El Paso was the wildest town in untamed Texas after the Civil War. Men came with dreams of empire, and women with hopes of a better life on a virgin frontier. One tall Texan came to El Paso with a different reason: to end the reign of terror of the two vicious brothers and to stem the bloody violence between Americans and Mexicans.
Bill Tilghman was the real thing, a lawman who wore his badge for a reason--to bring criminals to justice. His career spanned the West itself, from the days of reckless cowboys and their long-barrel Colts to
an age of mobsters, tommy guns, and cars. Now the last days of his towering story are told. Master novelist Matt Braun captures the final days of this extraordinary manhunter, when he faces a heroic fight on the bloody, corrupt streets of Cromwell, Oklahoma. This is the saga of a man who wouldn't back down and the woman who loved him to the end.
Will be released in conjunction with August 22 air date of TNT movie special , starring Sam Elliott.
They called it Hell's Half Acre; a violent sinkhole of dance halls and brothels, gaming dives and busthead saloons. To some citizens of Fort Worth, the only hope for Hell's Half Acre was to reform it. To others, it was a gold mine. And for one man, a shootist and gambler named Luke Short, it was a place to make a stand. Short wants to run an honest game with straight odds and build a future in Fort Worth. But plenty of people want to see him stonecold dead. Now short has no choice but to stake his claim, from behind the barrel of a loaded gun...
A masterful western epic that won Matt Braun the Golden Spur Award, "The Kincaids" is a big,
sprawling saga that chronicles not only three generations of a family, but the growth and
industrialization of a nation in all of its violence and glory.
Western Author Matt Braun was honored with the 1999 Cowboy Spirit Award by the . The Festival, held each year in Scottsdale, Arizona, draws over 50,000 Old West fans from around the world. Braun is the first writer ever to receive the award, which was presented for his contribution to Western literature. Past winners of the award include actors Ben Johnson, Harry Carey, Jr., Denver Pyle, Roy Rogers and Buck Taylor. Among other honors, Braun has won the Western Writers of America Golden Spur Award for historical fiction and lifetime appointment as a Territorial Marshal by the state of Oklahoma.
All of Braun's novels are based on true characters and actual incidents, and he has been called "Americas authentic voice of the Western Frontier." Braun was slated as keynote speaker at the German Society for the Study of the Western, held in June each year in Germany.
He came from the American South, a gentleman by breeding, a dentist by training, a gambler by vocation. But as Dr. John H. Holliday, a man fleeing his tragic past, drifted across the West, living among some of the roughest men on the frontier, word spread quickly--he never walked away from a fight, and he never drew too late.
Earl Brannock is a gambling man who founded the boomtown called Denver. Virgil Brannock joins him. Fresh from Lee's surrender at Appomattox, he is determined to rise to the top of the frontier's rough business world. Finally, Clint comes wearing a badge. The three brothers are reunited. And on a frontier brimming with opportunity and exploding with danger, vicious enemies will test their
courage--and three women will claim their love.
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TF: When did you decide to become a writer?
All my life I wanted to be a writer. In particular, I wanted to write novels dealing with the Old West. Heritage provided the motivation, for my roots span several generations of Westerners. On one side of the family, my great-grandfather established a ranch in Oklahoma. On the other side, a number of my ancestors were members of the Cherokee tribe. It seemed only natural that I would one day tell stories of a bygone time.
That day finally rolled around. In 1969, I decided it was now or never." I sold everything I owned and quit my job. A week later I moved into a cabin located in a remote stretch of mountains. While I had worked as a journalist, I had no formal training in writing fiction. Nor had I ever read a book on the craft of writing. What I had instead was determination and a degree of rough talent. I gave myself a year to write a salable Western novel.
Three years later I was still an unpublished author. I had written four novels, none of which had found a publisher. Hard at work on the fifth novel, I was convinced my writing showed improvement with each effort. Odd jobs kept food on the table and I continued to hammer away at the typewriter. Then, within a period of ten days, my agent sold the forth and fifth novels. The latter was purchased on the basis of a half-completed manuscript.
That was the break needed and I havent stopped writing since. I never will.
TF: How long does it generally take you to write a novel? Explain the process that you go through. Do you follow a strict daily routine?
The workday runs from nine in the morning to six in the evening. In large part, the obsession to write has been tempered with experience. Ive learned that I can stop in the middle of a scene today and finish it off as well or better come tomorrow. When six oclock rolls around, I quit work and pack it in for the night.
Early on, I discovered that the sedentary life of a writer requires a certain discipline. On the weekends, I split firewood, ride horses, and burn considerable powder on the firing range. Every morning, after breakfast, I perform calisthenics and work out on a boxers speed bag. Twenty minutes gets the blood pumping and the adrenaline flowing and the cobwebs brushed away. Im ready to fight the good fight when I head for the office.
Heres a typical workday. It seldom varies by ten minutes on either end. At nine oclock, immediately following the morning's exercise, I start work. I write straight through for three hours and then take thirty minutes for lunch. By twelve-thirty Im back at my desk and I write until two, when I take a fifteen minute coffee break. Somewhere around four, after another two hours of plugging away, I take a second coffee break. Then I resume writing and stay with it until six oclock. The noontime break and the two coffee breaks allow me to stretch my legs and relax a bit. By the days end, Ive put in a solid eight hours. The same schedule holds whenever Im doing research.
The days production varies from four to five pages. So I average about 1,200 words a day for the week. Thats 6,000 words a week, and the Westerns I write usually top 90,000 words. Allowing for the unforeseen, I can generally complete the first draft in something more than four months. Tack on a month for research and a final polish and that brings the total to somewhere over five months. Eight hours a day, forty hours a week gets the job done.
TF: Whose work inspired you most, and why?
One man influenced my work more than any other.
In 1975, I found a mentor by the name of Jerrold Mundis. A superb writer, Mundis has received critical acclaim for his works of literature. Under a pseudonym, he had also realized considerable success in writing commercial novels. Mundis did me the great favor of editing every sentence of two books, after they had been published. Once youve seen your work in book form treated to the red pencil, you learn the true meaning of angst. It was a humbling experience.
In effect, Mundis had employed a variation of shock treatment, and it worked. With my mentors guidance, I undertook a program of self-instruction. I began an omnivorous reading course: classics, historical novels, mysteries and spy thrillers, and bestsellers. Many of these works, particularly those on the bestseller list, I had previously dismissed as commercial trash. Discovery followed discovery, and there was a gradual dawning that literature was not my strong suit. What I enjoyed reading most and writing was a romping good story.
These days I read authors such as Ken Follett, Thomas Harris, John Sanford, John Grisham and W.E.B. Griffin (one of the great storytellers of all time). In terms of Western novels, Larry McMurtry (in my opinion) is the finest writer of our generation or any other. His classic, Lonesome Dove, set a standard by which all Western novels (past, present and future) will be measured for excellence. He writes with truth and passion and historical accuracy the mark of a master!
TF: What attracted you to the western genre?
The marvelous thing about the Western genre is that it accommodates virtually every category of fiction. Adventure, mystery, romance, and historical saga are all easily adapted to a Western format. In fact, some or all of these elements can be combined within the same novel.
Several writers have selected the Western frontier as the setting for romance novels played out against an historic backdrop. Others have put together a blend of romance and historical saga, the love story being the focal point. Any number of novels have been constructed around stock detectives or private detectives of the Old West, combining mystery and adventure in one package. There are also contemporary mysteries which owe much of their success to a Western setting. Clearly, the variations possible within the genre are limited only by the imagination.
Yet a writer of Westerns must keep the myth uppermost in mind. Whether he writes high literature or genre fiction, the mythology of the time and place is omnipresent. To some degree, an historical novelist can separate truth from fancy. Still, however accurate his work, his perception of the Old West stems in part from the mythology. Even more significant, the reading public will not be denied its legends. No writer, if hes honest with himself, would disclaim the mythical origins of his work. In the end, all Western writers write of a fabled land, and legends.
Over the past thirty years, the trend has been to add a greater element of realism within the presentation of the myth. Writers today strive to capture those essential elements of fiction action, conflict and suspense within the context of historical accuracy. Their characters are presented with something less than the larger than life attributes found in the novels of previous generations. They depict people who are fallible and flawed, but nonetheless heroic. Courage, in real life, is found equally in the sodbuster and the gunfighter. The Western novel of today finds drama in the ordinary as much as the magnificent. All of it, in the end, fused tightly with the myth.
TF: In your opinion, how well is western fiction faring in the market today, and what do you think the outlook is for its future? Do you think the genre will remain strong?
The market for Western fiction is currently very strong. Less than ten years ago publishers declared the Western novel moribund. Paperback houses curtailed production drastically, and many limited their Western line to the reissue of old books. In an age of high technology, public and publishers alike looked upon the Western as an anachronism.
By 1995, however, something extraordinary happened. Several novels of the West, published as mainstream fiction, revitalized the interest in Westerns. Paperback houses began publishing traditional as well as historical genre novels. In the space of two years, a market once pronounced dead was suddenly brought to life. By no means were Westerns a national preoccupation, as in the 1950s. Yet Americans hadnt entirely lost interest in that mythical land of yesteryear. A crackling good tale, told with realism and authenticity, was once again back in vogue.
Today, several paperback houses have an expanded line of Westerns. Editors are acquiring original works, and even appear receptive to the efforts of beginning writers. Hardcover houses continue to publish novels of the West as mainstream fiction, and many have shown renewed interest in both historical and traditional genre novels. The market is, in a word, flourishing.
The Western novel, though rooted in another century, will never vanish. Man continually seeks new frontiers, but he nonetheless cherishes the old. We are a product of our forebears, those westering people who pushed onward in search of their destiny. So our national character evolves in large measure from our heritage, the realities and myths of our folklore. Our journey into the future will forever be lighted by our vision of the past.
The story of the West will endure forever.
TF: Which of your novels are you most proud of? Which one challenged you, as a writer, the most?
The Kincaids is my favorite of all the novels Ive written. The reason has to do with the fact that I was born and raised on a ranch in Oklahoma. Within The Kincaids, I tell the story of the settlement and statehood of Oklahoma, spanning the decades from the buffalo hunters to the oil boomtowns of the 1920s. Three generations of Kincaids live the saga of one of the most turbulent eras in American history.
The Kincaids was also the most challenging novel Ive written. I wanted to craft a novel that someone would check out of a library fifty years from now, and after reading it, say: "Yeah, thats how it really happened in the Old Oklahoma Territory." Including research, digging through archives and interviewing surviving settlers, it took something over a year to write the novel. I felt compelled to get it right because my ancestors were some of those who actually lived the tale.
In the end, all of the effort was worth it. Western Writers of America presented me with the Spur Award for "Best Historical Novel," and the governor awarded me lifetime appointment as an Oklahoma Territorial Marshal. I like to think I did credit to Oklahoma with The Kincaids.
TF: Your novel One Last Town, which is about legendary lawman Bill Tilghman, is now a movie and will be airing on a Turner Network Television in August. Would you like to give us a little insight on how this project came about for you? How closely does the screenplay follow the novel? Are you pleased with the end product?
One Last Town might be called a bassackwards tale. I first sold the movie rights, based on a three page screen treatment. Then, with the movie deal in hand, I sold it to a publisher and wrote the novel. The movie was retitled You Know My Name and Im delighted to say that TNT stuck very close to the original story. Variety gave the movie a rave review, and many in the film industry say it is the finest acting role of Sam Elliotts long and distinguished career. A writer couldnt ask for more.
By the way, TNT will air the movie on Sunday, August 22. 1999.
TF: What drew you to write about Bill Tilghman?
The book and the movie evolved from my roots as a native of Oklahoma. Bill Tilghman was the greatest horseback marshal of Old Oklahoma Territory, and the most revered lawman of modern Oklahoma. He devoted most of his life to law enforcement, and in large degree, he is the prototype for the lawman/gunfighter of Western myth. In 1924, at age seventy, he came out of retirement to take over as marshal of an oil boomtown. The town was controlled by Prohibition Era mobsters with tommy-guns, and he brought them down with guts and a six-gun. He was, without question, the finest lawman ever to wear a badge.
I wrote the novel to honor the man.
TF: One last question: If you hadnt taken the path of becoming a writer, what do you suppose you would be doing right now?
I cant imagine not being a writer. That was my goal my only goal from an early age. Through the understanding of my wife, a bulldog of an agent, and a love of the written word, all those early dreams came true. I am the most fortunate of men.
Writing allowed me a life of freedom and personal gratification. I spend my days with fascinating characters who take me on a journey through the grandest adventure of our national history. Every day is a revelation, and the people I travel with are the stuff of legend. Im a lucky dog.
A Special bonus...visti Matt Braun's Website and enter his contest!
Win an autographed copy of Matt Brauns latest novel. Submit an item on the American West involving Historical Figures, Historical Events, or aspects of life on the Frontier. You choose the subject: Cowboys, Lawmen, Outlaws, Mountain Men, Cavalry, anything that captures your interest. Matt Braun will personally review all entries received by the last day of each month. The entries will be judged on originality and historical detail. Entries should be limited to one hundred words or less. The winner each month will receive an autographed copy of Matts latest novel, and the entry will be posted on Matts Web Site.
Click here to go to Matt's Website and enter his contest
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By Taylor Fogarty