HIDDEN GEMS

An alternate American west

Almost nothing has helped me to get through this pandemic like books have. Being an extrovert with nowhere to go kills me, so I visit other worlds. I log everything I read on Goodreads, and the website told me I finished 45 novels last year. (Admittedly, I’m a picky reader).

Among the book series I discovered last year were the Gunnie Rose novels by Charlaine Harris, the mastermind behind “The Southern Vampire Mysteries” (which were adapted into the popular “True Blood” television series).

Book one in the series is called “An Easy Death,” and book two is “A Longer Fall.”

Seeing as book three, “The Russian Cage,” is coming out next month, I reached out to Charlaine Harris and requested an interview. She was kind enough to oblige.

This series is set next door to Arkansas … sort of. It takes place in a literal combination of Colorado, Texas and Oklahoma. Harris called the Gunnie Rose series an alternate history Western, set in the 1930s, at a time when America has collapsed following the fictional assassination of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. After Roosevelt’s death, America broke into pieces, and other nations took chunks of land for themselves. The unique setting is part of what makes the series so fascinating to read.

Britain took America’s eastern coast, Canada and Mexico each extended their borders a bit, the western coast became the Holy Russian Empire, the south essentially formed a new Confederacy called “Dixie,” and smack dab in the middle of it all is this little independent section of land called Texoma, where the story begins.

I’ve got a soft spot for fantasy novels that have strong female protagonists, from “War for the Oaks” by Emma Bull to the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton. And I love Westerns, on account of growing up reading Louis L’Amour. So as far as I was concerned, Harris giving me a young gunslinger girl in a Western series with a little bit of magic was an instant win.

The gun-for-hire is Lizbeth Rose, a pragmatic young lady who takes her jobs (often bodyguarding) seriously. She’s not squeamish about putting a bullet in someone if they threaten her or the people she’s hired to protect.

Between this series, the Sookie Stackhouse mysteries and the Midnight Texas, books, Harris has a lot of stories set in the American South. Apparently that’s what she’s most familiar with, having grown up in Mississippi and attended college in Memphis, Tenn.

“I’ve lived my whole life in different parts of the South, and it just speaks to me,” Harris said. “It’s what I know. I’ve written things set in other places, but I always worry about the authenticity of the voice — because this is where I’m from, and I know I can do this.”

I was quick to fall in love with the story of Lizbeth Rose, so much so that when I finished the first book, I immediately ordered the second. And when I’d read that one, I preordered book No. 3, which comes out on Feb. 23.

And I’m happy to report “The Russian Cage” won’t be the final adventure in the series. Harris told me she recently signed a contract for two more novels, and she’s already started writing the next one (cue a large squee from me).

You might not expect someone around the age of 19 to be a gun-for-hire, but it turns out that’s exactly what Harris said she wanted to write when crafting Lizbeth’s character, the basis for the books.

“I wanted to write about a competent gun woman. And then her profession became more like a bodyguard or gun-for-hire. Her character grew up around that,” the author said. “And I made her very young because I hadn’t written about anybody that young in a long time. It seemed like a good time. Her character grew around the fact she has to kill people regularly.”

And you see that as you read books one and two. Lizbeth is a character that lives in a rough world. There are bandits, feral dogs, evil wizards and any number of people who have tried to kill her or her clients. Naturally, Lizbeth grew up rough around the edges and made peace with what would be emotionally required to do her job.

She makes no bones about the fact that she’s good at killing and uses that skill to support herself. I remarked during the interview it was a stark comparison to a heroine like Anita Blake who, a few years older than Lizbeth, starts out being more reluctant to kill in her world of monsters. It takes her several books until she’s ready to label herself a killer.

Lizbeth? She’s ready to kill at 19 and learned to pull a trigger long before then. That’s the world she lives in. And if she wants to keep breathing, that’s the world she has to stay in.

“I certainly thought that would be more fun to write and interesting for me. I don’t like to do the same thing over and over,” Harris said.

Weird West is a subgenre of fantasy that incorporates things like magic and the supernatural into traditionally Western settings. Think cowgirls and wizards or gunfights and zombies. It’s a small category I wish got more of the spotlight, and I’d definitely put the Gunnie Rose series under that umbrella. Harris told me she considers her story an alternate history Western, but she hopes the weird west genre picks up more steam in the next few years.

“Geez, I hope so. I think weird Western is already a subsection — though truthfully I didn’t know that before I wrote one. I really enjoy reading other things in the genre,” the New York Times bestselling author said.

I find it funny the first Gunnie Rose novel was released just a month before another weird west story called “Make Me No Grave” by Hayley Stone. I keep hoping that’s a sign the genre is becoming more popular because I really enjoyed both of these stories. (If you’re reading this, Hayley Stone, I’d like a sequel, please).

Worldbuilding is a big part of any fantasy novel, and I can’t imagine it was easy reshaping the entire U.S. to an alternate history line. Harris said some things were a little more logical, like Canada and Mexico expanding their borders.

But creating the Holy Russian Empire was just her being “crazy and fun.”

“I’ve always been interested in the last czar and their family,” she said.

Harris discussed their horrible deaths and said she found a way to resurrect them in her story. As for what section of America to give them, Harris said Hollywood rules California, and she figured they’d love real royalty. So the Holy Russian Empire took over Tinseltown, all of California and the whole western coast.

Of course, once Harris had her world created and published, she found some readers got confused about the setting. Harris said she left lots of clues as to when the Gunnie Rose series takes place, between World War I and World War II. But despite that, some readers came to believe the series was set in the 1960s (and I have no clue how they got there).

Harris said this left her a little surprised after all the research she’d done on how many houses had refrigerators in the 1930s, how many had cars and what trains were like.

The author also said she faced some criticism for the racial component in “A Longer Fall,” which takes place in the fictional territory of Dixie (essentially a revived Confederacy). Having grown up in Mississippi, she had a wealth of knowledge in that area.

“I know how people felt and how they acted,” she said. “And it would have been worse in [Lizbeth’s] world because there had never been any enlightened area. I’m pretty firm on that.”

Harris said she tends not to read too many comments on her books because it can drive an author crazy.

Given that a “True Blood” reboot was announced in December, I asked Harris if there was any chance I’d get to see Lizbeth’s adventures on Netflix or HBO. She confirmed the series has been optioned, as have her Harper Connelly mysteries.

“I have a lot to look forward to. Sometimes it comes to nothing. It’s always fun to watch it come to something,” she said.

(Netflix, if you’re reading this, pick up her series. You need more Western content.)

Before our interview drew to a close, I asked Harris what her favorite trait was in Lizbeth Rose. The author said it was her practicality.

“She sees the necessity and her job as defending what she’s been hired to defend. It seems perfectly legit to her to do the job. She doesn’t worry about it. She doesn’t seem to have any moral qualms or misgivings. I kind of admire that in her,” Harris said.

Read More

The Gunnie Rose series ‘An Easy Death,’ Simon & Schuster, 2018 ‘A Longer Fall,’ Simon & Schuster, 2020 ‘The Russian Cage,’ Gallery/ Saga Press, February 2021

Courtney Lanning is a columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Northwest Arkansas. Email her at clanning@nwaon line.com.

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