Patrick Dearen's Blog, page 3
April 16, 2014
Elmer Kelton Award for "To Hell or the Pecos"
I was fortunate enough April 5, 2014 to receive the inaugural Elmer Kelton Award for my western novel To Hell or the Pecos. Sponsored by West Texas Historical Association, the award recognizes the best work of fiction set in West Texas and published in 2012-2013. The award previously was known as the R.C. Crane Award.
On the way home from Elmer Kelton's funeral in August 2009, I asked myself how I could best honor this special man who was voted the all-time best western novelist by Western Writers of America. I decided to write a novel set in the region he and I both loved and to dedicate it to him.
To Hell or the Pecos is that novel, so I was particularly honored that it was chosen for the first Kelton Award.
Published by TCU Press, To Hell or the Pecos was also a 2013 finalist for the Will Rogers Medallion Award for best western novel.
Patrick Dearen
On the way home from Elmer Kelton's funeral in August 2009, I asked myself how I could best honor this special man who was voted the all-time best western novelist by Western Writers of America. I decided to write a novel set in the region he and I both loved and to dedicate it to him.
To Hell or the Pecos is that novel, so I was particularly honored that it was chosen for the first Kelton Award.
Published by TCU Press, To Hell or the Pecos was also a 2013 finalist for the Will Rogers Medallion Award for best western novel.

Published on April 16, 2014 07:26
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Tags:
award, elmer-kelton, elmer-kelton-award, novel, patrick-dearen, pecos-river, tcu-press, texas, texas-christian-university-press, west-texas, western, western-novel, will-rogers-medallion-award
October 31, 2013
INTERVIEW WITH PATRICK DEAREN
You're the author of the new Starflight series and 18 other books. What's your background?
I was born in 1951 in Sterling City, Texas. When I was 10, my mother presented me with Edgar Rice Burroughs’ "Tarzan of the Apes," a gift that helped shaped my life. I earned a bachelor of journalism in 1974 from The University of Texas at Austin and worked as a reporter for two daily newspapers in Texas. My favorite pastimes are backpacking and playing ragtime piano. I make my home in Midland, Texas, where my wife is managing editor of the daily newspaper.
When and why did you begin writing?
When I was 14, a teacher suggested I consider writing as a career. Thrilled over the prospect of emulating my hero – Burroughs – I went home that afternoon and began my first novel.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
From the moment I sat down and wrote that first line as a kid, I thought of myself as exactly that—a writer. But forty-eight years later, I’m still learning.
The first two novels in your Starflight series will be released in all ebook formats December 2, 2013. Tell us about book #1.
It's titled "Starflight to Destiny" (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...). A deep-space archaeological dig has uncovered clues to the location of a legendary power in the reaches of the galaxy. A man and a woman each learn half the answers to its whereabouts, and they defy a totalitarian government to join a band of space pirates and undertake a starship quest to find it.
Please tell us also about book 2, "Starflight to Eternity" (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...).
Decades after the events in the first book, a messianic-like figure returns from interstellar space, bearing a tale of a planet that can grant a man the ability to create. But this world proves to be much more, for it holds the fate of the cosmos. It's up to a new generation to set out on a starship quest to find this legendary world and solve its riddles.
What inspired you to write the Starflight series?
My science fiction roots run all the way back to Burroughs, but I’ve also found that my work in one genre fuels another genre. Since 1982, I’ve researched and written extensively about lost treasures of the American Southwest. The Starflight series is actually a lost treasure tale, although this treasure is a lost power and the setting is interstellar space rather than a Southwestern wilderness.
Do you have a specific writing style?
I learned early on never to emulate another author stylistically. Over the decades I’ve developed my own style, although I’ve always felt that a competent writer should adapt his style to the subject matter. My works range from documented history to folklore to journalism to westerns to sci-fi, and each genre demands its own style.
With that said, my Starflight series most closely resembles the works of Leigh Brackett and the mature Edmond Hamilton, with a large dose of Burroughs.
Is there a message in your series that you want readers to grasp?
Most importantly, I want my readers to enjoy the series. But I also want to stress the importance of perseverance, which I think is the key to success in almost anything, whether it be writing or interpersonal relationships. It’s always easy to throw your hands up and give up, but that frame of mind won’t gain a person success in writing, much less in a marriage or in the relationship with his children or friends.
When I completed the manuscript for my first nonfiction book back in the mid-‘80s, I suffered through 75 rejections. At that point, I faced a choice: I could either give up or I could persevere. I chose the latter. I changed the title – that’s all – and started through the same publishers a second time. After I had endured exactly 100 total rejections, an acquisitions editor snapped it up.
Are characters in the Starflight series based on someone you know, or events in your own life?
Even in science fiction, I draw upon my own experiences, shaping them to fit my needs. First love, last love, forever love, never love . . . Who hasn’t gone through at least some aspect of the intricacies of interpersonal relationships?
There’s a lot of Humphrey Bogart’s Rick from “Casablanca” in my main character in "Starflight to Destiny," but there’s also a lot of me.
What authors have most influenced your life? What about them do you find inspiring?
I’ve already mentioned my admiration for Burroughs and Leigh Brackett. For my buck, Burroughs was the greatest storyteller ever, and Brackett was the master stylist. Every time I read one of her works, I’m so awed by her incomparable style that I think I might as well give up writing.
I also admire James Oliver Curwood, whose "Kazan, the Wolf Dog" is on a level with Burroughs’ "Tarzan of the Apes" and "The War Chief" as my all-time favorites. Jack London’s "The Call of the Wild" is high on my list too. Do you note a trend? High adventure is the common element in all of my favorite authors’ works, which is something I pursue every time I go backpacking.
Who designed the covers for the Starflight series?
I chose spectacular deep-space photos from the Hubble Telescope for both covers, which I think capture the awe and mystery of interstellar space. I think they may be the most attractive covers of any of my 11 novels.
Do you have any advice for other writers?
In a question-and-answer session back in college, I asked Larry McMurtry what advice he would give an unpublished novelist. He replied, “Write regularly. You may have all the talent in the world, but if you don’t have the energy and dedication and perseverance to sit down and write, you’ll never get anywhere.”
Let me add this quote that I have framed over my work station: “The real trick is to keep on writing when no one cares whether you do or not, to keep on writing in the face of loneliness and fear.”
Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
Watch the video trailer for the Starflight series at http://youtu.be/9y7auWdx_lo. Expect more than simple space opera in "Starflight to Destiny" and "Starflight to Eternity." Maybe reading these two novels will help point you toward your own eternal destiny.
I was born in 1951 in Sterling City, Texas. When I was 10, my mother presented me with Edgar Rice Burroughs’ "Tarzan of the Apes," a gift that helped shaped my life. I earned a bachelor of journalism in 1974 from The University of Texas at Austin and worked as a reporter for two daily newspapers in Texas. My favorite pastimes are backpacking and playing ragtime piano. I make my home in Midland, Texas, where my wife is managing editor of the daily newspaper.
When and why did you begin writing?
When I was 14, a teacher suggested I consider writing as a career. Thrilled over the prospect of emulating my hero – Burroughs – I went home that afternoon and began my first novel.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
From the moment I sat down and wrote that first line as a kid, I thought of myself as exactly that—a writer. But forty-eight years later, I’m still learning.
The first two novels in your Starflight series will be released in all ebook formats December 2, 2013. Tell us about book #1.
It's titled "Starflight to Destiny" (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...). A deep-space archaeological dig has uncovered clues to the location of a legendary power in the reaches of the galaxy. A man and a woman each learn half the answers to its whereabouts, and they defy a totalitarian government to join a band of space pirates and undertake a starship quest to find it.
Please tell us also about book 2, "Starflight to Eternity" (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...).
Decades after the events in the first book, a messianic-like figure returns from interstellar space, bearing a tale of a planet that can grant a man the ability to create. But this world proves to be much more, for it holds the fate of the cosmos. It's up to a new generation to set out on a starship quest to find this legendary world and solve its riddles.
What inspired you to write the Starflight series?
My science fiction roots run all the way back to Burroughs, but I’ve also found that my work in one genre fuels another genre. Since 1982, I’ve researched and written extensively about lost treasures of the American Southwest. The Starflight series is actually a lost treasure tale, although this treasure is a lost power and the setting is interstellar space rather than a Southwestern wilderness.
Do you have a specific writing style?
I learned early on never to emulate another author stylistically. Over the decades I’ve developed my own style, although I’ve always felt that a competent writer should adapt his style to the subject matter. My works range from documented history to folklore to journalism to westerns to sci-fi, and each genre demands its own style.
With that said, my Starflight series most closely resembles the works of Leigh Brackett and the mature Edmond Hamilton, with a large dose of Burroughs.
Is there a message in your series that you want readers to grasp?
Most importantly, I want my readers to enjoy the series. But I also want to stress the importance of perseverance, which I think is the key to success in almost anything, whether it be writing or interpersonal relationships. It’s always easy to throw your hands up and give up, but that frame of mind won’t gain a person success in writing, much less in a marriage or in the relationship with his children or friends.
When I completed the manuscript for my first nonfiction book back in the mid-‘80s, I suffered through 75 rejections. At that point, I faced a choice: I could either give up or I could persevere. I chose the latter. I changed the title – that’s all – and started through the same publishers a second time. After I had endured exactly 100 total rejections, an acquisitions editor snapped it up.
Are characters in the Starflight series based on someone you know, or events in your own life?
Even in science fiction, I draw upon my own experiences, shaping them to fit my needs. First love, last love, forever love, never love . . . Who hasn’t gone through at least some aspect of the intricacies of interpersonal relationships?
There’s a lot of Humphrey Bogart’s Rick from “Casablanca” in my main character in "Starflight to Destiny," but there’s also a lot of me.
What authors have most influenced your life? What about them do you find inspiring?
I’ve already mentioned my admiration for Burroughs and Leigh Brackett. For my buck, Burroughs was the greatest storyteller ever, and Brackett was the master stylist. Every time I read one of her works, I’m so awed by her incomparable style that I think I might as well give up writing.
I also admire James Oliver Curwood, whose "Kazan, the Wolf Dog" is on a level with Burroughs’ "Tarzan of the Apes" and "The War Chief" as my all-time favorites. Jack London’s "The Call of the Wild" is high on my list too. Do you note a trend? High adventure is the common element in all of my favorite authors’ works, which is something I pursue every time I go backpacking.
Who designed the covers for the Starflight series?
I chose spectacular deep-space photos from the Hubble Telescope for both covers, which I think capture the awe and mystery of interstellar space. I think they may be the most attractive covers of any of my 11 novels.
Do you have any advice for other writers?
In a question-and-answer session back in college, I asked Larry McMurtry what advice he would give an unpublished novelist. He replied, “Write regularly. You may have all the talent in the world, but if you don’t have the energy and dedication and perseverance to sit down and write, you’ll never get anywhere.”
Let me add this quote that I have framed over my work station: “The real trick is to keep on writing when no one cares whether you do or not, to keep on writing in the face of loneliness and fear.”
Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
Watch the video trailer for the Starflight series at http://youtu.be/9y7auWdx_lo. Expect more than simple space opera in "Starflight to Destiny" and "Starflight to Eternity." Maybe reading these two novels will help point you toward your own eternal destiny.
Published on October 31, 2013 19:39
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Tags:
novel, patrick-dearen, sci-fi, science-fiction, space-opera, star-flight, starflight-series, starflight-to-destiny, starflight-to-eternity, starship