September 2019

Land Of Wolves

“A land of strangers is a land of wolves.” --Basque Proverb Land Of Wolves, the 15th novel in the Walt Longmire series comes out this week and I have to admit that it sounds strange typing it here… Fifteen novels, two novellas and a collection of short stories and it seems like I met the guy yesterday. It comes as no surprise to ardent readers, but others might not have noticed that I write the books in what I call a Vivaldi or seasonal cycle that takes four books to encompass one year of Walt Longmire’s literary life. This of course means that the Sheriff is only slightly less than four years older than when we first met him back in 2005 in The Cold Dish. I on the other hand am fifteen years older and take comfort in the hope that as I grow closer to Walt’s actual age that I’m understanding him better and better with each novel. I like having my books out in the fall, the publication dates are more crowded and there are more and bigger books out to compete against, but as I’m loading hay and stacking firewood in preparation for the high plains winter, I like Walt, become contemplative. Land Of Wolves is representative of the cyclical nature of the books where each novel begins and ends with either a snatch of dialogue, a location or simply a thought. One of the most recent reviews of the book came out in the Los Angeles Times last week with a quote from the first paragraph. The sheriff sits on the tailgate of his truck looking at a dead sheep but contemplating much more. “I sometimes wonder if the trees miss the wind in the infrequent moments when it dies down, when the air is still and the skies are a threadbare blue, thin and stretching above the mountains. Needled courtesans—the lodgepole pines, Douglas firs, and Engelmann spruce—stand at the edge of the great park like wall flowers awaiting the beseeching hand of the wind to invite them to the dance floor.” A stranger in a strange land and worse yet a stranger to himself, Walt’s return to Wyoming is as unsettling as his experiences in Depth Of Winter’s northern Mexico but perhaps worse because the surroundings and relationships seem so familiar. The Cold Dish started with a sheep-o-cide, as does Land Of Wolves, but that’s where the similarities end. The Walt of Wolves is a different man from the one we met in the first novel and I think that’s important in that the life of a series depends on the development of the characters rather than a basic formula. There are a few readers who are unhappy when I take risks and do something different with each book, but to do anything else would be creative suicide and something I can’t risk. Land Of Wolves is a special book for me, bringing Walt back around but moving him forward in his complicated life. I like to think that all the elements that have garnered success in the series are assembled in this book along with a few new twists to some of the stories we thought we knew concerning a certain one-legged sheriff. As is usually the case, this novel turned out to be a lot funnier than I’d intended and to be honest I blame Vic, who after being absent in the majority of Depth Of Winter, comes roaring back with a vengeance. Ruby is pretty funny, too… Maybe Walt and I just need more women in our lives. Land Of Wolves. I hope you enjoy it. See you on the trail, Craig PS: Speaking of the trail, I’ll be hitting it through the courtesy of Viking/Penguin all over the country with some pretty great events so come out and say howdy. Return to Post-Its

September 2019

Land Of Wolves

“A land of strangers is a land of wolves.” --Basque Proverb Land Of Wolves, the 15th novel in the Walt Longmire series comes out this week and I have to admit that it sounds strange typing it here… Fifteen novels, two novellas and a collection of short stories and it seems like I met the guy yesterday. It comes as no surprise to ardent readers, but others might not have noticed that I write the books in what I call a Vivaldi or seasonal cycle that takes four books to encompass one year of Walt Longmire’s literary life. This of course means that the Sheriff is only slightly less than four years older than when we first met him back in 2005 in The Cold Dish. I on the other hand am fifteen years older and take comfort in the hope that as I grow closer to Walt’s actual age that I’m understanding him better and better with each novel. I like having my books out in the fall, the publication dates are more crowded and there are more and bigger books out to compete against, but as I’m loading hay and stacking firewood in preparation for the high plains winter, I like Walt, become contemplative. Land Of Wolves is representative of the cyclical nature of the books where each novel begins and ends with either a snatch of dialogue, a location or simply a thought. One of the most recent reviews of the book came out in the Los Angeles Times last week with a quote from the first paragraph. The sheriff sits on the tailgate of his truck looking at a dead sheep but contemplating much more. “I sometimes wonder if the trees miss the wind in the infrequent moments when it dies down, when the air is still and the skies are a threadbare blue, thin and stretching above the mountains. Needled courtesans—the lodgepole pines, Douglas firs, and Engelmann spruce—stand at the edge of the great park like wall flowers awaiting the beseeching hand of the wind to invite them to the dance floor.” A stranger in a strange land and worse yet a stranger to himself, Walt’s return to Wyoming is as unsettling as his experiences in Depth Of Winter’s northern Mexico but perhaps worse because the surroundings and relationships seem so familiar. The Cold Dish started with a sheep-o-cide, as does Land Of Wolves, but that’s where the similarities end. The Walt of Wolves is a different man from the one we met in the first novel and I think that’s important in that the life of a series depends on the development of the characters rather than a basic formula. There are a few readers who are unhappy when I take risks and do something different with each book, but to do anything else would be creative suicide and something I can’t risk. Land Of Wolves is a special book for me, bringing Walt back around but moving him forward in his complicated life. I like to think that all the elements that have garnered success in the series are assembled in this book along with a few new twists to some of the stories we thought we knew concerning a certain one-legged sheriff. As is usually the case, this novel turned out to be a lot funnier than I’d intended and to be honest I blame Vic, who after being absent in the majority of Depth Of Winter, comes roaring back with a vengeance. Ruby is pretty funny, too… Maybe Walt and I just need more women in our lives. Land Of Wolves. I hope you enjoy it. See you on the trail, Craig PS: Speaking of the trail, I’ll be hitting it through the courtesy of Viking/Penguin all over the country with some pretty great events so come out and say howdy. Return to Post-Its