Peacemaker Nominee: Red Lands Outlaw by Phil Truman #western

Red Lands Outlaw,

the Ballad of Henry Starr

by Phil Truman

2013 Peacemaker nominee

Best First Western Novel

RTW: Welcome, Phil Truman, and I'm delighted to host you here today.  It must be a special treat to have your very first western novel nominated for such a prestigious award!  To start us off, tell us a little about Red Lands Outlaw, the Ballad of Henry Starr.  Henry Starr really lived – what makes him so intriguing?  

PT: In the last years of the tough and woolly land called Indian Territory, and the first of the new state of Oklahoma, the outlaw Henry Starr rides roughshod through the midst of it. A native son of “The Nations” he’s more Scotch-Irish than Cherokee, but is scorned by both. He never really wanted to journey west of the law, yet fate seems to insist. He’s falsely accused and arrested for horse-thieving at age sixteen, then sentenced to hang at nineteen by Judge Isaac Parker for the dubious killing of a deputy U.S. marshal, but he escapes the gallows on a technicality. Given that opportunity, the charming, handsome, mild-mannered Henry Starr spends the rest of his life becoming the most prolific bank robber the West has ever known.

Henry Starr was somewhat of a narcissist. He was impatient and compulsive, but a natural leader. He often lied to make himself seem better, he usually put his own needs before others, had very little empathy. He was arrogant, self-centered, and considered himself above the law – all traits that made him an outstanding bank robber, perhaps the best the west has ever known. Certainly, the most high-volume.

Henry’s Cherokee father, George “Hop” Starr, died when Henry was a boy. His mother, less than half Cherokee herself, remarried a hard-drinking Irishman who physically abused young Henry, until he ran away from home at age fourteen. Finding work as a cowhand at a ranch near Nowata, Oklahoma, Henry dreamed of one day owning his own spread, marrying his sweetheart, and raising a family, but fate had other ideas.

Caught up in a tribal factional feud Henry gets framed for horse-thievery, and decides that if the world wants to see him as an outlaw, then, by damn, that’s what he’d become.

About Phil:

Phil Truman, Author

Phil Truman is a native Oklahoman. A 1970 graduate from the University of Tulsa, he is a former teacher, coach, and business analyst. Other books by Truman include his novels Game, a sports inspirational, and the mystery/adventure Legends of Tsalagee. He has won numerous awards for his short fiction, and his western short story “Last Will for an Outlaw” will appear in LaFrontera’s anthology, Dead or Alive, due to be released June 2013. Phil and his wife have lived in the Tulsa suburban city of Broken Arrow for the past thirty years.

You can visit Phil at his website or on Facebook, and he's a regular contributor to the Western Fictioneers blog. 

Red Lands Outlaw, the Ballad of Henry Starr 

is available at:

Amazon Kindle or print

Barnes & Noble Nook or print 

Congratulations for your nomination, Phil!

The Lifetime Achievement Peacemaker will be presented to Robert Vaughan

2013 BEST WESTERN NOVEL:

• City of Rocks (Five Star Publishing — Cengage) by Michael Zimmer
• Unbroke Horses (Goldminds Publishing, LLC) by D.B. Jackson
• Apache Lawman (AmazonEncore) by Phil Dunlap
• Wide Open (Berkley Publishing Group) by Larry Bjornson

2013 BEST WESTERN SHORT STORY:

• “Christmas Comes to Freedom Hill” (Christmas Campfire Companion — Port Yonder Press) by Troy Smith
• “Christmas For Evangeline” (Six-guns and Slay Bells — WF ) by C. Courtney Joyner
• “Keepers of Camelot” (Six-guns and Slay Bells — WF) by Cheryl Pierson
• “The Toys” (Six-guns and Slay Bells — WF) by James J. Griffin
• “Adeline” (Protectors: Stories to Benefit PROTECT — Goombah Gumbo Press ) by Wayne Dundee

2013 BEST WESTERN FIRST NOVEL:

• High Stakes (Musa Publishing) by Chad Strong
• Wide Open (Berkley Publishing Group) by Larry Bjornson
• Red Lands Outlaw, the Ballad of Henry Starr (AWOC.com Publishing) by Phil Truman
• Last Stand At Bitter Creek (Western Trail Blazer) by Tom Rizzo
• Sipping Whiskey in a Shallow Grave (Sunbury Press) by Mark Mitten

Winners will be announced on June 1, 2013 

on the Western Fictioneers website.