My favorite book, Part 31

There is no shortage of novels about violence in trail drive cowtowns. Some are well written. Most are fairly predictable, even some that are well written. But too many of them rely on the clichés and stereotypes and nonsense we have all been fed too much in shoot-’em-up books and movies and TV shows.

Bloody Newton by Johnny D. Boggs is different. It won a Spur Award from Western Writers of America and deserves the honor.

The story revolves around an actual incident, the Tuttle’s Dance Hall Massacre of 1871. (Also known as the Newton Massacre and the Hide Park Gunfight.) The newborn town of Newton, Kansas, is attracting Texas cattle herds to the railhead there, making the place as wild and woolly as any Old West town.

The author enriches his tale with parallel stories of a family of Texas cowboys, a woman restauranteur struggling to set up shop in Newton, and a newspaper woman from the Wichita Times who was more-or-less exiled to Newton in order to get her out of the editor’s hair.

As the individual stories build, they are braided together toward a fascinating climax. The period detail is well rendered, the characters are believable and distinct, and the violence is rendered so masterfully that it can cause chills.

It’s hard to go wrong with any novel that says Johnny D. Boggs on the cover. But, for me, Bloody Newton is among the author’s finest work, right up there with Northfield, one of my all-time favorite Western novels.

 

Talk show time.

Just a brief reminder (for myself, as well as you) that I will be appearing with friend and author Michael Norman on Rendezvous with a Writer Thursday, October 2, at 7:00 p.m. Mountain Time on LA Talk Radio. We’ll be talking with hosts Bobbi Jean and Jim Bell, and True West magazine film editor Henry Parke, about our new collection of Western stories, Shiny Spurs and Gold Medallions.

The book features short stories honored by Western Writers of America Spur Awards, Will Rogers Medallion Awards, Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Awards, and other recognition. And, there are some new stories in the collection that—with luck—may receive recognition of their own.

It will be easy for you to listen (and look) in. Click on this link to LA Talk Radio or this one for the Rendezvous with a Writer Facebook page for the podcast on October 2 at 7:00 p.m. Mountain Time. The recorded program will be available at both those sites afterward and probably forever.

See you there.

When things gang aft agley.

Storms, stampedes, river crossings, and rustlers ride through the pages of Where the Long Trail Ends—along with the poetry of Robert Burns.

Joaquin Ignacio MacDonald is a Texas cowboy descended from a white plantation owner, black slaves, and a Mexican mother. The only thing he owns from his distant white ancestor is his surname and a stolen book of poetry passed down through the generations. The poetry leads to friendship with a young woman named Elspeth, which costs him his job at a ranch owned by a Scottish syndicate and managed by her father, Duncan Cameron.

Crippled in a horse wreck at his new job, Joaquin turns to cooking, and runs the chuckwagon on a cattle drive up the Chisholm Trail, leading to renewed conflict with Cameron. Thrown together by a bullet wound, the two men tussle over a troublesome past and uncertain future.

The title of the book, Where the Long Trail Ends, comes from a poem by George Rhoades, who, long ago, was one of my college journalism professors. We were reacquainted a few years back when traveling through the world of cowboy poetry, and the Professor kindly allowed me to borrow his words.

There’s a lot that happens in the pages of Where the Long Trail Ends, my newest novel from Speaking Volumes. Much of it is unexpected and surprising, and certainly unusual in a Western novel. I think you’ll enjoy the ride.

Online interviews on the way.

The Internet will be awash with writer Rod Miller in the weeks ahead.

First, tune in to Matthew Pizzolato’s Dusty Trails and Tall Tales podcast Thursday, September 18, at 5:00 p.m. Mountain Time (your time zone may vary). You’ll hear (and see) a panel discussion about a recent anthology of short fiction, Silverado Press Presents: Western Stories by Today’s Top Writers.

On the panel will be Jeff Mariotte, editor and publisher (as well as an author) of the anthology, contributing authors Del Howison and Kelli Fitzpatrick, and yours truly.

In addition to discussing the anthology, the conversation may range to what the various writers are up to, and maybe what we think about western books and movies. It’s anybody’s guess. My contribution to the anthology is a story titled “The Incident Above Mentioned,” historical fiction about the beginning of The Black Hawk War in Utah in April of 1865.

Tune in (or log in) Thursday, September 18, at 5:00 p.m. Mountain Time for Dusty Trails and Tall Tales.

Then, two weeks later, listen to (and watch) LA Talk Radio when hosts Bobbi Jean Bell and Jim Bell, with guest host Henry C. Parke, Film Editor for True West Magazine, will interview author Michael Norman and me on the Rendezvous With A Writer broadcast. The topic of discussion will be our recently released collection of award-winning short stories, Shiny Spurs and Gold Medallions. The two-author collection includes stories that have won and been finalists for the Western Writers of America Spur Award, Will Rogers Award Medallions, the Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award, and other recognition.

You can hear and see the interview live on Thursday, October 2, at 7:00 p.m. Mountain Time (again, your time zone may vary) at LA Talk Radio. The next day, the program will appear on the Rendezvous With A Writer Facebook Page.

Tune in, log in, or link in to these interviews and discussions with Western writers for some thoughts about writing about the American West that may set you to thinking.

 

Stupid question.

Long, long ago, when I was a student in journalism school, we learned about interviews. The whole point was to learn to ask probing questions, learn to ask follow-up questions on the fly, ask questions requiring more than “yes” or “no” answers, ask again when someone dodges a question, ask for additional information to provide context to answers to questions, and so on.

You’ll note two words are repeated several times: “ask” and “question.” That, we were taught, was how reporters and writers and journalists and broadcasters and talk show hosts and others in the interview business conduct business—by asking questions.

It seems to be a lost art nowadays. Seldom do I hear interviewers ask a question. Now, it seems, the method-du-jour is to give orders. Instead of asking, you tell the person you are interviewing to “talk about” this and “talk about” that. Talk about, talk about, talk about. It doesn’t seem to matter if it’s breaking news, hard news, political reporting, sports interviews, talk shows, panel discussions, or whatever. Interviewers seldom seem to ask questions anymore. Instead, it’s “talk about.”

Talk about this. Talk about that. Talk about, talk about, talk about.

Whatever happened to questions and answers? I suppose that’s a stupid question in today’s world. I guess I should say, “Talk about the demise of asking questions in interviews.”

Double Header.

Two new books to tell about.

A collection of rodeo poems, Buckoffs and Broken Barriers, written over the years is now available online in paperback and eBook. The poems range from humorous to wistful and everywhere in between, and all are the result of years spent riding, working, or watching rodeo. Some are based on actual events. Others ought to be, even if they’re not.

Nine-time World Champion Rodeo Cowboy Ty Murray read the book, and had this to say:

“Rod Miller is a very talented wordsmith who brings out the humor, danger, mystique and drama of cow people and their sport. After reading many of his poems that depict his experiences as a rodeo cowboy, it’s a damn good thing he’s a hand with a pen.”

Coming mid-August is a collection of short stories, Shiny Spurs and Gold Medallions, co-authored with friend and fellow writer Michael Norman. Many of the stories are award winners or finalists for those honors, or recipients of other noteworthy recognition. There are Spur Awards from Western Writers of America, Medallions from the Will Rogers Medallion Awards, Peacemakers from Western Fictioneers, and other honors some of our stories have been fortunate enough to receive. We collected those award winners and finalists, wrote some new stories, and put them together in this two-author collection.

Michael is author of several modern-day Western mystery novels, and also writes short stories. Most are historical tales about the Apache wars in the Southwest. My stories run the gamut in setting, subject,  and style. The book is a Thorndike Press large-print edition, available from online booksellers as well as on the shelves at many libraries.

Whether your taste runs to poetry or short fiction or both, you’ll find Buckoffs and Broken Barriers and  Shiny Spurs and Gold Medallions enjoyable. You’ll get a taste of arena dirt, feel the heat of the southwestern deserts, and hear the creak of saddle leather. You’ll find a touch of anxiety and anticipation, some fear and uncertainty—and even the occasional laugh.

 

Word came down last week that Wallace McRae is dead.

He was among the handful of cowboy poets behind the rebirth of our art and craft in the mid-1980s, and his passing is a loss from which we will never recover.

The word “curmudgeon” was as firmly affixed to McRae as his bushy mustache, and it was a description I believe he carried with pride. To many, he came across as gruff. But underlying that gruffness were two simple facts: he had a low tolerance for bullshit, and he did not suffer fools gladly.

McRae was a poet. More than a mere rhymer, jokester, versifier, or entertainer, he wrangled words to create well-crafted poetry that spoke of the West in layers that plumbed the depths, asking questions and demanding thought. You will not find among his work the cheap emotion, the manufactured pride, the manipulative humor so often found in cowboy poetry.

I did not know McRae well. We were well enough acquainted to speak, but it’s not like we were drinking buddies. Back in 2016, he agreed to be interviewed for a magazine article I was working on, and we had a good, long talk at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada. I got what I needed for the story, and I got a lot more than I expected.

We talked about his early exposure to poetry, including his first public recitation at age four at a community Christmas celebration. And his exposure at an early age to one of the greatest cowboy poets of all time: “We got a livestock publication, my dad did, I don’t know what the title of it was, but it had a monthly Bruce Kiskaddon illustrated poem in it. . . . I knew Kiskaddon before I could read.”

I asked his opinion on what Kiskaddon and other early masters—Badger Clark, S. Omar Barker, and others—might think of today’s cowboy poetry. “My guess is, I think they would for the most part feel that we’re trying hard. But maybe not measuring up. Because so few people are trained now in writing. They haven’t read the classics. We haven’t studied the art enough. . . . I don’t think there’s enough of us that study poetry.”

McRae’s honors are too many to mention. But his legacy is one we should treasure—and we could all benefit from reading and rereading and studying his poetry. He was one of the best of us. And now he is gone.