Writing and Writers: Slim Randles

Writer’s Block airs every Tuesday, at 9 a.m. MST on KFUN/KLVF, streaming live at www.kfunonline.com

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Columnist, Humorist and All-round Interesting Guy

SLIM RANDLES

Slim Randles is an experienced writer with more than 50 years as a journalist, writer of fiction and non-fiction and a fellow who sees life as a learning experience. He’s been a cowboy and mule packer in eastern California, reporter, editor and columnist for newspapers in California, New Mexico and Alaska, a dog musher, homesteader and hunting guide, and five years ago he retired as a guide and outfitter in NM. He continues to write his syndicated newspaper column Home Country, currently in 257 papers in 43 states. He reaches more than 2.1 million readers a day.

He is currently working with New Mexico Highlands University to help create a "Cowboy Code" that represents what most people think of as the cowboy way embodying honesty, integrity and strength of character.

Slim is amiable, quick thinking and seems to have been born smiling. He sees the humor in life and helps his readers see it too.

He is an award winning writer with several books to his credit and countless articles. He continues a long standing friendship with Max Evans, a legendary writer and the subject of Slim’s 2004 biography, Ol’ Max Evans, the First Thousand Years. He speaks of writing and the art of being a word smith with pride and passion. His reviews are unfailingly positive and reveal the respect with which he is regarded by critics and fellow writers. He doesn’t waste time being an “aw shucks, m’am” stereotype of cowboys. His intelligence and humor are evident in his easy manner and a gentlemanly kindness. He said in our interview that he wants to write the kind of books he would be proud to have his grandkids read. His respect for his readers keeps him writing relevant material that will last a lifetime.

He graciously gave me a signed copy of Sweet Grass Mornings and I’m looking forward to reading it. He is a cowboy humorist who shows us life’s lighter side and takes seriously his responsibility to produce worthwhile work.

Q&A With Slim Randles

WB: You’ve just been notified you will be the recipient of the Rounder’s Award. Tell the audience what that is.

SR: Named for my buddy Max Evans most famous novel and movie, it is awarded by the New Mexico Department of Agriculture to someone who “…promotes, exemplifies and articulates the Western way of life.”

WB: You’re among a pretty impressive crowd. Previous winners include Max Evans, Michael Martin Murphey, artist Pablita Velarde, illustrator Grem Lee, and Baxter Black. What was your immediate reaction?

SR: When Max called (he’s my mentor and I’m his biographer) to tell me I was going to be given the Rounder’s Award, I couldn’t believe it. I’d rather have this than the Pulitzer.

WB: Let’s talk about your writing. You are identified as a cowboy humorist. Was that a plan or did it evolve over time?

SR: I guess that evolved. I was a newspaper reporter who morphed into a feature writer, and then editor, and finally to columnist. I was also a cowboy, and being a cowboy is a ridiculous, funny thing to do, so I think it kinda sneaked up on me. I do quite a bit of public speaking, and that’s kinda how I’ve been billed. I’ve been called worse.

WB: Your background is in journalism, but you have also done things like participating in the Iditarod and were named Champion Mule Packer at the 1994 NM State Fair. In what ways do these kinds of activities contribute to your success as a writer?

SR: Everything in life contributes to a career as a writer. I’ve had a particularly colorful life, granted, but if you are going to write knowledgeably about freezing to death, you should probably go out and get cold.

WB: There are a lot of definitions of the “Cowboy Way.” In a sentence, what is your definition?

SR: Being honest with yourself and others.

WB: What do you most want people to know about you they don’t already know?

SR: I love music, and have played half a dozen instruments over the years. Wish I were better at it. Music is an elegant way of expressing oneself.

WB: Among the iconic characters of the west, who do you most admire?  

SR: First of all would be Max Evans, who is still with us. His voice as a chronicler of our lives here is unique. Then I guess there would be railroad magnate General Palmer, and Kit Carson.

WB: What keeps you writing?

SR: I have to. I’m not a good enough accordion player to express what I have to through music. And I love my readers. I always have. It’s always so much fun to share ideas and laughs and an occasional tear with them. It’s truly a love affair, and I try to do my best each day.

WB: For writers who are listening in, what are your thoughts about publishing in the age of anything goes?

SR: I just started putting out with e-books, and it’s fun. Basically, I think technology is going to make it easier for writers to earn a living. The computer certainly has. Without it, I sure wouldn’t have two million readers each week, for example. But on a personal note, I guess I’m old-fashioned enough to really enjoy the look and the feel of a real book, and the thrill of seeing one of those with my name on it.

WB: In a review of Sweetgrass Mornings, the writer notes that in this collection of stories the tone is more reflective than rollicking, with an exception or two. Tell us a little about Sweetgrass Mornings and why you wrote in a more reflective manner.

SR: Actually, Sweetgrass Mornings is as close as I’m ever likely to come to an autobiography. I included things from my past that were fun, potentially deadly, and sometimes reflective, true. I omitted including crud like divorce because for one thing, I didn’t think it would interest anyone else, but mainly because that’s a kind of personal issue that isn’t anyone else’s business. But I sure had fun with the horse and sled dog parts and the grizzly bear parts.

WB: Is the West more or less than it was, in terms of how it is perceived in literature and the movies?

SR: The West never was as it has been perceived in literature and the movies. I’m sure Louis L’Amour gunned down more bad guys on Main Street in his books than all the marshals of the Old West. The truth is, almost no one wore sidearms in those days unless it was a cowboy who might have to kill snakes. The gunfights, for the most part, took place in saloons between drunks. That’s still true today.

WB: What’s next for you?

SR: Oh, there are a couple of non-fiction books and a novel on the back burner, but the truth is, it’s just so much fun being alive and active, that you want to wake up each day and wonder what’s going to happen. And I’m thrilled to be asked to help Highlands with their new program to make being a Highlands Cowboy really mean something. A cowboy is, after all, the closest thing we have to a knight here in the West. And there’s a very serious side to it.

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Writers and Writing: Corie J. Weaver

Writer’s Block airs every Tuesday, at 9 a.m. MST on KFUN/KLVF, 

streaming live at www.kfunonline.com
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CORIE J. WEAVER

Fantasy Tales Weave Stories Everyone Can Enjoy

Corie Weaver is a web designer and all around creative spirit. She says she didn’t grow up planning to be a writer, but always loved to read, an important step in becoming a writer. Realizing she had stories to tell she got to work. Corie’s background is in medieval history, she loves to travel and she and her husband are active in the local animal rescue group. She has written two wonderful young adult e-books, Coyote’s Daughter and Bear’s Heart.

Both novels are easy reads with a wealth of fantasy and lore, a combination of what might have been and possibilities beyond what we know. Both are written with tight prose and imagination. You can’t help but engage with the characters as they are faced with the unexpected and the unsettling.

Riddles within riddles, challenges to established beliefs, and courageous characters who do the right things for the right reasons keep readers turning the pages anxious to see what’s next.

In Coyote’s Daughter you will follow Maggie and Jack into a surprising alternate reality where their actions make the difference between preservation of a society and its demise. In Bear’s Heart a young girl resists her destiny until it becomes clear only by embracing her unusual gifts can she save her homeland and bring peace to troubled souls.

The target audience is preadolescent children and teens. I found the plot interesting enough to hold my attention and left me wanting more.

Corie Weaver is an emerging talent whose attention to detail and ability to meld plot and character in entertaining ways shows great promise for a long and prolific future writing good books worth reading.

Q&A: Corie J. Weaver

WB: Let’s start with you telling the audience the catalyst for you going from “not being a writer,” to publishing two books.
CW: In grad school I started writing flash fiction as a way to relax. One day I had an image in my mind that I couldn't shake. I thought I'd be writing another flash fiction piece, then thought maybe it was a short story. After a month I realized to some dismay I'd started down the road of a novel. That one is still in revisions. For future projects I've made sure to have much more planning done before hand. I've been lucky enough to have participated in some fabulous crit groups, and to have attended the Taos Toolbox Workshop.

WB:  I’ve read Coyote’s Daughter and Bear’s Heart. Aside from being targeted to a YA audience, what genre do the books fall into?

CW: Both are fantasy novels. Coyote's Daughter is closer to urban fantasy, with the blurred line in Maggie's life between the real world and the world of legends. Bear's Heart brings characters from folklore and forces them to deal with consequences of a historical event. They can also both be seen as coming of age novels.

WB: Coyote’s Daughter seems to be a blending of folklore and mysticism. Talk about how you decided to go this route in creating character and plot.

CW: So much of young adult fantasy is rooted in the folklore and history of Europe. In New Mexico we have a very rich history and I wanted to explore that. I spent about six months researching pueblo history and legends for each book, with the hopes that the new characters I created would blend well into the existing framework.

WB: Is there a third book in the series or is this a series?
CW: I've played with a couple of different options for the third book, but haven't drafted a final outline yet. And I must admit, I keep being distracted by shiny new ideas.

WB: Do you plan to do print versions of the books?
CW: That was actually the plan for this summer, but now it's looking more like a winter project. I've done a little bit of research into different options, now just to get that moved along. At the moment I'm leaning towards Lightning Source to take advantage of getting into Ingram's distribution catalog.

WB: You have a pretty active schedule. When do you find time to write?

CW: I'd love to say I write every day, but it just doesn't happen. I'm currently experimenting with having a few hours every weekend to actually write, and the rest of the week percolating on world building or plot points, so that when I do have the time to get some words in, I've done the thinking ahead of time.

WB: What authors do you admire?

CW: This is something that changes pretty often, but at the moment I'm greatly inspired by the plotting ability of Dorothy Dunnett. In her six volume Lymond Chronicles she spans the whole of the 16^th century world, from Europe to the Middle East and back. The pages are filled with sword fights and period quotations, gorgeous detail. And the hero acts throughout with reckless abandon that the reader only much later realizes is perfectly calculated.

WB: I know you used Smashwords as a vehicle for publishing. What was that like and will you continue to use that service?

CW: Smashwords is wonderful in that it formats the book for a number of different e-readers at once, without me having to do all that work myself. It also has its own distribution channels that let my work get into outlets I wouldn't have been able to reach on my own.

WB: What did you learn about yourself in the course of writing these books that you didn’t know before?
CW: I've always loved puzzles, and plotting out these books was just like a giant puzzle that I could build and solve. I love figuring out who my people are, and what made them that way, and then creating situations for them and seeing what they'll do. The best part is when they surprise me, and take the story to wonderful new directions. The worst part is when I discover that a character I actually like has done something awful.

WB: What is the most difficult aspect of writing and how do you overcome it? What comes easy?

CW: I love world building and most of the time is comes easily to me – creating the background for the story, the conflicts that drive the plot forward. But every now and again what seems like a minor detail comes up that I get stuck on. Usually a logistical or logical issue that I need to get sorted out before the story can progress. I feel silly, because about half the time it's something the reader will never know about, but I need to know that everything hangs together properly. I get around it by percolating on the issue for a few days, trying different options, and brainstorming with anyone who will sit still long enough to hear me out.

WB: Do you have a website where your books are featured?

CW: They're up at coriejweaver.com

Look for Corie’s work through her website, and hopefully before the year is out, in bookstores.

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ear is out, in bookstoreore.hopefully before the year is out, in bookstore.

re writing good books worth reading. and bring p

Writers & Writing: Ray John de Aragon

Writer’s Block airs every Tuesday, at 9 a.m. MST on KFUN/KLVF, streaming live at www.kfunonline.com

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Ray John de Aragon

 

Author celebrates Hispanic culture and traditions

Ray John de Aragon is an educator at heart, which is good because he has spent much of his adult life creating learning opportunities for young people in Las Vegas and Los Lunas school districts. He is Las Vegas born and a lifelong student of life, Hispano culture and art. He follows dual disciplines, finding time to write definitive books based on stories he heard growing up, and a curiosity that lead him to write a book that corrected erroneous understanding of the state's early history.

As an artist he is creative while staying true to the traditions of style and interpretation. His writing has won a number of awards and he has been the subject of a number of articles and books. His enthusiasm about his work never stands in the way of his getting it right. He is a careful researcher and a dedicated historian. 

Below I share Ray John's responses to the questions we discussed during his Writer's Block segment July 17.

 

WB: Please start by telling the audience what you’ve been up to.

RJ: I’ve been working on a new project titled, The Hidden History of Spanish New Mexico.  This book will tell the story of the four hundred year history of the state and will include something about the heritage, culture, and traditions with information that is not readily available in any other book.

WB: Your books and art celebrate Hispano culture.  Share with us your thoughts on keeping one’s cultural traditions alive in an ever-changing world.

RJ: I don’t think people actually realize how much of how we react to things, our habits, and basic knowledge comes from those that came before us.  Cultural tradition is what shapes us as human beings, and it will continue to shape us on into the future.

WB: You’ve written a number of books, all of which have stood the test of time, creating a compendium of information that brings understanding to old Spanish and northern New Mexico traditions, and shines the light of understanding on often flawed depictions of history. Tell us about some of the books you’ve written and how your work has influenced or changed how we view the past.

RJ: I wrote my book, Padre Martínez and Bishop Lamy, because I was incensed at the way our legendary folk hero priest Padre Antonio José Martínez was depicted in Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop. Although it was a historical fictional novel people took it as the truth and saw the padre as an immoral lecherous priest. I felt I needed to counter that denigrating portrayal with the truth. I attempted to do the same thing with my book, Hermanos de La Luz, Brothers of the Light to present a more balanced look at the Penitente Brotherhood of New Mexico. The truth is most people want to hear about some rituals which have been sensationalized, rather than what was going on in the world around them. Actually their rituals reflected their faith and the strength it took to make it in a tough world and the penance they felt was needed to remind them that good moral decisions could only be made by picking up their cross and carry it, which was harder than taking the easy way out. Besides, the persecution they and their families endured by people who did not understand a culture different from theirs was a much greater penance than what they would have ever chosen. They were constantly being dragged out of their homes and beaten and sometimes they and their families were killed. It wasn’t meant to be a secretive society, but throughout history, from ancient times to now, the world has not always been kind to things they could not understand. I think my books have opened up an understanding and appreciation of the rich cultural and historical heritage and legacy of the four hundred year old Spanish history of New Mexico.

WB: How do you balance the time it takes to create a work of physical art and the artistic expression of writing, both of which take a monumental amount of time?

RJ: I go by the inspiration I feel at the time. If I feel like painting, I paint. If I feel like writing, I write.  If you want to do something bad enough, you sacrifice. Some people get to go on vacation, watch TV, sleep, etc., sometimes I have to give those things up and work on what I believe in.

WB:  Let’s talk about New Mexico Legends and Lore. Now, I’m Hispanic, on my mother’s side. I grew up learning what she remembered of stories she grew up with in Arizona, where my grandfather was a country sheriff and a sheepherder, but those stories were watered down, I think, by the fact we didn’t live in community with the traditions she grew up with. I will say, however, that in this book I recall similar types of stories. Do these stories sort of cross all cultures and come out in different ways?

RJ: I think that in all cultures the world over there are stories that have been passed down from one generation to the next that teach lessons or follow universal themes. It doesn’t matter what the color of our skin is, how our culture or traditions are different. We all want to be treated with dignity, to be loved, to be taken care of, to wish that our children could always be safe and protected. We are a very creative people and we find ways of expressing ourselves by making it interesting, magical, or frightful. Whatever works to get our point across. What youth wants to hear, “Don’t go into a canal with rushing water or ditch filled to the brim with water because you could drown!” Doesn’t it make a more lasting impression if one says, “I’ve heard that La Llorona is always looking for children who go near the water in the arroyos and if she catches them, they might not ever see their family again. So be very careful. You never know…” 

WB: What prompted you to put together this particular collection?

RJ: When I told the stories in the book to students at schools, at presentations around the state, at conferences, and at university classrooms I always enjoyed seeing how kids and adults would respond.  Since people seemed to be enthralled by the stories, I wrote them down.

WB: What stories resonated with you as a child and has that changed as you’ve matured?

The story of La Llorona is one I grew up with living next to the Arroyo Manteca near the Old Town Plaza here in Las Vegas. Of course my mother told me the story to keep me away from the arroyo, but as I grew older, my friends and I searched for La Llorona in the arroyo by day, but never by night. I decided to write a full-length book on La Llorona, The Legend of La Llorona, which is still in print. As a child I didn’t understand why the stories were told, but as an adult I understand the value in those stories. In today’s society, kids watch programs or play games where blood is gushing, or brains are bursting out of characters heads, but there is no value in the story, no moral learned, except maybe a “how to” guide on how to do the same things, but do it before it’s done to you, or do it well enough to not get caught.  People say its not real, but when it does become real some of us are shocked, others may think they were stupid because they got caught, and still others may think, “It’s not really that big of a deal!”

WB: Of the books you’ve written which has been your favorite?

I can’t say any one book I’ve written is my favorite. Each one had a purpose. I guess I could say, my next one and the one after that is my favorite. Each new book is the infant waiting to be born.

WB: Which has had the greatest impact and why?

At this point, Padre Martinez and Bishop Lamy has had the greatest impact. It has been referred to as a revisionist history by some, I say, “Is it a revisionist history because I dare to contradict what the so called “experts” have quoted over and over again without looking at the facts?” At one time it wasn’t easy to do research by looking at documents from primary sources or as close to the primary source as possible, but today there is no excuse for rehashing what somebody else has said with the technology that is available. I would say read and reread both the pros and cons, what are the statistics, what else was going on at the time, who is saying it, why they are saying it and then make your statement. Hey, there is nothing like history, the written words of those who lived it, and time will eventually bring out the truth. New “old” documents come out of secret government folders or hidden chests everyday. We just need to look for them. Sometimes we like what we find, sometimes we don’t.

WB: You have also written children’s books.  Talk a little about that.

RJ: It always seems that I have ten different projects going at the same time. Being a Title I reading teacher I always wanted to write children’s books because I saw how kids reacted to Dr. Seuss so I wrote City of Candy and Streets of Ice Cream. It sold well and now I have several children’s books in the works.

WB: On the book cover for New Mexico Legends and Lore, you quote a common New Mexico expression, “Fear always leads us to suspect the worst.”  Do you regard that as a caution to not be fearful or a defeatist reality? As in, the worst is bound to happen so I might as well get the fear part of it out of the way up front.

RJ: This famous New Mexico dicho most probably means something like, “If at first you don’t succeed, try again.”  What it also means is keep on trying until you do. We say, “Think before you leap!”  Sometimes, we have to leap before we think or we might not ever do it!

WB: Tell us about your author event at Tome on Saturday.

RJ: Tome on the Range is having a book signing on Saturday, July 21.  I will be there to sign the books and try to answer any questions you might have. We might be able to share some stories.

Ray John concluded with these words: I guess I could say that my hometown of Las Vegas provided me with all I know about ghosts, haunted houses and the legend of Billy the Kid. Our famous Padre Martínez also came into play. What I learned and what I grew up with is now the subject of my books.

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