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WEST TEXAS WAR

 

Introduction by Ed Gorman

 

 

~~ GARY LOVISI ~~

 

I always refer to them, not without sarcasm, as the eating tree bark school. The sort of western novel or story that gives you a little bit too much historical background. One hundred and three ways to fry tree bark . . .

But this is a matter of preference of course. My favorite western novel is VALDEZ IS COMING and if you’ve ever read that fine novel — I irritate Elmore Leonard fans by saying I think that’s the best novel of any kind he ever wrote — then you know that a skilled writer can pack a good deal of historical backstory into a narrative without ever slowing the storytelling.

You’ll see what I mean when you read Gary Lovisi.

Another thing the skilled writer can do with the western form is present the people of the old west as they were not as they have appeared for nearly one hundred years on the silver screen. I own a fat book published in the 1890s that is an encyclopedia of criminals of all kind. These aren’t masterminds. These are the men and women the coppers run into jail day in and day out. And they’re virtually identical to the ones the coppers run in today. Burglars, grifters, robbers, wife beaters, killers . . . a look at a police blotter then looks an awful lot like a police blotter now. So you want a writer who is able to create believable people in a historical era.

You’ll see what I mean when you read Gary Lovisi.

The best writers, whether they’re writing westerns or science fiction or detective stories bring to each piece their own vision of humanity. This doesn’t have to be pretentious. Writers as disparate as Mickey Spillane in crime fiction and A.E. van Vogt in science fiction brought unmistakable world views to their work. If you read a book of theirs, you got a pretty good sense of how they viewed our little planet. That’s the mark of real talent.

You’ll see what I mean when you read Gary Lovisi.

Character, plot, setting, theme — Gary has learned it all writing acclaimed hardboiled crime stories for many years. And what he’s learned there applies to westerns as well. Because the mean streets of today aren’t all that much different (well, admittedly, cowpokes didn’t have automatic pistols) from the mean streets of yesterday.

But enough of this. No more keeping you from the stories and the novel. Time for Gary himself to take over.

 

 

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