Author Profile – James Best: The Shopkeeper
Q: Why did you decide to write this book?
A: I always loved Westerns, both in film and fiction. I had just finished a five year writing project and was in the writing habit. While my agent submitted Tempest at Dawn to publishing houses, I decided to try my hand at a Western. I loved the experience and have since written a sequel titled Leadville.
Q: Do you have any secret writing tips you’d like to share?
A: Nope. I don’t think there are any secrets. Classes and books can help teach you the basics, but I believe you have to just write and write and then polish the story until you have it as good as you can make it.
Q: Tell us a quirky or funny story about you!
A: I write my Westerns, and then do the research. I don’t want the research to get in the way of a good story. After I finished a first draft of The Shopkeeper, I went on a road trip through Nevada. I needed a mining town about a hundred miles from Carson City and I found Pickhandle Gulch exactly where I needed it. Serendipity often is a writer’s best friend.
Q: Have you ever battled writer’s block? How do you deal with it?
A: I’ve never had writer’s block, but I have gotten up the next morning to find I wrote garbage the prior day.
Q: What’s your favorite quote?
A: “…down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. He is the hero; he is everything. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world. The story is this man’s adventure in search of a hidden truth, and it would be no adventure if it did not happen to a man fit for adventure. If there were enough like him, the world would be a very safe place to live in, without becoming too dull to be worth living in.” —Raymond Chandler, 1950
Q: Who inspires you the most?
A: Owen Wister was the inspiration for The Shopkeeper. His novel, The Virginian, told the story of easterners who immigrated to the Old West. I used the narrator from The Virginian as a model because I like fish-out-of-water stories. Mark Twain, Jack Schaefer, Glendon Swarthout, and Louie L’Amour also inspired me to write Westerns.
