Greetings, kind folks.

Hope the winter doldrums haven't gotten you down at all. It'll be over before too much longer. We hope! For now, let's get on with the newsletter. And we'll start off with some very good news about one of our members.

NEWS OF MEMBERS

Ellen Recknor received a phone message from W.C. Jameson recently telling her that her book PROPHET ANNIE was a unanimous winner for the Spur Award for the BEST NOVEL OF THE WEST.

Two years ago, Ellen won a Spur award for her novel, LEAVING MISSOURI.

CONGRATULATIONS, Ellen!

BOOK NEWS

JOHNNY BOGGS:

TEN AND ME (ISBN 0-8034-9390-8) from Avalon Books (www.avalonbooks.com), $18.95. This is Boggs' eighth Western novel for Avalon. It follows the story of two unlikely partners who become famous through the novels of a hack writer and learn the violent price of fame. TEN AND ME has earned praise from real writers like David Marion Wilkinson, Jeff Siegel, Stef Donev and Sandy Whiting — and reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist and Roundup.

THAT TERRIBLE TEXAS WEATHER (ISBN 1-55-622-727-2) from Republic of Texas Press (www.wordware.com), $18.95. Boggs' first book-length nonfiction work, THAT TERRIBLE TEXAS WEATHER examines some of the worst tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, blizzards and drought in the Lone Star State, and will probably not be promoted by various tourism and visitors organizations. But, what the hell. That's why I live in New Mexico.

Check your local bookstores, call the publishers or try amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com, and help Johnny D. Boggs feed Scout the basset hound.

RITA CLEARY:

The Western Writers of America board member has three books available: GOLDTOWN, SPIES AND TORIES, and RIVER WALK.
River Walk will be on the book shelves in March.

JOHN LEGG: The first two books of the Wildgun series are in stores. No. 1 is called WILDGUN; No. 2 is VENGEANCE TRAIL. The third (tentatively titled LONG TRAIL) will be out in March. This is an adult Western series, and is written under the name Jack Hanson.

MARKET INFORMATION

From one of our busiest YA western writers, Ritercat:

I have found two publishing houses that are most open to westerns, historical writings and will work with unpublished writers. Okay, there is a catch. There isn't an advance and both pay FLAT FEES only. However, once your have written a few books for them and have a track record, you can negotiate. You do not need an agent.

Hachai Publishing
156 Chester Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11218
E-mail: www.hachai.com (includes writers guidelines)

Editor Diana Rosenfeld prefers books about Jewish families in the 1800s. The books must be written for a series. They are short chapter books called FUN TO READ. The books target the 7- to 10-year olds. However, their Web page also encourages books for 3- to 5-year olds.

In my research, I have found that many Jewish families settled in the West and played a significant role in settling the Pacific Coast from San Francisco to Seattle.

Rosenfeld is a wonderful editor to work with and encourages new writers almost every word of the way. She has many contacts in the publishing world. It's a great place for Western writers who do not have an agent and need a friendly start.

Chelsea House
Suite 400
1974 Sproul Road
Broomall, PA 19008
E-mail: chelseahouse.com (includes guidelines)

This publishing house also pays a flat fee, but don't turn off your computer yet. The house is begging for historical and/or western biographies. They specialize in nonfiction, series books and CD-ROM books for middle graders and YA readers. They have a new historical series planned and need writers.

All series books are nonfiction. They target the library market. All books are assigned. Do not send unsolicited manuscripts. They welcome ideas, résumé, and clips and/or writing samples if the writer has them. Editor in Chief Stephen Reginald replies to e-mails himself.
Check out the Web page for specifics. Well-planned ideas are welcomed. An agent is not needed. New writers are welcome (although he does prefer some writing experience).

I e-mailed Mr. Reginald and pitched five ideas. He called me and we chatted for almost an hour discussing various ways of working with the ideas.

Don't be shy! Seize these two opportunities. I know a flat fee isn't the best for a writer, but for you who don't have an agent or have never published in the YA market, this could be your start.

ARTICLE

In light of the release of the new dollar coin, we present:

Sacagawea was a Shoshoni, born in 1787. Her name meant "Bird Woman," and it is said she was quiet, cheerful and friendly. Nothing is known about her before she went on the Lewis and Clark expedition. We can assume she lived a typical Shoshoni child's life, staying close at her mother's side, learning about her culture and her place in her society. She was likely a girl who toted water, learned to weave baskets, make pottery, clean the meat brought in by the men of the tribe. She would need an understanding of how to build fires, how to cook, to sew, to clean clothes in the streams. Every day brought her more knowledge in women's activities, learning what she would need for her husband and children when she came of age.

However, at the age of 12, she was stolen by marauding Hidatsas who lived among the Mandans on the Knife River in North Dakota, many miles from her home. As the years went on, she never forgot her own people and carried their ways in her heart, but she soon found a life among the strange customs of her adopted tribe.

When she was about 16 years, the Mandan Chief sold Sacagawea to a French-Canadian mountain man named Toussaint Charbonneau, who took her as his wife. Charbonneau lived with the Mandans and was there when Lewis and Clark arrived and built Fort Mandan for their winter quarters during the early days of their expedition. Lewis hired Charbonneau as their interpreter and guide in April 1805. Sacagawea, who had just given birth to her first child, Jean Baptiste, on Feb. 11, prepared her infant son for the journey. She strapped him in a cradleboard and placed him on her back in the usual Indian custom. Thought her husband had demanded she come on the trip, Sacagawea cheerfully assisted her husband in leading the strange white men over the rough mountain trails. When they were stalked by other Indians, who became anxious and suspicious of the white men so close to their camps, she created a harmony, speaking kindly with them to allow them to continue their travel.

Clark wrote about her in his journal, describing her as the "Indian woman" because he could not spell her name. He admired her easy way of calming possibly enemy warriors. He wrote, "A woman with a party of men is a token of peace."

Clark wrote of seeing Sacagawea going into the river to retrieve their supplies when one of the canoes capsized, and he praised her efforts. He also scorned the husband, whom he believed mistreated her.

She really proved to be a peacemaker when the Lewis and Clark expedition came to the Shoshoni village in Montana to trade for horses. One can only surmise how Sacagawea felt when she spotted her older brother, Chief Cameahwait. Tears streaming down her face, she dashed to her brother and threw her arms around him. Despite some moments of apprehension, she was soon recognized as their little "stolen" sister. There was no further apprehension between the white men and the Shoshoni.

Rather than stay behind, however, Sacagawea waved goodbye to her brother and her people as she continued with the Lewis and Clark expedition across the Rocky Mountains toward the Pacific Coast.

There is little written about what happened to this brave young woman after the Corps of Discovery returned east. One story sats she returned to the Mandan tribe with her husband, Charbonneau. She left her 6-year-old son, Jean Baptist, with Clark, who sponsored his education in St. Louis.

It was said Sacagawea died of "putrid fever" amongst the Shoshoni people at Fort Manuel near the Missouri River. Her date of death is recorded as 1812, which would indicate she died at only 25. A note by Clark seems to confirm this.

Another story has her dying at the Wind River agency in 1884, at almost 100 years old.

Sacagawea is remembered today with her image on the new U.S. dollar.

INTERVIEW

Western Writers: When did you begin to take writing seriously?

Ellen Recknor: For over 20 years I was a painter, specializing in portraying show horses and show dogs on a commission basis. But when the bottom fell out of the Arabian horse market in 1989 (taking all associated industries down with it, including mine), I began casting about for something else to do. I happened across an article in People magazine about a college girl who had been paid $50,000 for her first Romance novel. I thought, "Gee, I could paint for YEARS on $50,000!" I had never read a romance, but I didn't let that stop me. (Ignorance is sometimes bliss.) I borrowed a computer and wrote that first book (a Western romance) in six weeks, never having a single doubt that it would be published—which it was, in 1991. Needless to say, I soon learned that the figure quoted in People had been greatly exaggerated, but I never went back to painting. I was hooked!

WW: Did a particular author influence your writing?

ER: Not really. Everything I've ever read influences me, from the really fabulous to the hideously putrid!

WW: Why did you choose the Western genre?

ER: I've always loved Westerns. I suppose this comes from growing up during the entertainment industry's Golden Age of Westerns. I can sing you the theme of most any western that was on TV during the '50s and '60s (I believe I am second only to John Alba in this ability), and I was—and am—John Wayne's greatest fan. He was from Iowa, and so am I. Suzann Ledbetter has a life-size, standup cutout of him, and I'm plotting to get it away from her!

WW: What writing advice helped you the most?

ER: Because I started writing in complete isolation, nobody gave me any advice, drat it! I had no idea that there were writer's organizations out there, and I never met or corresponded with another author until after I'd written my third book. By that time, I'd learned the basics of most everything by the good old trial and error method. Then I got hooked up with a couple of writer's message boards, primarily FIDOnet and Genie, and they were worth their weight in gold to me. Nobody gave me any specific advice that I can remember, but the fellowship was a godsend.
You didn't ask for it, but my first advice to fledgling writers is that they read EVERYTHING. Read good books, great books, bad books, breakfast cereal boxes, and toothpaste tubes. Read across the genres. Listen to the way that the writers you love put words together. Figure out why they strung them in that order. Write, write, write, and find your own voice. Things like point of view, characterization, plotting, and theme will fall into place if you're meant to be a writer.

WW: Do you do any historic research for any of your novels?

ER: Always! Since I hate to borrow from libraries (they actually expect you to bring the books back!) I buy my reference material whenever possible. I have tons of books on Arizona history, on Ozarks folklore, gunfighters, Indians, the western movement, women's clothing in the 19th century, and on and on. I buy reference books that I will probably never have a need for. It's psychopathic, I think.
And although I move characters around on real historical maps, I confess I make up the towns half the time. History doesn't always cooperate and make just the town you want, where you want it. I don't let the truth tie my hands in any case—they call it fiction for a reason, you know—but I like to know the facts before I start bending them!

WW: What inspired you to write the Spur Award winning novel, LEAVING MISSOURI?

ER: When Gary Goldstein, then my editor at Berkley, signed me to do the follow-up to ME AND THE BOYS, I decided to write a book about the niece of a minor character in that book, Weevil Jukes, who was rotten through and through. I came up with Clutie Mae, the saving grace of the Jukes clan, and decided to set the book deep in the back hills of Missouri. This, in turn, led me to come up with Clutie's knuckle-dragging relatives, the Bug Boys, and also led to lots of fun research into Ozarks folklore and superstition.

Books build one block at a time for me, and they usually start with a character—in this case, Clutie Mae. By the way, the original title of LEAVING MISSOURI was THE DUCHESS OF DOLLAR CREEK.

WW: What other novels did you write?

ER: As Ellen Recknor, I've written three western historicals: ME AND THE BOYS, LEAVING MISSOURI, and my current release, PROPHET ANNIE, which is a very strange Western indeed, since the heroine is a reluctant trance channeler and runs around with circus people, outlaws, and a half Navajo wannabe French chef.

WW: Do you write under a different name?

ER: Yes, I've written romance, mystery, and Westerns under various pseudonyms. I'm writing traditional men's Westerns under the male pen name of Wolf MacKenna! The first of these books will be out in October 2000, and it's titled DUST RIDERS.

WW: Do you have a favorite author and why?

ER: Quite honestly, there are a great number of writers I admire. Of contemporary writers, I think I would have to single out Stephen King, mainly because he taps into his generation like no one else. He has a wonderful eye for detail and a great ear for dialogue. And he can build to that Horrible Moment like nobody else.

WW: Do you see any future for the Western genre?

ER: Yes and no. I think there is certainly a market for traditional Westerns, but that market—its readership—is dying off. I believe the future of the genre lies in better books, wonderfully written, that explore not only the grand and mythic elements of the West, but its smaller moments as well.

The Western market was ruined in its heyday by too many bad books, and we're suffering from it still. We need to foster true excellence in writing, much as the science fiction field has done to dig itself out from under the onus of the "Bug-Eyed Monster." We need to curry the favor of the public by networking and making ourselves accessible to the public, as Romance writers have done so successfully.

We can schmooze editors until the cows come home, but the fact is that editors cannot—and will not—publish what the public isn't buying. It's business, pure and simple. The only way to attract more readers to the genre is to do it one person at a time. Join a message board or an e-mail list, and go out of your way to be nice to the newbees and the curiosity seekers. The next time the TV repairman or the plumber comes to your house, the next time someone does something nice for you, give him or her a book. Preferably a good Western!

UPDATE

Western Writers of America members are invited to attend the New York City Western festivities from 5 to 8 p.m. April 7, at Posman's Books on the main level of Grand Central Station, near the 42nd Street entrance.

Rita Cleary, Western Writers of America board member, welcomes all WWA members to take advantage of this great opportunity. Cleary's article on Page 19 of the latest details the wondrous time for all who come to New York. She also explained the importance of all writers interested in the Western genre to make this event to promote their own books as well as prove to the eastern publishers there is a huge interest in Western literature so they will start thinking of publishing more Westerns.

The reception will feature publishers, editors, agents and distributors and, we hope, many Western authors. There will be ample time for discussions, display of books and a delicious buffet.

Start packing pardners — y'all will want to show the New Yorkers there's more than boot kickin' out west.

CONFERENCE REVIEW

The Society of Southwestern Authors presented their annual Wrangling with Writing Conference in Tucson, Ariz., on Jan. 22 and 23. This annual event was presented very well and provided something for everyone. The brochure named lectures and workshops in science fiction/fantasy to Western and everything in between.

I checked out a few I had not been to before. The areas I attended were travel writing, nonfiction book writing and publishing, self-publishing, Christian writing for magazines, romance writing, and commercialism.

Editors, authors, and agents were available for appointments. The focus of the conference for me was motivation. Lunch with other writers, members of the SSA, editors, and agents did indeed help me to turn my focus back to writing.

Howard Meibach was a good speaker. He made his point and grabbed everyone's attention in a short time. His focus was selling your story to Hollywood. Of course, it's easy, according to Meibach. You just tell your story in two sentences and, based on that, Hollywood will jump right up and buy your piece. One example was Saving Private Ryan, which was sold to Steven Spielberg in two sentences. Hmmmmm, so what am I doing wrong? <smile>

Here is the Web site that Meibach gave us: www.hollywoodlitsales.com

The conference provided much about markets and what was up to date. As usual, I bought too many books.

George Plimpton was the luncheon speaker on Saturday. Plimpton became the hit of the conference. He did such a good job that there were long lines of people waiting to buy his books after his speech and equally long lines waiting for him to sign the books. That included yours truly.

J.A. Jance ended the conference. She told how she got to the conference. She said she had been on a plane for two hours, then in a car for two hours, pulled into the Holiday Inn, rushed inside and asked "Where's the Writer's Conference?" At that time she was being stared at blankly by employees of the hotel. They informed her that they didn't have a writer's conference. It turned out that she was at the wrong Holiday Inn.

This year's conference was held in a different Holiday Inn (on South Palo Verde Road, if anyone cares). This was a great move as I felt the hotel had a nice layout and was very accommodating. The staff was courteous, and the food at the conference was good. The dining room was under construction, which created a minor inconvenience of someone traveling with you that wasn't attending the conference. The book room was open after dinner on Friday and Saturday until 5:30 p.m.

That's it for another issue, pards. Lots of good stuff in here. Thanks to everyone who contributed. Now, let's get back to writing.

Jack and Marge