My husband reads a lot of western fiction and yesterday he gave me a copy of “Desert Justice” by Paul S. Powers and encouraged me to read the 35-page foreword by his granddaughter, Laurie Powers.
He found the guidelines the author was held to in those days fascinating:
“Do be careful with the ethics of your stories. Do not have the hero lie, swear, drink, steal or take unfair advantage. Always let him give the other fellow the breaks and then win out.”Gunfights and fistfights were a necessity to every story, but the words “blood” and “bleed” weren’t permitted.
What I found fascinating were the similarities of a 1930′s pulp fiction writer to modern day writers and bloggers.
Growing up in Kansas, Paul Powers loved books and writing. He started writing in high school at age fifteen and often traded his writing skills for cigarettes, which were illegal in Kansas at the time, with some of the other students.
He really got the ‘bug’ to write when he was visiting a friend who was taking a screenplay correspondence course. Having read the copy for the course, the promise of big paydays and having read his friends attempts at writing he knew immediately he could write better and he could write and be paid to write. That moment changed his life and he embarked on a lifetime of writing.
Two things struck me about his writing process.
First, he averaged 12,000 to 15,000 words of fiction per week. Wow, that’s a lot. And, this is before electric typewriters, whiteout and computers.
I don’t know too many writers or bloggers who claim to write that many words week in and week out. I know I certainly don’t, and not even sure I could.
Second, he would carry his typewriter to the local bar, find a corner, settle in and write for hours. How closely does this resemble the stereotypical writer sitting in a coffee shop writing? I thought this was pretty cool.
I was also fascinated to read that his writing career did not suffer at all during the Great Depression and in reality made excellent money. His family lived very well off his earnings as a pulp, western, fiction writer.
One other characteristic I found interesting is how often he moved. No one can say why he moved his family so often this many years later, but as a writer he could pick up and move anywhere without it impacting his career or his ability to earn a living. To me this is the very freedom that many of us seek today as an entrepreneurs, writers and artists.
I really enjoyed reading this short biographical foreword and happy my husband shared it with me.
Laurie Powers does an excellent job of describing the life her grandfather lived, the places he lived and the time period in which he wrote.
You can find out more about Laurie Powers and her grandfather at: Laurie Powers
