
An H. H. Lomax Western, #5
by
by
PRESTON LEWIS
Genre: Historical Fiction / Western / Humor
Publisher: Wolfpack Publishing
Date of Publication: February 5, 2020
Publisher: Wolfpack Publishing
Date of Publication: February 5, 2020
Number of Pages: 449
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Along the way, he encounters Indians, rabid skunks, flash floods, a stampede, and the animosities of some fellow cowboys trying to steal profits from the drive. Lomax is saved by the timely arrival of now U.S. Marshal Hickok, but Lomax uses counterfeit wanted posters to convince Hickok his assailants are wanted felons with rewards on their heads.
Lomax and Wild Bill go their separate ways until they run into each other a decade later in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, where Hickok vows to kill Lomax for getting him fired.
First Herd to Abilene is an entertaining mix of historical and hysterical fiction.
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Writing
& First Herd to Abilene
Author
Interview with Preston Lewis
Tell me how you write a
historical novel like First Herd to
Abilene.
I
go through three drafts. The first draft is pure drudgery as you are battling
the tyranny of the blank screen, just trying to get something down. I note
writing milestones along the way, the first page being the initial objective. You
can’t have a book without a first page. Then by page ten, I’m in double digits,
which is a good sign. Page 100 is a major accomplishment because by then I’m in
three digits, and I’m beginning to think this may work out after all.
What about the second
and third drafts?
In
the second draft, I go back and start editing, cutting out verbiage, connecting
plot points, deleting extraneous scenes, and adding scenes that are necessary
for the background of future chapters. In the second draft, I am giving the
manuscript its first full read and striving for overall coherence. As I write
the first draft, I make a list of adjustments I need to include in the
preceding pages and work all that out in the second draft. By the third draft,
I am interested in polishing the writing, strengthening the verbs, eliminating
echoes, and tying everything together before sending it off to the editors.
Do you outline/plot out
a novel or just write where it takes you?
I’ve
done it both ways. When I was a new writer, editors demanded a synopsis in
varying levels of detail, but as I established myself as a writer, I could just
give a brief plot description. No matter how I do it, I generally know where I will
start and where I will end. With a detailed plot in front of me in the early
years, I had a roadmap for the novel. Today I prefer to start writing and see
where the journey takes me. It’s more fun that way because you never know for
sure what will happen, or which turns your characters will take.
How do you use your
research in writing a historical novel?
I
like my historical novels to give readers a bit of a history lesson, even if it
is fiction. So, I look for facts and characters that interest me or that I have
not encountered elsewhere in fiction. Then I try to incorporate them into a
coherent story. Before starting First
Herd to Abilene, I spent about eight months reading as many first-hand
accounts of trail drives and cowboying as well as biographies on Wild Bill
Hickok, looking for facts that intrigued me. Then I begin to put it all
together.
How would you describe
that writing process?
The
analogy I use is that writing a historical novel is quilting with words. I had
two aunts that lived in the small West Texas community of Blackwell and they
were quilters. They would have an idea, cut out fabric, arrange it in patterns,
sew the pattern blocks together, put a batting between the pattern and the
backing, and then hand-stitch it into the final quilt. Novel writing is like
quilting with words. The research provides the idea, the facts become the
fabric, and the patterns become the chapters. The stitching is the writing
style, which unites the plot and theme (batting and the backing) into a
finished product. That comparison works best for how I view the writing
process.
Is there any
serendipity in what you write?
Certainly.
When I first started the Memoirs of H.
H. Lomax series twenty years ago, I developed an entire family, with his
parents and eight siblings. Lomax had five brothers and three sisters, but for
some reason I said Constance, his oldest sister, had disappeared, and I wrote
nothing about her. I don’t know why, other than I thought her backstory,
whatever it was, might come in handy one day. Constance Lomax shows up in First Herd to Abilene for her only
appearance in the Lomax series, but she is critical to the story and the
ultimate resolution to the plot.
What historical figures
appear in First Herd to Abilene?
Wild
Bill Hickok and Davis Tutt fought a classic gun battle in Springfield,
Missouri, which is where First Herd
begins. Then there’s Joseph G. McCoy, who made Abilene the first major Kansas
railhead, and Jesse Chisholm, for whom the famous trail is named, much to the
chagrin of Lomax. Finally, there’s Calamity Jane and a pair of undertaker
brothers in Deadwood.

Preston Lewis is the Spur Award-winning author of thirty novels. In addition to his two Western Writers of America Spurs, he received the 2018 Will Rogers Gold Medallion for Western Humor for Bluster’s Last Stand, the fourth volume in his comic western series, The Memoirs of H. H. Lomax. Two other books in that series were Spur finalists. His comic western The Fleecing of Fort Griffin received the Elmer Kelton Award from the West Texas Historical Association for best creative work on the region.
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Signed Copies of First Herd to Abilene and Bluster's Last Stand
2ND PRIZE:
Signed Copy of First Herd to Abilene
APRIL 28-MAY 8, 2020
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4/28/20
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4/29/20
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Review
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4/30/20
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Author Interview
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5/1/20
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Review
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5/2/20
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Scrapbook Page
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Excerpt
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5/4/20
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Review
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5/5/20
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5/6/20
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Great interview and I loved this. "Novel writing is like quilting with words." Since I'm a quilter and a writer, that really resonated with me. I quilt the same way I write, often with no pattern and no strict plan. Adding and taking away as I go.
ReplyDeleteThanks Texas Book Lover for posting my interview. Regards, Preston.
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure, Mr. Lewis!
Delete