If I were to name my subject this month I would call it "learning curves." I believe we learn more from hindsight than we do from foresight, or so it seems at least in my own case. What we've learned from hindsight is that our special group of wonderful fans is not part of the new wave of chat room enthusiasts. That does not mean that we won't have special reasons for using this modern tool at Stan's web site should the occasion warrant. It is just that we have suspended the monthly Monday Stan Lynde Chat Room for now. Sigh!

We continue to attract new friends to Stan's blog, web site and those signing up to receive the monthly Cottonwood Clarion, and we want to say a special welcome to new friends who are sharing this journey with us.

Those who know us know that I am also a Real Estate Broker-Owner. As you might expect, the season of buying homes is somewhat of a roller coaster, so hindsight has once again triumphed. I am responsible for preparing the cartoons for Internet posting, and due to time constraints am now opting to post the Grass Roots, Latigo and Rovar Bob with the Cottonwood Clarion once a month. We continue to post the Stan Lynde Cowboy Lore and Legend feature once a week, which Bonnie posts at various social networks around the Internet and at Stan's blog.

The good news is that Stan is now posting a BRAND NEW blog every week at his blog site www.StanLyndeAuthor.com. So you can follow his blog and interact with him over his weekly posts. Some are downright personal, like the one he just uploaded on Friday!

On another note, we have listened to the techs in regard to search engine gurus who tell us that our web sites and blogs "should" have a .com address. Thus we have changed Stan's web site to: www.StanLyndeWesternAuthor.com, and Stan also has an additional new email Stan@StanLyndeWesternAuthor.com. His blog is already a .com so no changes were necessary there All of this is more of that "hindsight" stuff! I also like to call is tweaking and course correction.

The other good news is that Vendetta Canyon is now available in Kindle version as well as Trade Paperback. The links to order are with the "books section" of this newsletter. To make ordering the titles simple, just click on the page link.

And lastly, the news we're all waiting for is news of when The Big Open will be available for purchase! The final proof is on its way as we speak (this is the second proof). It is important that the book be the best that it can be and no amount of rushing can make that happen if you say yes and should say no, wait a minute, let's get this right first. This is not one of those times you want hindsight to be your boss. The best estimate we have at this time is early August. If you tune in to Stan's weekly blog and the posts that Bonnie does around the Internet, we will announce it as soon as we are 100% sure!

Personal from Stan ynde

Elmore Leonard started out writing westerns and went on to write terse crime fiction filled with unforgettable characters and great dialogue. Regarding his “Ten Rules for Writing,” he said, “These are rules I’ve picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when I’m writing a book.”

Writing about description in fiction, Leonard says, “Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.” His famous rule number ten takes it further: “Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.”

I agree with Leonard, and I try to keep his advice in mind when setting the scene in one of my Merlin Fanshaw westerns. The reader needs only enough information to know where the scene takes place.

Here, from Ernest Haycox’s Bugles in the Afternoon, is what I consider a well-written scene:

“The darkness was a complete, moonless dark. Beyond Officers’ Row lay the low, curved silhouette of the western ridge, over which a soft wind came with its scent of winter, with its scent of further wildness. Out there, far, out, lay a country as mysterious as the heart of Africa. Across it, during the past ten years, occasional military expeditions had traveled, had fought, had won and lost—but never had penetrated the core of it. That was Sioux land, the last refuge of a race which had given ground before the promises, the threats, and the treacheries of the white man’s frontier; and now had vowed to retreat no further. Out there Sioux tepees made their rows and clusters along the Powder, the Yellowstone, the Tongue, and the Rosebud; and along a stream which Indians called the Greasy Grass but which was known to white men as the Little Bighorn.”

Contrast Haycox’s spare but elegant prose with this adjective-laden description from Zane Grey’s Light of the Western Stars:

“She was too tired to move a finger. But her brain whirled. She had at first no control over it, and a thousand thronging sensations came and went and recurred with little logical relation. There were the roar of the train; the feeling of being lost; the sound of pounding hoofs; a picture of her brother’s face as she had last seen it five years before; a long, dim line of lights; the jingle of silver spurs; night, wind, darkness, stars. Then the gloomy station, the shadowy blanketed Mexican, the empty room, the dim lights across the square, the tramp of the dancers and vacant laughs and discordant music, the door flung wide and the entrance of the cowboy---”

 Meaning no offense to Zane Grey or his many fans, but I much prefer Haycox’s spare, clean picture.

It leaves room for my imagination.

Stan's Novels Currently Available

If you would like to order your own copy of these books, just click on the book link.  It is available both in E-Book for $2.99 and Trade Paperback for $9.99.  Also click on the Audio Sound 'button' and hear some of the story read by Stan himself (he reads is own novels for his Audio Books).

 

 

In this issue:
• From the Lady Publisher:
• Nuggets from the Merlin Fanshaw Westerns
• Personal from Stan Lynde
• Merlin Fanshaw Monthly Puzzle
• Grass Roots
• Latigo
• Rövar Bob
• Stan Lynde's Cowboy Lore & Legend
• Western Website Recommendations
• Stan's Novels Currently Available
• Fans Speak
• Book Review

Nuggets from the Merlin Fanshaw Westerns

From Vendetta Canyon:

(Chapter 13 To Make Amends) on “setting the scene:”

“The trail to Vendetta Canyon wound up through timbered hills and open parks toward the granite peaks that crowned the War Bonnet range. Aspen groves shimmered on the hillsides, their leaves a-patter with a sound like rain. Wheatgrass bent with the breeze. The heat of early afternoon eased its grip on the day, giving way to cooler air and the medicine smells of pine and sage. Shadows grew longer. Blue as wood smoke, fool hens pecked nervously under spruce trees, and mule deer browsed the ridges as I rode Rutherford up the switchbacks.”

Merlin Fanshaw Monthly Puzzle

Merlin Fanshaw Monthly Puzzle (first winner with the correct answer to this month’s Merlin Fanshaw Puzzle can claim as their prize either “Bronc Rider” OR “Quicksilver” Stan Lynde Pencil Drawing. 

Congratulations to Jackie Morris with the correct answer to last month’s Merlin Fanshaw Monthly Quiz question “In the Merlin Fanshaw novel VENDETTA CANYON,” “Griff Tallon” is: Answer “Range Detective.” Jackie hails from Myrtle Creek, Oregon. Contest winners seem to get right on to answering the questions, so good luck to you all.

Go to www.stanlyndeauthor.com and click on the link to the Merlin Fanshaw Monthly Puzzle and test your skills against the questions that Stan prepares for this fun “in the know” quiz.  Answers MUST be posted on his blog.  Here is July 29th, 2012 Merlin quiz question:

Which of the Merlin Fanshaw novels are also available as audio books?

a.        THE BODACIOUS KID, CARELESS CREEK, and SAVINGS MISS JULIE

b.       MARSHAL OF MEDICINE LODGE and SUMMER SNOW

c.        VENDETTA CANYON and TO KILL A COPPER KING

d.       ALL OF THE ABOVE

Fans Speak

Just want to tell you that I was always a fan of Rick O'Shay. When the strip ended, it was like a death in the family. I have every one of the Merlin Fanshaw novels as well as Vigilanty Moon. I very much enjoyed them all. Now I am having the pleasure of introducing my little 7 year old grandson to Merlin. We just finished reading Careless Creek. (My copy of the Bodacious Kid was on loan when I decided that Colt might be old enough to enjoy having the series read to him.) We finished the last chapter of Careless Creek today and he is already eager to beging another. Thank you so much for the pleasure you have provided us. Wishing you the best.

Gayla Skaw  

Book Review

To Kill a Copper King

5.0 out of 5 stars