Richard S. Wheeler Talks About His Skye's West Novels

RTW (ReadTheWest): , out in December, is your eleventh Skyes West novel. What is this series about?

RSW (Richard S. Wheeler): Its about an unlikely mountain man and guide, Barnaby Skye, and his two Indian wives, Victoria of the Crows, and Mary of the Shoshones, and his ugly and evil horse, Jawbone.

RTW: Unlikely indeed! How did you come up with an outfit like that?

RSW: The usual western heroes, lean and taciturn Gary Cooper types, were a dime a dozen. So I invented Skye, a pressed British seaman in the Royal Navy who jumped ship at Fort Vancouver and ended up in the American wilderness. He had been abused in the navy, and insists on being addressed as Mister Skye.

RTW: What does this strange man do in the west?

RSW: Hes a guide, taking people through wilderness in the 1850s. Most of the novels are travel stories. He takes scientists or missionaries or aristocratic sportsmen or settlers to wherever they are headed. In Santa Fe he even escorts a hucksters patent medicine troupe through dangerous Comanche country.

RTW: Two wives! That sounds intriguing.

RSW: I confess it was a marketing idea at first. Something to intrigue readers. But the women grew on me, became vital, colorful, exciting characters. Actually, during the fur trade, such arrangements were common. Victoria, the Crow woman, is older, feisty, a superb warrior, usually testy, and passionately devoted to Skye. Mary, of the Shoshones, is younger, sweeter, and tender. He loves them both. They, along with the obnoxious horse Jawbone, form a small army. Skye is a binge drinker, and when hes in his cups, which occurs in nearly every story, the ladies take over. Jawbone cant stand it when his rider is tipsy, and gets more ornery than ever, but hes a great-hearted and fiercely loyal animal. Hes more than a horse: hes a legend.

RTW: Is Skye an antihero, then?

RSW: Oh, no. He is a genuine hero, skilled in all the survival arts, brave, honorable, as good as his word, innately kind, able to cope with demanding clients, and is even spiritual. The remnants of his Anglican upbringing linger in him and comfort him during moments of grief and crisis. Drink is his weakness, but he remains a hero, just as his wives are genuine heroines.

RTW: And his domestic life is happy?

RSW: I use the marriage to delve into cultural differences. Skye is constantly having to explain white mens odd ways to his women, and his women are always explaining tribal beliefs and traditions to him. In essence, he becomes part Indian, and they become partly white. They live in uneasy happiness.

RTW: Youve been at this a long time. Has the series done well?

RSW: Sales have been modest. But among those who read the novels regularly, Skye has become a cult hero. I get a steady flow of mail pleading for more Skye books. There was a hiatus of several years when I did none, feeling I had exhausted the material, and I received many letters asking me to start them again. I did, but went back to his youth and the fur trade period of the 1820s and 1830s to stay fresh. Now my publishers are going to put the series into omnibus form for its followers, and thus remain in print. People will be able to have all the books, in hardcover.

RTW: What is it that draws people to him and his wives?

RSW: Several things. Hes ugly. Hes built like a barrel, is short, has a huge nose, and odd mannerisms. The cover artists made him look lean and tall, but thats not how he is. Ive often wished the covers would depict him in all his grotesque misshapen magnificence. The more I emphasize in the stories how ugly Skye is, the more they try to turn him into a Clark Gable or Cary Grant! Hes also tender, sometimes weeps, hates bloodshed and fights only when hes forced to, and is a loner in some respects. He possesses virtue. He really is a man without a country. As for his wives, I especially love Victoria, who learned some salty language from the mountain men, and unlooses a barrage of it now and then to express vast indignation. There are comic moments in the series as well as sad ones, and desperate ones.

RTW: What is the new book, Going Home, about?

RSW: Skye has a chance to return to England to see his father and sister, who thought he was long dead, but hes torn by the opportunity. He has come to love the American West but hes homesick too. And what would these proper Englishmen think of Victoria? They start out anyway... and the rest is a wild adventure along the Pacific coast, and in Mexican California.

RTW: More Skye books on the horizon?

RSW: Yes, Im writing the twelfth and have a contract for the thirteenth. Theyre in hardcover now as well as mass market. I love old Skye. Hes not the same as when I started; he and I have both changed over the past thirteen years. Hes better than when I first dreamed him up.

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