Well, I finally got around to it.
After years of dithering and several abortive starts, I
finished a Western. Dead Shot: The Memoir of Walter Ferguson, Soldier,
Marshal, Bootlegger drops four weeks from today, on November 22, just in
time for holiday shopping. (Hint, hint.)
Dead Shot is unique from my other books in several
ways besides being my first Western. First, I didn’t “write” it; I am but the “editor.”
The conceit is that I stumbled across the notes for a memoir by a western
Pennsylvania native while researching a Penns River novel. Walter Ferguson
(1844 – 1937) told his life story to a woman named Helena Elizabeth Judson, who
took copious written notes and even a few wire recordings. Both participants
died before the project came to fruition, and somehow the notes ended up at the
Alle-Kiski Historical Society, where I found them. I then took it upon myself
to complete what Walt and Helena had “begun.”
Another difference is that Walt crosses paths with
historical figures and participates in documented historical events. Along the
way he interacts with frontier notables, including Charlie Bassett, Butch
Cassidy, Wyatt Earp, Wild Bill Hickok, Bat Masterson (and his brothers), Johnny
Ringo, Al Swearengen, and Bill Tilghman among others. Walt also participates in
the Second Battle of Adobe Walls and the Dodge City War.
I also had to come up with a new style and voice that felt
more appropriate for the era. I read several memoirs of cowboys, lawmen, and
criminals in hope of cobbling together something that would ring true as an
oral history as told though Walt’s eyes without seeming too archaic.
I had a ball writing Dead Shot and The Beloved
Spouse™ enjoyed listening to me read it to her; she is always a good judge of
how well what I wrote is received by others. J. D. Rhoades, author of the Jack
Keller series as well as the acclaimed Western The Killing Look, said, “A
fascinating, picaresque journey through a tumultuous post-Civil-War American
West. Walter tells his tale with scrupulous honesty and wry wit as he
encounters legends and makes a few of his own. Fans of Thomas Berger's Little
Big Man are going to love this one. Highly recommended.”
Here’s a tease from Chapter One:
My name is Walter
Stewart Ferguson. I was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania on January
17, 1844. Or January 14, depending on who you ask. I celebrate on the 17th,
as that is the date Mother told me and I figure she should know. It is also the
birthday of the greatest Pennsylvanian of all time, Benjamin Franklin, and who
better to share a birthday with than he? [Editor’s Note: The facts are unclear.
Many local birth records were damaged or destroyed in the flood of 1936, as
were the baptismal records of the Ferguson family church.]
I
am the second of five children to survive more than one year, along with an
older sister (Oneida), a younger brother (Seward), and two younger sisters,
Ella and MaryLou. An older brother was stillborn and a sister, Ethel, was taken
by the whooping cough in her first year.
I
could always shoot. My father, Gordon, was a more than passable marksman, but I
bested him the first time he took me out to learn. People said it was a gift
from God, my ability to shoot accurately with whatever was in my hand, be it
musket, rifle, pistol, or bow and arrow. Only God knows if that is true. All I
can say for certain is that it led me to do things I am not sure God would
approve of. I suppose one day I will find out.
Dead Shot will be available on Amazon November 22. Look
for special pricing over that weekend.
(Note: I know, I know. Some might consider releasing a book
titled Dead Shot on the anniversary of the Kennedy assassination to be in
questionable taste. For reasons of my own, I always planned to drop the book on
the Friday before Thanksgiving. I didn’t realize that was the 22nd
until I looked it up just now. If anyone takes umbrage…well, damn, people. It’s
been 61 years. He’d be dead by now, anyway.)
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