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| CHARLES WHIPPLE Writing as: CHUCK TYRELL |
Welcome, Charles Whipple! I know you are a Western author and you write under the name Chuck Tyrell. So why do you live in Japan?
Who me? Why do I live in Japan? Well, that’s a love story, a real one. Here’s how:
That girl.
She stood there making copies, her black hair shining in the spring sun. Her white teeth flashed in a warm smile for me, a man she did not know.
Hi.
Hello.
Where are you from?
The third floor. I work part time.
Busy?
They keep me so. I copy a lot. She plucked a page out and grabbed the copies. Got to go, she said, and gave me that warm smile once more. See you, she said.
With a twirl of her skirt that showed off her slim legs, she left. But the sight of her burned in my eyes. My mind whirled. Third floor. Part time. No name. Just a face, that black hair, and those slim legs.
I went to my desk and tried to work. But she got in the way. I wanted to hear her voice and see her face again. I got up and walked, thinking of her, ending up on the third floor.
I worked in sales. I was a suit, not a wrist or a pen. So why was I on the third floor? The pens wrote copy and wrists laid out ads on the third floor. For suits, the air up there was rare. We took the stairs only when called.
Still, there I was, walking the aisles, peering in nooks, looking for that shiny black hair and heart-shaped face, searching for her.
Her nook was way in the back. She hunched over her desk, studying data. I breathed a sigh.
I’d found her.
Now she's my wife.
Japanese flower arrangement--the vase for flowers is from La Paz,
BCS, Mexico. The large pottery vase is Japanese, as is the one with the vine
bail.Why do you write westerns?
I’ve always read westerns, since I was but a boy (which I still am, at heart). The first book I remember reading was Smokey the Cowhorse, by Will James. Of course Louis L’Amour was a favorite.
Actually, I didn’t decide to write for a living until I was 33 or 34 years old. And then I didn’t sell a single magazine article until I was 35. Since, of course, articles number in the hundreds, if not thousands. But why westerns?
I caught wind of a Louis L’Amour write-alike contest, whipped out a novel in about a month, and sent it off.
Didn’t win.
Came to the conclusion that I couldn’t write fiction. I mean, after all, I already had awards for advertising copy, for annual reports, for corporate newsletters . . . supposedly, I could write.
And, as with most westerns, there’s a love interest. Laura Donovan shoots the protagonist, Marshal Garet Havelock of Vulture City, but at the end of the book, she agrees to marry him, setting up the next Havelock story, of course.
Newlyweds Laura and Garet Havelock move to his homestead on Silver Creek, an actual creek in central Arizona that eventually runs into the Little Colorado, which dumps its load of silt into the Colorado river. Silver Creek, however, runs cool and clear from its headwaters in the White Mountains. Havelock’s budding ranch is located where I used to fish for trout lo those many decades ago. And they should have been able to raise the blooded horses that they planned to and made a decent living for a young and growing family. That was before Loren Buchard of the 24 ranch tried to buy them out. That was before someone came by while Garet was off buying young stock and raped Laura. That was before she went missing and all Garet had to go on were the signs left around the cabin and in the soft ground around it.
Once I made a list of characteristics that defined Garet Havelock. They included:
~*~Never draw your gun unless you are going to pull the trigger
~*~Never pull the trigger unless you are aiming to kill
~*~Always be willing to help a neighbor
~*~Make friends with stray dogs
~*~Want to live
~*~Be ready to die
~*~Hope for a son
~*~Love a daughter
~*~Stop your horse just to watch the sun go down
~*~Pay attention to the little things
~*~Love your woman to distraction
Return to Silver Creek is 80,000 words about how much a man loves his wife, and how much she loves him. You can’t get more romance than that, IMHO. Thing is, after what happened in that homestead cabin, Laura’s not sure if she can ever return to Silver Creek.
Now, here’s what the Havelocks are like.
One Havelock gets in trouble and Havelocks start showing up from all over. Little brother Johnny galloped in from El Paso. Cousins Willem and Wylan (Will & Wont) come up from the mines at Bisbee to help build the ranch house at Silver Creek. Families mean a lot, a whole lot.
Remember Johnny Havelock? He’s a drifter, kinda. He’s been all up and down the Outlaw Trail, which stretches from Canada to Mexico. Not a wanted man, as such, but not really a man with roots. All he has to his name is a good horse, a good rifle, and a good six-gun. But Laura’s friend, Rita Pilar, finds him intriguing. She decides Johnny is to boyish a name for a man like the younger Havelock, whose full name is Johannes, so she christens him Ness. And the name catches on.
But when the Pilars and their vaqueros and the Havelocks and their hired help have Christmas fiesta at Silver Creek, Ness Havelock is not there. That sets things up for Havelock book #3.
Ness Havelock is riding the rock country north and a little west of Moab, Utah, when he’s stopped by Isom Dart, a historical character who was called “The Outlaw Mail” because everyone trusted him to deliver messages. A friend in Saint Johns, Arizona, it seems, needs Ness’s help.
Easier said than done. You see, Ness wants to see Rita Pilar, but now a friend has asked for help, and you don’t turn down requests for assistance from those you’ve ridden the river with.
There’s more. Some years ago, Ness had a shootout with three hardcase brothers in Telluride, Colorado. He rode away, they didn’t. Now their little brother, Ruel Gatlin, has sworn a blood oath that he’ll get Ness Havelock by hook or by crook.
At Moab, Ness finds out that Gatlin is on his trail. Then he runs into Harlow Wilson, owner of the Pitchfork Outfit and sadistic pedophile. What a love story, eh?
Ness’s friend, Roland Prince, owns a spread just north of Saint Johns. Harlow Wilson, who calls himself Judge, says he has 50,000 cows on the way up from Texas, but they never seem to arrive. Rita’s father, Don Fernando Pilar, owns a Spanish Land Grant rancho just north of Concho, which is west of Saint Johns (you can check the map of Arizona, if you wish), but Ness doesn’t just go riding up and say, “I’m back, darlin’.” You see, Rita’s landed, and her family stretches back three generations and more. Ness is the son of a Texas Ranger who died in the War between the States and a Western Cherokee woman. He’s a halfbreed. He’s not worthy of her. He has nothing but a horse and two guns and a Stetson hat. He loves her, but sees no hope of ever being what she wants and needs. (Of course, Rita does not agree with his evaluation of himself.)
Naturally, when badman Baldy Fontelle takes Rita hostage to ensure his getaway from Saint Johns, Ness Havelock rode in pursuit. You’ll have to read the book to know the end of this love story.
~~*~~
Charles T. Whipple is an international award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction books, articles, and stories. He was born and reared in Show Low, Arizona, just 19 miles from Fort Apache (the real thing), and rode a horse more than he rode a bicycle. He writes westerns as Chuck Tyrell, a name chosen when his first western was published. Whipple is not a noir writer, and his westerns tend to be less gritty than some that find favor in these wicked days. Whipple also writes fiction set in Japan, some ancient, some fantasy, and some modern day. Several of his novels and stories feature female protagonists.
LINK TO AMAZON PAGE FOR: Chuck Tyrell, aka, Charles Whipple
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Chuck+Tyrell
Thank you, Charles Whipple, for being our guest today.
Look for this Western author's books on Amazon and B&N under the name Chuck Tyrell.
