Lonely on the Mountain, part 3

Now, years later and far out on the grass prairie, I was remembering and wondering what I could do that I hadn't done.

No matter which way you looked between you and anywhere else, there was a thousand miles of grass--- and the Sioux.

The Sioux hadn't come upon us yet, but they were about, and every man-jack of us knew it. It could be they hadn't cut our sign yet, but cut it they would, and when they did, they would come for us.

Lonely on the Mountain
Louis L'Amour
1980

This is the third installment of the beginning of Lonely on the Mountain, a western by Louis L'Amour, one of the most popular of American writers.

At this point the first-person narrator, Tell Sackett, brings us from his memory of troubled times of the past to the troubles of the present. He's out on the prairie--- we later learn his mission is to drive a herd of cattle to another Sackett in Canada--- and he is going through Sioux Indian territory--- and the Sioux are not feeling peaceable.

Putting the three sections of the beginning together, what most impresses me is the strong voice of his character. This is essential when you are using a first-person narrator. Such a narrator must show forth his personality and his individuality in the way he speaks. A bland first-person narrator just will not do.

Another interesting thing about 'Lonely on the Mountain'. The first section is first-person POV will Tell Sackett as the POV character. The next section is third-person POV with another member of the Sackett family as the POV character. He keeps hearing that Tell and the others on the cattle drive were killed by Indians. Later in the novel when Tell Sackett is found, we return to his first-person POV.

While this is not a common way of handling point-of-view in a novel, it works very well. Of course, L'Amour was a very experienced writer when he did it.

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Lonely on the Mountain, part 2

 Two years before, pa had set us to diggin' a well. "Pa?" I asked. "Why dig a well? We've got the creek yonder and three flowin' springs on the place. It's needless work."

He lifted his head, and he looked me right in the eye and said, "Dig a well."

We dug a well.

We grumbled, but when pa said dig, you just naturally dug. And lucky it was, too.

For there came a time when the bed of the creek was dust and the springs that had always flowed weren't flowin'. We had water, though. We had water from a deep, cold well. We watered our stock, we watered our kitchen garden, and we had what was needful for drinkin' because of that well.

*~*~*

Lonely on the Mountain
by Louis L'Amour
1980

This is the second installment of the beginning of this novel. L'Amour has his first-person narrator, Tell Sackett, give us a short word-picture of an incident from his boyhood. It shows what kind of person Pa Sackett was, which explains a lot about how Tell and the other Sackett brothers turned out.

This mini-flashback is risky at the beginning of a novel. L'Amour was at that time a very experienced writer. His first novel was published about 1950. The first book in the Sackett series was published in 1960, so he also had fans eager to hear some Sackett backstory.

But I think even if this had been the first Sackett book, this mini-flashback would have worked. In the voice of the first-person narrator, this mini-flashback is in a way a short description of the character--- not of his looks, but of who he was as a person.

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Lonely on the Mountain, part 1

There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.

Pa said that when I was a boy. There was a hot, dry wind moaning through the hot, dry trees, and we were scared of fire in the woods, knowing that if fire came, all we had would go.

We had crops in the ground, but there'd been no rain for weeks. We were scrapin' the bottom of the barrel for flour and drinkin' coffee made from ground-up beans. We' had our best cow die, and the rest was ganted up, so's you could count every rib.

from
Lonely on the Mountain
Louis L'Amour
published 1980

I've been doing a writing exercise that involves copying out about 300 words of the beginning of novels. This is the first 1/3 of the portion that I copied.

Louis L'Amour had a series, the Sackett series. The first book in that series was written in 1960. This one came along 20 years later. By this time Louis L'Amour was one of the most popular writers in the country. His skill with words can be seen here.

I found this section to be a very powerful opening, which I used for a model in my own WIP. The main character is William Tell Sackett, called Tell. He is featured in several of the Sackett novels and is a character I love.

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Black Jack: Will Outlaw's Son Repeat Father's Fate? (Free Ebook)

Book: Black Jack
Author: Max Brand (Frederick Schiller Faust)
Genre: Western
Year Published: 1922
Horse's Name: El Sangre
Content Rating: G--- no sex or swearing
Stars: **** Very Good
Link for Free Ebook:  http://manybooks.net/titles/brandmaxetext06blkjk10.html

The book begins with the shooting death of an outlaw, witnessed by spinster ranch owner Elizabeth Cornish and her lazy younger brother Vance. The outlaw, Black Jack, left an orphaned infant son behind.

Vance Cornish, referring to the theory of eugenics popular when the book was written, predicted Black Jack's son would grow up to be just like his old man. Elizabeth not only believed the infant could be spared that fate if carefully reared, she decided to do so herself. Vance predicted the boy would shoot a man before age 25.

Jump forward to just before the boy Terry's 25th birthday. He is a fine young man and proud of the fine family that Elizabeth told him he came from--- he has no clue his real father was an outlaw. He has tamed a wild horse, El Sangre, and won much admiration for his courage and his sense of fair play.

But Vance, whose idle ways have lost him his share of the family ranch, is jealous when Elizabeth proposes to make Terry her heir. He arranges for Terry to learn the truth about his father--- and to be confronted with the man, now a sheriff, who shot Black Jack from ambush. Terry calls the sheriff out, and shoots him in an excruciatingly fair duel.

Terry must now leave the ranch in disgrace. He tries to find honest work, but when he is found out as Black Jack's son he is fired. Only the members of Black Jack's old gang have any interest in helping Terry.

Terry ends up hiring on for ranch work at the home/hideout of the current leader of Black Jack's gang. Here he is pulled closer into a life of crime, much to the dismay of the gang leader's pretty daughter.

The great question of the book is: Does a boy like Terry have any chance at all of leading a morally upright life? And can Terry resist the strong temptations posed by a life of crime when an honest life seems so difficult? Read the book to find out!

I believe this book would be of great interest to the Christian reader because of the moral dilemma at the heart of the story, and because of the lack of objectionable content. The YA reader would also be pleased as the hero, though older than the standard age 17, is youthful and just starting out in life.

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Watching Western Shows as Old as I Am

Lately I've been spending wasting a lot of time watching really old Western tv series on the Encore Western channel. Which is kind of a funny thing.

Although I'm told that as a tiny girl I was enthusiastic about the Roy Rogers show and wore a red cowboy hat, by the time in my childhood where I actually remember things I wasn't a Western fan. Which was sad because it was about the only thing on television in those days.

I remember the routine when my mom, dad and brother would be downstairs watching Gunsmoke or some such show, while I was upstairs in my parents' bedroom watching old movies or The Avengers on the small black-and-white tv.

There were a couple of Western shows I did have a use for back then: The Wild Wild West, Alias Smith and Jones, The Rifleman, and, of course, Star Trek. (Star Trek? Well, Gene Roddenberry did allegedly think of calling the show 'Wagon Train to the Stars')

But now the world of television has changed. Besides the reality TV horror, the dramatic shows that remain tend to not be aimed at general audiences, but only at angry Leftists who enjoy anti-conservative and anti-Christian hate worked into their entertainment. Like that Law & Order episode that accused conservative commentators Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilley of condoning the murder of babies born to illegal immigrants. (Anyone who's actually watched Beck or O'Reilley knows they are notoriously against baby-killing, even the legal kind.)

So I haven't got attracted to many current television dramas other than those in Korean (subtitled) on KBS America. And these old Westerns came as a very pleasant surprise.

The ones I have been watching lately include Have Gun, Will Travel, Wagon Train, Rawhide, and Marshal Dillon (later renamed Gunsmoke.) And one I hadn't heard of before, Lawman.

Lawman, the story of Marshal Dan Troop and his young deputy sidekick Johnny McKay, was an excellent half-hour show which ran from 1958-1962. It premiered October 5th, 1958, the very day I premiered was born.

I like to spend time in this different world in which preachers are the good guys and not the killers, where men are gallant enough to treat women like ladies even when they are only saloon girls (hookers).

And there is some similarity in storytelling values between these old Westerns and the original Star Trek, which is a story about humanity's expansion into space, like settlers from Back East expanded into the Western territories.

My current WIP, a spaceship-based SF story, is turning out to be that kind of Western-in-Space thing, and I'm encouraging it. I've even looked up an article on how to write Westerns, 'Writing Western Novels Requires Specific Rules'.  I think most of these rules are adaptable to the writing science fiction and fantasy as well, particularly if you write from a Christian perspective. They are:

1. Point of view is limited to one or at most two main characters.
2. Foul language is impermissible.
3. Excessive sexuality is not OK. The Western hero and his lady remain largely virtuous.

Another good point that authors of other genres might borrow is the fact that a Western male hero is a man's man, not a woman's fantasy of a perfect, sensitive mate. The Western hero doesn't spend hours talking about his feelings, or taking his gal on shopping trips to upgrade their wardrobes. He doesn't cook for her, do the dishes, or mind the baby while the gal goes out to climb a corporate ladder. He's a strong, silent type who'll put his life on the line to save the lives of those who are vulnerable.

Watching Western Shows as Old as I Am

Lately I've been spending wasting a lot of time watching really old Western tv series on the Encore Western channel. Which is kind of a funny thing.

Although I'm told that as a tiny girl I was enthusiastic about the Roy Rogers show and wore a red cowboy hat, by the time in my childhood where I actually remember things I wasn't a Western fan. Which was sad because it was about the only thing on television in those days.

I remember the routine when my mom, dad and brother would be downstairs watching Gunsmoke or some such show, while I was upstairs in my parents' bedroom watching old movies or The Avengers on the small black-and-white tv.

There were a couple of Western shows I did have a use for back then: The Wild Wild West, Alias Smith and Jones, The Rifleman, and, of course, Star Trek. (Star Trek? Well, Gene Roddenberry did allegedly think of calling the show 'Wagon Train to the Stars')

But now the world of television has changed. Besides the reality TV horror, the dramatic shows that remain tend to not be aimed at general audiences, but only at angry Leftists who enjoy anti-conservative and anti-Christian hate worked into their entertainment. Like that Law & Order episode that accused conservative commentators Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilley of condoning the murder of babies born to illegal immigrants. (Anyone who's actually watched Beck or O'Reilley knows they are notoriously against baby-killing, even the legal kind.)

So I haven't got attracted to many current television dramas other than those in Korean (subtitled) on KBS America. And these old Westerns came as a very pleasant surprise.

The ones I have been watching lately include Have Gun, Will Travel, Wagon Train, Rawhide, and Marshal Dillon (later renamed Gunsmoke.) And one I hadn't heard of before, Lawman.

Lawman, the story of Marshal Dan Troop and his young deputy sidekick Johnny McKay, was an excellent half-hour show which ran from 1958-1962. It premiered October 5th, 1958, the very day I premiered was born.

I like to spend time in this different world in which preachers are the good guys and not the killers, where men are gallant enough to treat women like ladies even when they are only saloon girls (hookers).

And there is some similarity in storytelling values between these old Westerns and the original Star Trek, which is a story about humanity's expansion into space, like settlers from Back East expanded into the Western territories.

My current WIP, a spaceship-based SF story, is turning out to be that kind of Western-in-Space thing, and I'm encouraging it. I've even looked up an article on how to write Westerns, 'Writing Western Novels Requires Specific Rules'.  I think most of these rules are adaptable to the writing science fiction and fantasy as well, particularly if you write from a Christian perspective. They are:

1. Point of view is limited to one or at most two main characters.
2. Foul language is impermissible.
3. Excessive sexuality is not OK. The Western hero and his lady remain largely virtuous.

Another good point that authors of other genres might borrow is the fact that a Western male hero is a man's man, not a woman's fantasy of a perfect, sensitive mate. The Western hero doesn't spend hours talking about his feelings, or taking his gal on shopping trips to upgrade their wardrobes. He doesn't cook for her, do the dishes, or mind the baby while the gal goes out to climb a corporate ladder. He's a strong, silent type who'll put his life on the line to save the lives of those who are vulnerable.