Notes on "Thieves, Outlaws, & Miss Watson"

I am incredibly pleased to finish the self-publishing process for my second novel. Unlike my first, The Preachers' Bet, this one I intend to do some basic marketing, notifying friends that I finished a novel. If you plan to read, have read Thieves, Outlaws, & Miss Watson, and are considering The Preachers' Bet, please read my first blog post "Why I Write." The Preachers' Bet was a reactionary effort, laid out in stark terms, about what I feel is the greatest threat to the American Evangelical church right now.

The Western genre is one I read only occasionally. So often, the books published are in a series. I don't mind series books, if the writing is outstanding. I don't always feel committed to read four books in succession.

Yet this genre has always held a fascination with me, as it has with countless other writers. I have vacationed many times in the Western United States, specifically the areas that would be the Frontier in post-Civil War USA. Certainly modernization has touched every aspect of our lives. Driving through desolate Wyoming, an oil field instantly reminds travelers that it is still the 21st century.

I still observe the harsh landscapes, the miles of seemingly empty prairie, the jagged mesas and buttes. I have only vacationed to these places in summer. The landscape appears unforgiving then. The emptiness is blasted under an unrelenting sun. Water is scarce or non-existent. And that is just how I view it in summer. It would be nice to visit the West in winter, but I never wish to experience a blizzard in Big Sky country.

As harsh as it seems now, the pioneers who colonized this section of the country did it without many of our modern conveniences. They were undoubtedly tougher, more self-reliant than we are now. There is an attraction, for me, for these individuals who were scratching out a living, sometimes in horrid conditions. They endured. They tamed the American West, brought civilization to such wilderness.

I'm certain there were plenty of complainers and malcontents back then. I am not one who necessarily thinks life was better "back then." By all accounts, I am living in the best time to be alive. Our advances in technology and medicine produce the best life outcomes. However, I can say that even with everything that has improved, our overall outlook on life has grown worse.

Why is this? Did we lose some gratitude for the simple outcome of survival? When disease, accidents, and hostile actors no longer threatened our lives on a daily basis, did we lose sight of how truly fragile everything is?

I patterned my character Max Dernham after the classic cowboy archetype. He is strong, competent, street-wise, a soft-spoken leader of men. Max doesn't complain, rarely loses control of his emotions. When he does, it's for a purpose. Max is my ideal for the type of person who saw the vast swaths of sparsely inhabited frontier and said, "That's for me."

Now, I did not make this novel the sanitized West. For all the romanticism of empty plains, sterling vistas, men on horseback, the Frontier was a brutal place. Especially for women, life was not easy. Eventually, when the farmers arrived, they brought their wives. The rough and tumble slowly, but inexorably, disappeared into history.

However, the Frontier was incredibly misogynistic. Domestic abuse was commonplace, did not have anywhere close to the stigma that it did today.

That brings me to the main point of this blog post. The ending is where the story went. I touched on "Why I Write" that I just can't write Christian novels. The few that I have picked up have been superficial or artificial or both. I wish I could see life that way. I wish I could write antiseptic stories.

If you do read Thieves, Outlaws, & Miss Watson (which isn't nearly as nihilistic as The Preachers' Bet), consider yourself warned. Since my circle of friends and family are predominantly Evangelical Christians, I cringe marketing my writing, my books. My great fear is someone will read my novel, be offended or disturbed, reach out. and quote Philippians 4:8 at me.

I write because I feel I have something to say. Even if it is ugly and awful, I cannot, do not wish to, shy away from the sinfulness of this world. My intention is not to shock or glorify man's evil deeds. That is the most wonderful aspect of the Gospel. Jesus saw all of this. He knew all of this. He knew that I would be an imperfect person, writing stories that produce (or produced, in the case of my editor) nightmares. My response to Him is "Lord, have mercy on me and on us all."

I would love feedback if you read Thieves, Outlaws, and Miss Watson or The Preachers' Bet. Even if you profoundly disliked my works, please let me know. Same with the blogs; feedback is always appreciated.

K.T. Kraig

February 2023