Gunfighter’s Requiem continues the saga of a Texas Ranger who is trying to restore the law to the Wild West. How did this story transform as you were writing the novel?

First, let me thank you for this amazing opportunity of being interviewed by your esteemed literature organization, “Literary Titan”. I truly appreciate it. The entire story is pre-plotted out ahead of time prior to writing it, with key plot points and scenes broken down per each book in action-packed segments that leave-off with dramatic “cliffhanger” type moments to be continued in the next book, similar in style to the original publications of the literary classic “One Thousand and One Nights”. (Readers might note the homage to this with Carter’s own horse being named “Scheherazade”.) The saga of the “Old San Antone Chronicles” thus far comprises of 4 individual books, with many more planned for the future. The first 3 books are published, and I am currently working on the 4th installment now. Each story transforms by taking on “a life of its own” as I connect each of these key plot points and scenes together, filling the dialogue with lines as though they’ve been spoken from the mouths of the characters themselves.

Captain Hondo Stone is an unforgettable character with a lot of grit and honor. What was your writing process to ensure you captured the essence of the characters?

That is a great question, and thank you for the compliment and recognition of the virtues of my main character, Captain Hondo Stone. The writing process to capture his character was simple: Hondo Stone is based upon the personal character of my late brother and “bru”, Duane “Mr. Bear” Campos, who is the heart and soul of “The 2-Bru Krew”. My brother was a man of “The Code”: a man of integrity, honor, courage, and honesty. But more than that, he was also very good-hearted and human: the best friend anyone could ever hope for. He was tough, but fair and just. And you knew you could trust him, just by looking into his eyes. I wrote Hondo Stone with my brother’s personality and character in mind. I conceived an idea for a scenario, and said, “Given these same dire circumstances, what would my bru Mr. Bear do in a situation like this?” And the scenes wrote themselves. Hondo does what my brother would do – or in some cases, has done in the past. Hondo says what my brother would say, or has said, once upon a time… If you want to know what kind of a man my brother was, read my western books, and you will see him in full authenticity, and in living reality. Hondo Stone is a hero, because my brother Duane “Mr. Bear” Campos was a hero. That’s the truth. And in the end, the truth is all that matters.

When money and power make the rules instead of the law, this sets up the novel to deliver some very entertaining scenes. What scene was the most fun to write?

That’s a great point, and very true. I grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, in dire poverty in the inner-city slums. When you grow up in environments like that, you see all the ugly realities that many upper-class “polite” people in society are never exposed to. You see corruption and apathy from the ground-up, or in some cases, the gutter-up, and have a harsher more realistic point-of-view of the world than the more privileged classes harbor, when it comes to “law and order”. That’s why my books show the difference between “right and wrong”, not just what’s “legal and illegal”. As far as the scenes that were the most fun to write, (I truly loved them all), but I’d have to say Chapter 6, titled “Gunfighter’s Requiem”, where Texas Ranger Captain Hondo Stone has a showdown with the crooked Sheriff Ace Deveraux on the “Bridge of Sorrows”. The moody setting at daybreak, with the rising sun silhouetting the sides of both men as they meet on the loathsome bridge spanning the river, with the sunlight glimmering upon it, with the only noise being the soul-chilling wind, transforms this face-off from a mere shootout to an artform of a duel. Everything about that chapter is a classic-themed style of a gunfight befitting a western, or even an epic samurai duel. In fact, much of the themes of my western novels, including the morality of “The Code”, is based upon the honorable samurai code of “Bushido”, and a reader can see the parallels between samurai “Ronin” and the main characters of Hondo Stone and Kid Carter.

Can you give your fans any information on the third installment of this series and what is in store for Captain Hondo Stone?

Thank you very much, I’d love to! The next book (3rd in the series) is already published and is titled: Lone Star Justice. It is available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback formats at this link: https://amzn.to/41NRhVm. Lone Star Justice concludes the Jenkins-Ranger feud in an epic gunfighting finale as it weaves an exciting tale teeming with honor, friendship, romance, love, drama, and action, that you won’t want to miss! There’s never been a western quite like Lone Star Justice, because as the novel itself says: “Heroes never quit and never surrender. Sometimes they die, but they don’t ever give up. They fight to the bitter end, win or lose, live or die, and they take honor & glory with them.” Lone Star Justice is a story about heroes. Read it and you’ll agree. Thank you once again for this amazing interview with your awesome Literary Titan organization. I truly appreciate it.

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