Interviews W/ Published Western Authors
A Rope and Wire Interview
With
John Duncklee
John Duncklee is an award-winning author who currently makes his home in New Mexico where he spends his days doing what he loves best, writing.
I’d like to start this interview by asking if you could give our readers a little background information and how your life experiences might have influenced you toward becoming a writer?
At the tender age of twelve I was, for numerable reasons, an incorrigible child. At eighty last year I cannot see that I have graduated from that early prognosis. In 1941 it was fashionable in Larchmont, New York to send incorrigible children away to school. My father chose a "Ranch" school north of Tucson, Arizona. I stepped off the Golden State Limited onto the platform in Tucson and heard two Mexican men conversing in Spanish. I though to myself that I must learn that musical language. Alas! The school I was headed for taught only French and Latin for foreign languages. However, since every student had his own horse a horseshoer came out periodically to take care of the many hooves. His name was Carlos Vasquez and every time I saw him drive to the corral I was not far behind. I sat and watched Carlos trim and shoe those hooves, but what was more important to me, I listened as he spoke to me in Spanish. In three years I had become fairly fluent in Spanish. The headmaster called me in to his office one day and chewed me out for skipping classes to be at the corral with Carlos. "You are flunking second year algebra," he said.
"But I'm getting an 'A' in Spanish," I told him. He looked at me quizzically and then it dawned on him why I had spent so much time with Carlos Vasquez. We were required to write a letter to our parents every week. I enjoyed writing and various people I had written to expressed their joy at reading my letters. Some said I should think about becoming a writer. Therefore, I can say I began writing when I was twelve years old.
Occasionally we went to neighboring ranches and helped with their gathers and branding, so besides Spanish I learned the rudiments of the cowboy trade, something I pursued after graduating from high school with 'A's' in Spanish and English and 'D's' in Algebra and geometry. Off I went to Alberta, Canada the day after graduation to a ranch where I had been hired as a cowboy. I kept writing letters, but I had enjoyed writing term papers and English themes and essays fora more than any other courses. I worked my way through the University of Arizona as a horse wrangler, still enjoying writing term papers and such. But, I wanted to be a cowman and horseman so becoming a full time writer did not yet crowd out those other thoughts. A four year hitch in the Navy during the Korean War interrupted ranching ambitions, but I kept writing letters. I also spent a large amount of time reading everything I could find that interested me.
After my time as a sailor I finished up at the university and went into the cattle business in the middle of the drought of the fiftes, the worst drought in southern Arizona in four hundred years. I conquered that event by waiting it out and selling out high. Then I enjoyed several years raising quarter horses. I also began another venture in northern Sonora buying steers for export to the United States. In 1963 a happy divorce brought a sad ending to my horse business. I wandered around a bit and decided to return to the university for a graduate degree in order to teach at the university level. I chose geography and have always been happy with that choice. I spent a few years teaching at the university of Arizona, Santa Monica College, Northern Arizona University and La Universidad de Sonora, Mexico. During graduate school I enjoyed writing the research papers to such a degree that I knew I wanted to become a writer. A few of my academic pieces saw publication, but after leaving academia in 1973 to pursue my dream of becoming a writer, a half page article was accepted and published by the Christian Science Monitor. The subject was the fight against real estate developers to save the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, Arizona. I was overjoyed and showed the paper to a great friend C.L Sonnichsen who read it and remarked, "You write very well, John, but don't give up your day job." So I hustled out and found a job selling steel buildings during the day and a bartender's shift in the evening. I managed to squeeze in some writing. To raise two of my children I took the teaching job in Hermosillo at that university. During the six month student strike I wrote a novel, as yet unpublished, about the strike. I had experienced that particular part of writing that I can call a real jumping off feat. I returned to Arizona after a year and worked several places until I began designing and making mesquite furniture. It proved to be a good living, but also time consuming. I wrote a column in a local newspaper and a bunch of articles and short stories. I also wrote another novel that I didn't feel was good enough to publish. However some years later I learned that someone had taken my manuscript and self-published the novel under her name. Maybe her friends bought a few copies.
It sounds like living in the west has played an important part in your life. It seems the western genre would be a natural progression, but what I’ve seen of your work, it’s not exclusive to your writing?
My first book found a home with the University of Arizona Press. The title, GOOD YEARS FOR THE BUZZARDS, is a clue to its contents, the drought of the fifties and how I managed to survive it. From there I began in earnest. I wrote several novels about the West, but I do not consider them typical genre Westerns because they depict a more realistic West than many of what I call "Horseshit and Gunsmoke" fiction attempt. I also write poetry, satire and essays. I do not confine my writing, just as I cannot bear to be confined. I have one novel that is out for consideration about the people from a far distant planet arriving on Planet Earth with the first humans. And, they are not cowboys. At this writing I have had eighteen books published and I cannot count the short stuff and poetry. And, what I think is important, I see no end to this activity.
Have you ever wondered why your father chose to send you to a ranch in Arizona? As a young boy, did you have a disposition toward cowboys and the west?
As a youngster I read all of Will James' books and learned to ride horses early on. And, early on, I wanted to be a cowboy. When my mother died in 1939 I was ten years-old and at a summer boy's camp in Maine. My father and grandmother arrived to inform me that my mother had been "Taken by the angels" and then they took me to lunch and then returned to Larchmont, New York. I remained at the camp, not having been a part of my mother's funeral or any of that stuff of mourning. I instantly hated angels. Upon my return to Larchmont I searched for my mother in every woman's face I met on sidewalks or railroad stations because I had not seen her dead and no longer believed in angels. Within a year my father re-married and his new wife was one hundred eighty degrees different than my mother. I became a loner very quickly and said little when at home and less while in school. I had been an average student before, but became a lousy student after. I also refused to be talked to for most any reason. Incorrigible! Although my father never explained why he sent me to Arizona, I know it was to get me away from his new found joy before I chased her away by my behavior. I was overjoyed, and I began to talk more even though it was too late to improve the failing grades in the sixth grade. From the time I stepped off the train in Tucson I lived my own life except for a stint in a school for those destined to go to Dartmouth. That was my father's dream for me. I didn't apply to Dartmouth, and went to the University of Arizona in Tucson after a cowboy job in Alberta, Canada.
I enjoyed writing themes in high school and even enjoyed writing the required letters home every Sunday. The salutation was always, "Dear Folks", never "Dear Mom and Dad". While on Guam with the Navy during the Korean War my father wrote to tell me that my stepmother had contracted cancer of the bladder. I telegraphed a dozen roses to her. Two months later another letter arrived while we were in Yokosuka, Japan. She had died. I took an emergency leave to comfort my father.
So, it sounds like writing has been in your blood from an early age. Even though you might not confine your writing to a certain genre, do you have a favorite?
I really have no favorite genre, but my interests lie in a broad spectrum of subject matter as long as the stylistics are competent. I write poetry, essays fiction and non-fiction. Both of the latter are not confined to books because I enjoy writing articles and short stories/novellas. One of my latest novels is about people from far in outer space arriving on Planet Earth to populated it with humans. This is an alternative to Adam and Eve and to the evolution of man from the apes. I wrote this because I possess a creative imagination and I enjoy thinking far beyond the norm. And this is because as I look around Planet Earth the norm seems to have created chaos in thinking when greed pervades and war is always economic and certainly futile.
As you were growing up, were you drawn to any authors in particular?
Will James was my absolute favorite author when I was a boy. I read every book he ever wrote and still have a couple in my shelves. Edward Abbey, THE MONKEY WRENCH GANG and DESERT SOLITAIRE. He showed me that fiction can illustrated thought sometimes better than non-fiction.
I also read Longfellow, and Bronte. I was also attracted to sea stories and one of my favorites was CAPTAIN PAUL by Elliot Paul about John Paul Jones.
I did not care for the shoot 'em ups Westerns, but I did read Zane Grey although later in life I discovered that in one story he had a horseman cover 120 miles in two hours, an impossible feat. I enjoyed Hemingway more than most others and consider OLD A,MAN AND THE SEA his best and a definite classic. I always admired Hemingway's style and ability to describe vividly but not pedantically or with boring verbosity.
Who do you read now?
These days I read occasional novels and short stories, and I love satire. However, I read mostly non fiction as part of my research for my fiction.
As you stated earlier in this interview, you've authored eighteen books. That's impressive. There are two of them in particular I would like to hear your thoughts on. The first one is a book of poetry featured on Rope and Wire, called Bench With Warped Slats. Can you Tell me a little about it.
BENCH WITH WARPED SLATS is a collection of my best poetry. Because I write a broad spectrum of fiction and non-fiction, that spectrum is reflected in my poetry. One might say that there is something for everyone in BENCH WITH WARPED SLATS. One poem in particular, EL CORRIDO DE ANTONIO BELTRAN earned an unrestricted fellowship of five thousand dollars from the Arizona Commission on the Arts. This poem is significant to the hullabaloo about immigration among today's short sighted politicians and their cohorts. Antonio is typical of the seasonal workers from Mexico that made treks to the United states to work in agriculture. I met many of them as they came through my ranch. I always kept a full pot of frijoles ready to warm up and serve so that I could listen to their stories. This poem is the result of these experiences. The other poems are either based on my own experiences or my own thought toward various social issues. Poetry arrives in the mind quickly and must be written at that point in time or it may lose its meaning. I have found that once I have my first line, the rest flows easily until the water sinks into the sand.
The second book is featured on your website with a very impressive video intro. The book is called Zemo. For those of us who haven't had a chance to read it yet, can you give us some background?
ZEMO:
Zemo Doyle left a shabby existence in a railroad shack in Missouri with a drunken father to become a cowboy in Arizona. He headed for the ranch where his uncle worked as a cowboy and the uncle became his teacher. Although the story is fiction I have attempted to give the reader a realistic glimpse of the cowboy life as it was a few years ago, in the forties and fifties. Zemo falls victim to a first success in rodeo, quits his cowboy job and travels to the next rodeo in Yuma where he loses his entry and expenses showing that rodeo is not always what it is cracked up to be. However, having enjoyed drawing in school, Zemo makes some sketches of ranch life that piques the interest of a Yuma banker who commissions him to make drawings for the bank's new conference room walls. Zemo decides to attempt making a living as an artist so that takes him to various places including Taos. He also finds romance.
Is writing a full time profession for you these days, or are you involved in other endeavors?
Writing has been full time for me since 1993. I rarely leave my keyboard except to grocery shop or the occasional trip. When I go on a trip I always take my laptop to be able to continue whatever writing I was doing before I left home.
If you had the opportunity to start your writing career over again, would you change anything?
I am quite content with my writing pursuits through a rather long period of my lifetime. I look back with a sense of satisfaction that I have been able to accomplish as much as I have. The other many things that I have done over my eighty years have all been things that add to my writing in many ways.
Part of the process of publishing a novel involves editing. What is your feeling toward this process, toward editors?
I always hope for a good editor because a good editor is indispensable to a good product from your writing. Should one disagree with an editor, don't be afraid to discuss what differences of opinion there are between you. Also remember that there are good editors and a long spectrum between good and bad. I once had a meeting with an editor of a short story collection. I asked how he enjoyed the last selection because that story was satire and totally different than the rest. His reply, "Frankly I didn't read any of the stories, I edited on the basis of word count." absolutely shocked me and sent my list of editor characteristics to a new low. I was also quite disappointed knowing that my stories would not be edited. One reviewer noted that the collection needed editing. What surprised me to the maximum was that the editor worked for a university press. AYEE!
What advice do you have for new, and yet unpublished authors?
I have a couple of words of advice to new, unpublished writers. 1. Never become dismayed over rejects because a reject is a mere opinion and most likely the opinion of someone that has a narrow focus. Feel sorry for the one who sent you the reject because whoever it may be is the one that lost. You won when you wrote the first sentence! 2. Never give up. Be patient and persistent and think beyond the envelope. 3. Walk the same path as your characters. Let those characters be free to express themselves, sometimes in ways that you might be hesitant. And, once you get to know your characters well enough to love and hate them, let them tell your story.
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