Dead Shot: The Memoir of Walter Ferguson, Soldier,
Marshal, Bootlegger, drops November 22. I wrote a couple of weeks ago about
what a departure it was for me to write a Western. Today I’ll come clean: it’s
not as much of a departure as you might think. Dead Shot my second
Western.
The still untitled novel was written in fits and starts
several years ago after several western road trips put the bug in me. I
squeezed bits in between drafts of Penns River and Nick Forte novels figuring
I’d edit it into something usable.
The editing made it better, but I was still dissatisfied.
The book struck me too much as a rehashing of my favorite scenes from other
Westerns, both written and on film. I was pondering how to fix it, or if it was
even worth fixing, when the character of Walter Ferguson came to me. The other
book fell by the way during Walt’s lengthy gestation period.
These things happen. I’d thrown away thousands of words
before. The Man in the Window, the third Forte novel, was almost half
written when I decided I didn’t like where it was going. I salvaged what I
liked and started over. The Man in the Window earned me a Shamus
nomination as Best Paperback Original, so I guess I made the right decision.
The third Penns River novel, Resurrection Mall,
started life as the fifth Forte. I was more than 30,000 words in and not liking
how things were holding together – or, more accurately, not holding together –
when it dawned on me what was wrong: this was a story better suited for Penns
River. I threw away everything except the title and one sentence, shifted the whole
operation to Penns River, and the rest went as smoothly as any book I’d written
to that point.
Those experiences taught me to trust my judgment, so tossing
a virtually finished novel did not keep me up at night. The time I worked on
that book was well spent. I discovered what I needed to better understand to
write a convincing Western, and that I needed to write a book in full,
uninterrupted drafts if I wanted it to seem of a piece. I also needed a voice
more suited to the period.
All those things not only made Dead Shot a better
book, it made it a treat to write. I never had as much fun researching anything
I’ve written, thanks mostly to the lively storytelling of those who wrote the
histories and memoirs I used in my research. All the books listed below are
well worth your time if you have an interest in Western history; the History
Channel series, True West, is also recommended. (Alas, Wild West Tech
has only random episodes available on YouTube.)
The Encyclopedia of Lawmen,
Outlaws, and Gunfighters, Leon Claire Metz
The American West, Dee
Brown
Why the West was Wild,
Miller Snell
We Pointed Them North, “Teddy
Blue” Abbott
The Johnson County War,
Bill O’Neal
Deadwood: Stories of the Black
Hills, David Milch (Focuses on the TV show but has a lot of good historical
perspective)
Old Bill Miner: Last of the
Famous Western Bandits, Frank W. Anderson
A Texas Cowboy: Or Fifteen
Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony, Charlie Siringo
Famous Gunfighters of the
Western Frontier, Bat Masterson
Dodge City, Tom Clavin
Gunfighter, Joseph G. Rosa
Beyond the Law,
Emmitt Dalton
Last time I left you with a brief excerpt of Walt’s early
life. Today I’ll tease you with a little of his military experience in the 11th
Pennsylvania Volunteers.
I
would have been happy to have no cause to fire my weapon during the War of
Southern Rebellion, but I ended up doing more than my share of killing. There
were two reasons for this. At Chancellorsville I saw a Rebel blow the head off
my best friend, Charlie Bagby, while Charlie lay wounded and helpless. I killed
that man and the three who were with him. After that I took it as my part to
kill my share and Charlie’s too. It seemed only fair.
The
other reason I killed so many was that I was good at it. A man should never
shirk a God-given gift. The Almighty made me so I could send a bullet anywhere
my eye landed. To deny that talent would be akin to blasphemy.
I
was fortunate to have a captain who recognized my ability and took full
advantage of it. Much of my time between engagements was spent hunting to bring
back game that added variety to a diet I would not wish on vermin. Some of the
other men resented that I was excused from the less glamorous duties of a
soldier, such as digging and filling latrines or standing night watch. They got
over it when they realized Company C was the best-fed outfit in the regiment.
As for the other Western, I’ve seen and read quite a few in
the past several years that are also mostly rehashings of classic plots and
scenes; the secret is in the execution. So, as Billy Crystal said in The
Princess Bride, it’s not completely dead.