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The wilderness of writer’s block is vast, dangerous, and difficult–if not impossible–to cross. Or is it just the packaging that makes everything look so vast?* (*Image used with permission from the delightful Toy Soldiers Collecting blog, where adventure awaits after a click on the link…) A writer never expects to get seriously lost in this wilderness; like . . . → Read More: Rescue Me, Flint!; or, Of Wagon Train and Writer’s Block   3 comments  Cowboy Moments, Cowboy Mythos, Film Reviews, Men Were Men and Women Were Women, Reel Life vs. Real Life, The Good the Bad the Fugly, Wrangling a Novel  cowboy hero, flint mccullough, frank mcgrath, I need to finish that darn novel, novel writing hell, robert horton, seth adams, terry wilson, wagon train, ward bond, what would a cowboy do The novel of the homestead cabin writes itself. It was a prologue of possibilities, of quails and tarantulas and Joshua tree groves and sunshine. Since then, its chapters, experienced at a 2,500-mile distance, waver between comedy and tragedy and tearjerker, with the love of my life, the cabin, being both beautiful and ugly, stoic and needy, a magnet . . . → Read More: Enter My House Justified; or, Skirmish at the Old Homestead Cabin To Hell or the Pecos, by Patrick Dearen, is a fast-paced western that had me flipping the virtual pages on my iPad as fast as my finger could swipe. (Oh, I was riding a bucking bronco at the time, and shooting at bandits to save a rancher’s daughter. Just so you know I’m not a total . . . → Read More: Galloping To Hell or the Pecos; or, One Bucko’s Review of a Novel of Pursuit, Redemption, and River Crossings 4 comments Cowboy Mythos, Cowgirl Mythos, Pulp Westerns and Paperbacks; Book Reviews, The Good the Bad the Fugly american west, cowboy code, Horsehead Crossing, novel writing, Patrick Dearen, Pecos River, Pecos River fiction, Texas A&M University Press, texas fiction, to Hell or the Pecos, western novels, westerns, writing novels is great Don’t get me wrong. I would recommend Clint Westwood’s Unforgiven (1992), even if it was just because people who don’t like westerns say they like this western. To them, I’m like, um, this is a total western, so I don’t get what you’re saying, but whatever–it kicked the genre in its dusty ass at a time . . . → Read More: Unforgiven; or, I’ll Never Forgive the Blood-Soaked Retribution Blah, Blah, Blah Bits I’m often asked how I got into westerns–sometimes with a tone of disbelief, as in how could one possibly like this hoary, cardboard cutout genre?? I barely know myself: I was always the one who insisted on playing the Indian in Cowboys and Indians because cowboys were just so not interesting to me. And watching movies where . . . → Read More: Fact and Fiction: What Looney Tunes, Bugs Bunny, and Star Trek Taught Me about the West 4 comments Cowboy Mythos, Cowgirl Mythos, Movie Quotes, Origins and Originals, Reel Life vs. Real Life, The Good the Bad the Fugly bugs bunny western, cowboy hero, coyote western, roadrunner western, star trek OK corral, star trek western, western cliches, western movies, wild west, yosemite sam western We’ll find ’em in the end, I promise you. We’ll find ’em. Just as sure as the turnin’ of the earth. —Ethan Edwards (John Wayne), The Searchers (1956) The Meaning of Life was easier to know before World War II. They were bad; we were good. Since 1945, it’s been harder to maintain the line in the . . . → Read More: Did the Duke take the Myth to the Grave?; or, Tim Neath’s Search through Western Films 6 comments Cowboy Mythos, Cowgirl Mythos, Movie Quotes, The Good the Bad the Fugly, Uncategorized, Wild Western Web cowboys in sheffield, creative spark 2012, did the duke take the myth to the grave, life in an abandoned town, martha and ethan, the searchers, tim neath, western art, western cliches, western movies, western themes Writing a novel is hard work. Writing a good western can be even more daunting: westerns, which tend to have plotlines so well traveled you can drive a wagon train through them, nonetheless require historical specificity and a protagonist who typifies rugged individuality—laconic and gimlet-eyed from the start or in a dude-to-hero arc. So whenever I read . . . → Read More: Writing the High Country; or, Author Larry Bjornson on His Western, Wide Open 2 comments Cowboy Mythos, Cowgirl Mythos, Pulp Westerns and Paperbacks; Book Reviews, The Good the Bad the Fugly, Uncategorized, Wrangling a Novel abilene 1871, american west, essential western plots, larry bjornson, novel writing, Western, western themes, wide open, wild bill hickok, wild west, writing a western novel “I want to be a cowboy.” –Chin Hao, aka Shanghai Joe, played by Sessue Hayakawa, aka Chen Lee, The Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe, 1973 I’ve always said that Silver-Screen Western Heroes come in all shapes, sizes, genders, and nationalities. Whether SSWHs are male or female, from the East or the West, they share a certain stillness in their . . . → Read More: Reward Good, Fight Evil; or, the Western Hero Lessons of The Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe 2 comments Cowboy Mythos, Cowgirl Mythos, Film Reviews, Movie Quotes, Reach for the Skies!, The Good the Bad the Fugly, What Would Gary Cooper Do? asians in westerns, chin hao, cowboy hero, klaus kinski, land of opportunity, martial arts western, sessue hayakawa, shanghai joe, silver-screen western hero, spaghetti westerns, the fighting fists of shanghai joe, western cliches Two pics from Django, Unchained are seeding the Wild Western Web. Be still, my beating heart. You’re making me type typos. One is of Leonardo DiCaprio wielding a hammer and Mephistophelian eyebrows, the devil with a red suit on, degeneracy signified by not only a cigarillo in a holder (instead of tucked into the corner of mouth, . . . → Read More: Clothes Maketh the Man; or New Silver-Screen Western Hero Django Unchained 5 comments Buckaroo Gear, Cowboy Mythos, Cowgirl Mythos, Film Reviews, Reel Life vs. Real Life, The Good the Bad the Fugly, Wild Western Web charlton heston, cowboy hero, django unchained, hopalong cassidy, james stewart, jamie foxx, leonardo dicaprio, quentin tarantino, silver-screen western hero, spaghetti western, tarantino western, will penny Huh. And I thought it was all in the camerawork. A recent (April 2012) study at UCLA funded by the US Air Force has found that humans will perceive a man with a gun as larger than he really is. Study participants were asked to judge the size of men holding things like caulking guns, saws, drills, and . . . → Read More: Reach for the Skies; or, Study Says Guns Make People Look Bigger 2 comments Cowboy Moments, Cowboy Mythos, Cowgirl Mythos, Reach for the Skies!, Reel Life vs. Real Life, The Good the Bad the Fugly chilean western, cowboy hero, glenna bell, grace kelly, guns in westerns, guns study, high noon, justified, people larger with guns, sal, silver-screen western hero, southern gothic wedding waltz, western cliches, will Kane |
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