The Causey Trail
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Sy Causey is a careful man, one used to the dangers of the wild, western frontier. His skill with weapons has been honed by years of living in a harsh land and facing hard men. Causey meets a woman and is smitten. He takes a job hunting wolves for her father’s ranch, but soon learns that the real reason he’s hired is to hunt a man–a man more wolf than man.
Sy Causey soon learns that he’s tracking a man with skills to match his own. Indeed, the man has an uncanny ability to evade Causey. Finally, Causey is trapped and nearly killed. When he is found by a ranch hand, he returns to the ranch, only to discover that the woman he loves has been taken by this strange man no one has seen face to face.
Causey sets out on the trail and soon learns who he is tracking. He knows the man very well. They’d grown up together.
Get this exciting western novel today!
WATCH A GREAT WESTERN MOVIE – FREE – AN ALAN LADD WESTERN
Book Review Texas History and the Comanche Indians
Empire of the Summer Moon
by S. C. Gwynne
The subtitle of the book is “Quanah Parker and The Rise and Fall of the Comanches, The Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History. ”
While the book details the capture of a white female child named Cynthia Parker, who would later marry one of the Comanche chiefs and would give birth to the most famous Comanche chief, Quanah Parker, the book delivers so much more. It gives background to the reader such that one comes away with a greater appreciation for the Quanah Parker story. I have read many history books on the American West in my day, but never have I read one that was so compelling, captivating, and so well done. Not only is this book chock-full of facts, but the facts are displayed in a way that while on the edge of entertaining, they are seen by the reader almost like one watches a painter paint a beautiful picture. In this case, Gwynne paints a picture of the Texas West during the time of the Comanche Indian nation’s absolute rule over that part of the West that is riveting.
I know a lot about the West and I know a lot about the Indians that populated the West. But, Empire of the Summer Moon gave me many, many facts that I did not know. I did not know, for example, the ferocity and savagery of the Comanche. Gwynne reveals a side of the Comanche Indian that was only truly known by the Indians themselves and those who were prey to frequent raids on white and Mexican settlements throughout Texas and Mexico.
The Comanche were the best light cavalry in the entire hemisphere, if not the planet. Gwynne says of the Comanche: “No one could out ride them or outshoot them from the back of a horse.”
When it came to fighting, the Comanche had no equal. They could do things from the back of a horse that was extraordinary. The author quotes George Catlin, one of the most famous artists of the old West, particularly his work depicting the various Indian tribes of the American West. Catlin wrote of the Comanche the following:
“Amongst their feats of writing there is one that has astonished me more than anything of the kind I have ever seen or expect to see in my life – a stratagem of war, learned and practiced by every young man in the tribe; by which he is able to drop his body on the side of his horse at the instant he is passing, effectively screened from his enemies’ weapons , as he lays in a horizontal position behind the body of his horse, with his heels hanging over the horse’s back… In this wonderful condition, he will hang whilst his horse is at fullest speed, carrying with him his bow and shield and also his long lance 14 feet in length.”
Gwynne notes that from this position a Comanche warrior “could lose 20 arrows in the time it took a soldier to load and fire one round from his musket; each of those arrows could kill a man at 30 yards.”
It is no wonder that for decades the Comanche were unstoppable on the battlefield. There was only one force that ever defeated them and routed them, and that was only for a short time, and when that force was disbanded for a number of years, there was no one capable of pursuing and punishing the Comanche. That force? Capt. John Coffee Hays and his Texas Rangers. It was unfortunate for Texas that none of the higher-ups in Texas or in the American Congress or in the American military learned and emulated the tactics of Hays and the Texas Rangers. Capt. Jack, as he was fondly called by his men, was unique. He was the quintessential Westerner, the hero who would later be the model for thousands of Hollywood movies and countless dime novels.
Hays took his men and trained them to fight the Comanche using their own tactics. Gwynne does an excellent job in presenting well-researched facts about Hays and the Texas Rangers in those early years in the 1840s. He goes on to give great detail as to exactly what Hays did, including how the men were equipped and trained. He writes:
“Hays, in particular, paid a good deal of attention both to his Comanche foes and to his Lipon Apache scouts, learning from them how to ride, fight, track, make camp…Like Comanches, the Rangers often traveled by moonlight, navigating by river courses and the North Star, and dispensing with fires altogether, making cold camps and eating hardtack or other uncooked rations. Hays’s men with sleep fully clothed and fully armed, ready to fight in a minute’s notice. They crossed rivers even in freezing weather, swimming by the side of their horses. None of this behavior had any precedent in American military history. No cavalry anywhere could bridle and saddle horse in less time than the Rangers.”
Hays took the fight to the Comanche and was able to beat them because of his work in training his men with their weapons, and in utilizing the tactics of the Comanche. But, he was a tactician and heart and Gwynne does a superb job at showing, in detail, the tactics employed by Hayes and the Texas Rangers that made them so successful. It was unfortunate that all of that training and all of that success was lost immediately on the resignation of Hays and the disbanding of the Texas Rangers for a few years.
I highly recommend Empire of the Summer Moon
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The Western Character in Westerns
Western Fiction Characters Diverse
Writers of western fiction vary in their treatment of characters, especially the lead characters and the villians. Zane Grey, for example, always portrayed the hero as this solitary figure, typically with a past, taciturn to a fault, and possessed of sterling character when it comes to women, particularly the heroine that he is destined to rescue or protect.
Louis L’Amour made his protaganists strong, virile men, suited to the rugged environment in which he found himself. L’Amour’s hero also was a man good with a gun and possessed of honesty and solid moral character. But, his main characters often had something else. They had family that were strong and had great influence on them and how they turned out. L’Amour was good about that. The Sackett series if a good example of how L’Amour tied in the family to his stories. It made the reader feel almost like they knew the family, and they liked them. When a Sackett showed up, the reader wanted to like him because L’Amour had painted such a great picture about the family and had built up the strengths that ran in the family.
Max Brand is a writer of western fiction that many modern readers of westerns are ignorant. Frederick Schiller Faust wrote under the pen name of Max Brand and his westerns became best sellers across the land. He was known for taking a character, giving him the most unlikely of characteristics for a hero, then bestowing the character with prowess unmatched in weapons, or strength, or endurance, or a combination of qualities that turned the character into a formidble opponent for all “badmen.”
Some Writers of Western Fiction Better Than Others with their Characters
When one reads a western by any writer, realize that you’re reading something that comes from the imagination of the writer, and you’re viewing a picture of a man or woman who has been shaped with words by that writer into a character that the writer felt was appropriate for the times and the environment. Sometimes (as with Brand), the characters are pure fantasy, and then at times, as with L’Amour, there’s enough truth and real-life qualities found in the character to make them more than believable, but become real in the minds of the reader. The reader comes away saying to himself, “You know, I betcha there really was a character out there in the Old West like him!”
That brings back a reader every time.
McQueen of the Tumbling K
The stories in McQueen of the Tumbling K & Other Early Western Classics date from the 1940s-50s, the beginning of Louis L’Amour’s literary career. Each of these vintage tales was penned when he was a journeyman author, earning his living creating Western action for pulp magazines. The selection in this anthology was personally made by the editorial board of Buckskin Classics, who feel the individual stories are all emblematic of L’Amour’s early short fiction at its best. “Ride, You Tonto Raiders!” is a rare magazine-length novel, worth the price of admission alone to L’Amour aficionados. The title story and “Riding for the Brand” are two long and meaty novelettes. “Trap of Gold,” which pack’s more suspense than any big budget movie, is off trail for L’Amour but authentically Western. “Mistakes Can Kill You” passes on a hard-earned lesson from the author’s youth. And, “Trail to PieTown” showcases the master’s knack for telling the whole story of the West in a few brief pages. [Cover design: J. L. "Frankie" Hill]
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For the Writers: Describing the Western Fiction Character
Writers Describe the Character
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The character in a western fiction novel may not have to conform to any particular description of his or her features (though that can help the story, if you do), but if you want to lend serious credibility to your character, as a writer, you’ll put some descriptions into the tale that conforms to the period as well as to the culture, and to the kind of work ordinarily done by the character, or work he used to do.
For writers, there are many ways to put images of your character into the mind of your reader. Here are some of the ways this writer did it in a western fiction novel entitled Bloody Wes Teague:
Writers & The Omniscient Perspective
He came out of the mist, riding slow on a smoke gray stallion, his yellow slicker moist, its shine dulled with age and dirt that would never wash away. He was a powerful looking man, with that lean, easy look about him that suggested quickness and danger. His face was darkened by hundreds of blistering suns and his pale blue eyes took in everything with a perpetual squint. His name was Weston Teague. Down in Texas, they used to call him “Bloody” Teague.
He wore a cattleman’s suit beneath the slicker and his boots were not the usual ones he wore for riding. These were made of the softest of calf skin, darkened and polished to a deep brown. The careful observer would have seen pants with a laundry press and shine to them.
Writers Can Show the Good, Bad & the Ugly
Here, the writer has painted a picture. The image that springs to the reader’s mind is one of a strong, virile man who belonged to the West. The reader comes away with a picture of that man, and it’s a strong, positive image. Of course, you may want to paint a picture of a “bad man” in your book. Certainly if there are going to be villains in a book, the writer must describe that villain so as to make the reader aware that this is indeed, a “bad man.” In short, the writer has to put enough word art into the story that the reader comes away with a picture of someone who is indeed, “bad.”
Writers can take a different omniscient perspective, like this one
The leader was a quiet, brooding man, rib lean, with clothes that looked as though they had never seen the touch of water. Walter “Fish” Johnson was twenty-seven, but his eyes said he was older, much older. He was sitting on his throne at the moment, a small orange crate, cleaning his fingernails with a slender, wicked-looking knife, long, and with a needle sharp point.
Writers Show A Character Through the Eyes of Another Character
Sometimes, you want to have your reader see a character through the eyes of another character. Here, from that same novel, is a sample of how it’s done:
McIntosh took a deep breath, wanting desperately to slam Johnson in the gut. However, the naked blade in the man’s hand and the instinctive fear he felt for Johnson stopped him. There was something soul-less and desperate, something deadly about Johnson, and McIntosh felt it and shivered in spite of himself.
Writers can use the character he’s created to describe himself:
He felt the coldness rising up in him as all the details surrounding him sharpened and his senses came to full alert. Nothing showed on his face. It was as still and hard as the boulders on the side of the road and his eyes narrowed. And, he felt something rise up in him, a cold, calculated anger. These men represented the kind of men who’d destroyed his life as they’d no doubted destroyed the lives of others. Weston Teague suddenly wanted these men to seek his life. He was glad they were here. He wanted to kill them.
Writers, use your words carefully, but do use them. Make them come from the omniscient perspective, from the character, or from other characters, or even from their actions in a particular scene. Good writers always allow the characters freedom to be who they are, who the writer created. They must be permitted to act within the parameters the writer has developed.
Writers who want to write western fiction, or for that matter, any other kind of fiction, really must study their craft, and some may want to get tools made especially for writers, such as a tool like Dragon Naturally Speaking. But, to really make a writer’s story interesting, a writer has to have interesting characters. Only those writers who master that aspect of writing will put out the really good stories.
