Interview with John Paxton Sheriff



John Paxton Sheriff is the author of over twenty Black Horse Westerns, written under the names Jack Sheriff, Matt Laidlaw, Jim Lawless and Will Keen. He is also the author of the non-fiction works, "Practical Short Story Writing" and "Writing Crime Novels", among others.

Tell us about yourself
I was born in Liverpool in 1936 and educated at grammar schools in North Wales and Liverpool. On leaving school I began work as an apprentice architect, but left to join the Royal Engineers
In 1969 I emigrated to Australia with my wife and three children. While working as a motor mechanic in New South Wales and Queensland I had short stories and poetry published in major Australian magazines. In 1972 I joined the Fellowship of Australian Writers, and a year later the Australian Society of Authors.
We returned to England in 1974. Between 1978 and 1980 I ran a small correspondence school teaching short story writing. I became a full-time writer in 1989, and for the next five years worked freelance for two North Wales newspaper groups.
My illustrated articles are published in many UK trade and consumer magazines, and short stories appear in magazines as diverse as the Australian Women's Weekly, Woman and Home, and the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine (USA) .
My first non-fiction book was a 65,000 word guide book to Wales, published in 1993 by Leisure in Print. Practical Short Story Writing (Hale, reprinted in 1998, American rights sold in 1999), and How to Write Advertising Features (Allison and Busby)were published in 1995, Modelling Toy Soldiers in 1996, Creating Suspense in Fiction in 1999 and Writing Crime Novels in 2001. And, since 1995, I have had eighteen Western novels published by Robert Hale. Two more have been accepted, and I am working on the 22nd. I am a tutor for for several of the Writers' News correspondence courses.

When did you start Writing?
I began in 1960, when I was living with my family above a café in Iserlohn, West Germany. A first short story sold to an army magazine, and I then wrote almost every night for the next ten years before another story sold to a major Australian magazine.

What made you decide to write Westerns?
I saw an article by John Blaze in Writers' News. It struck a chord, because I'd been brought up on Westerns, reading all I could get hold of from age 13 until 16 or so. I wrote an opening, sent a couple of chapters to Robert Hale - and the rest, as they say, is history.

Who/what are your influences?
The old-timers. Their names are almost too numerous to mention, but I enjoy Max Brand, Owen Wister, Elmore Leonard, Jack Schaeffer.

What do you think of the Black Horse Western Series?
Very well done. The editorial team at Robert Hale are experienced, friendly and helpful, the books are glossy little masterpieces of production, and I like the recent change which has brought a repeat of the back-cover blurb to the inside of the book.

What made you choose to write under four different pen names?
Robert Hale's policy. They will not publish more than three Westerns under one name in a single year. At the time I intended to write between six and ten. I managed five in 1998, but have slipped since then.

How important is research to you as a writer?
For me, the best research is reading old Westerns. This doesn't make for imitation, but by osmosis the feel of the old West and the way it is presented in the best books soaks into the system and the blood. Research is needed for weapons, equipment, horses and so on, but unless I'm writing a book set in a known location and time then fine historical detail is not needed.

Do you carry over characters from one book to another?
That was my intention when I wrote Raiders of Concho Flats (Matt Laidlaw). I created Texas Rangers Rockwell Lane and Charlie Rivers, with the idea of a series; so far, I've gone no further.

Which of your books are your favourites, and why?
I like Black Day at Hangdog (Jack Sheriff) because it has a thoughtful opening with a number of old-timers in conversation, a long scene influenced by the Owen Wister short story, At the Sign of the Last Chance. The opening of Billy Sundown (Jack Sheriff) is also one I like because the story's leading character is an Indian. The ending to that book is also one of my favourites: the Indian, who had tried to move away from his roots, is forced to return to his people.

Which of your covers are your favourites, and why?
Brazos Guns (Jack Sheriff), because it was my first book and is also an excellent cover. Bury Him deep in Tombstone (Jack Sheriff) because it is a clever montage that fits the story. And a lot of the Linford and Dales (Magna) large print covers, all of which are of a very high quality.

What can you tell us about 'The Deliverance of Judson Cleet'?
I wanted to portray a gunslinger who had fallen on bad times and wrecked his life through one bad move. Cleet believes he killed a young man over a card game in a border town, and the torment of what he has done sends him into decline. He is brought back to his violent trade in the usual way - somebody is in trouble - but the deliverance comes as a complete surprise in the gunfight that ends the book.

What can you tell us about 'The Killing at Bar C'?
Not a lot! I write my Westerns without any outline, and with no idea where they are going. What I can tell you is that Will Sagger's mother is found with her throat cut, and his father, Paul, is missing. Questions arise. Why has Paul been drinking, and did he kill his wife? Or did he bring a drunken renegade home with him? Where has Paul gone? Why has he left his beloved '73 Winchester? And who is the mysterious Amos Killin who has been riding down from Hole in The Wall to ply Paul Sagger with strong liquor?

Any other forthcoming projects you can tell us about?
 The Killing at Bar C has been on hold with 7,000 words completed while I concentrate on the Private Eye novel an agent is patiently awaiting. That book has reached 185 pages/56,000 words and I now feel able to write the two novels in tandem. So it will be Bar C for part of each morning, and the P.I. novel for the rest of the day's writing time.

Any advice to aspiring Western writers?
You must love what you are doing. You must be obsessed with words. You must be able to think pictorially, living each scene you write. And you must write every day. One day missed and momentum is lost, the characters you have been creating fade a little, the world around you begins to intrude - and each day missed makes it that much harder to return to writing. Finally, beware of looking back. A computer makes it very easy for you to revise as you write, but too much of that and the book will never get written. Write the book, then revise.

Anything else you'd like to say?
Although Black Horse Westerns are not exactly blockbusters, the series from Robert Hale fills an important empty niche in British publishing. Westerns are still read widely (their popularity seems to be rising), and a lot of people prefer a book of 45,000 words to something stretching to 500 pages. For the author, those 45,000 published words break down to about 35,000 of actual writing - and to produce an absorbing novel of that length is in itself an art. No aspiring writer investigating the genre should feel that Western author equates to hack; no aspiring authors should ever believe that Black Horse Westerns are the easy way to get a book published.



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