WRITERS ON BOOKS ~ PETER
BRANDVOLD
As part of an ongoing series of blog posts, I’ve asked
western pulp master Peter Brandvold to give us a personal look into what
writers read and what books influence their lives.
Currently the acknowledged king of the fast-moving,
hard-driving western novel, Peter has written over a hundred westerns under his
own name and his pen name, Frank Leslie. He has also written thirty Longarm
novels under the name Tabor Evans. He’s written several novels under the banner
of the late Ralph Compton. Under his own name he writes the popular .45-Caliber
books (featuring Cuno Massey), the bounty hunter Lou Prophet series, the Yakima
Henry tales, the Rogue Lawman series, and others. Through his own Mean Pete publishing imprint, Peter has also
become a dynamic force in the world of self-publishing…
Thx for stepping out of the saddle, Peter, and hunkering
down with us around the campfire…
THE BOOK YOU LOVED AS
A CHILD…
Oddly enough, it was a bulky, water-damaged, falling-apart
fifth grade reading text. The stories I remember liking most and which made me
want to try to practice such dark alchemy myself were: Beware of the Dog by Roald Dahl, All Summer in A Day, by Ray Bradbury, Odyssey of the North by Jack London, The Ears of Johnny Bear by John Steinbeck, In Another Country by Hemingway, and Wine on the Desert by Max Brand. I loved that book. I read every
word—even those that weren’t assigned. I still remember how that book smelled,
the splotches of dried dirty snowmelt and green snot previous students had
mashed between the pages, and the Fuck
scribbled in spidery pencil on the inside of the back cover.
A BOOK YOU WOULD READ
TO YOUR KIDS…
Since I don’t have kids, I really don’t know what’s out
there for kids these days. At least not for kids young enough to be read to.
One of the first books that was read to me was Where The Red Fern Grows, so I’d probably read that one but I’m
probably way, way out of date! But I know how important it is to read to kids.
My fifth grade teacher even read Ann Of
Green Gables to us, and I, a boy’s boy, loved hearing it though I suppose
it’s considered more of a girl’s book. But the images remain. It’s important to
read any kind of a story to kids. A teacher also read A Wrinkle In Time and Old
Yeller to us, as well as The Witch Of
Blackbird Pond. I remember them all.
THE BOOK THAT MADE
YOU WANT TO BE A WRITER…
That fifth grade text but also Huckleberry Finn and Mandingo.
I read my father’s old paperback Mandingo
he acquired when he was in the army and being transported around the South
Pacific. Most of the first books I read came from his somewhat proscribed
library which included Tobacco Road and
Peyton Place. I loved Mandingo and even though it’s probably
not politically correct to say this, I still do. As well as its sequel, Drum. Great vivid writing. Such writing
just doesn’t show up anymore. Most of the books published these days would not
have been published twenty or thirty years ago. The editors would have told
those writers to keep punching away and maybe try a correspondence course.
YOUR FAVORITE
CLASSIC…
It’s a tossup between Moby
Dick and War And Peace. I reread
big chunks of both regularly. Also The
Sea Wolf.
THE CLASSIC YOU’VE
NEVER BEEN ABLE TO READ…
Finnegan’s Wake
THE CLASSIC YOU’VE
PRETENDED TO HAVE READ…
I don’t know...maybe The
Bible when I was in Lutheran confirmation class. I think I’ve read most of
the whole thing since, though.
THE MOVIE ADAPTATION YOU’VE
LOVED…
Jaws. (I can
recite great chunks after a few home-brews...)
THE BOOK YOU’D LIKE
TO SEE AS A MOVIE…
My Uncle Oswald by
Roald Dahl, but only if they do it right. It would probably have to be rated X,
however. I wish they would do a straight adaptation of either Robert E. Howard
or Karl Edward Wagner. I don’t understand why Hollywood keeps trying to rewrite
these great writers. Howard is legendary for the stories he wrote, so why
doesn’t Hollywood make what he wrote? Why do they think their pastiches are
better? Against the evidence!
THE IMAGINARY PLACE
WHERE YOU COULD LIVE…
The world I create in my own books, especially the Stillman
books. I like that one though it can be violent at times.
THE GENRE YOU’D READ
IF YOU WERE LIMITED TO ONE…
I would say westerns if there were better westerns written, but,
outside of my own, he-he, and damn few others, there just aren’t. So I’d
probably read sword and sorcery just for Karl Edward Wagner if no one else but
I probably say that now because I happen to be reading Wagner again. If I were
reading Chandler, I’d probably say detective noir.
THE BOOK YOU’VE
RETURNED TO AGAIN AND AGAIN…
Probably the book I reread the most often is Hemingway’s
collected stories but I have to also mention Smith & Other Events by Paul St. Pierre, little-known (to
Americans) Canadian writer, now dead.
THE FICTIONAL FRIENDS
YOU’D LOVE TO HAVE…
Conan. Man, could that guy back you in a bar fight!
THE LAST NOVEL TO MAKE
YOU LAUGH AND THE LAST TO MAKE YOU CRY…
Roughing It by
Twain and The Determined Heart by
Antoinette May (about Mary Shelley).
WHAT YOU’RE READING
NOW…
Night In The Lonesome
October by Richard Laymon.
Peter’s newest series features U.S. Marshal Bear Haskell,
former union war hero, former Pinkerton agent, current deputy United States
marshal. Bear is a big man—over six and a half feet tall and as broad as a barn
door. He wears a necklace of bear claws taken from the grizzly who almost had
him for supper. That’s the kind of man Bear is. He holds a grudge and he gives
no quarter—to grizzly bears or men.
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