Fay Risner's 18th Book

I've been without an internet or phone for two days. As I'm writing this blog post, I have a connection but it keeps coming and going. Seems the wind gusting up to 50 miles an hour is interfering.

I've always liked to read westerns and watch cowboy shows. Maybe because I was raised that way. In the fifties my parents took us to western movies in a vacant lot during the summer. We sat on hard benches on Saturday evenings and enjoyed every minute. Since westerns were the only movies we went to see I didn't realize there were any other kind for a long time.

When I worked with a woman that loves westerns, she encouraged me to write one. That's when I wrote The Dark Wind Howls Over Mary - my first Stringbean Hooper Western. I didn't think there would be another one until the same woman asked me to continue with Stringbean Hooper's story. She even gave me a story line to follow. All right, so here it is the book she is waiting for - Small Feet's Many Moon Journey - ISBN 1453899448.

Back Cover

Looking forward to a journey across country to San Jose, California, Stringbean Hooper and his wife, Theo, have no idea just how much trouble they can get into. Theo considers this trip their honeymoon and a change to be at her brother, Brock's wedding. Stringbean has been in one place too long and is eager to see country he hasn't seen before.

Stringbean gets them lost in Indian territory and upsets the Indians. The couple escapes a flood, a mad bear, spends the night in a run down cabin with a woman crazy with prairie fever and more.

Through it all, Stringbean meets the challenges with his usual sense of humor, but he notices as the journey drags on Theo is getting crankier by the minute. He sure hopes she lightens up by the time they get to her brother's wedding in San Jose. It didn't help him any to have warning advice freely handed out to Theo, known as Small Feet, by Indian shaman Matilda Vinci. The old woman warns Theo to be careful while traveling with Stringbean who's Sioux name is Walking Dead. He might get her killed.

Now I'm waiting until November 1 to start my next book in the NaNoWriMo contest. This will be the third book in the Nurse Hal Among The Amish Series I'm working on during the contest. So because I am in earnest this year about getting my 50,000 words in, I'll be working on that instead of posting to my blog. Last year was my first time in the contest. I found getting to the finish line was harder than I thought it would be. Too many days I was away from the computer, and I just couldn't catch up so this time I'm prepared to stick with writing. I'll let you know how I did the last of November.

Fay Risner's 18th Book

I've been without an internet or phone for two days. As I'm writing this blog post, I have a connection but it keeps coming and going. Seems the wind gusting up to 50 miles an hour is interfering.

I've always liked to read westerns and watch cowboy shows. Maybe because I was raised that way. In the fifties my parents took us to western movies in a vacant lot during the summer. We sat on hard benches on Saturday evenings and enjoyed every minute. Since westerns were the only movies we went to see I didn't realize there were any other kind for a long time.

When I worked with a woman that loves westerns, she encouraged me to write one. That's when I wrote The Dark Wind Howls Over Mary - my first Stringbean Hooper Western. I didn't think there would be another one until the same woman asked me to continue with Stringbean Hooper's story. She even gave me a story line to follow. All right, so here it is the book she is waiting for - Small Feet's Many Moon Journey - ISBN 1453899448.

Back Cover

Looking forward to a journey across country to San Jose, California, Stringbean Hooper and his wife, Theo, have no idea just how much trouble they can get into. Theo considers this trip their honeymoon and a change to be at her brother, Brock's wedding. Stringbean has been in one place too long and is eager to see country he hasn't seen before.

Stringbean gets them lost in Indian territory and upsets the Indians. The couple escapes a flood, a mad bear, spends the night in a run down cabin with a woman crazy with prairie fever and more.

Through it all, Stringbean meets the challenges with his usual sense of humor, but he notices as the journey drags on Theo is getting crankier by the minute. He sure hopes she lightens up by the time they get to her brother's wedding in San Jose. It didn't help him any to have warning advice freely handed out to Theo, known as Small Feet, by Indian shaman Matilda Vinci. The old woman warns Theo to be careful while traveling with Stringbean who's Sioux name is Walking Dead. He might get her killed.

Now I'm waiting until November 1 to start my next book in the NaNoWriMo contest. This will be the third book in the Nurse Hal Among The Amish Series I'm working on during the contest. So because I am in earnest this year about getting my 50,000 words in, I'll be working on that instead of posting to my blog. Last year was my first time in the contest. I found getting to the finish line was harder than I thought it would be. Too many days I was away from the computer, and I just couldn't catch up so this time I'm prepared to stick with writing. I'll let you know how I did the last of November.

Western Book Fan Gave Me A Story Idea - Sort Of

I've noticed over the last couple of years there are several people in my acquaintance that have active imaginations when it comes to a story line for a book, but not the inclination to write the book themselves. They seek me out to tell me about their idea and suggest I should write the story for them.
That's how my soon to be 18th book was started. This one has been three years in the writing so that's why this book will seemed to be coming so close behind the last one I published. The genre is western. My second one. It so happens that I worked with one of the few readers of my first western. I can count on one hand the number of people I know that are as fond of reading westerns as I am. My coworker is one of them. I wrote the last western for the fun of it, because my parents loved westerns. Since that was the type of books laying around the house, that was what I read while I was growing up so I'm comfortable with old west tales from Zane Gray and Louis L'amour.
Of course, I've put my own spin on my character, a lackadaisical sheriff in small town Montana named Stringbean Hooper. This man is not at all like one of Louis L'amour's tough, fearless Sackett brothers but more like Bret Maverick from the television series. However, when the man is forced to show what he's made of while he's trying to solve the town doctor's wife's disappearance he turns out to be more trust worthy than first thought.
A Stringbean Hooper book - The Dark Wind Howls Over Mary - (ISBN 1438221576) became such a favorite with my coworker, she asked me to write another western about him. I said I didn't have any ideas what he should do next. The woman said she had it all thought out. She wanted him and his new wife to take a trip to California, camping out in the rugged elements. This woman is a fan of Lonesome Dove. I'm sure she was thinking of that book and movie. No way was I going to come up with a story written as well and with so much rugged authenticity as Larry McMurtry puts into his great stories.
However, I began to think I should give the story a try as a challenge for myself. I set to work researching to figure out what each state was like in the late 1800's. I read about what was happening in history at that time in the west. With all my facts at hand, I wrote most of the first draft. Then came my retirement. Just before I stopped working, I told my western fan coworker that I wouldn't forget her when the book was done. One day, she would find a package in her mailbox from me. Outside of her, one uncle and my older brother, no one else will want to read this western book. Those three will receive a complementary copy, and I'll move on to the next Amish story.
A year ago during a snowstorm, I brought the manuscript up on my computer. Over the years, I'd gotten Stringbean and his bride through the pass into California, but I didn't have a clue why they wanted to make such an arduous trip when they had a prosperous cattle ranch to work in Montana. The last time I talked to my western fan, I reminded her this story line was her idea. I asked her how I was suppose to end the story. She didn't have a clue. I said I didn't either. She told me coming up with an ending was my job. I'm the writer. Besides if she knew what was going to happen at the end, it would take all the fun out of reading the book. It would appear her imagination isn't fool proof when it comes to book beginnings, middles and endings. She left me hanging high and dry so to speak.
Finally, while I was working on what I did have I was struck with the idea for the ending like a bolt of lightning had hit me (funny how that happens to me). I knew why the couple had to get to California, and I've ended the story in Stringbean Hooper style. Now I'm working on my last draft so I can send it to my editor. Some time in June when the book is published I'll see if I can get my three readers to give me their reviews to use on a blog post.