Finding A Creative Path

The image of the eagle and a dramatic sky, on an earlier blog, which I had bought some years back from Canstock, is one that inspired me. I had never used it in a cover or trailer for my books, but sometimes we need things for ourselves that help us reach out and up. Old or young, we can do that. 

The one above here is one that I personally found amusing (though likely the one who posted it was deadly serious), and that we took maybe more than twenty years ago. It is another image of the American West that some would find scary or irritating. I've never been in that store because that day we were on our way to Jerome, Arizona, but I've been in others very like it in other places in the West (that I might someday write about (if I can find photos to back up the story). Keep in mind that a creative path might not have in it all of what you expected.

We can pull up memories from our own lives, from earlier years-- especially when going through dark times. I've shown what I look like now. For the blogs to come, I'll share some of my earlier photos and memories that help me with creativity today with the hope it will encourage you to find your own soul places.

No, I am not the woman  in that photo today, well I am underneath some wrinkles and gray hair. About twenty years ago, I was her, standing there with my husband holding the camera, knowing we were staying in the motel just outside the park.

Today, it's holding those memories, not with regret that they are gone, but with joy that they ever were my reality. They can be pulled back in a time when such moments are not possible at my current age. I don't need them to be as I have the creative impulse that stays with me. Also, having been some special place, I can easily pull up the smells and feeling of the breezes, not just the view. I can use that when I write some of my books... or in a blog.

Finding our own creative path is not the same as for others. We should not want it to be, just be glad our path ever existed. The above photo is one of many we took at Monument Valley. I had always wanted to see it since it had been the background in many movies, especially John Ford westerns.

I wanted to learn more about its history, which added to the storage inside my head. I thought I'd be back, but never worked out not because of force but rather other opportunities. 

For the coming blogs, I will share not only the pieces of my life that benefit me today, but also the creative paths I follow today-- some with frustration as I deal with the march of time. 

There are various reasons why I've never set a book in Monument Valley, but I have used country near it. The Valley itself is owned by the Navajo nation, where they control access. Fortunately, visitors can drive the road and stop for many photos as we did. More good memories.

For me, the big thing is not thinking of such moments with regret. Just be glad they ever existed. Some people want to travel to Europe or other places across the ocean. I never did and turned down the opportunity whenever it arose. Ranch Boss has been around the world but always for work.

What I yearned for was to experience the American West, not as it once was, but as it is today. It is still there for those who want to look and are willing to be tough enough to spend time there-- and sometimes it can take some toughness-- to sleep under Western stars like Chris LeDoux sang about. 

We drove into the Wyoming country where LeDoux had his ranch, where Butch Cassidy and his gang had hidden away from the law. Beautiful land. I could never live there due to lack of money and not having been born there; but I could spend time there, take photographs, suck in the fragrances of sage and juniper, look at distant mountains knowing in some of them were grizzlies, black bears, cougars, and smaller predators as well as many mammals, where it is their country. 

 Again, with those memories, I feel lucky and sometimes write a book set out there. All of my books are dominantly set in the American West, the land west of the Mississippi. I've been to the East and the South and seen the beauty there too; but the West is my country, in my blood and what I most want to share with others through my books or this blog.

This link is to one of LeDoux's songs. Really worth hearing if you never have.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SDXnQj_4_4

Just a taste of Arizona

by Rain Trueax

There are several elements to a book that must be considered before setting out writing. One of them is setting. Does the setting work with what happens in the story? How much do you know about the location? How important should it be to the plot?

For me, setting is one character in all of my books. I set them only in places I've spent time or better yet-- lived. I like that sense of reality for my stories, which are otherwise fiction. Mine are all set in the American West. Some are contemporary and some historical, but they all have ground under them where I know what the soil is like, how the wind feels, when it rains, what kind of vegetation, and even who are the people who live there.

letting go

by Rain Trueax
 

 bye bye

Okay, to start-- I do know inanimate objects don't have feelings and are not real. I know this logically. BUT, it's hard for me sometimes to know it emotionally. 

Although we don't name our vehicles, still the truck in the photo has meant a lot to my life for over 14 years. 

“If you don’t get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don’t want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can’t hold on to it forever. Your mind is your predicament. It wants to be free of change. Free of pain, free of the obligations of life and death. But change is law and no amount of pretending will alter that reality.”

Socrates

Bringing out a new book

Basically, a book series generally comes from three possible sources-- a family, a community (i.e. town or region), or a large, underlying problem where it takes more than one book to resolve. Of course, a series can have all three elements but often with one emphasized.

At least where it comes to romances, the series with an underlying problem has each book wind up its own story, find a satisfactory stopping point, but the overall situation is not resolved until the last in the series. I wrote such a book in Diablo Canyon where each of the three novellas revealed more of what was really going on. Each story had its own romance and stood alone, but if the reader wanted to follow what it was all about in the end, it took going to the end. An author I like, Patricia Veryan, used this in her Regency novels where an underlying English conspiracy was being tracked through each of the individual romances. She also had families, friends, and a common locale-- England.

If the romance writer uses a community, they can make it fictional (convenient as nobody can come along and say that wasn't that way) or a real locale, whether today or in the past. The author visualizes it, may create a street map, figures out who will populate it, and then brings it to life, making readers want to spend time there. Within this community will be many secondary characters and always a hero and heroine, who may shift from story to story or be the same as they face new adventures. 

Amazon latched onto this idea of a community by giving authors (of any genre) an opportunity to create an Amazon World, where new writers may set their own stories, using some of the original author's characters. Leave it to Amazon to find ways to get readers buying books. Don't underestimate the draw of the community for those who would love to live somewhere, even if only in their imaginations.

My books do have an important locale, but at their core is the family and that might be of kin or adoption. I find family relationships fascinating to explore, both the negative and positive sides. I like how we adopt into our adult families those who aren't by kin but are by soul. Some believe we reincarnate in soul pods, which fits with how someone comes along who just seems to belong to us. 


My new book, Bound for the Hills, is the seventh of the Arizona historicals, with common locales and continuing characters with the other books. It is set in a real place which required real research. It also is set into a time period that impacts the story and the family-- 1905. 

Some times in history have more change and can have those living then feeling as though nothing stays the same. The dawning of the 1900s was that way for the United States. The day of the outlaws, the way of the Old West was being displaced by new ways and people-- progress dontchaknow. Recently I watched a documentary, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid on Netflix, and felt good about how well my research held up. Territories were becoming states or struggling to be. Civilization pushed some out for others to take over. Technology was about to change even more as the horse gave way to the automobile. One of the themes of Bound for the Hills is change for the characters on a personal and community level.

For locale, the book travels between the Mazatzals (Central Arizona) and Tucson. It follows the love story of the third Taggert brother and his unlikely romance. It is about friendship, family, and ethics. This one was fun, having the heroine an author, which led to some tasty bits about the literature of its time.

I love the book. Of course, I do, as if I didn't love writing a book, I'd be deleting it from my hard-drive. For me writing is about doing something for which I have a passion. I always hope readers will find the same thing.

Blurb for Bound for the Hills:

Needing new inspiration, answers to a mystery, and healing from the death of her father, English professor, Wilhelmina Butler heads for the high country of Arizona and a log cabin. In the Mazatzals, Willy hopes to write the great American novel, something she can be proud of, unlike the very successful dime novels she has been publishing under a pseudonym. The lake cabin will give her all she could dream and a lot more.

Asked by his worried sister-in-law, Holly, to check on her college friend, Cole Taggert assumes her friend is a naive idiot to head into the wilderness with little idea how to survive its dangers. Then he sees her swimming in the lake, and Willy’s life isn’t the only one about to get redirected.

Bound for the Hills travels from the Mazatzals to Tucson and explores not only the land but the human heart. It brings together the Taggert brothers as they face a deadly enemy, and their women work to build the kind of life where their children can grow up safer than their fathers did. 

Spicy with some violence and strong language, Bound for the Hills is the seventh Arizona historical, a love story for the 'Last' Taggert.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/SzytwKPgJ9o

giving thanks

Just past Thanksgiving, although we are a long way from our family this holiday, I am grateful that they are enjoying it together. I also am enjoying our time on the Arizona desert. 

As a nation, we are going through a very tough time. It is important at such moments to figure out what to do to fix what is wrong-- but never forget all that is right. We have a lot that is wrong and immigration policies that don't work could be at the head of any lists. This is more a cultural issue than even a partisan one-- even though it's portrayed as partisan by one group that profits from the existing situation-- and they aren't necessarily who you are thinking. 

President Carter, way back, tried to put through laws to penalize the employers of those here without work permits. It went nowhere. No surprise when you figure who is buying our Congress.

Culturally a people must decide who they are, how they handle those who would breach their borders or break their laws. We seem unable to do anything except react emotionally time and again and then go on to repeat more of the same. 

On immigration and how it impacts the working poor, read this:  

The liberal case against illegal immigration

I am not about to offer a solution to this situation. Maybe there isn't one. Maybe we just have to make our own lives as good as we can-- make sure we act honorably, and then enjoy what we can of life.  We have a lot to be grateful for in our country, but we have major cultural issues that head in the sand won't fix!

In the meantime, enjoy a few photos from one of my passions (yes, there are others).

"Great passions, they say, are not always immediately recognized as such by their predestined victims." Joseph Wood Krutch from The Desert Year.

and our home here-- Casa Espiritu

Traveling

It might be awhile before I post something rational here as we just made the long drive back from Tucson but will only be at the farm a day before we drive south again to attend our grandchildren's choir concert. Then maybe a quick side-trip to get photos I could use in another book trailer before back to the farm, and I hope settling in for awhile before going anywhere.

The Tucson trip was successful in terms of all the work done on the house. It didn't allow for any real play time and a lot of what I had hoped to do, with a whole month to be there, didn't happen. I can't believe how fast the time went.

The complication was the heat. Most of what Farm Boss had to do was outside and with temps above 100°F, he really could only get that work done during the mornings and evenings. The energy that might have gone into hiking simply was gone then for doing much else.

My plans had been to visit the Arizona State Museum for research-- didn't happen. Spend time at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum for wildlife photos-- quick trip but no photos. Hike a lot-- nope.

What did happen was a lot of great landscaping and repairs; so that the house looks much better than when we arrived. Also Farm Boss got work done on his consulting business, and I had many beneficial hours writing with one more book now out on Kindle and a couple of trailers either done or on their way.

Some ask why do trailers if they don't sell books. Well I don't know if they do sell but here's the why-- it's more places to have the book titles show up. Frankly the biggest problem for an indie writer is getting their work seen at all. Every single place you can put them, is a benefit. It's all about marketing, marketing, marketing because without that, the books disappear from view.

We also had one very nice day-trip down in the San Rafael Valley.  That is the Old West even today (although some of it is very yuppified). It is wild and potentially dangerous with long distance between water sources, roads with very little traffic, and the potential of meeting up with smugglers (warning signs up from the Border Patrol in the most likely areas).

That country brought back fond memories to me as when Farm Boss was at the UofA, we would go out there with our friends (parapluie and fisherman) and walk up the gulches looking for minerals. Back then the only danger would have been rattlesnakes, falling, or getting lost. I don't think I'd hike up those gorges these days.

We had one amusing moment in one of those places. I heard a turkey gobble but didn't see it. Farm Boss stopped the truck and I gobbled back to the bird. Then the bird would gobble again. Each time I'd make the sound, he'd reply but didn't come out of his tree or hiding place. It was funny and so I laughed... Big mistake. After that when I gobbled, he didn't reply. I would say he was a little put out.

When I have time, which will be next week probably, I'll put together some of those photos from that day into a video. I was thrilled with all I got and want to spend more time there... Which might happen if we get back down this year sometime... or might not. There is a lot to do up here too.

From Here to There on a trailer (no, not that kind)

When I learned there were trailers for books, I went to YouTube and clicked on a few. They varied a lot in complexity and effectiveness. The idea of doing my own grew. I had already purchased some images because to have the covers meet reader expectation, I had invested some of the book money on stock photos. To put my trailers or anything else onto YouTube, as the place they most likely could be seen, all images, words, and music had to either be mine or where I had purchased the license.

Although I have now looked at quite a few stock photo sites, my favorite for economy and variety became Can Stock. It has several useful features. My favorite is if you see a model you like, you can click on an image, move to the purchase page, look below the image and click on a link that takes you to all available photos. That saves a lot of time. On these sites, there are all kinds of images. They also offer buying credits which makes the costs quite reasonable. I only wish in the beginning I had realized how many I'd be wanting for the different books as I'd have saved even more money.

Since my first trailers are all for contemporary stories, costuming wasn't a problem. I think though when I get to the historic books, if I put them onto Kindle, I can paint the clothes and use copy paste features when I have the right faces. Somebody would find a sweet business if they could put together stock photos of interesting faces in period costumes. More and more I think indie writers will be growing in numbers and the need is real for all kinds of images. Some, like me, are fortunate to have a lot of photos (minus people) but many don't have them and would buy them at a reasonable price. They are available now but in the hundreds of dollars.

 In looking for these characters,  I began to have the feeling I was casting a movie, and in a way I was. Naturally you cannot get exactly the face you want, but you can come close and with paint tools, alter what is needed. My initial resistance to doing this led to finding it a challenge but also rewarding when I hit on the right image.

When you purchase a license, you also acquire the right to make certain changes, to crop and use in an eBook with the stipulation you cannot sell more than 500,000 copies. Not a problem!

While looking at faces, I'd get tired of it (never have I looked at so many people for personality, features and pose) and look through my own photos for landscapes and animals (bringing back a lot of wonderful memories of the times we shot those photos). I frankly have enough animal, insect, landscape etc. shots to put up my own stock site if I so desired-- which I don't.

So what I needed were the right images, and not too many of them, accompanied by carefully chosen words. One night, literally in the middle of the night, I had the words for the first story trailer and got up to write them down as I was afraid when morning came, I'd have forgotten them. I know it sounds simple to find a few words but it's harder than it seems as you are looking to tell the essence of your story with those words and images-- a story that might be 80-140,000 words.

I already knew I had bought the right music from  Jewel Beat as every song there is $.99 and with it, you receive a license. For the same price you can choose it to last from 15 seconds to several minutes. They also have free music if you put the credit to them in the product. They offer real melodies with different emotional impacts. It is also easy to download and use.

Playing with different combinations of images, I used a combination of my own digital painting and a tool called Oilify --available on GIMP 2 (free software for your computer).  I could have digitally painted them all but that would have taken too much time. This was a nice mix of fast and fun-- as I enjoy painting digitally.

It took several go rounds to get the timing right and find one of the Picasa tools to move between photos. Again Picasa, which I use a lot for my photo work, is a free download. After I had the video up on Picasa, I found how to use YouTube and got myself a channel -- Rain Trueax YouTube Channel -- where in the future all my public videos (bookmark it as scenery also will be there with Jewelbeat music probably (or the classical that has an imbedded credit to them). I don't know how well the YouTube embedding will work for readers with slower systems but I learned how to make that work-- some of the time.

To create this trailer did take time, although I expect less so with the next. It's not really work for me. It's more like creating an art project. I want it to do what I want; and when it does, I get my reward. It has added to my love for this story and these characters. Plus I had fun as I always have when I've done scenery slideshows with music.

And for my readers who don't have the speed to watch a trailer on YouTube, for just this one, I put the photos into a slide show. You do miss the western themed music this way.

From Here to There -- Slideshow

Zane Grey country

Between trying to get things done down here, restoring personal energy spent on the trip (made tougher by an interesting detour through Arizona backcountry), and writing on that manuscript, I earlier mentioned, I have had a hard time getting anything here. It's not that I don't have desert photos to share but more what gets in the way of sitting down with them.

First of all there are the immediate household tasks which means to take all the furniture out of the three bedrooms (made easier by their small dimensions) before the carpet layers arrive Wednesday morning. Farm Boss has been trimming back freeze damaged plans to determine what is salvageable, and I have chosen the replacement plants for those we lost. I am thinking next time not only will I make sure the plants are freeze resistant (as well as unpopular with bunnies) but also that we have some protection available to put around them when the temperature drops.

Despite not personally liking to spend time in malls, this trip necessitated some of that since I managed to forget my sandals. This is strange because I wear sandals a lot but most of this year, with our Oregon winter being wet and cold, I've pretty much lived in boots, Uggs and tennis shoes. I was wearing the tennis shoes when we left; so they weren't possible to forget. I decided if I had to buy some, they'd have to be ones I didn't already have waiting at home; so that meant mall time. Sandals for me have to be comfortable first, easy on the feet, moderately attractive, and not the kind to sprain an ankle.

Despite my desire to finish typing in, along with some editing, one my manuscripts (with which I am making progress), I do have a couple of things I especially wanted to share about Arizona's backcountry.

I love high pine country anywhere and everywhere. Arizona has prime pine country in the middle of the state to the NW corner and the Grand Canyon as well as on many of what are called mountain islands throughout the state. Love it? Yes, I do.

We really hadn't planned we'd even get there this trip until we changed our plans driving toward Needles. Instead of going directly south from there, we turned east into Arizona and spent that night in Williams, which definitely qualifies as Arizona high pine country. It also is less than a hundred miles south of the Grand Canyon but going that direction didn't have the appeal this trip-- gorgeous though it is.

From Williams we headed for Flagstaff and then took a back road out of it to the southeast and heading toward Strawberry, Pine and Payson. Our destination was Zane Grey country with no specific idea exactly where.


We stopped to view the Tonto Natural Bridge which is now a state park. It's not the kind of bridge seen in Utah but more like one in Montana where not wind but water has formed a hole under a land bridge.


For anyone who didn't grow up reading Zane Grey stories, the land below the Mogollon Rim probably wouldn't be so meaningful. The rim is a tall escarpment that separates Arizona into one of its many sections. Below that rim used to be Zane Grey's hunting, fishing and writing cabin before it was destroyed by the dry lightning caused Dude Fire of 1990. Not only did it destroy his cabin but a lot of other buildings and killed six firefighters. [YouTube Tribute to the Alpine Hotshot Crew].

Twenty years later, you only see traces of the damage that fire did to the region.

I am lucky enough to have been to his cabin twice when it was still there. The first was when our children were small. We were camped with a small vacation trailer down along Tonto Creek. My desire was to get up to the cabin I knew should be on the mountain. We expected to be able to drive to it from the campground (couple of miles on a gravel road), but the road was closed due to storm damage.

There was no way I'd let that stop me and we all started walking. I was wearing sandals, a backless halter top, and bright pink stretch pants. What an outfit for a hike up a gravel road in warm, May weather. It turned out to be a fine choice as two young rangers came along and when they found out where we were heading, offered us a ride to the cabin in the back of their pickup.

That visit the caretaker was there, and we were able to go inside, to get the feel of the wood on the walls, the big stone fireplace and even a possible writing desk which he may or may not have used but would have been the right sort. I also purchased a couple of his books in paperback, not because I didn't have them, as I had them all, but because I wanted them to be from there.

Grey, who preferred tents, rarely if ever slept in his hunting and fishing cabins (he had one on Oregon's Rogue River also). They were big rooms made for gatherings of friends,hunting partners, or shelter from particularly bad storms. They also would have provided good places to safely write and keep his handwritten manuscripts which was how all of his stories were written-- before being edited by his wife.

The second time I was there, we were able to drive up, but the caretaker wasn't home which meant we only could look in through the windows and stand on the porch. Our kids were teens, and we all enjoyed the pristine setting.

Our third trip back we could still drive to the cabin's location, but it had been totally destroyed by the Dude Fire with only the chimney standing if I remember right. Fortunately the ranch below, not as much in the tall pines, had been saved.

This trip, we spent the night at Kohls Ranch, situated along Tonto Creek and below the road up to the cabin site. It is typical of the old style of Arizona for motels, built of logs, a main building in a chalet style with a nice lobby. It may not stay as it was this time as it was purchased by a major Arizona land developer and who knows what he'll do with it. Will he see its value as it is? It was lost by the family who had owned it during the downturn and construction of a four lane highway above leaving it on an off road. Seeing those parts of Arizona lose their unique personality is really heartbreaking but it's how life goes, I guess everywhere.


The next morning we drove up toward the cabin for what would have been the fourth time. We found the general area, but the last hundred feet to the burned out cabin had been dozed to make it no longer show up as a road. The road to the old ranch had a big gate on it and a lot of no trespassing signs compliments of the Zane Grey's Homeowner's Association, whatever that is. They even blocked parking at the turn around under threat of being towed. Friendly not, but we did at least get to the land near the cabin.

A replica of the cabin has been built in Payson on a city park with a lake behind it. From the outside, it looks exactly as I remembered the original. It's now part of a museum honoring him and the pioneers of the region. I had no interest in taking a tour as I'd seen the real thing and the setting mattered more to him and to me than the building itself.

Zane Grey was a youthful inspiration to me about values and character. He wrote about strong men and women. He was the first real romantic western writer and a big influence on both those who love nature and romantic adventure stories. A lot of women romance authors have talked about the influence his stories had on their own creativity. Those stories and the films spawned from them helped create the mythology of the old West.


His books aren't timeless in that the stories could not be set in today; but, you know, some stories really are meant for their time. They often have an attitude that might not be called politically correct for today. In the case of Grey, the language is almost poetic as it describes its era and the people as they were then. Because Grey was an outdoorsman, he knew the country and wrote about it as lovingly as he did the characters. Really, I think the stories were just vehicles for him so he could write about what he truly loved-- the land of the West.

Cowboy Ethics

Cowboy Ethics by James P. Owen, photographs by David R. Stoecklein, has as part of its title, 'What Wall Street Can Learn from the Code of the West.' Shortly after I received my copy from Amazon, I saw an article in the New York Times that seemed to along with the thinking: [The Nanny Nation].

What the book and the article refer to is the mythology of the West, some of which is still true today and some of which was never true but has been part of the American story.

When I think of the cowboys I know, and I know more than a few, they are men who do try to hold to a code whether they always succeed or not. They are men of hard work who often only 'retire' when their bodies give out and that's more likely to be 90 (if they live that long) than 65. They stick to a job because no one else will come along to finish it. They don't expect somebody else can clean up their messes because nobody is there to do it.

The book Cowboy Ethics is as much about the mythical West that John Wayne so often exemplified as it is the real deal. You can go around dressed like a cowboy but have no idea what the job is all about. Real cowboys got a bad rap when Bush rode into the White House on its ethos but really only knew about the expensive home on land that used to be ranch land, the pick-up truck, cowboy hat, and boots.

There weren't a lot of the real cowboys back in the West. There aren't a lot today but the ethic, of which the book speaks, that many of us grew up believing was the right way, that still represents, to me, a good way to live and treat others.

One of the things I hear a lot today is how it doesn't matter what you do or what choices you make-- it all works out. You don't hear a rancher say that. Ranchers know that if you don't feed the cattle, get them wormed, vaccinate when required, pull newborn calves when they are in trouble, build fences the right way, maintain them, shepherd the grass, store enough hay for the winter, build good relationships with neighbors, sell stock at the right time, you won't be in the business long.

When businesses fail at their management, they should lose, but that stopped in our country in 1971 when President Nixon decided Lockheed Martin was too big to fail. From that time until today we see corporation after corporation, bank after bank, that if they are big enough, find the government supporting their mismanagement. It's always done to benefit the country-- or so they say; but it ignores the reason for the problem. It rewards failure for those big enough and slowly erodes a sense of consequences.

Sometimes I think what has gone wrong with us is that we are not connected enough to consequences. Ranchers know about consequences and yes so do some other professions, that are more physically on-the-line with rules of physics that cannot be ignored. You can't tell those kind of people that it doesn't matter what they do, because they know different.

There are absolutes for the rest of us too, and I don't think they come out of any holy book but rather from being taught by our parents, by looking at how life works, making mistakes and learning from them, finding our place in the world. We need a personal code of ethics by which we live and that others know they can count on us to abide by. Here is the Code of the West from the book Cowboy Ethics:

1. Live each day with courage.
2. Take pride in your work.
3. Always finish what you start.
4. Do what has to be done.
5. Be tough, but fair.
6. When you make a promise, keep it.
7. Ride for the brand.
8. Talk less and say more.
9. Remember that some things aren't for sale.
10. Know when to draw the line.

You don't have to be a cowboy to live by that code.

Kaycee, Wyoming 1998

In July 1998, on one of those vacations where nothing is planned ahead and sleeping in the van made anything possible, I saw the Kaycee, Wyoming area. I wanted to be there because of all the stories I had read about Butch Cassidy, Old West history, and the Big Horn Mountains.

We drove through Kaycee, got information and drove out to the area where Cassidy had his hideout. Today you could actually walk to where it was, access being arranged through the ranches, but it would have to be from the south not from where we were. At that time, there was no access, but it wasn't really just seeing the hideout itself but the feeling of the area that I wanted.

It was beautiful country with a lot of red rock which I hadn't expected. Later I read that there is a 50 mile ridge of these red rock cliffs. Beneath them are big ranches with water and what looked like good grass-- something you don't see just anywhere in the West. At that time, they appeared to be family operations but that might have changed in the intervening years as some places like those have been bought up by off-site owners or even corporations with ranch managers hired to run the daily operations (nothing new to the West).

The road into our destination, a campground high above the middle fork of the Powder River, was dirt, heavily rutted and full of puddles. We weren't surprised at its condition as we'd been in Buffalo the night before and seen the violent thunderstorm as it passed through.

In fact that brewing thunderstorm had led us to decide to take a motel room instead of camp of which we were glad as we debated the size of the big hail balls and wondered if they'd dent the top of the van sitting in the parking lot. I'd read about pioneers being hit by them as they came west with no real shelter possible. While we get hail in my part of Oregon, it's tiny pellets, which can still hurt but won't knock you out.

On the road up to the campground, we were lucky we had all-wheel drive on the van and that Farm Boss was familiar with driving in such conditions as it was questionable making it up the hill. It looked like not everyone had. This is not the kind of country where you want to get stuck. Those were the days before cell phones which might not work out there even today.

Because of the storms, we decided camping up there wasn't going to be smart. We might have had to spend more than a few days before we could get back out. I did cut some sage from one of the nearby canyons for my smudges, got some photos, but we didn't linger.

Butch Cassidy was thought highly of in this area. He treated the locals well (some made extra money riding with him on a job or acting as a lookout). His word was good. Some say that for all his robberies, he never killed anybody.

Cassidy didn't appear to have been a psychopath like Jesse James likely was but was a wild one who took a path that possibly he couldn't get off. The stories are still told that he wasn't killed in South America, that those who knew him saw him later in Utah and other places, but he had gotten his chance off the outlaw trail and lived his life out as an honest man. I think people would like to believe it-- likely or not.

In Cassidy's case, one little story, that I have heard enough to believe was true, gives a picture of who he was as a man. He had sold the ranch the Wild Bunch used but didn't give the buyer a piece of paper as a deed. It was a handshake sale. Cassidy said he'd send the deed later. A year later an Indian showed up with the deed and would only give it to the correct man. The people of the area said they accepted the Indian as a friend because if Butch had trusted him, he must be all right. The Indian stayed in the area for some time.

Heck, I would too. I would love to have a small place in that country, but it's not small place country. This is big ranch land and the kind of place, with its rugged mountains, red rock formations, and roaring rivers, that most of us can only enjoy in stories or as we pass through. To be honest, I'd rather it stay that way than to see it carved up into little ranchettes and vacation homes. The land remains though and the buildings that don't work out soon are absorbed back into it.

Man with the Gun

Growing up, one of my conflicts was with my father over the television. Nobody had more than one in those days, and he liked to watch the football games. I scanned TV guides for old movies. It was not a problem with the late movies as back then there were usually one or maybe two channels that ran old films after 11:30. No games that late, but it often would be him and me who would be sitting up watching those films.

I am not sure that I saw 'Man with the Gun' back in those days. If I had, I forgot it. I read about it being out on DVD in a list of reviews of western films. Man with the Gun is a typical noir western-- black and white, dark people, with Robert Mitchum playing a hero who may or may not end up a bad guy. Mitchum played these parts so well and sometimes he was the villain but more often he was the good guy. I have seen most of the movies he made and never am disappointed at his performance.

The rest of the cast is typical for westerns with a couple of surprises like Angie Dickinson as a dance hall girl before she started her climb to fame. Some of the bad guys, like Claude Akins, only western aficionados will recognize. Henry Hull plays an old sheriff and as always adds to every scene. John Lupton, who had success in television, is the young male trying to prove himself. Jan Sterling covers the romantic interest as a strong-willed woman who takes care of herself and can stand up against Mitchum's character-- which takes some doing (not that most women would have minded trying).

Thinking about leading men's faces today, so often they all kind of blend together but nobody blends with Mitchum's face. He was a mix of many ethnicities and it shows-- one of a kind. It is easy to see him as the stranger who comes to town with a reputation as a Town Tamer. There were a few historic characters like this in the Old West, but a lot less than the movies would have us think. They fascinate because of their danger. On which side of the law they operate is a thin line.

Where the movie is accurate and fits today's political world is in illustrating what can be required to clean up political messes. Often it isn't the price the public is willing to pay. Do it without us noticing and at no real cost. Town tamers are noticed and today if we get a leader into Washington who really wants to clean up things, you will hear screaming from the right and the left.

For anyone who loves the old westerns as much as I do, I heartily recommend Man with the Gun. It has enough character development, a bittersweet love story, and enough action to make it worth seeing more than once-- for a western lover.

Good energy in the Oregon Outback

Last Sunday, on a beautiful, fall day, I was in Southern Oregon, the other side of the Cascades and a region some call Oregon's Outback. It is lightly developed, known for its remoteness, beauty, cattle and independently minded people.

In a small community, we stopped for lunch at a cafe. It was not fancy but had nice people and good food-- it also was probably the only place to get a meal for at least 20 miles any direction. The tables were chrome, the walls decorated with western symbols like brands, the other diners appeared to be locals who all knew each other. My family and I took a table at the front by the window, checked out the menus, and then I looked around.

The paintings on the wall were western. That always catches my eye. The biggest was of cowboys taking longhorn cattle across the Sycan River in what looked like a storm. By biggest, I mean it was probably 4 feet by 6 feet and it filled the room with its subject, color and energy. It definitely held my attention.

Frequently art in small town cafes is not of much quality. It's often grandma art (nothing wrong with grandmas as I am one myself but I just mean it's hobby more than serious). It is there to look nice and make the locals happy. Not in this cafe. That painting was a real gem in the middle of nowhere.

Then I noticed the smaller paintings farther down the wall, the ones that required my getting up to see more closely. They all had the same vibrant energy, the accurate feel of the working west. Wow, who was this woman. Because I collect modern western art, I know a lot of the artists' names. Not this one.

Reading the flyer tacked on the wall, I learned Judy Erickson lived locally. She was a horsewoman, who knew her subject because she herself cowboys-- it showed.

With now an eye to buying one, I looked even more closely. I chose The Wild Ones, a 14.5" x 21", framed giclee (giclees are prints on canvas which can be hard sometimes to be sure they even are prints-- other than by price) of two cowboys rounding up wild horses.When I later emailed her for more information, Erickson was very friendly and responsive. She is self-taught or more accurately she said she feels her painting is a gift from god who wants her to paint this way of life, to show it to others. I am drawn to works of passion and hers definitely fits in that group as the passion she feels, for horses and that lifestyle, shows through her every brush stroke.

She also wrote it was purposeful that you would wonder whether the wild ones were the cowboys or the horses. The men look tough, the wild horses hard to handle and the painting suggests a storm is brewing. The artist said that in that part of the country, those storms can come up fast and from three directions. The men in the painting looked capable of handling it-- whatever it was.

For me art is always about the energy. I buy things that touch me-- when I can afford them. Always the paintings I love most project feelings and emotions that go beyond the simple elements of the subject. I only wish I could paint well enough to do that myself. (If anyone is interested in contacting Judy Erickson for more about her work, email me and I will give you contact information.)

After lunch, the country grew even prettier as we drove down a river-- nice sized river, tall pines, rough rock outcroppings, few people, and beautiful autumn colors.

Alongside the river, right next to the road, was a small cave which our daughter, who is an archaeologist, told us had been investigated some years ago by archaeologists. They found it to have been occupied perhaps as much as 10,000 years ago by the people living here before Mount Mazama erupted-- a huge mountain whose eruption and collapse left behind what we know today as Crater Lake as well as covered a lot of the region with volcanic ash and lava.

Standing in the cave, seeing the patina of the smoke from many campfires it felt like it would have been a good place to find shelter from the storms. The people back then had to move through the seasons to find enough food to stay healthy. With hunting nearby, fish in the river, a crevice to the back to store your belongings away from the elements, it seemed to me this would have been a favored stopping point, maybe even wintering over. The view was great-- not that it probably factored into their stops. Then again, probably they were as oriented to finding good energy as I am.

I could tell you the name of the river, the small community, but you know it could be anywhere in Oregon's Outback as beauty and discoveries are around every bend in the road. All photos are from along that river.