S.J. Richard
Historical Western Romance
Welcome to The Fire and Water Saloon, the largest and most
profitable saloon in the Town of Kanen. The room is dark with only weak light
filtering through streaky windows that face a dusty street. The bar runs the length of the left side of
the room. A large, slightly warped mirror hangs on the wall behind it,
reflecting gaming tables on the other side of the room. A stage, dark and quiet now, commands the
front of the room. I prefer sitting at
the table closest to the front door with my back to the wall so I can see
everyone passing by outside and all those who enter. It’s empty in the Fire and Water so early in
the day, but later tonight, half the town and a slew of miners will pack the
place to listen to the bawdy singer on stage while trying not to lose their pay
packets at the gaming tables. Pull up a chair so we can play cards and talk for a bit.
Reader’s Haven: Hi S.J.! Thanks for inviting us here. (Deanna) *Wipes off two chairs with a bar towel before taking a seat. Points to the other chair for Louise to sit on* Tell us a bit about yourself.
S.J.: I was a
reporter for New England newspapers and won
some awards but found the grind of writing everyone else’s stories each day
leached out my urge to write my own stories. So, I left the reporting world for a more structured (and better-paying)
office job that gives me the freedom and space to hang out with my imaginary
friends (aka the characters in my novels).
Reader’s Haven: (Louise) Glad we're not the only writers who like to hang out with imaginary friends! *shuffling, then dealing out the cards* What made you want to become a writer?
S.J.: I just always knew I was going to write. I remember being in second grade when a
friend’s mother asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was doing math homework at that moment, but
I looked up and without hesitation said, “Oh, I’m a writer.” It wasn’t that I would become a writer some
day; I just knew, like the way I know my own handwriting, that I was a
writer.
Reader’s Haven: Please share a bit about your new release, The Peacemaker, without giving away any spoilers.
S.J.: The
Peacemaker is about hypocrites and heroes, politics and religion. It is historical fiction set in the
1870s. Jack O’Malley, a civil war
veteran plagued by vicious memories of the battles, was recently hired to be
the Town Marshal following the suspicious death of the latest sheriff. O’Malley is not a religious man, unlike the
devote and vocal citizens of Kanen. Add
to the volatile mix a saucy red-head and salacious red-headed singer, some
unruly miners, a newspaper hell-bent on stirring up trouble and a pious and
beautiful woman who wants to reform O’Malley’s atheist ways and this quiet
lawman is starting to wish he was back in the middle of a war. At least there, he knew who the enemy was and
from which direction they would be firing. It has some weighty themes, a
budding romance and plenty of humor salted through the story making it hard to
put the book down once you start it.
Reader’s Haven: (Deanna) Westerns are quite popular right now. We wish you luck with the sales. I think many of our readers will have questions for you. *pouring a shot of Jack Daniels for all of us* Do you write under a pen name?
S.J.: I do. Thanks for the shot! *downing hers in two swallows* I use my initials. It is an homage to old-time reporters and
satirists like H.L. Menken. I started
using S.J. as my byline when I began my
journalism classes at college. I was always a shy kid and using my initials helped me crawl out of that shell. I didn’t feel brave enough to use my legal
name so I created the persona of S.J. to do what scared me: ask the difficult
questions and write something for others to read. S.J. had no history, no hangs ups and
nothing to lose, so that made her fearless. She could do all the things I wanted to try but didn’t dare. So, when the time came to publish my novel,
it only seemed proper to do what worked and to honor the S.J. side of my
personality with credit for The Peacemaker. She did the hard work all those years protecting the shy kid from New England who hid behind her name, so it only seemed
fair that S.J. should appear on the book’s cover.
Reader’s Haven: What types of hero or heroine do you like best?
S.J.: *tossing a card on the table* I like the unlikely heroes, the ones who you judge
too quickly or too harshly with an unflattering opinion. Those are the ones that can truly shine
because they teach you about yourself. I
find that people (and therefore characters) surprise me like that. The ones you least expect to step up and do
the right thing, the ones you weren’t sure you could depend upon, can rise to
the occasion and be there in those big and small moments. The Peacemaker has a few of those. It’s those fringe people, the ones nobody
gave any credit to or thought were all that strong, who stand up and come
through in the tough times.
Reader’s Haven: That is so true. It sounds like you have a handle on your characters. Tell us about a typical day in your life as
a writer.
S.J.: There is no typical
in my world. *rakes in the winnings of that hand* Unless you count chaos,
then chaos, I suppose, is typical. Writing is a must for me. If I
don’t get to write, I get edgy and feel anxious and out of place. Once I get my fingers on my keyboard, I slip
into my own little world. Whatever town
or room my characters are in becomes my universe. I can lose hours and hours, only noticing
that time has passed when I find myself sitting in the dark with only the light
from my computer screen illuminating the room. Those are the best days, the ones I don’t know passed because I spent
them all with the characters carving out my novel.
Reader’s Haven: What a great way to put that! Do your books have a common theme or are
they all different?
S.J.: Each one is
different, but they do have some aspects that carry through them all. There is
a theme of people not always being what they seem. Someone irritable and aloof may have a
fantastic and heart-wrenching reason for being detached and difficult;
likewise, the beloved and bubbly beauty in town might have a cold, dark, nasty
side that devotees choose not to see. My
main characters are usually not well-liked or popular in their settings. They certainly never crave attention. I feel there is great value and strength in
being someone who can and does stand alone when needed. Friends are a wonderful gift, but we spent a
lot of time in our lives on our own. Those who excel in those moments have something special inside them, a
belief in themselves, that is remarkable so I like to show that when I can.
*dealing the next hand* I also toy with questions and confrontations between faith
and reason. I was one of those kids who
was forced to go to church by my parents, but I would rather have been home
looking at bugs and dirt under my microscope or looking at star charts to pick
a star to find with my telescope that night. My goal isn’t to make anyone change anything they believe; it’s to show
them another side of the story. If that
strengths what they believe, great. If
it makes them refine what they believe, that’s good, too. It’s just such a fertile (and volatile)
subject that you can start a lifelong discussion or an equally long blood feud
with it. I don’t like the fights, but I
do love getting people to think and talk about what they truly believe and why. It really tells you who someone is if he or
she can answer that honestly.
Still, regardless of themes or subjects, in the end, I
figure I’ve done my job as a writer if a reader simply gets lost in the story
and forgets, for just a moment, that they have to go to work in the morning, or
that they have a dentist appointment tomorrow, or that it’s time to do the
laundry. A few minutes pause from their
lives to retreat for a little while into my world is the gift I try to give
them.
Reader’s Haven: (Louise) How long does it take you to write and
then edit a story? *tossing in two chips to up the anty*
S.J.: *tossing in another chip* The initial
writing takes very little time. When I
get an idea, it takes over my thoughts and interrupts my sleep. I have this compulsion to write and get every
thought down on a page as quickly as I can. The editing is what takes such a long time. The Peacemaker only took a few months to
write, but I spent a long time editing it, a few years in fact, until it felt
like I had the story just the way it should be.
Reader’s Haven: Do you have to be alone to write?
S.J.: Alone would be
heaven, but I rarely get that. My dog,
to whom I dedicated The Peacemaker, is a constant (and beloved) pest. He can’t stand when I settle in with my
laptop so he fights for my attention.
Still, given the choice, I would prefer to be alone with my music to
write and edit my work. For each story I write, I create a playlist on my iPod
to keep me in the right frame of mind and on-track with the story. Sometimes, the list is straight instrumental;
Yo-Yo Ma’s “Butterfly’s Day Out” is a favorite “go to’ when I am stuck and
looking for inspiration, but depending on what mood and my story needs, I could
be listening to Irish folk music, or AC/DC or Pink as well.
Reader’s Haven: (Deanna) *tossing in her losing cards, she pours another round* How do you go about naming characters?
S.J.: Fabulous
question—and one I get asked often. It
sounds odd, but they sort of name themselves.
For a period piece (like The Peacemaker), I do research for what were
common names for the time. Next, I look
to whether the choices for names I have fit the character I have created. It’s a struggle sometimes, sort of what
people feel about their own names I suppose.
Does your name become you or do you become your name? I’ve fallen in love with some names, but as I
write, I just don’t feel it fits the character I tagged with it (and the
characters let me know). When I get it
right, everything feels smooth and meant to be.
Reader’s Haven: Is it easier to write about the characters
if you find pictures of them before you write or do you write then find
character pictures?
S.J.: As I create
them, I have a picture in my mind. It’s
like I’ve met them, and sometimes I have, so I know precisely who they are and
what they look like as I begin writing. I get such a kick out of hearing readers tell me who they picture could
be the characters. For example, for the
lead character in The Peacemaker I’ve heard a lot of actor’s names who
readers picture as Jack O’Malley: They range from Clint Eastwood to Jensen
Ackles. It’s amazing the interpretations a reader’s own mind will make
Louise, I think you win this hand!
Reader’s Haven: How do you pick locations for your stories?
S.J.: I love small
towns so I usually gravitate toward those and the myriad of places you can find
within them. I’ve spent a lot of time in
big cities in several countries, but there is something so entrancing about a
small town to me. The family histories,
the local politics, the way neighbors know (or think they know) everything
about those who live around them fascinate me to no end. Part of that, of course is because I grew up
in a small town so it’s a bit like going home to me. Plus, I
find them to be a source of infinite inspiration (the ugly and the
beautiful parts).
Reader’s Haven: What are you working on now and what should
readers be looking forward to from you in the future?
S.J.: The Peacemaker is part one of a trilogy (informally
called The Kanen Chronicles). The second
book is titled The Widow-maker and is scheduled for publication in 2013. After The Widow-maker I will be taking a
short break from the Kanen series to publish a novella loosely based on the
entertaining, and at times hilarious, insanity that surrounds my family when we
gather for a holiday. My hope is that my
family finds the novella funny and still invites me to Thanksgiving
Dinner. If not, I’ll have at least one
day of uninterrupted writing each November for the next few years.
Reader’s Haven: Why did you choose the 1870s for the time
period of your book?
SJ: I’m actually a very modern and techy person. I love gadgets and would be lost without my
laptop and iPod, but my cell phone and I are not always friends. I was on vacation in Colorado and my phone was acting up. I was considering bouncing it on the pavement
to cure what ailed it when the idea for The Peacemaker came to me. My frustration with that technology made me
want to write about a time before cell phones, before any type of telephone, so
that meant traveling back to the pre-1890s. The post-Civil War era always fascinated me so I wandered in that
direction. The thought that there would
be no phones and no instant way to verify information was intriguing as well
because that plays into the flow of information in this town. Jack O’Malley is a stranger and the people
who live there have no easy, independent means to learn about his past. I
liied the idea that these characters would need to face each other and talk to learn
about one another. There would be no
texting, no leaving a message in voicemail, no split-second of Googling for
information. They have to deal with each
other, face-to-face, and talk to one another, which is something we seem to do so rarely or
poorly today.
Reader’s Haven: SJ, it's been great chatting over cards and drinks with you. Readers, we're glad you stopped in. Pull up a chair and get your questions ready for SJ. Don't forget that you can earn more than one entry into her contest. SJ, where can readers find out more about you
and your books?
S.J.: Readers can find me on the following sites:
Purchase Links
The Peacemaker
With war scars that no one could see and that would not
heal, Jack O'Malley drifted into Kanen,
Colorado in the summer of
1873. Hired to be the new Marshal, he is
confronted with the suspicion and anxiety of a once peaceful, small town with a
growing mining problem (or perhaps it is a mining town with a small growing
problem). Whatever the case, O'Malley
swiftly learns that the invisible foes that stalk him in his sleep are nothing
compared to the passionately pious force that is the Ladies Church Society and
the beautiful but feisty Amanda Morgan, a woman who finds O'Malley's lack of
religion as disturbing as he finds her attractive. Their tangles over faith and propriety peak
with the arrival of a sultry and scandalous songstress from O'Malley's past, a
wave of criminal accusations from the town newspaper and a flood of questions
from suspicious citizens about the mysterious stranger O'Malley is giving
sanctuary in the town jail. With
troubling questions being raised regarding O'Malley's personal history, the one
thing even the most patient of townspeople are growing certain of is that the
new marshal isn't likely to see the New Year in Kanen.
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