WESTERN GENRE IS TRUE AMERICANA

Folks might ask what’s such a big deal about more westerns and why I write them? In an age where we’re told that America is unexceptional, patriotism is down, church attendance has dropped precipitously, and young marrieds are often afraid to raise families, the western genre is a very big deal. Edgy adventure, tough hombres, and romance blaze from the pages of my Frontier Chronicles young adult series and Tumbleweed Sagas adult series. My books are more than classic western fare. The characters and the stories are fictional, but their personifications existed even as I’ve incorporated actual historical figures of the time. Real and fictional events are juxtaposed against a backdrop of rugged but wildly beautiful frontier landscapes. 

Modern westerns boast an inherent contradiction in terms often associated with traditional western genre, not the least of which is its malleability as it’s transitioned from gun fights and good versus evil to more complicated stories. The traditional tropes mostly don’t work. Mingled with the aromas of gunsmoke, leather, trail dust, and bluebonnets are riptides of forging a life in a rough and tumble world. Plus, western authors are obligated to deliver rapid-fire pacing of action and plot as increasingly demanded by readers in an immediate gratification culture. Thus western genre as the very backbone of truly American literature. It defies credulity that western genre grabs little more than seven percent of readers of fiction. Authors and publishers are left to wonder at what the marketplace is afraid of? Those who blithely toss out. “Oh, I don’t read westerns,” ought to think again, as the genre is ever-inspired to reinvent itself. 

Y’all might enjoy Nicholas Dunn: The Making of a Texas Legend biography of my great great grandfather who forged a life in Texas from 1850 to 1912. Also, get yourself a copy of Tumbleweed Tumblings: Western Tales and Verses, an anthology of my poems and short stories featuring my 2025 Western Writers of America Spur Finalist for Short Fiction “Prairie Dog.”

As to my own novels, well, I’ve striven to deliver characters for whom a broader readership might relate. As is traditional with western genre, just about anywhere my protagonists ride death could be reaching for their reins. With teen Jack O’Toole in the Frontier Chronicles and Texas Ranger Luke Dunn in the Tumbleweed Sagas, I invite you to celebrate American exceptionalism, renew your patriotic vibe, rekindle your faith, and rebuild an optimistic view of your future. And my spin-off series, western mystery Tumbleweed Sagas: Junior’s Story and young adult Wolf’s Tales feature the sons of the protagonists in the predecessor series.

ASK YOURSELF

I’ve heard the American frontier referred to as the land of second chances, where folks might discover new beginnings, find new opportunities to succeed. I find myself drawn to the challenges posed by my poet/novelist cousin, Mary Maude Dunn Wright (pseud. Lilith Lorraine), in writing the preface to her father “Red John” Dunn’s biography back in 1932. She offered the convicting question: “Not in the spirit of judging their actions by artificial standards which in their day had no existence, but by asking ourselves if we were in their places, should we have acquitted ourselves as well, and by putting to ourselves the still more potent question: how well have we kept the birthright that they have given us, how well have we safeguarded the liberties that they purchased through untold privations, how courageously are we meeting the problems that confront us today; in short when we stand before the tribunal of remote posterity, to whom shall the laurel be awarded…?” Y’all might think on that.