Western Writers of America

I recently participated in the annual convention of the Western Writers of America, held in Oklahoma City. (I’m an associate member. I can apply for full membership when I’ve published five books). Joyce H. from Tulsa showed me around and helped me sell copies of Guns Across the Rio and Return of the Texas Ranger. 

This conference was vastly different from others I’ve attended. Usually you find wannabe authors talking with snooty agents and editors. Lectures about getting published, and how to get an agent. Not here, though, since all members were already published (and many of them self-published, as I am). The focus of the sessions was on western history, classic films and actors, history and status of ranching today. I was impressed by the demand for historical accuracy these writers expressed. Coming from all parts of the country and with different backgrounds, they professed a love for the West and its people. An evening western costume contest made me feel inadequate. 

 

One of the sessions dealt with writing in an Indian voice. The four panelists (Pawnee, Sioux, Crow, traditional enemies) said their culture is so rich, a non-native can’t accurately portray it. I was amused to see Lucia St. Clair Robson sitting quietly in the audience. She’s written Indian viewpoints admirably. 

For me, meeting Robson was a high point of the Conference. Her novel about Cynthia Ann Parker and the Comanches (Ride the Wind) is a marvelously rich treatment of a tale well known to us Texans. My favorite Robson novel is Walk in my Soul (see my Shelfari page), a novel of Sam Houston’s Cherokee Wife, Tania Roberts. It is a must read. My newly autographed copy sits on my "treasure" shelf, between Gregory Maguire’s Wicked and Stephen Hardin’s Texian Iliad. 

And what’s your summer reading?

Thanks, Joyce.

 

Dac

June 30, 2009

 

Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad name – Henry Kissinger.

Comments

[Lucia St. Clair Robson]

Hi, Dac,

Thanks so much for the kind mention in your June 30 post. I had no idea I was the high point of the WWA conference for you. Considering the caliber of folks who attend, that's the highest praise I can imagine.
You perfectly explained why I love to go to the annual WWA get-togethers. Those who attend are passionate about history and they KNOW stuff. The after-hours conversation in the hotel bar is always my favorite part of the conference. Glad I got to meet you this year.
All the best, Lucia Robson

[Paige]

Now that sounds like a useful conference. So many conferences are geared to the "How to Write, How to Get an Agent, How to Get Published" and don't reinforce historical accuracy, current times accuracy, and truly meeting and talking with those who do it well.

Me, I'm rereading Virginia Lanier's bloodhound series. The bloodhounds are great characters, and she doesn't try to give them human voices. She leaves that to the humans.