Ann Parker's fast-paced yet lyrical Silver Rush series has placed her work on the must-read list for historical mystery lovers.

Ann, have you always been interested in Colorado history and why did you chose the 1870s as the decade to set your mystery series?

Colorado has always been a special place to me. As a child, our family made many treks to visit relatives in the Denver area, where both my mother and father were raised. I even attended Colorado College in Colorado Springs back in 1970 for one glorious year. However, I came to appreciate its history much much later. At a family reunion in the 1990s, I learned from an uncle that my paternal grandmother had been raised in Leadville. This was a surprise to me: she’d never spoke of the place nor what her life had been like as a child. My uncle told me a bit about the big silver rush in Leadville, and urged me to research and write a book set there! Intrigued, I started to read about the time and place and, basically, was seduced by the history. The silver rush (late 1870s, early 1880s) was a time of social upheaval and extremes—overnight millionaires, wildly fluctuating real estate prices, crimes of passion, greed, and poverty—all up at 10,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains. It just seemed the perfect time and venue for setting a mystery series.

How did your saloon owner Inez Stannert come into being and how many character traits do you share with your protagonist?

Once I had my time and setting, I turned my attention to crafting a protagonist. I gave her my grandmother’s maiden name—Inez Stannert—then considered what she would be doing in Leadville. I wanted to give her license to snoop in both the good and bad parts of town. I originally thought of making her a newspaperwoman, but decided it would be fun to have her running a saloon (more research!). I also wanted to paint her with shades of gray: not all “good,” not all “bad,” but somewhere in between, with faults and a fallible nature. I’m not sure I share many character traits with Inez … She’s braver than I am (I’m a real wimp!), faster on her feet and with her wits, quick to make decisions and to act, and a marvelous pianist. Perhaps the one thing we share is the experience of being “a woman in a man’s world.” According to the 1880 census in Leadville, three of the nearly three hundred saloons were run by women…Thus, Inez is unusual in her profession, and people sometimes look askance at her as a result. As someone who has worked several decades as a science/tech writer in the realms of high tech and science R&D, I could empathize with Inez in that respect!

How does it feel to have your first novel, Silver Lies, win the coveted Willa Literary Award as well as the Colorado Gold Award and become a finalist for both the Bruce Alexander and Spur awards?

It’s a wonderful feeling, of course! At the time, though, I was mostly stunned. You see, I’d sort of noodled the story out over several years, having a lot of fun, but knowing that, as mystery set in the Old West, it was rather quirky and unusual. Not at all like what was out and around at the time. Finding a publisher had been a long hard slog, and I’d had some of the stuffing knocked out of me along the way. I was (and still am!) so grateful to Poisoned Pen Press for taking on Silver Lies and for being such a great, supportive publisher. I was just happy that the book was being published; the awards and attention really took me by surprise…. a wonderful surprise, of course. Looking back, it all makes me smile. I’d never expected anything like this to happen to me in my life, so this “first literary child” is a very special one.

How much research goes into your novels? Do you read for months before starting a book or do you research as you write? Do you strive for historical accuracy or do you tweak history to fit your plot?

The first round of research happens before the writing, to garner the central idea for the story. I build my plots around real events—the coming of the railroad to Leadville, for instance, in Iron Ties, Ulysses S. Grant’s five-day visit to Leadville in Leaden Skies—and place my characters and fictional events in the shadow of history. It’s hard to say “how much” research I do … I read in fits and starts, carrying around reference books in my car to sneak a paragraph or two at red lights or while waiting in lines in grocery stores. I love reading on planes where there are no other distractions. Once I know the historical pivot for my story (in other words, when I have that a-ha! moment), I start writing and research other things as I go. I do strive for historical accuracy, but tweak if I must. I always include an Author’s Note at the end that tells what’s real, what isn’t, and provides some suggestions for further reading.

How long has each manuscript taken from start to finish?

Since I write in fits and starts, that’s very difficult for me to gauge. Compared to other mystery authors who spin out one, two, sometimes three books a year, I’m a s-l-o-w writer (the literary equivalent of “slow food,” I guess). It has taken me around two years (again, in fits and starts) to write each book. I’m ever optimistic, though, that the next one will be faster.

Tell us about your background.

Born and raised in San Francisco Bay Area, I loved to read from the time I was very young. I can still remember how it felt as I parsed out the word “morning” in an Early Reader book and some internal “reading comprehension synapse” switched on. What a rush! Fast forward 20 years: I received my bachelor degrees in English Literature and Physics (double major) at University of California, Berkeley… no idea what to do with it all, until a physics professor (thank you, Prof. Amer!) suggested I look into scientific editing as a career. My plan at the time was to get some experience, somehow, somewhere, and eventually move to Colorado. In my fantasies, I pictured myself working for NCAR in Boulder. Fast forward another 20 years: I’ve managed to move exactly one set of hills east from where I started. Married, two kids, two decades into my career, it was clear I was not going to settle in Colorado any time soon. Maybe that’s what gave me the impetus to write fiction set in the area I love: At least I now have an excuse to go there and do research every once in a while!

What’s your writing schedule like and do you aim for a certain amount of words at each session?

How embarrassing… This is the point where I have to admit that I don’t have a “writing schedule” per se. I’m now working as a freelance technical writer/editor; that takes a lot of my day-to-day energy and focus. So, basically, my fiction writing is propelled by panic and deadlines. The process goes like this: After I do my preliminary research, I plug along through the first third (or half) of the book, get stuck somewhere towards the middle, and thrash around for a while. I am then jolted back into motion by an approaching deadline. So, I guess that shows that there are all kinds of ways to write. After all, someone has to be at the other end of the spectrum from those who get up at sunrise and write XXX words before going to work…

Who most influenced your own work and why? Have you had a mentor?

I’ve read so much over the years that it’s hard to pick any one writer as an influence. Maybe it’s all those “Lit” classes from way back when, but I have a great fondness for Shakespeare and Milton. I love how they use language and the multilayered nature of their work. As for mentors, I’ve been graced with two, who are dear friends in addition to being mystery authors: Camille Minichino (who was also my “officemate” way back in the Dark Ages of typewriters and of computers the size of entire rooms) and Penny Warner (who taught me “how to write a mystery” back when I first decided to give this a try).

Which novelist, past or present, would you enjoy being trapped with in an elevator and what you ask him or her?

Well, if not Shakespeare or Milton (see above), I’d pick Martin Cruz Smith! I’m a big fan of his novels. No matter what venue he chooses to set his story in—England’s coal mines in 1872, Japan in 1941, Moscow in the present—I start reading, fall right into the worlds he creates, and can’t stop (a new MCS book always bodes badly for my work projects). I don’t know what I’d ask him … I’d be too much in awe. Maybe I’d just ask him for his autograph!

Advice to fledgling writers?

Be sure that you’re in it for the love of writing and telling stories…If you’re hoping to make a fortune by being an author, believe me, there are easier ways to make a living. And, if writing fiction is what you really really want to do, then don’t give up. Take classes. Learn the craft. Practice. And, if you decide you want to be published: Persist! You may have to hear a lot of “no, not for us” before you finally hear a “yes.” If you give up too soon, you’ll never get to that “yes.”

Ann's website: http://www.annparker.net
She blogs Mondays on The Lady Killers http://theladykillers.typepad.com
and at random on The Silver Rush Mysteries http://silverrushmysteries.blogspot.com

A Conversation with C. J. Box

Blue Heaven, C.J. Box's first stand-alone novel, won an Edgar Award for Best Novel of 2008 and has been optioned for film. Three Weeks to Say Goodbye was published in January 2009 and debuted on the NY Times extended bestseller list. His ninth Joe Pickett novel, Below Zero, released in June of this year, has become his biggest bestseller to date.

Chuck, how do you manage to write two novels a year? What’s your writing schedule like?

Two books a year is kind of a temporary predicament that came about because I've got two publishers: Putnam for the Joe Pickett series and St. Martins Press for the stand-alone novels. Each wants a book a year. It's worked out because the first stand-alone (Blue Heaven) was already written so for me, it's been more like nine months between writing the books which is just about right for me.I work every day with my best work in the mornings. I edit and do other things in the afternoons. When I'm at my cabin or an isolated place, I work in one or two more writing sessions and sometimes go deep into the night. My goal is always 1,000 good words a day, but sometimes I exceed that. And sometimes I fall short.I know that you’re an avid hunter-fisherman.

Were you in the Wyoming outback when you conceived your series characters, game warden Joe Pickett?

I was working as a newspaper reporter in Saratoga, Wyoming, when I first started working on the novel which would later become Open Season, the first Joe Pickett novel. I spent (and spend) a lot of time outdoors and while I was coming up with the premise I was doing ride-alongs with the local game warden for newspaper stories. As I learned more about the duties and responsibilities (and home life) of a game warden, I thought a game warden would be a great protagonist. I'm glad I chose correctly.

Would you rather be hunting or fishing than writing?

I'd rather be combining the three, to be honest. Do a productive session at the computer, grab my flyrod, and come back later to write a little more. That, for me, is the perfect day.How does it feel to not only win an Edgar Award but to make the New York bestseller list?It feels fantastic, because the Edgar is an honor bestowed on my fellow novelists for quality and being on the NYT list means readers are buying the books. I think all Edgar winners want to be best-selling authors, and all best-selling crime novelists want to win an Edgar. So I'm a lucky guy.

How did your latest novel, Below Zero, come about?

I'd heard about carbon offset companies over the years and was both fascinated and repulsed by the concept of, in effect, buying out ones guilt for producing a carbon footprint by paying money to one of the organizations. I researched the concept and built it into one of the primary storylines of the novel. In it, a dying mobster finds out the only way he can reconcile with his extreme environmentalist son is to try and bring his massive carbon footprint to "below zero" by the time he passes. Because he only has a few weeks to live, he has to commit large-scale crimes to make his balance drop.At the same time, Joe Pickett's daughters start receiving text messages from a foster sister who they thought had died six years before. Investigation reveals the texts have originated from locations where major crimes have occurred. As Joe pursues this, the two storylines merge.

Which of your novels was the most difficult to write and do you have a favorite among them?

Blue Heaven was the most difficult because of the structure. The novel is told from six points of view within 60 hours in real time. Only the reader knows completely what's going on. Multiple points-of-view can get really, really tricky. If the reader doesn't think of the structure or difficulty, that means it worked. But getting there is tough.I like all my novels for different reasons the way a parent likes his or her children. But if someone held a gun to my head and made me choose, I'd say Blue Heaven, Free Fire, Winterkill, and Open Season are my favorites.

What’s the best way to promote your books? Personal appearances or the Internet?

Books are still sold one at a time by people to other people. It's a very basic, low-tech business and it's driven by word-of-mouth. Getting out and meeting readers and potential readers is the best way to build a career, I think. Of course, if the books aren't good it doesn't matter either way.Advice to budding western mystery novelists?Read! It always amazes me when fledgling novelists don't read widely or often. More can be learned from reading than classes or courses. And if you choose to use the west as your location, please be authentic and stay away from western "characters" and hokum.

What makes a novel successful?

The reader must empathize with a character or several characters. And the novel should be structured so the reader wants to keep turning pages. There are so many entertainment options out there an author must realize the reader has choices, and one of the easiest choices of all is to put the book down if it isn't compelling.What are you working on now?I've finished the next Joe Pickett novel, called Nowhere to Run. It will appear next May or June of 2010. I'm currently working on another stand-alone, called Back of Beyond. It's going well.

Thanks, Chuck, for taking part in the series.

Visit his website at: http://www.cjbox.net/

A Conversation with Dusty Richards

A geniune cowboy who writes authentically of the Old West, Dusty Richards has continued the tradition of Ralph Compton as well as spinning his own tales.

Dusty, you’ve been a mentor to hundreds of novice writers and a patron contributor of the Arkansas Writers Conference since 2000. How did that come about and how did it feel to be awarded the Cowboy Culture Award for helping aspiring writers?

When Alvin Davis called me and said you are receiving the Cowboy culture award this year, I asked if he had the right phone number. He laughed and told me he knew he had called the right number. What he needed to know would I be there to receive it. You know Max Evans and Elmer were the two I knew as recipients. That’s heady company. I told him I’d be there if I had to walk to Lubbock. I felt that was sure neat and you know I take helping novice writers very serious.

Years ago Elmer had made me the moderator of the panel out there and the year I won the Spurs, Alvin called me again and said your buddy Mike Johnson will be the moderator.

I said fine.

He said. “It is not the job you do is the reason I’m making Mike the moderator. You won’t say enough about your awards. Mike will.”

I know you’re a stickler for historical accuracy. How much research do you conduct before starting a new book project? Or do you shovel it in as you write?

I went and read the Miner newspaper in Preskitt, so you say it like they do in Arizona for my Marshal series. When I sold the series in Montana, Herschel Baker series, Pat and I had drove all over that part of Montana and we’d been over lots of North Wyoming with a cattleman friend---then we went and read newspapers at Sheridan and Billings. I also have a very extensive western library. So I am stuffed with ideas. Some men that lived then left me some great stuff.

Which of your books was your favorite and which was the most difficult to write?

Which one of your kids is the best? Love them all. Some books I have done only came a few pages at a time, like they are ruminating inside me and only come a page at a time. Others can’t wait to get out and I can’t write fast enough. I seldom have an outline. My books start near the kickoff and I am concerned with am I boring my reader or is this book moving on. That is my biggest concern when I am making the first draft. But as many books as I have written (working on #96) I trust my fingers and what I write though it will need editing.

Did your ranching background serve you well when writing your novels?

Yes, there are things you have to have experienced like a horse fixing to bow up under you even before you realize it—you have to have been in the saddle that cold morning. I mowed and raked hundreds of acres with horses and mules, sowed oats, bucked hay with a pitch fork, pulled calves, lost a great buckskin colt to a Mountain lion. Shot coyotes, deer hunted, shot javelinas, seen bears, pulled calves, branded, dehorned, shod a few horse though I ain’t the last word on that. I even was wagon master for thirty wagons and two hundred riders who went 120 miles in four days over back roads to meet the Bicentenial Train in Fort Smith.

What’s your writing schedule like?

You ever seen that rooster that wakes up that gal on TV ad for sleeping pills? I get up with him lots of nights at home and write till about noon time. If the deadline is coming fast I write 18 hours a day. I try not to get that close.

Why did you decide to write under the pseudonym Ralph Compton and how many books have you written under that name?

Ralph Compton was a famous western writer who died a decade ago. I write those books for hire for his estate and NAL. His cattle drive stories were very famous and I was asked to write some for Dan Slater when he was editor at NAL. I have written five, I think, I like them. I have studied those real stories and they are a vast subject. I noticed that the last one, Trail to Cottonwood Falls, is in the tenth printing. The next one I wrote will be out in spring of 2010, Trail To the Salt Fork.One fan who wrote me said why does a man writes as good as you do you write books for Ralph Compton?

I wrote back, “Cause I like to eat.”

How important are organizations such as Western Writers of America and Women Writing the West?

WWA opened the doors for me. I got my agent there, I made many books sales there. I feel we need to collectively work on our genre. I would never have met Doc Sonnicsen, Elmer, Max, even Larry McMurtery, who I met in Ft Worth when he came for his spur for Lonesome Dove. And hundreds I network with through the year.

Women writing the West I know filled a void you all needed. I have felt it was shame we didn’t welcome more of you in WWA. But you all needed a voice too.

Tell us about the Ozark Creative Writers.

OCW is actually a board of writers carrying on a tradition for writers in scenic Eureka Springs the 2nd weekend in October. It was my first writers conference. I even took two book contracts with me to register—you know they will only let licensed plumbers in their meetings. I just hoped they’d let me in. We work hard to bring in good speakers and offer several writing contests more the less to the attendees. Personally I like the winners to be there.

Over seven of the winners of my western contest have gone on to writing books they sell. One year the fIrst three places ALL SOLD. I know one farm wife who’s sold eight westerns since she won in my contest.

Advice to aspiring Writers?

No one said it was ever easy to get published by a major publisher. I don’t recommend that people self publish. It’s too hard to sell books. I hear of folks selling thousands of copies. I don’t believe it. I sell some books but not thousands and you might say I am famous in my own corner of this business. I slaved over my books for years and got little advice. That’s why I teach like my short course at Branson every May and at West Texas A &M at Canyon each June.

Jack Bicham wrote a book called so many things that you need to know to sell a book. You’d have to get it used but I can tell you do all he says and you will get published. High light the internalization in three novels and read MANY books in your genre.

Then have the hardness of a brush-eating billy goat, but continually find ways to get your last book read. You need to attend conferences to find an agent or editor. But if you don’t have a completed manuscript, don’t bother.

I never took no for an answer.

What are you working on now?

A 65,000 word book for hire I am 2/3’s through it.

Thanks, Dusty.

Dusty's website: dustyrichards.com

My interview with Craig Johnson

Rancher-writer Craig Johnson is a former law enforcement officer as is his protagonist Walt Longmire. The Wyoming novelist has written five western mysteries to date, with more on the horizon.

Craig, have you always been a writer?

Nope, my father says I just come from a long line of bullslingers and I’m the first one to be smart enough to write them down… Honestly, I came from a family of readers and I think it’s a short step from there to writing books. I built my ranch myself and finally settled into the life with the thought that I’d always wanted to write a novel. I guess what basically happened was that I ran out of excuses.

When and where did you make your first sale?

Viking/Penguin picked up the first in my Walt Longmire series six years ago, and it’s been off to the races since then. Kathryn Court, the president of Penguin USA shoved a copy of The Cold Dish (a novel I considered to be a stand-alone) across the lunch table in New York and said, “We’d like some more of these…” Do you believe I argued with her? Thank goodness she won. My agent asked me who I wanted to be with and I thought of all those Steinbeck books I’d read as a child (and still do) and chose Viking/Penguin. It’s been pretty wonderful working with a literary press that gives me a lot of leeway. My last two contracts stated that the books had to be mysteries and have Walt in them… That’s a lot of freedom.

What made you decide to settle in Wyoming to write your first book?

I grew up in the Midwest, but my grandparents lived in Kansas and New Mexico, so I wasn’t completely unaware of the American West. When I was eighteen I loaded up an old Army pack, a thousand bucks and lit out for the territories. I think Louis L’Amour would’ve approved. Anyway, in my journeys I was working for a rancher up in Montana and delivered some horses down to Wyoming where I inevitably built my ranch near Ucross.

Your five Western mystery novels and articles have received quite a few awards. Which means the most to you?

Getting pulled over by a highway patrolman between Basin and Otto in the Red Desert and being told, “I read you books, Mr. Johnson…” He let me off, so I guess he liked them. I get a lot of emails from law enforcement telling me that they think I get it right, and that means a lot to me.

You latest book tour encompasses quite a few towns and events. Do you enjoy meeting readers and talking about your books, or do you prefer to stay at home on the ranch and promote your work via the Internet? And which methods of promoting your books have been the most effective?

Oh, I like living on the ranch and writing or else I wouldn’t have chosen this as a livelihood. I like meeting people and talking about the books though. They say that print ads, commercials, Internet and all that sells books, but I still think the old hand sale buzz of somebody saying, “Hey, have you read..?” Still works the best. Maybe it’s because the nearest town to my ranch has a population of 25, but I genuinely like people and enjoy talking to them about my books. I also think that the book sellers are the best friends an author can have. I do events in every one-horse book store on the High Plains because those people are important not only in the sense of sales, but their ability to tell me where I got it wrong and where I got it right. It’s an occupational hazard in living in a state with only a half-million occupants, that folks recognize characters in the books.

What do you enjoy most about writing and what chaps your hide?

As stated above, I really enjoy the isolation of writing. Heck, in any right-minded country they’d lock me away for sitting in a room by myself and typing about my imaginary friends. Dislikes..? Oh, people who I meet that proudly proclaim, “I don’t read.” That just worries me… Somehow I bet they find time to sit in front of a television for four hours a night. I think reading is a good habit for your mind, it keeps you alert and engaged unlike a lot of other activities.

What’s life like on your ranch near Ucross, Wyoming, and what’s your writing schedule like?

Well, I have a ranch so I get things sorted out at daybreak, make a big pot of coffee, and sit down to write. Sometimes I break for lunch, sometimes I don’t. I came to this wonderful life in my mid-forties, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let them find out I shouldn’t be doing it. I attempt to only work six days a week, but I eventually end up in my writing loft with ideas that can’t wait, or trying to fix up mistakes I’ve made—kind of like this blog…

Tell us about your protagonist, Walt Longmire? And how much of him is autobiographical?

More than I’d be willing to admit. Walt’s probably who I’d like to be in about ten years, but I’m off to an incredibly slow start. In my experiences with law enforcement, I tried to put together my version of an ideal sheriff. Not that Walt’s perfect by any means, but the kind of guy I’d want pulling his cruiser in behind me; kind, patient, tenacious intelligent and with a sense of humor. He’s no Captain Marvel, but he’s very good at his job. I think the humor is important, anybody that’s ever done the job knows how important a sense of humor is in getting you through the day.

Tell us briefly about your latest novel.

Oh, I don’t think I could be brief enough but it’s about a woman who is sent over from an adjacent county because she killed her husband for killing her horses. The woman in question talks in her sleep, and pretty soon Walt takes an interest which leads to his first ‘undercover operation’. I think it’s by about page six that he mentions the inherent difficulties of going undercover in a town of forty… I think The Dark Horse is my attempt at High Plains Noire, an extremely small niche in the mystery genre—a niche so small in fact, this may be the only book in it. The best thing to do would be to head on over to my website www.craigallenjohnson.com

Advice for fledgling western mystery writers?

Keep it real, do your research, and be honest to the place you love. Don’t have your protagonist running around on a cruise ship. One of the things I try to do is pull the seminal information for my novels from local newspapers, which keeps the books grounded in the social and cultural problems my neighbors and I face. I could just come up with wild plots, but I think that’s a disservice to the modern mystery reader, they tend to be looking for something more than just a ‘who dunnit’. There’s so much out there that needs addressing, I don’t think you have to go off looking very far away. That’s the advice I’d give.

Ann Parker's Silver Rush Series

Silver Rush Mystery Series
Paperback: 424 pages
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
June 30, 2006
ISBN-13: 978-1590582787
Rating: 5 Stars

Ann Parker certainly knows her Colorado history and brings it to life in Leadville, a booming silver city of the 1870s. Her protagonist Inez Stannert is the gun totting owner of the Silver Queen, a popular saloon purchased by her husband Mark--who disppears before the plot begins--and Abe Jackson, a freed black man. When a friend's body is discovered trampled and frozen behind the saloon, Inez takes on the case when the law ignores it. Murder isn't the only crime she uncovers.

The gritty true-to-life story of greed, power, and ruthlessness is the first novel in Parker's Silver Rush Mystery series. Not only is the novel a good read, it won the coveted Willa Literary Award from Women Writing the West as well as the Colorado Gold Award. Silver Lies was also a finalist for both the Bruce Alexander Historical Mystery Series and Western Writers of America Spur awards.

I look forward to reading the next two novels in the series, Iron Ties and Leaden Skies.

Exploring Our New Neighborhood

Although we haven't yet moved into our new home, we decided to explore the neighborhood. No better way to celebrate our anniversary than to ride 40 miles on our quads. That's me crossing one of the many streams, creeks and mud holes during our trip.


Along the way we encountered boulders that defy description although the one below looks like a fossilized dinosaur egg. I tried out my new camera by taking a picture of my husband, who has always loomed large in my life, but Mother Nature has a way of putting things in perspective.


Wildflowers abound along the trail, especially sunflowers and lupins. We stopped to take in the sweet scents following two weeks' worth of rain that left everything green and fragrant.


There are plenty of interesting rock formations and huge banks of clouds that seemed to pose for the camera wherever we stopped along the heavily rutted trails.


Lush green meadows backed by the rugged Laramie Mountains made us pause to drink in the unparalleled beauty of nature unspoiled. I'd like to return with easel, canvas and paint box to capture this scene forever.


All too soon it was time to leave the trail. I can't wait to take in all this beauty each day from our deck which faces other mountain peaks. There's no better way for this mystery writer to retire.



© 2009 Jean Henry Mead

Dorothy Johnson, the Grande Dame of Western Writing

While I was interviewing for my third book, Maverick Writers, I was devastated when Dorothy Johnson died in 1984 before I could make the trip to Montana to see her. I still have two of her letters tucked away as keepsakes, written on humorous stationery picturing Dorothy mounting a horse, her dog covering his eyes with his paws.

Miss Johnson is best known for three short stories that were adapted to film: “The Hanging Tree," which starred fellow Montanan Gary Cooper; “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” which partnered John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart; and “A Man Called Horse,” which was so successful that several sequels followed.

A prolific writer of stories set in the frontier West, she also wrote novels, non-fiction books and articles. “Lost Sister” won the 1956 Spur Award from Western Writers of America as “Best Short Story” of the year. Well known for her painstaking research of the pre-1890s West, she often said she preferred the 19th century to the 20th, “because we know how it all came out.” In her novels of Plains Indian life, Buffalo Woman and All the Buffalo Returning, she wrote about the changes of both landscape and lifestyle that resulted from white settlement of the western U.S.

While a senior at Whitefish High School, class of ’22, she began her professional writing career, serving as a stringer for The Kalispell Daily Inter Lake. She attended Montana State College, later renamed Montana State University, to major in pre-med until she realized that she would have to dissect a cat. Transferring to the University of Montana, she majored in English and was taken under the wing of Professor H.G. Merriam, who founded The Frontier, a campus literary magazine, for which Dorothy contributed articles throughout her college years, switching form poetry to prose. She then worked for nine years at Gregg Publishing Company before joining the staff of The Woman magazine as managing editor and contributor under a number of pseudonyms.

In her free time she continued to write fiction. Her first sale was in 1930 to the Saturday Evening Post, which paid her $400 for a story about Bonnie George Campbell. It was eleven years before she sold another.

In 1950 she resigned her editorial post with The Woman to return to Whitefish as a reporter-photographer for The Whitefish Pilot, but confessed that her reporting skills were inadequate because she was too shy to interview people she didn't know. But during the years she served as secretary-manager of the Montana Press Association (1953–1967), her successes as a novelist continued to grow. She was also teaching at her alma mater as an assistant professor of journalism. She later worked in New York for 15 years as a magazine editor before returning to Big Sky Country in 1950, where she taught magazine writing at the University of Montana.

A 1982 Writer’s Digest article written by Kathy Crump described Dorothy Johnson as “Petite, animated, witty, crusty and feisty” as well as someone who didn’t "fit the rough-and-tumble image of a teller of tales about outlaws and Indians and cowboys," although she kept a pistol nearby when writing western short stories.

“There’s something about a Colt .44 beside the typewriter that inspires me,” she said.

Branching out into novels and historicals when the western short story markets began to dry up, she sold her antique pistol collection, including her Colt .44, but kept a .38 “hawg laig,” loaded with scattershot, which she used to clear rattlesnakes from her land in Rattlesnake Gulch on the outskirts of Missoula, Montana.

Not all her books were about the West. Three of her later books were about Greece, which she called her "heart's home." She visited the country five times and said she was "just mad about it." She was "overwhelmed" by the reception she received in Athens during the showing of the film "A Man Called Horse." She said, laughing, "To think a kid from Whitefish was speaking in Athens, the city of Pericles and Socrates and Plato. Of course, they weren't there anymore, so Athens had to take what it could get."

© 2009 Jean Henry Mead