Just saw this write up at Western Fiction Review........

After barely surviving the Civil War, all Confederate sharp-shooter Ethan van Kirk wants is a quiet life on his homestead with his eight-year-old daughter, Lucy. Then a shadow from his past appears. Suddenly he is forced to use his deadly shooting skills again in a deal with the Devil. Ethan must kill an innocent man to save his daughter’s life.

And the clock is ticking….

This is Lee Walker’s third Black Horse Western and having read the previous two I was eager to read this.

The majority of the tale takes place during one morning, and Lee Walker creates an air of menace and tension superbly ensuring the reader will find this a very difficult book to put down before the end is reached. Ethan’s frantic struggle to save his daughter and not kill an innocent man seems destined to fail as he discovers those he thought were friends cannot be trusted and time is running out fast. Unknown to Ethan there are a couple a people trying to help but are they strong enough to do so? And even if they are can they act before the time Ethan has to squeeze the trigger?

I can’t really say more about the story without spoiling it for those who intend to read this book. What I will add is I’d highly recommend it to all who enjoy edge-of-the-seat plotlines that will have you guessing as to the books’ outcome. 

Lee Walker is a pseudonym used by Ed Ferguson and on the strength of this book and the two before it, this author has joined the top ranks of my favourite western writers.

Hi all

 

Got a very pleasant surprise in the post yesterday. I had ordered in advance a copy of Nik Mortons How to Write a Western in 30 Days (with bullet points!) I thought it wasn't meant to be out until the end of July but it was brought forward.

 

First, the look and feel of the book is terrific! What a great cover!

 

I immediately sat down with a cup of coffee and dived in. When I looked up again nearly two hours had past.

 

I'm not going to give too much away for those who are going to buy a copy in the future but all I can say is I wish this book had been available before I started out - it would have saved me a ton of rewrites and edits!

 

And even though I'm on my fourth Western, 30 Days is peppered with great little nuggets of wisdom, suggestions and gentle reminders of what the western is all about and how to write one!

 

Well done Nik. This will be taking pride of place in my collection of Western reference books. Going over to Amazon now to give you a ***** star recommendation.

 

 

Devil's Deal Published

 

Hi all,

 

I logged on to my blogspot today and couldn't believe that it has been nearly a year since I last made an entry! Amazing how time flies. Anyway, I though today would be a good day to restart the blog.

 

This morning, the postman arrived with copies of Devil's Deal. It's always an amazing thrill when you hold the finished product in your hands and as always, this did not disappoint.

The story is about  Ethan Van Kirk who was an ace Confederate sharp-shooter during the Civil War.  Now the war is over, all he wants to do is lead a quiet life on his homestead with his eight year old daughter, Lucy - but the past will not leave him in peace. He is plagued by nightmares and his worst fears come to life when he meets an old officer from his army days. Suddenly, he finds himself caught up in a plot to assinate a Senator and is forced to use his deadly shooting skills again in a deal with the Devil. Ethan must kill an innocent man to save his daughters life.

 

And the clock is ticking... 

 

Devil's Deal is published by Robert Hale Ltd and is available in libraries and Amazon. 

The Writers Journey by Christopher Vogler

If e-books mean there will be no traditional bookstores left, I think the saddest thing about that will be the loss of being able to find the 'accidental' book. I love browsing in old bookstores and I cannot tell you how many books I have stumbled across that are now old favourites and a few, that were no less than life changing.

One such book that has a major influence on me as I try to be a better writer is 'The Writers Journey' by Christopher Vogler. Mine is the 3rd Edition.

The blurb on the back says that the book is 'an international best seller and one of the most influential writing books in the world!' Quite a hype to live up to - and I think it does.

First, it is a beautiful book. It is a weighty tome, serious and substantial but very easy to read. Secondly, the illustrations by Michele Montez are beautiful and make you want to linger and study them before moving on. Thirdly, it makes you think!

I now read novels and watch movies in a completely different way. Voglers book explains storytelling paradigms through myths and step-by-step explanations on plot and characters using popular examples such as Star Wars and Titanic. It has given me a new depth of understanding into my own writing and a framework so that now, I can see why certain things don't work and why others do.

Educational, interesting and quite frankly, inspirational, I would recommend this to anyone who loves the art and craft of story-telling.

Pay Dirt - Western Fiction Review

The following review of my most recent book, Pay Dirt was posted on Western Fiction Review.

At last Lee Walker’s second BHW has appeared. After reading his first, Gun Law, I was looking forward to this one. The book starts with a horrific prologue, which explains the animosity between brothers Jim and Michael Payne. The story then jumps forward a number of years and the reader joins Jim as he arrives in Golden Gulch. It isn’t long before he finds himself confronting Craven and becomes a target for the conman’s hired guns. Lee Walker has come up with a great bunch of characters that are a pleasure to read about.

The story moves forward quickly and is filled with well-written action scenes that paint vivid images within the mind. The final blazing showdown takes up a good portion of the book and provides an exciting conclusion to the story.

Lee Walker is a pseudonym used by Ed Ferguson, and he writes in an easy to read style that defies you to put the book down before the end. Once more, like after finishing Gun Law,
I’m left looking forward to the third western from Lee Walker.

New Novel Accepted by Robert Hale Ltd

Robert Hale Ltd, publisher of the Black Horse Western imprint has just agreed to publish my third novel, Devil's Deal.

Managing Director, Gill Jackson, described the new work as 'an exciting Western with plenty of tension.'

The book should be issued early in the new year and I look forward to seeing it in print.

Preview of Pay Dirt Cover!

It's always an exciting moment when you see the artwork for your forthcoming book for the first time; and this did not disappoint!

Thanks to all at Robert Hale for consistently coming up with exciting and eye-catching front cover designs. They may not always relate directly to the plot but hopefully, they capture the excitement and pace of the story and give the reader a flavour of what they've come to expect from a Black Horse Western.

Pay Dirt should be available in January 2012 and I look forward to holding a pristine copy in my hands.

BBC Radio 4 Interview with Elmore Leonard

Lovely interview with a writing hero of mine. Click the link here to listen.

Great Advice on Time Management for Writers

I've subscribed for some time to an online e-zine from Randy Ingermanson. Here's his thoughts on how writers find time for their projects. If you want to subscribe to his e-zine, see the links below.


When I started writing fiction years ago, I read an estimate that a novelist needs to spend 2000 hours learning the craft of fiction writing in order to get published. I thought that was excessive. I figured a smart guy could learn to write a novel in a few hundred hours. Maybe I'm just not all that smart, but it wound up taking me quite a bit more than 2000 hours of writing to get my first novel accepted by a publisher and on the shelves of bookstores.

Even though I wildly underestimated the amount of time it would take, I always knew it wasn't something you do in a weekend, so I made a point early in my writing life to find ways to spend more time writing. I believe that if you're a serious writer, you need to
be writing at least 10 to 20 hours per week. Why? Because when you finally sell your manuscript to a publisher, they're going to expect you to polish your novel within a few months. And then they'll expect you to do a second novel soon after that. And then a third, and a fourth . . .

That level of effort is easily going to cost you 20 hours every week for the rest of your writing life. Easily. If you're not already writing at least 10 hours per week by that time, you just plain won't be able to gear up quickly enough to meet those demands from your publisher. You don't have to start out writing 10 hours per week when you first begin writing fiction, of course. Hardly anybody can do that. I recommend that you work up to the level of writing about 5 hours per week by the end of your first year of serious writing. And yes, it may take you a full year just to get up to that level. Once you're writing 5 hours per week, you can then ramp up over the next year or two to writing at that magic level of 10 hours per week. How do you do that? How do you find that kind of time when you're probably already overwhelmed by all the other things you're doing in life? It's not easy. It's going to call for you to make some hard decisions on what's most important to you.

We're all juggling a lot of different things in our lives. I am. You are. That's just how things are. Think about all the things on your plate. You probably have 10 or 15 that are important. Maybe more. You've got 168 hours in every week, and you're awake for at least 110 of those. That's a lot of hours. How do you fill up those hours? Is it possible that you could live your life with one less thing on your plate? If you've never tracked your time, this might be an enlightening exercise. Keep a daily log of where your time goes over the course of a full week. Keep a record of anything that takes longer than about 5 minutes. Lump together things that take less time than that. You may be amazed at what you spend your time on.

Now it's time to get serious. Every three months, ask yourself if there's one less thing you could do. One thing you could shove off your plate that would gain you at least an hour per week in writing time. Maybe it's an "essential" TV show that really isn't all that important. Maybe it's time spent browsing the web, fooling around on Facebook, texting, Skyping, tweeting, or whatever your favorite way is to chitchat electronically. Can you carve out an hour from that?
Every three months, can you find one less thing that "must" be done? Something that's really not essential? Something you can offload to somebody else? Can you take that time and use it for your writing? One less thing, every three months. If that one less thing buys you an extra hour per week of writing time, then in a year, you'll be writing at least four hours per week.

In two years, you'll have an extra eight hours per week to devote to your writing. In three years, you'll have twelve hours a week. This is not easy. At first, that "one less thing" won't
cost you much. But as the months go by, each "one less thing" is going to sting more and more.

Life is full of sacrifices. If you want to write a novel, you have to give up something else that you like doing. You have to give up lots of somethings. You can get there. One less thing at a time.

Award-winning novelist Randy Ingermanson, "the
Snowflake Guy," publishes the Advanced Fiction Writing
E-zine, with more than 25,000 readers, every month. If
you want to learn the craft and marketing of fiction,
AND make your writing more valuable to editors, AND
have FUN doing it, visit
http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com.

Download your free Special Report on Tiger Marketing
and get a free 5-Day Course in How To Publish a Novel.


_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________


Randy Ingermanson
Publisher, Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine
http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com/ezine

_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________

Randy Ingermanson
President and CEO of Ingermanson Communications, Inc.
2210 W. Main St., Suite 107, Box 103
Battle Ground, WA 98604

High Noon on the I-Phone!

Here's a bit of fun! Turn your i-phone into Colt 45 as you seek to be the most wanted desperado on the planet. And it's free to download, too!!!!

Warning - strangely addictive...


Your phone is your weapon as you duel with people online around the world to become the most wanted outlaw on the planet! Win duels and collect reward money to customize your character. As you build your reputation, the bounty on your head will attract competition from around the globe!

FEATURES
──────
✓ Intense heart-throbbing real-time multiplayer duels
✓ Realistic "your-phone-is-your-gun" holstering, drawing, aiming, shooting, and reloading actions
✓ Regular faction wars and competitions
✓ Game Center integration for finding friends sending duel challenges
✓ Stealing from your opponents (if you don't get caught!)
✓ 4 gun types: revolver, shotgun, rifle, and scoped rifle
✓ Special equipment: dynamite, lassos, silver bullets, voodoo dolls... wooden teeth and more
✓ Western wear: greenhorn, gambler or disgruntled civil war soldier - you can customize your character from head to toe
✓ Indian trading post items that give you an edge up on the competition
High Noon is a multi-player game and requires at least a GPRS network connection, 3G or better is recommended.

▶ Follow us on Twitter
http://twitter.com/highnoon

▶ High Noon forum on Facebook
http://highnoon.happylatte.com/

A great article on the future of digital books on the smart phone and providing some real food for thought.

Check it out.

NEWSFLASH - 'Pay Dirt' Accepted by Robert Hale Ltd

I have just been informed by publishers Robert Hale Ltd, that my second western novel, entitled Pay Dirt has been accepted for publication.

What this space for more information...

What I'm Reading Now...

True Grit by Charles Portis

With all the fuss around the movie, I decided to read the book; if the movie is only half as enjoyable, it will be a must-see!

The book is written in the first person in the voice of Mattie Ross, the 14 year old daughter of Frank Ross who is shot dead by Tom Chaney, one of his own workers. The assured, confident style is reminiscent of To Kill A Mocking Bird or Catcher In The Rye - another two of my favourite books.

The story is fast-paced and the story is so well-written, dialogue just leaps off the page. For example, at one point La Boeuf the cocky Texas Ranger says:

"Earlier tonight I gave some thought to stealing a kiss from you, though you are very young and sick and unattractive to boot, but now I am of a mind to give you five or six good licks with my belt."

"One would be as unpleasant as the other," I replied.

The scene where Mattie negotiates a refund from the horse trader, Stonehill, is masterful. All in all, she is a remarkable, memorable character whose words stay with you long after you have put the book down. (I read it in one sitting.)

Rooster Cogburn, the character played by John Wayne in the original 1969 movie is a far more complex and flawed character than depicted in that film and is all the more interesting for it.

Too many books are described as 'epic', 'classic' etc but this really does fit the bill and I hope the movie lives up to it.

The results of the Rope and Wire short story competition are now available here.

A great website. Check out some of the photography on the artists section!

What It's Like to Be Sacked by a Computer!

A cautionary tale for all of us.

A really interesting article by Dylan Winter (which co-incidentally I think would be a great name for a western hero.)

He writes a great blog call 'Keep Turning Left' about his adventures travelling around the coast of England in a 19ft boot. He writes a guest article on this website about being delisted by Google's AdSense in a very scary way.

All bloggers beware!

Vulture Gold Now Available as E-book

Chuck Tyrell's (aka Charles Whipple) first Black Horse Western, Vulture Gold is now available as an e-book from Smashwords or Western Trail Blazers.

Western Trail Blazers is well worth checking out.

Review of Dead Man's Journey by Frank Roderus

Review of Dead Man's Journey by Frank Roderus on Joanne Walpoles blog.

Enjoy

What is NaNoWriMo?

What is National Novel Writing Month?

Find out about this fun and challenging bid to write 50,000 words of your novel during the month of November.

Find out more HERE

Grammar is Important!

Charles Whipple over on the Black Horse Westerns Yahoo Group emailed us with this piece of sound advice. It made me laugh out loud!

Grammar is important. 'Helping your Uncle Jack off a horse' is most definitely not the same as 'helping your uncle jack off a horse!'

Thanks, Charles

Meet Bobby Nash

Meet fellow writer Bobby Nash in a fascinating interview with Writers News Weekly.

Keep up the good work, Bobby!