It All Began with a Pair of Roy Rogers PJs!

Now this is a busy man! Join me as we read about Stephen Bly. You're going to be wondering if this man of many talents ever has time to sleep! 

Stephen Bly has authored and co-authored 102 fiction and nonfiction books, including historical and contemporary westerns. He’s a Christy Award winner, Westerns, 2002, for The Long Trail Home and a Christy Award finalist for 3 other westerns. He has served as mayor of Winchester, Idaho, pop. 308 (1999-2007) and pastors Winchester Community Church. Bly's been a speaker for men’s retreats, family conferences and writers’ groups all over USA and Canada. He’s a collector of antique Winchesters and is roving editor for Big Show Journal, a magazine for gun collectors. Bly and his wife, Janet, mentor beginning writers for Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild. He’s a summa cum laude graduate of philosophy from Fresno State University, CA, and holds an M. Div. degree from Fuller Theological Seminary. He’s been married 47 years to his high school sweetheart, Janet Chester Bly, and they have 3 married sons, 3 grandchildren, and have co-authored 18 books. The couple reside at 4,000 ft. elev. on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation.

SDC: Whew! I'm out of breath, reading all this about your background. Over the last couple of months, I’ve found myself drawn to talk with several western authors. It’s interesting because it hasn’t been my plan. Now I am learning you and your wife enjoy writing for the western audience too. Tell us what the first thing was that drew the two of you to your genre, and how do you think a western differs from writing in other genres?

SB: Folks often ask me if I always wanted to grow up and write books about cowboys. Nope. Not me. I never wanted to be a writer. But I did grow up on a farm and wanting to be a cowboy. I had Roy Rogers PJs and curtains and a plastic statue of trigger on my dresser.

However, as a lad, I only read a few western novels. Not much different than kids in the Old West. They had dime novels then too. Most were written by men who had never gone west. They invented many of the clichés and stereotypes that linger today. Think of them as old time supermarket tabloids and you get the picture.

But what really caught my fancy was history. I liked the nonfiction accounts of life in the Old West. I learned to grab all the University of Oklahoma and University of Nebraska titles that I could find.

After I married and started raising kids of my own, I read lots of western fiction. One birthday my mother gave me some Zane Grey stories. Then, I picked up novels by B. M. Bower, Owen Wister, Will James, Luke Short, Ernest Haycock, Elmer Kelton, Vardis Fisher and, of course, Louis L’Amour. Somewhere in the middle of the 63rd L’Amour book, the idea struck m: I can write one of these.

By then, I had a dozen nonfiction books to my published credit, so I knew I could fill the pages. But I didn’t know if I could spin a tale people would want to read.

One summer wife Janet and I and our youngest son camped in the Beartooth mountains, south of Red Lodge, Montana. I took along an old typewriter and wrote my first western novel, called The Land Tamers. Since I had no idea if I’d ever have the chance to write another, I tried to pack every scene I ever wanted to write in that one book. An editor commented that it moved about as fast as the movie, Raiders Of The Lost Ark. She meant it as a critique. I took it as a compliment.

As it turned out, that was just one of many tales I was allowed to write. I haven’t run out of ideas yet.

As to your other question. . .westerns are about the triumph of good over evil that includes some shootin’ and dyin’. There can be plenty of humor and romance along the way too.

SDC: Westerns give us a little bit of everything, don't they! This is a three-part question, Steve. How do you make faith, love, and hope work together in a western story? And if you focus on one theme, what would that be, or does it vary? And what kind of responses do you receive from readers who have not yet come to know the Lord, but have been influenced greatly by one of your books?

SB: The themes of most every one of my novels involve forgiveness, redemption, and taking a stand against evil. I receive letters from many in prisons who tell me they relate to the stories and the action of some character causes them to want to make something different of their lives. Many other fans love to give my books as gifts to relatives or friends who enjoy westerns (authors such as Louis L’Amour, Larry McMurtry or Zane Grey), but have no spiritual commitment. They pray that the books may prepare their hearts to receive God’s truth.

SDC: That is great seeing how your work is being used. I’m only now beginning to tackle my first western historical. How difficult would you say it is to find a publisher for westerns? And how do you build your particular audience?

SB: This is not an easy market time for western writers, especially ones just starting out. There’s many (somewhat complicated) factors for that -- economics and marketing and culture-wise. However, there’s still plenty of fans of westerns here in the U.S. and across the seas. Each author must figure out how to find them and connect. Each writer must find their own opening, his or her own venue.

I’ve gained my audience of fans one reader at a time over a span of thirty years. . .through much speaking to a wide variety of audiences, through response to every one who contacts me (often personal notes thru snail mail), through our website, by giving away cowboy poetry books and CDs/cassettes, keeping an up-to-date mailing list and sending postcards a couple times a year, and through a twice monthly “On The Trail” cowboy-slanted e-mail devotional, to name a sampling.

SDC: We all have good days and bad days as writers, it’s clear. That’s part of life. Some writers even have a theme verse they select for their stories. What would you say is the one verse that sustains you and your writing partner and keeps the two of you in focus?

SB: My life verse is “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). I consider writing an “added thing,” not the main thing of my life. God and the work of His kingdom is of prime importance. That’s why my ministry as a pastor, as a father, as a husband, rate higher in priority.

Janet’s theme verse is “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which He has prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10). From the early days that she gave her life to Christ, she has always been on a search, at times a restless one, to do the things that God directs her to do.

SDC: Two great verses. And I love Janet's especially! Before you tell us about your newest book, Steve, who do you enjoy reading the most in your spare time?

SB: There’s many ‘whos,’ no particular one. Fiction: lately I’ve been re-reading Owen Wister’s The Virginian), The Heritage of the West, short stories by Zane Grey, and Railroad West by Cornelia Meigs. Most often I read nonfiction—history of all eras and places, which I enjoy very much. Of course, for research for my classic westerns, I focus on nonfiction resources in the west, 1860s to early 1900s. As part of my devotional reading, I’ve been going over J. I. Packer’s Knowing God again. Read it many times over the decades.

SDC: I love researching through that era too, Steve. I understand you have a book you would like to share with one of our readers if we receive enough responders. Tell us a little about it. Also, what question would you like one of our viewers to answer to help me select the winner?

SB: Cowboy For A Rainy Afternoon. . . (A little about it)

A 10-year-old boy wearing red straw cowboy hat, cap gun, leather bullet belt with silver-painted wooden bullets, visits his granddaddy summer of 1954. They spend an afternoon with six old cowboy pals in the lobby of the Matador Hotel in Albuquerque, who love to play cribbage and tell windy stories of the old trail days. Meanwhile, a damsel’s in distress. A drama develops right before them. They all hop in a ’49 Plymouth with open trunk for a last cowboy stand.

This novel’s as close to memoir as any I’ve written. I was a 10-year-old boy in 1954 and often spent time with my grandpa who talked about the old days while we played cribbage. Pop in the story has the name Theo and his wife is Kate—same as my grandparents.

Question for the readers to respond to: Do you think you were born 100 years too late? Why or why not?

SDC: Interesting question. It will be fascinating to see what kinds of answers we receive. While we wait, let us know where we can reach you and where we can find your books!

SB: You can get hold of me via e-mail at stephenandjanetbly@connectwireless.us  or interact at our website (which includes a bookstore) http://www.blybooks.com/  or our “On A Western Trail” blog: http://www.blybooks.blogspot.com/

I sure don’t mind if you order any of our books from an online source such as http://www.amazon.com/  or through your favorite local bookstore, or even check them out at your public library!

SDC: Thank you so much Steve. We have greatly appreciated having you here at A Pen for Your Thoughts. It's great having you here.

SB: I thank you very much for the privilege of allowing me some space on your blog. Greatly appreciated! Look forward to sending a copy of Cowboy For A Rainy Afternoon to one of your followers. . . .

TO GET YOUR NAME ADDED TO MY DRAWING, DROP IN AND LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS. STEVE HAS ASKED A  GREAT QUESTION FOR YOU TO PONDER (see above). WE LOOK FORWARD TO WHAT YOUR THOUGHTS ARE IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS.