Scott Harris's Blog, page 13

Double Crossing

Meg Mims 2011’s Double Crossing opens with Lily Granville, a beautiful, intelligent young woman who lives with and loves her father, trying to decide if she’ll defy him for the first time and marry a missionary bound and determined to take her to China. But before the final decision is made, her father dies of

Mile 7: Outline?

To outline, or not to outline, that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of an unplanned novel Or to take arms against a sea of troubles By outlining them and so ending them Forgive me, but that was fun to write. Many, perhaps even most, writing

Book Review: Rio Bravo

1959’s “Rio Bravo” is a fantastic film, a favorite of many of my Western friends. It is directed by Howard Hawks, stars John Wayne and Dean Martin (along with a great supporting cast), and has plenty of fights, good guys, bad guys and a terrific sense of humor. You even get to hear Dean Martin

Forum Featuring Western Writer Charlie Steel

  When — and why — did you first fall in love with Westerns? Scott Harris, first of all, like all authors, I welcome the opportunity for an interview and to express my viewpoint about anything dealing with the West. Since your sudden appearance in the Western community, you certainly have become a busy and

Diamondback: Shroud of Vengeance

Pick a Saturday afternoon, any Saturday afternoon, and grab your favorite beverage and perhaps a good cigar. Settle in for a couple of hours and enjoy “Diamondback: Shroud of Vengeance.” This is an adult Western, the 1970s and 1980s version of a pulp Western, and it’s just plain good old-fashioned fun. It’s the type of

Mile 6: Software

When I started writing my first novel, “Coyote Courage,” I turned on my computer, opened up Microsoft Word and started typing away. I wasn’t too far in before I realized I needed to start making some notes: What kind of gun did I say Brock had? What was the name of the bartender? Did I

Book Review: Shane

Jack Schaefer’s 1949 novel, “Shane,” is set in the late 19th century in the Wyoming territory. The plot is a common one found in many Westerns. Luke Fletcher is a cattle driver who is hungry for all the range he can control and willing to do whatever it takes to move the homesteaders, who have

Forum Featuring Western Writer L. Glen Enloe

When — and why — did you first fall in love with Westerns? I was about six years old when I fell in love with Westerns. TV was in its infancy and I became a huge fan of Hopalong Cassidy. I’ve still got several old photos of myself dressed to the hilt in my Hoppy

Broken Trail

Alan Geoffrion’s 2006 novel, “Broken Trail,” is an absolutely terrific book — one in which he invested more than five years of doing research to prepare for, focusing on and then combining two separate, but historically accurate, stories. The first was about the forced prostitution of young Chinese girls who were taken from the Far

Mile 5: When to Write

There are as many schools of thought regarding when the best time to write is as there are writers, or hours in the day. It would be easy to make this the shortest entry of all the Trail Notes… Write when it’s right for you! And in many ways, that is the best advice I