I have a list of things I'm great at. You know, for self-motivation purposes. Right at the tippy-top of the paper, in bold letters, "Totally forgetting important things." Silly me, forgot today was the first Wednesday of the month. Good thing my special guest today needs no introduction! Y'all know and love him. Let's see what kind of questions we got for @Headstall!

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Boundaries
Headstall

4 Chapters, 16,640 Words, 

With this story and others of yours having Western setting; what draws you to this genre?

I believe I've answered this question a few times, and what draws me to the western genre is that it harkens back to my childhood. I have always loved horses and used to devour anything that featured them, whether in movies, books, or on television. Westerns were so popular back then, and I often feel it is a shame they have all but disappeared.

There are some excellent contemporary westerns I've read on GA, but I hungered for something set in the actual Old West, so I wrote "Finding Refuge", a historical western, as an anthology piece. It was really for me, but it was popular enough it showed me there might be an audience for something longer. It took a while, but years later, during the pandemic, the only thing that reignited my writing passion was the thought of writing another western.

Hence, "Sidewinder" was born. The response was truly unexpected, remarkable even, and definitely encouraging, so I did something I seldom do, and wrote a sequel. "Larkspur: A Sidewinder Tale" got the same wonderful reception, so now I would say that enthusiasm is also a part of drawing me to the genre... or at the least, keeping me there.  

It is an often romanticized time period, but it really wasn't as simple a time as we were led to believe by movies. It was a chance to begin a new life, but daily struggles were immense, and not to preach, but there is the whole issue of stealing land from Native Americans, a people that fought back against insurmountable odds.

There was so much going on during that time in history, and the Mexican-American War was the nugget that started "Boundaries: An Old West Tale". I guess you could say I'm an historian at heart (five history courses in my last year of high school), so westerns feel pretty natural to me. Still, writing about them requires a tremendous amount of research. There is so much an author can mine from this time of tragedy, triumphs, and heroes.

This story has a real undertone of doing what is right or a sense of justice permeating it.  Is that a theme you enjoy exploring?

I write first and foremost for entertainment and providing readers an escape, but I will readily admit to social undertones being present in much of my writing, and "Boundaries" is no exception. There is so much upheaval in today's world, to the point it feels we are going backwards with regards to individual rights and how we treat people who might be marginalized or different. I wanted to show that we have always needed heroes like Virgil who see right from wrong. We still do, maybe even more than ever. I also wanted to show the resilience of Wyatt, how he would bend but not break. They are examples of the good people who helped build a country with a conscience. So yeah, that sense of justice you experienced in the reading of "Boundaries" is an important theme of mine, and I thank you for this question in particular.

I love writing, and I love that it gives me the chance to possibly encourage readers to examine their own thoughts about why they do what they do. That is incredibly rewarding, though I am careful not to beat anyone over the head with preachy positions. I only get on my soapbox in the comment sections.

Your writing is so descriptive; especially when dealing with nature.  Is there something that leads to this?  Are you drawn to nature more than others or is it simply something you enjoy writing about?

Thank you! I live on a small farm in the country, surrounded by nature. I also grew up in the rural countryside on the east coast of Canada. Nature is truly in my blood. I can be a city boy, and have been for long periods of time, but my love for nature has to be fed. So yeah, I love writing about the way the world works.

After all my years, I am still a curious man, and I learn new things about this magnificent world every day. If that translates successfully in my writing then I am well pleased. As far as being descriptive, nothing turns me off more as a reader than too much of it, so I always strive to balance it in my work. It goes back to not beating readers over the head with excess, and I think I manage for the most part to use description in an interesting way that contributes to the story and doesn't have the reader skipping over passages. At least, I hope that is the case. I can only try.

Thank you so much for the questions regarding my fairly new-found penchant for westerns. Anything that puts a spotlight on this genre makes me happy.

Cheers! Gary.

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Thanks for the interview, Gary! Readers, don't forget to click the link in their name to check out their stories. 

Hope y'all enjoy the rest of the month, y'all! I'm off to get ready for work. I really need to plan my days better...