About

I grew up wanting to be a cowboy. I was going to be the hardest riding, straightest shooting wrangler that ever lived. And probably fight a few Kiowa or Apache braves once in a while, maybe marshal a town, and certainly knock out a few of the bad guys.
And then I discovered that just about the only thing left of my wild west dreams was the dust. A couple years later, a Louis Lamour novel inspired me recreate the strong, silent (maybe not always real!) heroes of the wild west.
I am a loner in a lot of ways. If I see a problem to overcome, I nearly always attack it head-on alone, without even thinking of asking for help. Thus characters who are strong enough and smart enough to go it alone- and win, resonate very strongly with me. The characters I write about are strong individuals who deal with the problems alone, but their courage and ability often draw followers who burn to fight the black hats, but don’t know where to start.
I am a carpenter by trade, and I love the creative and problem solving processes. This emerges a lot in my writing. I want to make sure my details are accurate and consistent with possibility. In one gunfight in A Lone Outsider, a character single-handedly opens fire from a courthouse roof with a Gatlin gun. A Gatlin gun weighs in the neighborhood of 170 pounds. The courthouse would have been built sometime between 1836 and May 1865, making it Greek Revival style. That style courthouse typically has a very low pitch roof, often with interior access from stairs, which would allow a strong man to carry a Gatlin gun up onto the roof. (Spoiler- that Gatlin gun majorly changed the direction of a lopsided gunfight!)
When I’m not working, I love reading almost anything, including immigration history, US trade law analysis, anything by Louis Lamour, and histories of obscure treasures, intrigues and secret societies. I do play guitar (what cowboy doesn’t?), and try to sing along, though rather than calm the cows, my voice would probably start a stampede!

–Andrew Pankratz

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