Larry D. Sweazy

Larry D. Sweazy's Josiah Wolfe, Texas Ranger western novels include The Rattlesnake Season, The Scorpion Trail, The Badger's Revenge, The Cougar's Prey, The Coyote Tracker, and The Gila Wars.

From Sweazy's June 2013 Q &A with Tom Rizzo:

In your award-winning Westerns, you spend a lot of time on character development. How do your characters differ from those in traditional Westerns? What overall theme are you trying to get readers to buy into?

It all starts with character for me. Always has. I like to read novels where I care about what happens next to the character I’m rooting for, and I hope to write the same kind of novels. So, I don’t know that character development is something that I intentionally set out to do, but comes more naturally to me because it’s what I enjoy.

I’m not sure my characters differ from characters in a traditional western. Shane (Shane by Jack Schaffer) was a reasonably complicated character even though we didn’t know any of his backstory, where he came from, or where he was going.

I could say I put Josiah in a modern situation by having a single man left on his own as a widower to raise a young son, but The Rifleman covered that territory forty-five years ago.

So, I really don’t think I’m breaking new ground. But I don’t shy away from emotion, either.

I don’t think a just man would kill another man, regardless of the situation, and not be affected by that act in some way. Josiah Wolfe carries the consequences of his actions with him wherever he goes. All of my characters do. I think it makes them easier to relate to, more human.

There’s no overall theme that I’m trying to be successful with—at least that I know of. My subconscious mind might have another opinion, though…

Tell us about Josiah Wolfe. What inspired this character? How is he different than other protagonists? Briefly, what’s his unique back-story?

Interesting question. I wrote...[read on]

Visit Larry D. Sweazy's website and blog.

Coffee with a Canine: Larry D. Sweazy & Brodi and Sunny.

The Page 69 Test: The Gila Wars.

Writers Read: Larry D. Sweazy (May 2013).

--Marshal Zeringue