Mississippi Author - D.B. Holy

Most of my writing is historical novels, cowboy books if you will, or fiction novels, of America between 1820 and 1900. I have an interest in the Mountain Man Period, Civil War, and Settling of the West. I strive to be accurate in my western books and I find the Civil War especially fascinating. My interest in writing historical novels about the Civil War is due to the emotional trauma of "brother against brother, " and the fact I was raised in the South.

In my western books, I make it known the west was settled by hard men and women, who faced problems on their own terms, and expected life to be rough. The biggest difference in the America then and now, was each man took care of his own problems and law suits were almost unheard of. If you wronged a man, he would come looking for you and a confrontation would result--sometimes with fatal results.

If convicted to death by hanging in a western court, a man could expect to meet his maker within the hour. The men and women of the west had little use for criminals and were no nonsense kind of folks, but fair minded. It took people like them, with guts and strong determination, settled our great country.

As far as the traditional gunfight in the middle of town at noon, that is just a bunch of Hollywood suspense and not very accurate. I suspect movies keep our interest by building suspense, not by using good historical facts. The average cowboy or soldier was a poor shot with a handgun, regardless of what movies show, and a shootout was more dangerous to bystanders than the men firing the guns. Of course there were exceptions to handgun accuracy, like everything else in life, but cowboys were normally terrible shots with a sidearm.

Another aspect of the west that most folks don't know is, following the Civil War as many as 3 out of 5 cowboys were African Americans or Hispanics. In those days, being a cowboy was not the glamorous job we consider it today, and only men without real skills took to caring for cows. I'm sure some men liked the solitude of punching cows and took the job to be alone. It was a hard job and the pay was poor, so skilled men avoided it. Additionally, a lot of our cowboy knowledge has deep roots in the vaquero of Mexico. I'm sure more than one vaquero helped a man in Texas, California, Arizona, or New Mexico learned the cow trade. Nonetheless, most writers never mention minorities in their work, either through oversight or intent, but I strive to make my work accurate. You'll find minorities in my writing, because they were part of our lives and still are.

During the cowboy period, which started in my opinion right after the war, many men on both sides were out of work and desperate. The Southern economy was in shambles, jobs were hard to find, and men, along with families, moved west by the thousands. But, it was a time of great growth for our country and these men found land, settled it, and then defended it against Indians, rustlers, and anyone else who threatened. It took tough men and women to settle our land.