Preston Lewis's Blog, page 2

How the West Was Fun!

Wednesday is the release date for Outlaw West of the Pecos, the seventh book in my comic western series “The Memoirs of H.H. Lomax.”  The three previous volumes in the series have received Will Rogers Medallion Awards, two gold and one silver, for written western humor.

In this volume Lomax must match wits against famed Texas jurist Judge Roy Bean, noted gunman John Wesley Hardin, crooked border lawmen and an anonymous El Paso newsboy against the backdrop of the weirdest heavyweight title match in prizefighting history.

Here’s how the inimitable Lomax begins his latest adventure:

“While I never intended to wind up dangling from the last car in a westbound Southern Pacific passenger train as we approached the Pecos River gorge, bad things always found me anytime I passed through that godforsaken country people called Texas.  Nor did I have plans to stop in Langtry, Texas, but I did, and the sporting world was a better place because of it.  By the time this chain of events had finished, I’d been dragged multiple times before the wisest judge in the history of the Old West, roomed across the hall from the worst lawyer—and that’s saying a lot—who ever walked the face of the earth, outwitted two presidents and three governors, wound up in a cage with a bear drooling over me for his next meal, fed an African lion before he ate me and wore a badge while cleaning up the streets of the meanest town in Texas.

“All of this resulted from an unfortunate railroad accident when an ace slipped from my sleeve during a friendly Southern Pacific smoking car game with four Texas cattlemen…”

By the time Lomax finishes spinning his yarn, he has outwitted everyone, including himself, to survive against all odds in El Paso, Texas.  One critic has called the Lomax series “historical and hysterical fiction.”

Trade paperback and e-book editions of Outlaw West of the Pecos are available on Amazon.com, thanks to Mike Bray, Paul Bishop and all the fine folks at Wolfpack Publishing.

 

Outlaw West of the Pecos

One of the things about being an author that never gets old is seeing an artist’s cover representation of your work.  I just received the cover for Outlaw West of the Pecos, the seventh novel in my comic western series the Memoirs of H.H. Lomax.

Thanks to Wolfpack Publishing and designer Martin Baines for the striking cover art.  Since my protagonist and his antagonists spend time in custody in this novel, the artwork is appropriate.  I especially like the rye whiskey bottle in the cell, sort of an incarceration with benefits, which is befitting for a Lomax novel.

In Outlaw West of the Pecos, Lomax matches wits—or halfwits—with Judge Roy Bean, deadly Texas pistoleer John Wesley Hardin, a corrupt El Paso constable, a feckless reporter, an ambitious boxing promoter and even a crooked newsboy.  For the first time in his career Lomax even wears a badge and literally cleans up the streets of El Paso.

As all of this is going on, El Paso becomes the focal point of efforts to host a championship prizefight that the Presidents of the United States and Mexico and the governors of Texas, New Mexico Territory and Chihuahua have vowed to stop.  Relying on his friendship with Judge Roy Bean, Lomax is able to outsmart two presidents, three governors and the Texas Rangers to arrange the oddest heavyweight championship bout ever on a sandbar in the middle of the Rio Grande River outside Langtry, Texas.

Outlaw West of the Pecos is scheduled for publication in paperback and e-book formats on February 9th and will be available through Amazon for those looking for a dose of western history and humor.

Old West Hiss-tory

I am pleased to announce the publication of Cat Tales of the Old West:  Poems, Puns and Perspectives on Frontier Felines.” the debut book of Bariso Press.  This is a different type of project for me as it is a nonfiction work that looks at how cats were covered in 19th century newspapers west of the Mississippi River.  The newspaper excerpts range from charming to alarming as cats were viewed as a nuisance as much as a furry companion back then.

How, you ask, did an aging, semi-rational novelist choose such an esoteric topic?  Was he catatonic or cataplexic or simply confused (euphemism for senile)?  Actually, my journey from being a midlist novelist to the world’s greatest living expert on cats in the Old West began five years ago on a bus ride from Cheyenne, Wyoming, to Fort Laramie as part of a Western Writers of America field trip that followed segments of the Oregon trail.  We made the airconditioned journey with our Texas companions Beverly Waak and Mike Cox.

Jefferson Glass, our historical docent for the bus ride, mentioned that cats on the Oregon Trail were more valued than horses.  At that point Mike, who was editor of the Journal of the Wild West History Association at the time, turned to me and said he was assigning me to write an article on cats in the Old West.  When I got back to San Angelo, I checked the indices of dozens of my historical books on the Old West and found fewer than ten references to cats, slim pickings for a major article on the feline frontier.

I was at a loss to complete the assignment until I checked out newspapers.com and did a keyword search for “cats.”  I turned up 7,149,178 hits for cats.  By comparison, I found 4,484,133 hits for dogs, showing felines were much more on the minds of 19th century Americans than canines.  So, I collected hundreds of those articles and wrote a 7,500-word story for Mike, using a fraction of the research I had accumulated.

Thinking there might be a market for more of my findings, I decided to look at self-publishing additional cat stories.  Thus, Harriet and I formed Bariso Press with her as Publisher and Editorial Director and me as Writer, Designer and Flunkie.  This week, we published Cat Tales of the Old West in both trade paperback and eBook format on Amazon, just in time for Christmas.

Neither of us are cat fanatics, but we both love history so we took this on as our first project to see how the process worked creating a book through Kindle Direct Publishing.  So far, so good.  If we find the results are satisfactory, we plan to publish the Civil War correspondence of Harriet’s great-great grandparents and the family memoirs I collected from Dad and his siblings back in the 1970s.

As for cats, attitudes today are a far cry from a common view of cats on the frontier.  Perhaps the frontier outlook was best summed up by the Dallas Daily Herald that reported on Virginia City, Nevada’s Great Fire of 1875 that did $12 million dollars in damage, destroyed 2,000 structures and devastated a section of town three-quarters of a mile long and half-a-mile wide.  Reported the Herald in a front-page story, “There’s a silver lining to the Virginia City cloud, in the fact that from fifteen to twenty thousand prowling pussy cats are estimated to have gone up in the flames of the recent conflagration.”

So, Cat Tales of the Old West gives some of the good, the bad and the ugly of frontier cats.  If it does well, there’s a second Bariso Press volume of cat hiss-tory on the horizon.  (Sorry, it’s hard to avoid bad puns when you write about cats, but I’m just following in the footsteps of my 19th century writing predecessors.)  Check out Cat Tales of the Old West at Amazon: 

 

 

Gold & Silver Strike

We just returned from Fort Worth and the Will Rogers Medallion Award ceremony where I was honored with gold and silver medallions for written western humor.  It is especially gratifying to win the humor honors in a competition named for Will Rogers, one of America’s greatest humorists and one whose clean-cut humor and observations are timeless.

My trail drive novel First Herd to Abilene received the Will Rogers Gold Medallion in the humor category and my novel North to Alaska on the Klondike Gold Runs earned the Will Rogers Silver Medallion for written humor.  These were the fifth and sixth books in my Memoirs of H.H. Lomax series.

I love the WRMA folks and, apparently, they like me as this is my fourth gold medallion and my first silver. It’s always fun to visit with other authors since writing is such a solitary craft.  You won’t find a better group of down-to-earth folks than those who write about the American West, especially those who belong to Western Writers of America.

There’s a funny story behind the gold medal for First Herd to Abilene.  It seems there was a typo in the engraving and author was misspelled “authhor.”  Outgoing executive director Charles Williams and secretary Laurie Cockerell apologized profusely for the error, saying they checked their files and it was correct and it must have been an engraving glitch.

They offered to have the medal re-engraved, but I declined, especially after Harriet, whose name starts with an H, pointed out that it wasn’t the sponsor’s fault nor the engravers problem, as it was likely the mischievous handiwork of my protagonist, H.H. Lomax, who wanted to make sure I remembered he was the real “authhor” of his memoirs.

Suitably humbled, I am now most proud of the fortuitous typo, however it occurred.

In making the presentations to me, WRMA Executive Director Charles Williams said, “Both our Silver and Gold Medallions (for written western humor) are from a familiar and multitalented source, H.H. Lomax’s alter ego Preston Lewis.  These books combine grins, giggles and guffaws with serious and solid scholarship, which is a neat trick indeed.  The Silver Medallion goes to North to Alaska, where we meet Mr. Soapy Smith, a deadly conman with a heart of greed.  The Gold Medallion goes to First Herd to Abilene where we learn that the cowboy’s life is leavened with humor, even if the protagonist doesn’t see it at first.”

An author is no better than his publisher, and Wolfpack Publishing is innovative and topnotch.  My thanks go to the entire Wolfpack team, including Mike Bray, Paul Bishop, Rachel Del Grasso, Jake Bray and Lauren Bridges without whose editorial and marketing skills none of this would have been possible.

Also, I must thank my life’s partner Harriet, who has tolerated my fooling around with imaginary characters all these years.

Rio Bonito Cover Reveal

I am pleased to reveal the cover of Rio Bonito, Book Two in my Three Rivers Trilogy on the Lincoln County War.  Rio Bonito is scheduled for release this August by Five Star, which has designed another striking cover reminiscent of the pulp art during the heyday of the western novel.

Rio Bonito is the sequel to Rio Ruidoso and continues the story of protagonist Wes Bracken, who refuses to align himself with either feuding faction and thus earns the enmity of both sides.  Since my parents first took me to Lincoln during a trip to Ruidoso, N.M. decades ago, I’ve been fascinated with the Lincoln County War, perhaps the most complex feud in the Old West because of so many countervailing economic, political, legal, personal and racial undercurrents in the dispute.

The Lincoln County War is remembered today for its most famous participant William H. Bonney, or Billy the Kid, who rides in and out of Bracken’s life.  Though opinions vary on Billy, I tend to see him as a victim of circumstances beyond his control because of the perverse justice system that was corrupt all the way to Santa Fe, the territorial capital.  Justice wasn’t just blind in Lincoln County; it was dead and buried like the victims of the bitter vendetta.

Fascinated by the fictional possibilities of the feud, I tried to envision how a decent man—Wes Bracken—might be drawn into the conflict while trying to do what’s right.  Even in standing tall for what he believes is just, Bracken is labeled a vigilante, a rustler, and a murderer, though all he wants is to protect his family and neighbors from the marauding bands of outlaws roaming New Mexico Territory.

Rio Bonito takes Bracken’s story through the feud’s climactic shooting—or the “Big Killing” as it became known at the time—after which he promises to help Bonney extricate himself from the legal morass his deadly actions have created.  Rio Hondo, the final book in the trilogy, has been accepted for publication next year and will conclude Wes Bracken’s challenging journey to ultimate justice in Lincoln County.

Texas Institute of Letters

I am honored to announce I have been elected to membership in the prestigious Texas Institute of Letters.  The distinguished literary society was established during the state’s 1936 Centennial to celebrate Texas literature and to recognize distinctive literary achievement.  I am one of 14 being inducted in the class of 2021.

To be added to the roster of TIL members is a wonderful accolade, especially since my writing career has been boosted and influenced by so many past and present members.  Longtime TIL member Jeanne Williams mentored me early in my fiction career, and best-selling Western author Elmer Kelton was a perpetual source of encouragement and inspiration.

Other TIL friends and supporters over the years have included Mike Cox, Judy Alter, Arnoldo de Leon, Leon Metz, Lou Rodenberger, Max Evans, Robert Utley, Paul Carlson, Kent Biffle, Dale Walker, Ty Cashion, Paula Mitchell Marks, Joan Lowery Nixon, and Donald Worcester plus many other members who I never met but whose works I have long read and admired.

I believe life creates a certain symmetry, and that is certainly the case with me and the Texas Institute of Letters.  One of the early members and a driving force in TIL was southwestern folklorist J. Frank Dobie, whose works influenced my interests and writing career.  When in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades I found Dobie’s books—especially The Longhorns—on the library shelves of Pease Elementary School in Midland, they sparked my fascination with the history of Texas and the Old West.

The allure of Texas and Old West history as recorded by Dobie shaped my fiction writing focus and interests.  So thank you J. Frank Dobie for firing my grade school imagination for an avocation that continues to this day, and thank you members of the Texas Institute of Letters for finding me worthy of your ranks.

Way Up North

I am excited to share the cover of my latest H.H. Lomax historical novel North to Alaska, another beautiful front by artist and novelist Tony Masero.  This is his third cover for me in the Lomax series, and I love them all.

His previous Lomax covers include Bluster’s Last Stand, which I adored for its irreverence, and First Herd to Abilene, which captured the essence of an old-time cattle drive.  Thanks, Tony, for such beautiful artwork.

North to Alaska is scheduled for an August release so I must also thank the Wolfpack Publishing gang of editor Lauren Bridges; associate publisher Rachel Del Grosso; and publisher Mike Bray for their role in continuing the adventures of H.H. Lomax, my hard-luck protagonist who finds himself in Skagway during the Klondike Gold Rush.

I have to admit I stole the title from the John Wayne movie, which remains one of my all-time favorites of The Duke.  This rollicking adventure takes Lomax from the Colorado Rockies to the Alaskan Territory and a showdown with notorious western conman Soapy Smith.  Along the way, Lomax encounters Colorado silver king Horace Tabor, Denver madam Mattie Silks, novelist Jack London, a frontier thespian, a talking dog and a persistent Wells Fargo investigator plus the most dangerous human being he has ever met in the west—Miss Susan B. Anthony.

Yep, leave it to H.H. Lomax to become to my knowledge the only character in the history of Western novels to date the legendary suffragist.  It was a moment that would stain Lomax’s already shaky reputation for decades and make North to Alaska an entertaining read!

Short Stuff

Medallion

The highlight of the Independence Day Weekend for me was receiving official notification that two of my short stories—“The Hope Chest” and “A Grave Too Many”—were finalists for Will Rogers Medallion Awards, which will be presented in October in Fort Worth.

“A Grave Too Many” was published in the Five Star Anthology Contention and Other Frontier Stories, released in May of last year.  “The Hope Chest” was released in another Five Star Anthology The Spoilt Quilt and Other Frontier Stories in November.  The two stories were among six named finalists in the “Western Short Stories” category.

Thanks to Five Star Senior Editor Tiffany Schofield for inviting me to submit stories for consideration and Project Editor Hazel Rumney, whose editing skills improved both submissions immensely.  It is an honor to be a finalist along with so many other fine writers and members of Western Writers of America.

I was blessed two years ago to receive a Will Rogers Gold Medallion in the written Western Humor category for “Bluster’s Last Stand,” a comic western on George Armstrong Custer’s final days.  It was indeed an honor to receive a humor award named for Will Rogers, who was one of America’s great humorists.

Western Collection Redux

I am pleased to announce the release today of the second volume in the Preston Lewis Western Collection, which includes five of my early westerns.

Thanks to the fine folks at Wolfpack Publishing for bringing out this e-book anthology that includes my first two novels, Hard Texas Winter and New Mexico Showdown.  Other books in the collection originally written under my Will Camp pseudonym include Blood Saga, Vigilante Justice and Escape from Silverton, which has a backstory I’ve never before shared publicly about the kinds of games authors play to amuse themselves and annoy their wives.

I had a dream years ago when I was working on the manuscript that became Escape from Silverton and, unfortunately, shared that dream with Harriet.  In the dream Will Rogers came to me and asked me to help him write an adage that he would forever immortalize him.  After days of hard thought, I returned to Mr. Rogers, Will not Fred, and told him I’d come up with the following saying:  “I never saw a man I didn’t like.”  He liked it but said I wasn’t quite there and to come back to the next day with the revised version and I did.  However, instead of coming back with “I never met a man I didn’t like,” I revised the quote to say “I never manned a saw I didn’t like.”

Not only did I have a dream, I unfortunately shared it with Harriet who hurrahed me incessantly over it.  So, I decided I would fix her wagon and teach her a lesson and show her a writer’s revenge.  Fast forward two years later and I had just received my writer’s copies of Escape from Silverton and shared one with Harriet to read.  About three nights later we were in bed as she neared the end of the book and all of a sudden she cried out, “I can’t believe this,” and then flung the book across the bedroom.

By then, I’d forgotten my writer’s revenge and cried out, “What’s wrong with you?”

“This line,” she groaned.

“What line?”

“The one ‘I never manned a saw I didn’t like’,” she cried out.

Then it came back to me.  I had contrived a scene where my protagonist in trying to escape from Silverton, Colorado, had broken a wagon’s rear wheel and not having a spare had sawed the back half of the wagon off, making a cart that would carry him to Durango and safety.

While my high school and college English teachers always talked about writers incorporating symbolism in their novels, the writers I’ve known over the years were more likely to write inside jokes and gags in their works to amuse themselves and tweak their acquaintances.

If there’s a lesson here, it’s never annoy a fiction writer because he (or she) can get back at you in ways you may never know.

As for the second volume of the Preston Lewis Western Collection, it’s available from this Amazon link.

 

Western Collection

A day after its Kindle release, Volume 1 of the Preston Lewis Western Collection was ranked on four Amazon Best Seller Lists:

No. 4 in Classic Fiction Anthologies & Collections,

No. 7 in Classic American Fiction,

No. 8 in Louis L’Amour Westerns, and

No. 29 in Westerns

The anthology includes five of my previous novels, starting with Blood of Texas, my Spur Award-winning novel of the Texas Revolution.  Lone Survivor, a Spur finalist, tells the story of the last participant of a Texas feud and the terrible secret he carried for years.

Also included in the anthology is Choctaw Trail, one of my personal favorites, about a federal marshal in Indian Territory having to track down his own son.  Tarnished Badge about rustling in the Texas Panhandle and Santa Fe Run about Indian Agency corruption in New Mexico Territory round out the collection.

The e-book omnibus edition is the equivalent of 1,129 print pages and is available or 99 cents from Amazon.  Thanks to Wolfpack Publishing for making this possible.