There are characters, and then there are characters.\u00a0 Sometimes you read a book and can\u2019t keep the protagonist\u2019s name straight let alone his personality or motivations.\u00a0 Other times you read a few lines, a paragraph or two, a half a page, and the lead character jumps out of the book, slams into your chest, and walks beside you for a long, long while.<\/p>\n

I prefer the latter type of character.\u00a0 Josiah Wolfe is one of those characters.\u00a0 He walks beside me.\u00a0 I don\u2019t care if that sounds over-stated or cheesy.\u00a0 It\u2019s personal and I mean it sincerely.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve spoken with Larry D. Sweazy<\/a>, Wolfe\u2019s creator, a number of times here at Booklife.\u00a0 We\u2019ve talked about setting<\/a>, freelancing<\/a>, story<\/a>, and character<\/a>.\u00a0 Whatever the topic, our conversations always seem to come back to character.<\/p>\n

For me, our conversations stem from a single moment standing in the local Barnes and Noble, a split second when Josiah Wolfe came alive while I read the prologue to The Rattlesnake Season<\/em>, Sweazy\u2019s first novel.
\n
\nThe Badger\u2019s Revenge<\/em>, the third installment in the Josiah Wolfe series, hits shelves today.\u00a0 I used the release as an excuse to get back in touch with Sweazy.\u00a0 What follows are his responses to a series of questions about building the character Josiah Wolfe.\u00a0 It\u2019s that, and it\u2019s also a master class on characterization from one of the finest novelists working today.<\/p>\n

Where did Josiah Wolfe come from? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Larry D. Sweazy:<\/strong> This is kind of a long story, but I guess it should be.\u00a0 In 2003, I was contacted by Ed Gorman to write a short story for an anthology featuring a modern-day Texas Ranger with a mystery plot.\u00a0\u00a0 I had lived in Texas for nearly 5 years, and I felt confident that I could tackle the assignment, and since I was writing mostly mysteries at the time, it felt like a natural fit for me.\u00a0 The story, \u201cThe Promotion,\u201d was about Samuel \u201cRed\u201d Wolfe, who worked for the UCIT (Unsolved Crimes Investigation Time) unit, and had recently lost his son, but got offered a promotion that would take him to another city. Red wanted to solve a cold case that had been a rub with him for several years, before he left.<\/p>\n

Ed bought the story, and it was published in the anthology, Texas Rangers <\/em>(Berkley), in 2004.\u00a0 That was my professional short story sale.\u00a0 Up until then, I had just published in small press and semi-pro magazines.\u00a0 \u201cThe Promotion\u201d went on to win the WWA (Western Writers of America) Spur Award for Best Short Story in 2005.\u00a0 I was flabbergasted, humbled, and honored, to say the least.\u00a0 After that settled down, and it was time for me to get back writing, I began to think about the direction I wanted to go.\u00a0 My first thought was to continue writing Red, to turn \u201cThe Promotion\u201d into a novel, but that didn\u2019t happen, and has yet to come to fruition, though it still remains a possibility if I ever get to it.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I began to think about the Texas Rangers, and their history, and I decided I wanted to go back to the beginning of the organization\u2014which took me to the Frontier Battalion.\u00a0 There were Rangers before then, but the Frontier Battalion is considered the \u201cofficial\u201d beginning, the bloodline of the Ranger organization we have today. So, I asked myself a writer\u2019s what if<\/em> question: What if there had been a Wolfe in every generation of the Texas Rangers from the Frontier Battalion to the present?\u00a0 That would be at least five generations of stories to cover, and with the history of Texas being so rich, the material would be endless.\u00a0 So, Josiah was born from that one idea.\u00a0\u00a0 He is Red Wolfe\u2019s great-great grandfather.\u00a0 At that moment, I envisioned a complete generational saga.\u00a0 It\u2019s a viable idea, I think, and I\u2019m happy to report that I\u2019m currently writing a short story for another anthology featuring Josiah\u2019s son, Lyle, that takes place in the 1930s, in the Bonnie and Clyde era of Texas.<\/p>\n

How much pre-writing did you do with him? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Larry D. Sweazy:<\/strong> I initially wrote a short story, \u201cRattlesnakes and Skunks,\u201d that featured Josiah Wolfe to try my hand at writing him.\u00a0\u00a0 I eventually sold that story to a short-lived magazine, Out West<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 So, I would say the pre-writing came in the form of another short story.\u00a0 It seems to work that way for me.\u00a0 The prologue of the first Josiah novel, The Rattlesnake Season<\/em>, is basically the beginning of \u201cRattlesnakes and Skunks\u201d, and the title was born from the story, too.<\/p>\n

How much growing did\/does Wolfe do on his own? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Larry D. Sweazy:<\/strong> When I sold the first two books, I thought I had a pretty good idea who Josiah was, but about halfway through the first book situations arose that I hadn\u2019t seen going in, so there was definitely some changes I didn\u2019t expect.<\/p>\n

In The Rattlesnake Season<\/em>, there\u2019s a poignant scene where Josiah must decide to confront his past and let go of it the best he can by having an intimate encounter with a woman that there is no possibility of ever having a real relationship with.\u00a0 He had to learn how to live again, to feel pleasure again, instead of the pain of losing his wife and daughters.\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t expected that kind of emotional reaction from him, but I think it\u2019s the heart of the book.<\/p>\n

How has he grown over the course of the series?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Larry D. Sweazy:<\/strong> I think each book sees some kind if growth from Josiah, at least, I hope so.\u00a0 The Rattlesnake Season<\/em> saw Josiah join the Rangers, confronting an old enemy, and moving to a new city, Austin, to start a new life.<\/p>\n

The second book, The Scorpion Trail<\/em>, is about Josiah\u2019s life on the trail with the Rangers, learning his place in the world, and who he can trust, and who he can\u2019t.\u00a0 I think trust is a big part of book #2, especially between Josiah and Scrap Elliot, his partner, it seems in nearly every adventure.<\/p>\n

In the new book, The Badger\u2019s Revenge<\/em>, Josiah is still not settled in Austin, but he tries to navigate the social scene, and his own idea of whether love is possible for him, especially with a woman who seems to be of a higher class than him.\u00a0 I hope every book shows some emotional growth in Josiah, but they also have to stand up as westerns, too, so there\u2019s plenty action thrown into the mix that forces Josiah to learn as much about himself as a Ranger as living in the city does.<\/p>\n

And in what ways is he shaped by the loss of his wife in the first book?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Larry D. Sweazy:<\/strong> I definitely think Josiah is devoted to the memory his wife, and he struggles with his needs as a man, and as a father for his son, Lyle.\u00a0 He knows Lyle needs a real mother instead of, or along with, the wet nurse, Ofelia who came to Austin with him, but he can\u2019t bring himself to truly commit to any kind of relationship, fearing nothing but loss and tragedy will come of it.\u00a0 Who could blame him?\u00a0 I think that fear, especially of the fear of losing Lyle somehow, drives Josiah to do things he would not ordinarily do.\u00a0 Healing comes with time, and new people continually come and go in his life, giving Josiah the opportunity to love and trust again.\u00a0 Whether he does or not, is the challenge he continually faces.<\/p>\n

How is Wolfe different now, at the outset of The Badger’s Revenge<\/em><\/strong>?\u00a0 What will always remain the same?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Larry D. Sweazy:<\/strong> The longer he stays in Austin, the more rooted he becomes.\u00a0 In the beginning of The Badger\u2019s Revenge<\/em>, Josiah is captured by two Comanche bounty hunters, and must escape to see his way home again.\u00a0 It\u2019s a fight he\u2019s up for, by this time in his life.\u00a0 He is solely focused on seeing Lyle again, and will not let anything step in his way.\u00a0 If that means shooting first, and asking questions later, then so be it.<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

As far as staying the same, I think Josiah\u2019s moral center, his idea of right and wrong will never change.\u00a0 Money, fame, or social standing do not interest him, but he knows if he\u2019s going to stay in Austin, he needs to learn to navigate the social and political structures, so he\u2019s not so rigid that he\u2019s unwilling to learn, to change.\u00a0 He\u2019s a survivor in the end, and that can\u2019t ever change.<\/p>\n

Any last words of advice on building characters in general and western characters in particular?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Larry D. Sweazy:<\/strong> Perfect characters are boring.\u00a0 Josiah might be the hero in each book, but he also has baggage that determines how he is going to react in certain situations.\u00a0 He spent four years fighting in the Civil War, and then had some hard-scrabble years before he lost his family to sickness.\u00a0 He\u2019s angry, and sometimes, that anger rages out of his control, causing him to do and say things he regrets later.\u00a0 That makes him human, as far as I\u2019m concerned.<\/p>\n

Western characters tend to be motivated by the landscape and their circumstances in it, which are all great places to start.\u00a0 A rancher in a drought will act or react out of desperation.\u00a0\u00a0 But there are human needs to; love, respect, satisfaction, or disappointment, so all aspects of a character\u2019s life should play a role in the characters life, if he or she is fully rounded.\u00a0\u00a0 I really don\u2019t see the creation of a character for a western any different than any other genre.\u00a0 If the reader doesn\u2019t care about them, then they will never finish reading the novel.\u00a0 It\u2019s just that simple, no matter whether the story is set ten minutes ago, or a hundred and fifty years ago.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Jeremy L. C. Jones <\/a>is a freelance writer, editor, and teacher.\u00a0\u00a0He is the staff Interviewer for <\/em>Clarkesworld Magazine<\/a> and a frequent contributor to <\/em>Kobold Quarterly<\/a>.\u00a0 He teaches at <\/em>Wofford College<\/a> and <\/em>Montessori Academy<\/a> in Spartanburg, SC.\u00a0 He is also the director of <\/em>Shared Worlds<\/a>, a creative writing and world-building camp for teenagers that he and <\/em>Jeff VanderMeer <\/a>designed in 2006.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are characters, and then there are characters.\u00a0 Sometimes you read a book and can\u2019t keep the protagonist\u2019s name straight let alone his personality or motivations.\u00a0 Other times you read a few lines, a paragraph or two, a half a page, and the lead character jumps out of the book, slams into your chest, and walks beside you for a long, long while. I prefer the latter type of character.\u00a0 Josiah Wolfe is one of those characters.\u00a0 He walks beside me.\u00a0 I don\u2019t care if that sounds over-stated or cheesy.\u00a0 It\u2019s personal and I mean it sincerely. I\u2019ve spoken with Larry D. Sweazy, Wolfe\u2019s creator, a number of times here at Booklife.\u00a0 We\u2019ve talked about setting, freelancing, story, and character.\u00a0 Whatever the topic, our conversations always seem to come back to character. For me, our conversations stem from a single moment standing in the local Barnes and Noble, a split […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[75],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1470"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1470"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1553,"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1470\/revisions\/1553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booklifenow.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}