Rio Bonito Book Blog Tour and #Giveaway #LoneStarLit

Interview with Preston Lewis discussing

Rio Bonito and the Lincoln County War

Rio Bonito is the second book in your Three Rivers Trilogy.  Where do you take the story next?

Rio Ruidoso started the trilogy looking at some of the racial tensions that tormented Lincoln County during its formative years.  My intent with the trilogy was to insert an honest man into the corruption that was Lincoln County in the 1870s and 1880s.  The first book explored the years before the Lincoln County War while Rio Bonito picks up the story and carries my protagonist Wes Bracken through the difficulties culminating with what became known as “the Big Killing” in July of 1878.  The question that Bracken must answer is where do you turn when the law is corrupt and what responsibilities do you have to your friends and neighbors when the law has turned its back on them.  Those are questions Bracken must answer as he tries to serve his family and his conscience.

Billy the Kid is a central figure in the Lincoln County War.  How does he play into Rio Bonito?

William H. Bonney first appeared at the end of Rio Ruidoso, but becomes a central figure in Rio Bonito as he was in the Lincoln County War.  Bonney was at most of the major events and killings of the feud, but those events have been covered in dozens of history books and novels.  In Rio Bonito most of the major events in the war take place offstage, and Bracken must react to them as Bonney gets deeper and deeper into the quagmire of deceit and death.  Bracken tries to stay neutral through all the troubles and tries to steer Bonney away from violence.  But in the process, Bracken endures family hardships as his Hispanic wife is raped and her brother turns against Bracken, blaming him for all their troubles.  Bracken’s life, like the Kid’s, grows more complicated.

With the completion of the trilogy, you will have written four books related to Billy the Kid.  Why are you so fascinated by him?

A trip to Lincoln, New Mexico, when I was a young boy, fascinated me in western history.  I was walking in the footsteps of Billy the Kid, who remains my favorite historical frontier figure because I find in him both good and bad, which provides plenty of grist for fictional interpretations.  I like to think he was a victim of circumstances rather than a cold-blooded killer.  I believe he had a definite sense of right-and-wrong, but that instinct was turned on its head by the political and legal corruption that always seemed to reward the lawless and punish the law-abiding citizens.  Once I returned home from that first trip to Lincoln, I went to the public library and checked out a biography of Billy the Kid.  After college, I started collecting books on Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War and probably have about two hundred in my personal library.

Do you remember the book and the author?

Yes, I do.  It was The Tragic Days of Billy the Kid by Frazier Hunt.  It was a readable account of the Lincoln County War and Billy the Kid.  It hooked me on not only Billy the Kid, but the drama of the Old West.  It’s a testament to the power of narrative history.  Hunt was one of the first to use some of new research on the Kid and the feud and provided a more accurate picture of the dispute, though he imagined dialog that cannot be confirmed historically.  I didn’t know that at the time, but it didn’t matter because I was riveted.   Hunt’s background was in journalism, as was mine.

Since you’ve done a lot of reading on the Kid and the Lincoln County War, do you have a favorite author or book on the subject?

If I had to pick a single author, it would be the late Leon Metz.  I got to know him fairly well through Western Writers of America.  He was a great story teller with a wonderful sense of humor.  I took a single book to my first WWA meeting in Santa Fe in 1982 in hopes of getting an author signature.  It was Leon’s Pat Garrett: The Story of a Western Lawman.  Leon was one of the first authors I met at the opening breakfast and he invited me to join him and his wife, Cheryl, and Don and Edna Coldsmith at their table.  I couldn’t believe I was having breakfast with the Leon Metz.  He inscribed my book, “To Preston Lewis who loves the Old West.  May your Spurs never rust.  Leon C. Metz.”

What about other historians who’ve written on the Kid and the feud?

I’ve never read a book on the Lincoln County War where I didn’t learn something new, but I have a couple other favorite historians because of my association with them.  Robert M. Utley, the dean of Western historians, who just picked up his fourth Spur Award from WWA in June, is a true gentleman who’s written on a myriad of Old West topics, but my favorites are High Noon in Lincoln: Violence on the Western Frontier and Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life.  If you were new to the Kid and the war, these are the books to start with.  The other is Frederick Nolan, who I consider the leading authority on the Lincoln County War.  I have never met him, but I have corresponded with him and was flattered to receive a complimentary letter from him lauding The Demise of Billy the Kid, my first novel on the topic.  His books The Lincoln County War: A Documentary History and The West of Billy the Kid show his mastery of the complex issues and personalities surrounding the Lincoln County War.  I was flattered to be listed in the latter book as one of “the men who made the myth” of Billy the Kid.

Preston Lewis is the Spur Award-winning author of 40 westerns, historical novels, juvenile books and memoirs. He has received national awards for his novels, articles, short stories and humor.

In 2021 he was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters for his literary accomplishments. Lewis is past president of Western Writers of America and the West Texas Historical Association.

His historical novel Blood of Texas on the Texas Revolution earned a Spur Award as did his True West article on the Battle of Yellow House Canyon. He developed the Memoirs of H.H. Lomax series, which includes two Spur finalists and a Will Rogers Gold Medallion Award for western humor for his novel Bluster’s Last Stand on the battle of Little Big Horn. His comic western The Fleecing of Fort Griffin and two of his YA novels have won Elmer Kelton Awards for best creative work on West Texas from the West Texas Historical Association.

He began his writing career working for Texas daily newspapers in Abilene, Waco, Orange and Lubbock before going into university administration. During his 35-year career in higher education, he directed communications and marketing offices at Texas Tech University, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and Angelo State University.

Lewis holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Baylor University and master’s degrees from Ohio State in journalism and Angelo State in history. He lives in San Angelo with his wife, Harriet.