Interview with Okay.T. Blakemore, Author of The Good Time Girls

What’s the story behind the story? What impressed you to put in writing The Good Time Girls?

I wished to put in writing a e book about robust girls within the West who’re survivors. Women who take no prisoners and succeed via sheer grit, dedication, and a parcel of luck. So many tropes are written concerning the West: the stoic pioneer lady, the painted girl with a coronary heart of gold, the sheriff’s come to avoid wasting the day, the Butch Cassidy kind gangs…why not add in two smart-mouthed ex-dancehall women who dwell on the outskirts of society and barely throughout the regulation?

I additionally wished to put in writing a e book with a way of humor. My mom advised me there isn’t sufficient humor on this planet, and it is perhaps good to present some again to it. I had been writing a sequence of historic thrillers (as Kim Taylor Blakemore), and I believed I, too, wanted robust dose of humor.

When I’m on to an concept – on this case I began with a title that got here from the blue, “The Meteoric Rise & Fall of Emily Duluth as Told by Her Rival, Pip Quinn” – I change into a voracious reader and researcher. I had no concept who these characters have been, however I knew they needed to be dancehall women or actresses of some form. Here’s just a few of the books I examine girls of the west: Desperate Women, Wicked Women, The Bedside Book of Bad Girls, A Dynasty of Western Outlaws, Daughters of the West. I met with historians at historic societies in Arizona and took within the wild panorama. The early writing occurred in the course of the peak of Covid – Google Maps and web analysis too priority. I used to be hooked.

The very first official scene was written in a workshop. We needed to write for seven minutes and use three phrases: tease, spider, and nook. Pip Quinn strutted into Ruby Calhoun’s cigar store, and the story was off and operating.

If you needed to decide theme songs for the primary characters of The Good Time Girls, what would they be?

Ruby would love The Maple Leaf Rag, and Pip would love Wayfaring Stranger.

What’s your favourite style to learn? Is it the identical as your favourite style to put in writing?

I like historic fiction, significantly tales based mostly in America. Sometimes I am going on kicks, like cozy mysteries or psychological thrillers or non-fiction (SALT: A World History by Mark Kurlansky is one of my favorites).

What books are in your TBR pile proper now?

Jane Fury by James Robert Daniels, The Art of the Con by R. Paul Wilson, and Devil Up by TR Pearson.

What scene in your e book was your favourite to put in writing?

I significantly love an early practice scene that options Endicott Lee and his sister Erline, who’re travelling to their Aunt and Uncle’s farm. They each assist and hinder Ruby firstly of her quest, and make me chortle.

Do you have got any quirky writing habits? (fortunate mugs, cats on laps, and many others.)

I’m positive I do, however they’re simply habits to me. I meticulously write the every day phrase depend I ought to obtain for the week and meticulously erase it on the finish of the week and write in the true, and never practically as formidable, phrase depend.

Do you have got a motto, quote, or philosophy you reside by?

I’m fond of the Cowboy Blessing: Talk Less, Say More. Live Each Day with Honesty and Courage. Keep Promises. Be Tough But Fair. Stand Up for What is Right.

If you possibly can select one factor for readers to recollect after studying your e book, what wouldn’t it be?

I’d like them to keep in mind that, like Pip and Ruby, the important thing to success is selecting your self up from a fall, brushing your self off, and hitting the street once more.