Bookshelf Battle

My main observation is you never how opportunity will present itself to you as an author until you set pen to paper.

I needed Joe and Miles to meet Gunther and Slade and thought about how that could happen. Then I had a joke earlier – when the chips were down, no one in the saloon offered to help fight the Buchanans, but when money was offered to watch them now that they’re subdued, Gunther got endless offers.

He gives Joe a little test. I feared it was a little hokey but I thought it displayed Joe’s character a bit.

Ahh…the Widow Farquhar!

(PRONOUNCED – FAR-KWAR)

This is one of those jokes that only I get but I hope in later chapters I explain enough you’ll get it too. Or just laugh to placate me.

I’ve seen a lot of old time/old west movies where a widow is actually referred to as “The Widow Whatever Her Last Name Is.”

My modern day assumption is back in the old days, a woman’s only chance at survival was finding a man (because it’s not like there were a lot of job opportunities for women outside of school marm or prostitute).

So if you’re a woman and you’ve been married before but your husband died, you wanted to make sure everyone knew that, so they didn’t think you were still a married woman or GASP – divorced! I honestly don’t know much about the history of divorce back then.

I assume it must have occasionally happened. Back then a woman would probably have to prove the man was chasing her around with a meat cleaver on a regular basis or something) not like it is today when there’s a 99% chance your wife will divorce you because you left the seat up, forget to wash your dish, or accidentally farted and she assumed she was getting a non-farting husband.

I was a fan of Deadwood – fairly recent and super vulgar western show on HBO – there was a character Alma Garrett who was a widow (same actress who plays Jackie Sharpe on House of Cards now, can’t think of her name.)

Anyway, they always called her “The Widow Garrett” and I thought it was funny.

So, in a lot of love triangle stories, the author usually “cops out” and makes one woman become super awful and terrible so the hero only has a clear choice.

I challenged myself to not do that here. Sarah is a bible thumper, pure as the driven snow, a bit helpless…but as we find out soon, she really loves Slade! So it’s not going to be an easy choice for him.

Even before the concept of “wingman” existed, Gunther is being Slade’s wingman here, talking him up to the Widow Farquhar.

Oh and we meet Chance, Slade’s horse.  I wish he had more “screen time.”

Here we have the first clue about impending zombies. A Marshal in Colorado sends a warning that “monsters” are coming and everyone should leave.

Hate to admit it, but initially, I tossed it in there just because everyone was like, “Where are the zombies? When are the zombies coming?”

A valid criticism. I probably could have started the story with cowboys faced in the middle of a zombie outbreak. I think it would have been quite different though.

Better? Worse? I don’t know. I feel this buildup allowed you to meet all the characters and maybe begin to care whether they live or die.

Then Gunther drifts towards being Slade’s father figure. He provides his romantic advice. He tells Slade to get back there and actually propose marriage to Miss Bonnie. Don’t equivocate. Just pop the question, get a yes or no. If it is a no, move on.

But he doesn’t do it.

And then a new love interest enters the picture.