers and he has tended to dominate the western reader lists ever since. George G. Gilman also maintained a cult following for several years in the 1970’s and 1980’s. However, by the 1990’s and 2000’s the readership of western fiction reached a new low and most bookstores, outside a few western states, only carry a small number of Western fiction books.
Did you read western fiction when you were younger? Do you read them now? What changed if you stopped reading them?
It can, depends on what and where and when I am writing.
What is your writing Kryptonite?
Crown Royal, a good Martini or constant interruptions…
Did you ever consider writing under a pseudonym?
No
What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer?
Too many to mention, but, we all feed into each other. Read each other’s work and give constructive criticism when and where needed.
Do you want each book to stand alone, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?
Excellent question. Whereas I try to make each book readable on it’s own, I do incorporate characters and elements from prior novels in each book unless it is truly a stand alone story.
What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?
Editors
What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?
11th grade, Drama class…we did an impromptu ad-lib skit
What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel?
‘Still Waters’
As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?
Horse
How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
None anymore
What does literary success look like to you?
Folks reading and enjoying my stories. Getting rich from writing is a pipe-dream, one of which I have never fed into.
What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
Long hours of research if it is warranted for the story. So, I guess that would depend. I have researched for months, and I have researched for only a couple hours.
How many hours a day/week do you write?
12-15
How do you select the names of your characters?
Yet another good question. I find names popular or prominent in the old west, and then remember that almost everyone on the outlaw trail had a nick-name. Hit and miss, I reckon.
What was your hardest scene to write?
The death of Bobby Malloy in ‘The Rights of Men’.
Why did you choose to write in your particular field or genre? If you write more than one, how do you balance them?
Expertise in the field. Know what you write and write what you know.
How long have you been writing?
10 years
What inspires you?
Just about everything.
How do you find or make time to write?
Along with running a small publishing company and preparing for a weekly radio show, it’s my job.
What projects are you working on at the present?
The building of an artificial leg that works like a normal leg in 1876.
Mandy Eve-Barnett's Blog for Readers & Writers 