For years -- since Laurie Robinson of Christchurch passed away -- I have been the only NZ-based writer of western fiction for Robert Hale Ltd, of London. More, I run a promotional, quarterly ezine for John Hale's Black Horse Western line. Years ago, his marketing director, Martin Kendall, refused to register and use the obvious URL http://www.blackhorsewesterns.com/, despite repeated requests. They weren't interested in all that silly Internet stuff! So guess who stepped into the yawning breach.
The site's web-hosting is via NetNeeds of Redoubt Road, Manukau , making this a doubly Kiwi offering to the world, though you would never know from the content.
Latest development is Black Horse Extra Books, a paperback series (hopefully, optimistically) to supplement Hale's library hardcovers. The story of how that came about is in the latest edition of the BH Extra, the ezine at the dotcom. As one of the British BHW writers warned, take a flask and sandwiches when you decide to visit. You could be roaming the trails some time!
Kind regards
Keith Chapman (aka Chap O'Keefe)
3 comments:
It's great to see Keith Chapman's name mentioned in Beattie's Book Blog. Keith has done more than anyone to stretch the boundaries of the traditional western novel. He has a wonderful series of books starring Misfit Lil, a feisty young lady, who is more than a match for the traditional heroes of this genre. I don't read many westerns, but always look forward to reading the latest Misfit Lil adventure.
I'm so glad to see that this book is starting to get the recognition it truly deserves. Take it from someone who's collected and read westerns for more than forty years, MISFIT LIL CHEATS THE HANGROPE stands head and shoulders above the current crop of competitors! It has a fabulous story with - to this reader, at least - a completely unforseen denouement, vivid, lively characters and regular bursts of action which - and here's the important bit - STEM NATURALLY FROM THE PLOT and aren't just shoe-horned in to beef things up a bit. I have of course read Chap O'Keefe for a long while now, but genuinely feel that this is his best to date! Please keep 'em coming, Chap!
I love a good western and its nice to see more coverage of any kind. I suppose that might show some self promotion, but then I was writing it long before many recieved proper positive recognition for doing so. And reading it when it just wasn't the thing to do.
I'm also happy to see something different in approaches.
Dave
www.dmmcgowan.blogspot.com
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