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For my entire life, my favorite movie genre has always been westerns.
I chose to write in the western genre because I would like to see a weekly western television series back on television; therefore, I chose to write in a format that would make the storylines easy to adapt to a weekly series.
FORMAT
I once heard that a new fiction sub-genre was “quick-read fiction”; which consisted of books from 50,000 to 70,000 words and chapters of ten pages or less – so that is how I decided to write my books.
TITLES
I never liked the way most authors title their books that are within a series, because it was usually so difficult to tell which one was first, which one was second, etc., so the reader could more easily follow the development and growth of the main character. I came up the idea of having each book represent one year or part of a year in the main character’s life. Therefore, it is very easy for the reader to tell which book is first (1880), which book is second (1881) and so on. In this manner the reader can easily follow the main characters progression and development as a person.
TITLE CHARACTER
I picked the name for the title character for this series for two reasons: 1) I always thought the name Johnny sounded like an action name and 2) I always liked the sound of the name Ringo. I thought the two together sounded like a good tough character. There was never any idea or intention on my part to make the character anything like the real Johnny Ringo, who was of notorious and unscrupulous fame and lived about this time period. I wanted the main character to be a man without equal with a gun, always on the side of the law, and a good guy that the reader might like and possibly be able to relate to.
I wanted Johnny to be a super sleuth of the old west. Since most Chess players I know are much more analytical than most non-Chess players, I made him a Chess player who analyzes crimes and criminals much as a Chess player analyzes the moves on a Chess board. That becomes specifically evident in the first storyline where there are a series of bank robberies in four different towns. He is the one that links the four together and narrows down the list of suspects from six to one and as he does this he goes through several other adventures.
SETTING
I chose the setting of the San Juan Mountains for the beginning of the story because I believe that is one of the most beautiful parts of the United States. I really liked the sound of “Durango” and thought that would be a great setting. However, after a little research I found that “Durango” did not exist in 1880, but there was the little town of “Animas City” just north of where Durango is located, so that became Johnny’s adopted home town.
NOTE: In this series several names appear both in English and Comanche. The source for the Comanche words is: Comanche Dictionary and Grammar by Lila Wistrand-Robinson and James Armagost.
STORYLINES/SUBPLOTS:
1 – Solving 4 bank robberies – Chapters 1-10
2 – Solving stolen cattle – Chapters 11-15
3 – Wanted poster on Johnny and capturing/killing Bob Thompson – Chapters 16-19
4 – Trouble in Gunnison – Chapters 20-22
5 – Johnny tracks a gang which has been robbing Army payrolls and supplies and the only tracks are of unshod horses. It leads to former confederates trying to raise money and supplies for another war –Chapters 23-34
6 – Getting in with gang because of poster and finding man who killed his father. - Chapters 35-39
Total Words = 66,828
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