Often, just one situation appears, with perhaps a character in that situation. If not, one tries to find a character or characters whose presence would contribute to the drama. Fictionalized events may be chosen in the same way. For example, the trip across the mountain during the terrible thunderstorm like the one in this book happened to me. Not in just that way or at that same place, but I lived through the experience, so when I had to put it on paper I knew what I was writing about. Men and women in the West were nearly always from somewhere else. The West in the beginning at least was not old enough to have bred grown men. Yet wherever they came from, they brought with them their previous experience, whatever it happened to be, and when a man or woman reacted to an event, the reaction would have developed from previous training, experience, and temperament. These people who came west were largely from small towns or farms. Only a few came from cities. Many of the men had already ventured into a wilderness somewhere or had taken part in wars and were accustomed to hardship.
What do You think about The Rider Of Ruby Hills (1986)?
