Several years ago I started working on a novel, the idea being to do something I've wanted to do for some time - write a book about a gunfighter. Yeah, a big time shoot 'em up story about a pistolero who'd make Clint Eastwood blush with embarrassment. But, I wanted a different storyline, a different setting than just the old west . . . and so, I invented a character who shows up in Mexico via the French Army. Right, a French/Moroccan named Felid Robichaux, just 17 years old when he runs away from a defeated French force and goes to Texas. But my book ended up being about his life after his days and a famous gunman in America. In his fifties by then, he decides to move to central Mexico and live a peaceful life. But he gets caught up in the Mexican Revolution that started in 1911, so my book turned into something of a historical novel.
Doing research is nothing new for me, and I enjoyed digging into the history of Mexico. Crops won't grow unless you properly work the soil first, and the same is true of a book. Characters won't come alive for an author unless he creates the right environment for them. I needed a place where Robichaux could come alive, and I found that in the ghost town of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. It wasn't quite a ghost town when he arrived there around 1908, but that once magnificent city was close to being abandoned. Robichaux's story there is also the story of that town's resurrection, the start of it becoming what it is today.
So, the book has lots of action, and some descriptions of bloody gunplay and war. But it is also a story of gentle people, of kindness and love, and the development of relationships based on that. I found it hard to write about a man who'd killed many men but still had a heart of gold. To do that, I was required to dig into the psyche of someone capable of great charity, but at the same time be capable of killing another man in the bat of an eye. I got the idea of doing a gunfighter book from watching videos of modern day shooters. One fast draw pistol expert can draw a single action pistol, fire at and hit five objects, and it .8 of a second. Amazing. Another video I've seen is of a man tossing six quarters into the air and hitting them all with a pistol. Also amazing. And if that can be done now, why couldn't a man over a century ago have done that? Just how fast were the gunfighters of old? That's the nice thing about fiction. I can make him as fast as I want to . . . and I did.
Felid Robichaux marries late in life, adopts children, organized an orphanage, becomes a community leader, and even rubs shoulders with prominent government officials. He becomes respectable, not just feared, but nothing he does overshadows what he was best know for . . . the best pistolero ever to set foot in Mexico. The book also gave me a chance to use my knowledge of handguns, rifles, etc., and to even learn more about them. And I've never shot a pistol at anyone . . . except on the pages of a book. And I didn't miss the target often either. I'm hoping the book does the same thing.
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