Writing Lucas -- Part 1

In preparation for the launch of Vengeance at Sundown I’ll be posting a few blogs about the origin of the my new Western series--writing it, my take on the future of Westerns, and anything else that comes to mind in between now and then

There were a lot of considerations when it came to writing Lucas Fume, my second Western series. First off, I had to look back at what I had already done.   The Josiah Wolfe, Texas Ranger series is comprised of six books.  All of the books in that series where written in single POV (point of view), third person.  It was all Josiah, all of the time.  I did that with intention.  I wanted to write those books like I was writing from first person to create an intimacy, but I didn’t want the story to be narrated directly in Josiah’s voice.  It was a confining decision, and there was nothing written in my contract that stated I had to write those stories that way, I just decided to.  I had the freedom to tell that story however I wanted to, and could have changed it anytime I wanted to, but I'm glad I didn't. As a technique, I think it worked.  Readers attached themselves to Josiah.  So, the question was: as a writer did I want to do that again?  The answer was an immediate no.  I wanted the new series to be as different possible from the previous one, so I decided to stick with third person, but go with multiple points of view so I could have more flexibility. 

Of course, that decision didn’t come first.  Lucas Fume came first.  But again, I wanted him, his past, his associations, to be completely different from Josiah Wolfe, too.  Where Josiah was bound by the expectations and the demands of the Texas Ranger organization, I wanted Lucas to be more of a freelancer—to be able move about the country as he needed to.  But I wanted him to have commensurate skills, so I decided that he would be an ex-spy.  At the time, I thought there would be plenty of research material to delve into, but I was wrong.  There is some documentation of Civil War spies, but not the deep canon of literature devoted to the Texas Rangers.  But the spy background gave me plenty to work with like building networks, disguises, getting in and out of tight situations, weaponry, you name it.  The possibilities seemed endless, especially if Lucas was really good at being a spy. And he was.  Too good.  Lucas Fume made some enemies that lasted long after the war ended.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Back to the POV, and the early decisions.  In the Josiah Wolfe books, one of the things I decided on was to insert Josiah into historical events, and also have him interact with historical characters.  I decided to do the same thing with Lucas, but not as close.  The immediacy of Lucas’s story was more important to me than an exact point and place in history.  Though I do have plans to play with history a bit in future books.  

What the choice of multiple POV gave me as a writer was the opportunity to explore different characters from different timelines, then have them all converge at the end so that each part of the story fit together tightly.  It was a different challenge, and called on different skills than the Josiah Wolfe books.  The jury’s still out whether I accomplished that, but this book is different from  the Josiah Wolfe books, at least, as far as I’m concerned, and that's exactly what I set out to do.

Coming up: More about that research.

Lucas Fume #1 Vengeance at Sundown (Berkley) will be available August 5, 2014 at all bookstores, online and brick and mortar.  My next appearance will be August 5, 2014 -- Barnes and Noble Booksellers, Noblesville, Indiana from 5 PM to 8 PM.  

VENGEANCE AT SUNDOWN -- available for pre-order

I have a new Western series from Berkley (Penguin Random House) starting in August (2014), featuring ex-Confederate spy, Lucas Fume.

Here's the cover and summary:

  Lucas Fume has had plenty of fights in his life: spying for the Confederate Army, standing up to the railroad company when they tried to take his land, then getting framed for the murder of his business partner—only to lose his land as well as the love of his life. But Lucas isn’t finished fighting yet…

With help from Ezekiel ‘Zeke’ Henry, a fellow inmate and former slave, Lucas manages to escape prison. Riding with Zeke to St. Louis, he soon discovers that his former partner is still alive, using a different name, and doing big business with the railroads—and he has Lucas’s lost love with him. On the run from the law and up against a rich and influential enemy, Lucas is about to take on the most dangerous fight of his life.

You can pre-order the book here

Brothers in Arms -- 11/11/13 -- Writing about Veterans of War

I doubt that it is a mistake that most of the characters that I write about are veteran soldiers. Josiah Wolfe and Lucas Fume both fought in, and survived, the Civil War.  The character I'm writing now survived World War I.  It's not a conscious decision on my part, but a natural part of each of these character's past.  They are haunted by their wartime experience.  Changed by it.  It contributes to their present, to the story as an underlying understanding of the nature of violence, of hate, of battle and aggression.  The reaction to blood by these men is different than it would be if they had not served in battle.  It is an important part of the story that I seem to need to tell. 

Perhaps this is all based of my own military experience.  As a boy, and that's all I was was a boy, of seventeen, I fled home and joined the Air Force.  I was no more ready for that commitment than flying to the moon, but I did it, and it became part my story, my own experience as a human being, and ultimately, as a writer.  It was not a match made in heaven--but it could have been if I had waited a little longer, matured. The structure and discipline would have appealed to me at a later age.  But that was not the case, and in hindsight, well, when you're in your fifties looking back to your teens, hindsight can be smeared with a lot of different emotions, and stories. I finally caught up to the discipline I was exposed to in the Air Force, and it serves me well, now.

My time in the military was during peacetime, but the the ghost of the Vietnam War loomed large.  All of my sergeants and commanding officers had served and survived. I suppose that is a seed to those that I write about. Those men who went off to the jungle, and returned uncelebrated, jeered, and lost.  Those vets are special to me because I knew them, was taught how to fire a weapon by them.  If there is any soldier left in me at all, it is because of them.  

There is also no way to escape the cost of war, of stories that rise through the generations of families in this country.   I knew men who fought in Korea who refused to speak of it, while others celebrated it with a hat proudly announcing their veteran status.  Neither was right or wrong--it just was.  And I knew men that served in World War II, and survived.  Great Uncles.  Uncles.  A second-cousin died on the beaches of Normandy.   His death loomed large, and those that knew him, and loved him, worked hard to make sure that his memory--and sacrifice--was never forgotten.

Over the summer, I discovered some old family papers, and followed a trail back in time to discover a distant relative who fought for the Confederacy.  This was news to me.  Since I was born and raised in the Union state of Indiana, I had always assumed that if I had any relatives that fought in the Civil War, they would have worn the blue uniform.  This relative was wounded and left for dead at Shiloh, captured and sent to Camp Morton in Indianapolis, then traded, once he healed, and was wounded again in Sherman's march, just outside of Dallas, Georgia.  He would survive that wound, to fight again, and be wounded again, in New Orleans at the close of the war.  He died at the age of 86.

There are countless stories that concern the bravery of the American veteran, man and woman.  New wars with new injuries to survive.  We are seeing those now.  Saying thank you doesn't seem enough.

I do my best to write honestly and honorably about the men--and women--of war that people my books.  It is an honor to tell their stories, and in a small way, I hope their stories help further the cause of understanding war, and its affects, and offers some healing; a salve that tells them that they are not alone. 

So thank you to the men of my family who made the ultimate sacrifice, to the men and women I served with, and to all those that have served this country, and are serving it now.  Your cause is great, just as is your heart.