Stagecoach Etiquette

These tips for people travelling by stagecoach come from a 1877 issue of the Omaha Herald newspaper. They give you a good idea of how uncomfortable it must have been to make long journeys by stagecoach in olden days, and they don't even mention the poor sods who had to sit on top!

an overcrowded stagecoach

The best seat inside a stage is the one next to the driver. Even if you have a tendency to sea-sickness when riding backwards - you'll get over it and will get less jolts and jostling. Don't let "sly elph" trade you his mid-seat.

In cold weather, don't ride with tight-fitting boots, shoes or gloves. When the driver asks you to get off and walk, do so without grumbling, he won't request it unless absolutely necessary. If the team runs away - sit still and take your chances. If you jump, nine out of ten times you will get hurt.

In very cold weather abstain entirely from liquor when on the road, because you will freeze twice as quickly when under its influence.

Don't growl at the food received at the station - stage companies generally provide the best they can get.

roads were hair-raising

Don't keep the stage waiting.

Don't smoke a strong pipe inside the coach.

Spit on the leeward side...

Don't lean or lop over neighbours when sleeping.

Take small change to pay expenses.

Never shoot on the road as the noise might frighten the horses. Don't discuss politics or religion.

Don't point out where murders have been committed, especially if there are women passengers.

Don't lag at the wash basin. Don't grease your hair, because travel is dusty. Don't imagine for a moment that you are going on a picnic. Expect annoyances, discomfort and some hardships.

[The Case of the Deadly Desperados features stagecoach action in the very first chapters. This Western Mystery for kids aged 9 - 90 is available in hardback, Kindle and audio download. P.K. Pinkerton & the Deadly Desperados is also out in the USA.]

watch the mini-trailer on YouTube

Trailer for the first Western Mystery, The Case of the Deadly Desperados

Truly Gritty

My Top Five GRITTY Westerns for kids.

Everybody has their own definition of a “western”. Here’s my definition:

A Western doesn’t have to have cowboys or Indians but it

should have horses and/or mules.

should be set in the American west in the 1800s.

should have six-shooters, smoking, gambling and drinking.

should have a hero who fights against overwhelming odds.

should have some harsh but beautiful landscapes & big skies.

Because Westerns are usually about survival of individuals in the extreme situations of a frontier world, they are usually too violent and politically incorrect for children. The ones that ARE aimed at children are often too sanitised for my liking. I like gritty reality with a dollop of danger. So here are five of my favourite Western books; ones suitable for kids but which also have grit, grime and menace. I’ve placed them in order of ascending grittiness.

1. The Little House on the Prairie (U) by Laura Ingalls Wilder

I know you're thinking this is saccharine sweet but it isn't. Although safe enough for a 6-year-old, it is magnificently evocative account of pioneer life with all its hardships and joys. Wilder's descriptions are so vivid and compelling that it seems she has stepped back into her six-year-old self to describe the sights, sounds, smells and emotions of her extraordinary life. If you've been put off by the TV series, don't be. Put aside your prejudices and try this. There is a good reason it's considered a masterpiece.

2. Hondo (PG) by Louis L’Amour

Louis L’Amour is considered one of the greatest Western writers and this is one of his greatest books. The story follows a strong, silent hero named Hondo who helps a woman and her son living in hostile Apache territory. The best bit of the book is a section at the end where Hondo teaches the boy how to track and hunt Indian-fashion. The John Wayne movie is good but doesn’t have the tips about tracking and desert survival.

3. True Grit (PG) by Charles Portis

This deadpan masterpiece by Charles Portis is one of my top ten fave books of all time. It recounts the story of a fourteen-year-old girl named Mattie Ross who hires a fat, half-blind Marshal to help her avenge her father’s cold-blooded murder. Both of them have ‘grit’, (which can mean ‘courage’ as well as crunchy dirt.) True Grit is one of those books you can read over and over and always find something new. Both movie versions are good, but the book is better. Best of all is the audio book, read by American author Donna Tartt. She captures Mattie Ross’s voice perfectly.

4. Boone’s Lick (PG) by Larry McMurtry

Like Charles Portis, Larry McMurtry is another great American author. His Pulitzer-prize-winning Lonesome Dove was made into a highly-acclaimed TV mini-series. His screenplay of Brokeback Mountain won an Oscar. Boone’s Lick is based on the real events of an Indian massacre in 1866, a year after the Civil War ended. The narrator is fifteen-year-old Shay. Some scenes are quite brutal, but it’s suitable for readers 10+. As with True Grit, there is a superb audiobook version, read by actor Will Patton, who makes McMurtry’s drily funny characters even better than they are on the page. No mean feat.

5. St. Agnes' Stand (15) by Thomas Eidson

WARNING: This book has harrowing scenes of torture by Apache. It made me understand why you always save the last bullet for yourself in an Indian attack. (gulp!) But if you have a strong stomach, it is a beautiful Western with a powerful message of love and redemption. 


And don’t forget my new book, The Case of the Deadly Desperados, which  falls between True Grit and Boone’s Lick on the True Grittiness scale. 

Hero's Journey in Westerns

Working on my Western Mysteries series for kids, set in Nevada in the 1860s, I have been thinking about The Hero’s Journey. This story-writing plot-structure was devised by Hollywood screenwriter Christopher Vogler after reading Joseph Campbell's book on world mythology, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The template is a great tool and can be applied to many myth-based stories, i.e. stories in which the hero goes on a quest of some sort.

As promised, here is my version of Vogler’s twelve steps as I’ve applied them  to my first Western Mystery, The Case of the Deadly Desperados, and as I detect them in two other recent Western films: True Grit and Rango.

Warning: Here be Spoilers!

1. The Ordinary Hero in his Ordinary World 

A hero exists in an ordinary world, yearning for something more. Deep down he knows he is called to something greater. To us the hero’s world might be fascinating and exotic, but to him, it’s ordinary: sometimes comfortable, sometimes oppressive, sometimes both. 14-year-old Mattie Ross, the hero of True Grit, lives in Yell County near Dardanelle, Arkansas. She is her family’s book-keeper. The world makes sense to her, everything adds up and her parents even depend on her in various ways. Rango is a chameleon; his ordinary world is a safe but boring terrarium with a few lifeless friends. The hero of my new Western Mysteries series, 12-year-old P.K. Pinkerton, lives in the flyspeck town of Temperance in the Nevada desert with his Methodist foster parents. P.K. is a social misfit who doesn’t know how to ‘read people’.

2. The Call to Adventure

In Greek mythology the messenger god often comes down from Mount Olympus to summon the hero on a quest. Sometimes the ‘call to adventure’ is a disaster that forces the hero to leave his comfort zone. In True Grit, it is the sudden and violent death of Mattie’s father that calls her away from her accounts. For once, things don’t add up. Meanwhile, over in his terrarium, Rango is bored. ‘What our story needs,’ he says, ‘is an ironic unexpected event that will propel the hero into conflict…’ He gets this wish in an unexpected way, when his owners swerve to avoid an accident and his entire ‘world’ is flung high up into the air. In the first Western mystery, P.K. Pinkerton finds his foster parents scalped and dying. His mother urges P.K. to run; the killers are after him! In some screenwriting templates, this step is called the Inciting Incident.

3. The Mentor

In Greek mythology, the mentor is usually a god or goddess. In modern versions, the mentor is a wise older person who knows the hero’s abilities and encourages the hero to use them. If the hero refuses to heed the Call to Adventure the mentor encourages her and often gives helpful advice. The mentor does not usually participate in the quest but sometimes they – or a different mentor – appear at a ‘life or death moment’ for the hero. In True Grit, you could say that Mattie Ross’s first mentor is her dead father; he ‘calls her on the journey’. Her second mentor is Rooster Cogburn, who teaches her and helps her in her hour of greatest need. The armadillo ‘Roadkill’ sets Rango on his journey; he wears his experience as a scar. Later, the personified ‘Spirit of the West’ helps Rango in his bleakest hour. P.K.’s first mentor is his dying foster ma Evangeline. She tells P.K. to run and to take his medicine bag. Later P.K. meets Poker Face Jace, who will teach him to understand people.

4. The Talisman 

It is often at this point that the hero receives a talisman, an object of magical value which represents his authority to go on the quest and which also helps him. Theseus had his father’s sword. Luke had his father’s Light Sabre. In the western genre, the talisman is often a gun. Mattie has her father’s Colt Dragoon. Rango gets a gun, too. So does P.K., but his real talisman is his father’s ‘detective button’. Sometimes the talisman has magical abilities, but its greatest power is what it symbolizes, an important aspect of the hero’s destiny.

5. Crossing the Threshold

A single step can take the hero from his ‘ordinary’ world into the world of adventure. As the hero passes into the new ‘World of Adventure’, she often meets some ‘Threshold Guardians’: characters who would prevent her from entering the new world. She often has to battle them with strength or skill, or both. This is a kind of preliminary test to make sure she is worthy. In True Grit, Mattie crosses a threshold when she makes Blackie swim the river in order to prove to the ‘threshold guardians’ (Rooster & LeBoeuf) that she has the right to come on the adventure. Rango’s threshold is the desert highway he must cross to enter ‘the land without end, the desert and death are the closest of friends…’ My 12-year-old hero climbs on top of a passing stagecoach and flattens himself “as flat as a postage stamp” as it passes through Devil’s Gate from the desert into Virginia City AKA Satan’s Playground.

6. Enemies and Allies

In the new world, the hero begins to meet various characters. Some are enemies. Some are allies. Some are both. One fun archetype in this type of story is the apparent enemy who later becomes a friend. True Grit and Rango are both chock full of interesting and unpredictable characters. In my book, P.K. makes valuable allies in the form of several newspapermen, a Soiled Dove named Belle and a Chinese boy called Ping. And of course there is Poker Face Jace, who knows how to read body language.

7. Training

As the hero gets closer to his goal, he must often learn new skills in preparation for meeting the ultimate opponent. Mattie learns that hunting a wanted man ‘ain’t no coon hunt’. Rango learns how to play a new role, that of a gunslinger and action man. P.K. Pinkerton learns to find his way around Virginia City and how to read people.

8. Approach to the Inmost Cave

The tension and stakes increase as the hero nears the ‘inmost cave’ where he will battle the ‘monster’ for the prize. Think of Theseus, who travels from Corinth to Athens, vanquishing baddies, beasts and tricksters along the way. This is not the big battle but it prepares our hero for the big battle.

9. The Supreme ordeal or Battle 

There may have been several battles along the way but this is the big one, the one that counts. Theseus finally lands in Crete and descends into the labyrinth to fight the minotaur and win the prize of his people’s lives. Often the hero first comes face to face with death and his own mortality. It is at this point that the hero realises their true identity, often as a leader. Mattie must face the man who killed her father, Ned Chaney. Rango must face the Mayor, the worst of several baddies. P.K. must face Whittlin’ Walt, the most notorious desperado in Nevada Territory.

10. The Reward

If the hero wins the battle, he gets the reward. This can be a sword or a golden fleece or a beautiful princess. Mattie is after revenge; Rango seeks water and P.K. wants to cash in a valuable document. But the prize itself is almost always immaterial. The real prize is the knowledge the hero gains, sometimes even if he ‘loses’. In the Western genre the lesson is often a hard one. Mattie learns that revenge does not come without a price. Rango learns that as sheriff, he can be a real contributing member of a community not just a play actor. P.K. learns … well, I’ll leave that for you to find out.

11. The Resurrection

In Greek myths, this is the part where the hero emerges from the Underworld. He is the same, but different. His journey has changed him forever. Mattie almost dies but is brought back by Rooster Cogburn’s almost superhuman effort. Rango is reborn as sheriff and takes on the name he gave himself: Rango. P.K. realises who he really is.

Mattie Ross in the snake pit

12. Return with the Elixir

In mythology Jason returns with a fleece that will heal the sick. Mattie pays a great price and learns a terrible lesson, returning with the knowledge of what the world is really like. Better she had never gone on this particular quest. In the hands of the Coen Brothers, hers is a bleak story, with a bitter ending.  Rango, on the other hand finds his place in the world, among new friends and lovers. P.K. returns from the depths of a mine shaft with a new certainty about his particular calling and identity.

The Hero’s Journey Structure is both formulaic and powerful. It isn’t right for every story, but when it can be applied it makes for some mighty good storytelling. Have fun with it y’all!