WESTERN WRITER?

Yesterday (New Year day)I spent the day with a close friend. He and his wife are partners in a fishing resort near Limones… (a long way from David). Rex introduced me to some of his lodge guests as Bob Hatting, the western writer. I was about to offer a retort and explain that I write in different genre’s and then opted to remain quiet. The folks left us to our project. But while measuring and cutting of sheet aluminum for my new Ozone Generator case, I began to take inventory in my mind.

Maybe I am a western writer. Although only two of my novels are true period westerns; BOOMER & HALF-BREED, after some reflection, I tend to lean in that direction. Several of my screenplays are definitely western in nature; albeit contemporary. Same with PARTNERS, UNTAMED, CRYSTAL COWBOY and TRUST ME, the novel I’m currently writing. All are contemporary westerns; modern day ride, rope, and shoot stories. MURDER IN PANAMA and the two sequels, REVOLUTION OF FOOLS and HART RULES are in no way western or even western in nature. Same with my novels, EXPAT, ALASKA BE DAMNED and the LAST FRUIT STAND ON GUAM. There are characters that have a western upbringing but the stories and settings are contemporary and have an exotic bent. Same with My two latest novels, TRES PIEDRAS and SHOOTER -- Characters with western backgrounds but set in contemporary times and foreign countries.

Thirteen novels and six screenplays. Soon a fourteenth novel. Twenty stories in total. Ten are western. I guess novel number fifteen will determine my label.