My best Western combo for this winter: Glendon Swarthout’s The Homesman, a novel re-released on Valentine’s Day by Simon & Schuster and an upcoming movie adapted by its star and director, Tommy Lee Jones.
Winter can be a writer’s best friend, too. Fire in the fireplace; office stacked with research and books. You have plenty of pencils, paper and your computer. You have your muse, your music, coffee and, of course, deadlines—and bills to pay—the last two maybe the most inspiring muses for any writer.
Recently, I heard through the True West grapevine, that two of our favorite contributors are hard at it, their muses inspiring them to reach new
levels in their work.
Paul Hutton is three chapters away from finishing his Apache opus. He’s at 160,000 words, and he needs to finish because, as he told us, “he’s got four kids in college.”
Author and screenwriter Ron Hansen is turning his attention to Billy the Kid for his next project. This will make it a trifecta with his previous books Desperadoes, which tells the story of the Daltons, and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
—Stuart Rosebrook
