The Magnificent Mendozas - review

My thanks to western aficionado and fellow scribe Ray Foster for reviewing my novel The Magnificent Mendozas (2014).

Here's an excerpt:
'... Armed with a strong cast of characters the story flows with lightning speed that takes it into "unputdownable" territory.

'Ross Morton is a writer who entertains and knows his craft (check out Nik Morton's book "Write A Western In 30 Days"). There will be those who will think of a certain movie and there is a tip of the hat to it but this is not the major element as events encompass more "heroes" than the title suggests.'

Please check out the full review at Ray's blog, 'Broken Trails' here

I enjoyed writing this one as for some years I'd wanted to pay homage to that classic western movie. When I read that at the time the Mexican authorities were a little irate that their countrymen were all seemingly depicted as helpless peons, I thought about switching it around, and make the Mexicans the heroes - male and female - who help out a gringo township. Then the fun started, inventing suitable heroes. Then it seemed obvious - use seven circus performers!  Inevitably, there are changes of viewpoint when scenes shift; I was striving for a cinematic effect. And as Ray hints in his review, a number of the townspeople do heroic things too.

I must admit to being surprised that in the new movie of The Magnificent Seven, while they played with the ethnic mix, they didn't dabble with gender.


The Mendoza troupe comprises Mateo, the leader, and his wife Josefa, both expert knife-throwers; Antonio Rivera, sharpshooter; Juan Suaréz, gymnast and trapeze artist with his companion Arcadia Mendoza, who is also good with bow and arrow; José, younger brother of Mateo, a trick rider who lusts after Josefa; and Ramon Mendoza, escapologist. In order to penetrate the cordon of desperado sentries and free the townsfolk, the troupe employs many skills – tightrope walking, knife-throwing, archery, horsemanship, sharpshooting and escapology.

Going for a ride!

Over in the US, it’s a special day for fans and readers of the western.  National Cowboy Day! 

One author who is promoting it is Jacquie Rogers – you can see her work here

Here are my western books that are still in print (I’m listing the UK Amazon site as the prices are better!):

The $300 Man

A review of The $300 Man: I recently read this author's book on how to write a western novel [see below]. It is great by the way and I refer to it frequently as I try to write western short stories. I was wondering if his novels were any good so I read this one. Well, it is really good and I enjoyed reading it. The characters are all interesting and compelling and the plot is great. I had to keep turning the pages which for me is the test of a good book, that it keeps my interest and this one did. I also learned some western history which was a bonus. I find that a lot of westerns have simple, worn out plots that you see over and over. But this novel had a new, complex plot that unwound slowly until the very end. I will be reading more of his western novels. –Thank you, D. Moring!

TheMagnificent Mendozas

 

 

Blind Justice atWedlock
 

 

Old Guns

This is an anthology I edited, A Fistful ofLegends
 

 

And this one is an e-book (10 reviews in Amazon UK and 45 reviews in Amazon COM),
 Bullets for a Ballot:

 

This is the best-selling Write a Western in 30Days – with plenty of bullet points referred to in the review above (8 reviews in Amazon UK, 14 in Amazon COM):

 

Part of a review: When I started Nik Morton's WRITE A WESTERN IN 30 DAYS, what struck me was that this wasn't just a book of guidelines and tid bits for someone attempting a western, this is a fantastic map to anyone who wants to dive into the world of genre fiction. What Morton lays out are some of the best, common-sense rules for writing that I've ever come across…

 PS - Two other westerns that are out of print are Death at Bethesda Falls and Last Chance Saloon, both under the penname Ross Morton.

Writing – and readership

Most authors write to be read. The financial consideration is important, naturally, but it is rarely the main impetus. We write because we cannot not write.

So the transformation over the last decade or so has to be welcomed, whereby readers can post reviews on the Internet – whether that’s in a blog or on Amazon and the other online book sites. Considered feedback is always welcome. We’re trying to entertain – following in a long line of storytellers stretching back to that distant age in caves when the social media was verbal and illustrations were paintings on rock.

The other helpful feedback tool for the author has been around for twenty-five years – the PLR. Last year’s (July 2013-June 2014) Public Lending Rights statements have just been issued, and they make interesting reading.

Of all 20 of my books registered with PLR, only 5 titles show readers. This is because the rest are not supplied to or obtained by British libraries. The five titles reflect the hardback and the large print editions - two of each, separately registered.

Yet those 5 have clocked up almost 8,000 readers among them. That’s good to know: because that’s a minimum readership figure, based on a sample of libraries, not all of them, in UK.

These titles are all westerns (because Robert Hale has a high representation of books in public libraries):

Death at Bethesda Falls (2007) – 1,300+

Last Chance Saloon (2008) – 1,500+

The $300 Man (2009) – 1,600+

Blind Justice at Wedlock (2011) – 1,600+

Old Guns (2012) – 1,700+

My latest western The Magnificent Mendozas (2014) was published and registered after the cut-off date of June 2014, so won’t appear on a statement until January 2016.

This proves that there is a readership for westerns out there, no matter what the naysayers might pontificate.

 
The British Library has taken on the administration of PLR. They collect loans data from a changing sample of UK public library authorities. This year’s payments are based on loans data collected from 44 library authorities across the UK during the year July 2013 – June 2014.
 
The maximum earnings for any author amount to £6,600; 190 registered authors were paid this for 2013/2014. Interestingly, there were 22,053 authors who received PLR payment and 16,996 who were paid nil or their loans were below the minimum threshold (i.e. loans didn’t amount to £1 or more).
 
Compared to last year’s figures, there are about 300 less recipients of PLR this year; and about 1,200 more authors who fell into the nil bracket. It is not clear whether or not that’s due to a fall in library readership or the choice of libraries in the sample or some other factor, such as more authors are going independent so aren’t represented in local libraries.

So, the moral for authors is, register your book with PLR.

https://www.plr.uk.com/

 

 

 If you hanker after writing a western - or any genre fiction novel, come to that - you might like to have a look at Write a Western in 30 Days, which reviewers have said is useful for all genre writers, not only those who write westerns!

 

Amazon UK paperback here

Amazon UK e-book here

Amazon COM paperback here

Amazon COM e-book here

 

 

 

 

 



 

Spain and the Old West

For over fifty years Spain has been associated with the American Wild West. It all has to do with Almeria – a province of Andalusia – which is a place of many contrasts and definitely worth visiting. Whether you tour the capital city Almeria or the Alpujarra and Valle del Andarax, the Cabo de Gata and Nijar national parks, you’ll discover fantastic sights and views.

Reminiscent of the hanging houses of Cuenca, there are the dwellings hanging over the very lip of the barranco at Sorbas, which is a fascinating little town with steep narrow streets vying for prominence against the larger Castilian style buildings. Close by are the gypsum karst caves, a unique and unforgettable experience when visited. And Sorbas itself boasts a most informative and worthwhile visitors’ centre that resembles these caves.

Almeria

 

 

Jen in Sorbas                                          Sorbas - hanging houses

Sorbas is situated on a plateau between the valleys of Vera and Almanzora and the sub-desert strip of Tabernas.

The pueblo of Tabernas dates from Roman times, when they set up a number of inns and taverns to supply their troops. The town attained its prominence under the Moors and the castle is considered to be the most important after the Alcazaba in Almeria city.

In 1989 the desert of Tabernas was declared a Nature Reserve. It’s the only real desert in Europe, with eroded hills and a sub-arid climate. Not surprisingly, nearby is Europe’s biggest solar energy centre.

This desert landscape was home to the film industry for many years, especially in the 1960s. The arid scenery and constant sunlight made it a perfect spot. Among the many films made here are: Lawrence of Arabia, A Fistful of Dollars, Cleopatra, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Apache, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Bounty Hunter and Shalako.

 

 

 

You can still visit the actual scene props at poblado del oeste. The Tabernas desert theme parks offer different shows, of six-gun duels and shoot-outs, representing scenes from the famous Wild West films. There are three film sets to visit – and all of them have websites. They are Mini-Hollywood (www.viva-almeria.com/mini_hollywood_p95.php), Fort Bravo, Texas Hollywood (www.texashollywood.com) and Western Leone (www.westernleone.com).

The last spaghetti western was made in Spain in 1975. This coincided with the downturn in popularity of TV westerns too.

The story of western novels is similar to that in films and television. At one time many paperback publishers ran popular and prolific Wild West series, many of them actually written by Brits such as George G. Gilman and J.T. Edson. Other writers of westerns include Louis L’Amour (author of Shalako), Oliver Strange (the Sudden series), Zane Grey and Max Brand (creator of Dr. Kildare). By the 1980s their numbers declined and the likes of Corgi and Pan no longer printed western novels.

But the western wouldn’t simply ride off into the sunset, beaten by spy movies and cop shows. No, the western survived and returned in film time and again, with modern classics of the genre creating mythic and epic visions – such as, Dances With Wolves (1990), Unforgiven (1992), Tombstone (1993), Wyatt Earp (1994) and Open Range (2003), The Missing (2003), Bandidas (2006), 3:10 to Yuma (2007), Appaloosa (2008), True Grit (2010), Cowboys and Aliens (2011), Sweet Vengeance (2012), Django Unchained (2012), and The Homesman (2014). On television we had Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993-1998) and Deadwood (2004-2006), both series starring British actors, and Hell on Wheels (2011-to present).

 
In books, contrary to collective wisdom, the story isn’t so bleak, either. I can recall a strong core of fellow sailors who voraciously read any and every western they could lay their hands on. I’m sure that is the case for the other Armed Services. Where did that market and those readers go? Now, it seems rare to see a new western published in the UK.
 
Actually, that’s the way most readers see it, but in fact the independent publisher Robert Hale, who’s been around since 1936, has been bucking against that trend for twenty years with their imprint Black Horse Westerns. Primarily aimed at libraries, these attractive and colourful hardback editions maintain the action and myth of the Old West yet also recognise modern story ingredients such as psychological drama, domestic violence, betrayal, mystery, horror, romance and of course heroism.

Gone are the days when the man in the white hat shot the bad guy in the black hat. The fascinating details of the Old West are brought to life again by gifted writers such as Gillian F Taylor, Ben Bridges, Chuck Tyrell and IJ Parnham. Yes, there are indeed several women writers in Hale’s stable. Strong women characters are featured too, not least the entertaining Misfit Lil series by Chap O’Keefe. These writers come from around the world, whether that’s Australia, Scotland, the United States - or Spain.

Writing as Ross Morton – using my mother’s maiden name, Ross – my latest, sixth Black Horse Western has now been published by Robert Hale: The Magnificent Mendozas.

Purchased through Amazon UK here

Purchased through Amazon here

Purchased post-free worldwide from the book depository here

If you’re interested in the Old West – whether as a line dancer, film buff, or perhaps as a reader who thought they were not publishing westerns any more – then try a few Black Horse Westerns and you’ll be pleasantly surprised. You can also order them on Robert Hale’s website, many with discounts: www.halebooks.com There are at least 230 from which to choose. Spoilt for choice, in fact. [There have sprung up in recent years a good number of new independent publishers of westerns, mainly in e-book format, in the UK and the US; this is a healthy sign for the genre.]

For a fascinating overview of westerns in the movies, try http://www.filmsite.org/westernfilms6.html

 

 

 

Writing - the recruitment scene in The Magnificent Mendozas

Here’s the promised excerpt from The Magnificent Mendozas. I'm not giving anything away - almost everything here can be gleaned from the book blurb. Descriptions of all the characters were given earlier in the book.

This is the important recruitment scene.

I hope you like it – and itch to find out what happened before and also find out how the story pans out. Notes of interest can be found at the end of the excerpt.

Diego is the circus owner; for the rest, I’ll repeat part of the blurb here, which might help: The gringo town of Conejos Blancos has just hosted the Mexican circus; no sooner do they move on to their next venue when Hart and over thirty desperadoes take over the town – and the adjacent silver mine! The sheriff is slaughtered and many of the citizens are held hostage.

            In desperation, two boys escape from the locked-down town.

            They recruit seven Mexican circus performers, the Magnificent Mendozas: the troupe comprises Mateo, the leader, and his wife Josefa, both expert knife-throwers; José, younger brother of Mateo, a trick rider who lusts after Josefa; Antonio Rivera, sharpshooter; Juan Suaréz, gymnast and trapeze artist with his companion Arcadia Mendoza, who is also expert with bow and arrow; and Ramon Mendoza, escapologist.

***

Josefa smiled down at the two boys where they sat on the edge of a narrow bed of furs in the capacious wagon, sipping mugs of coffee. Standing at the entrance flap, Mateo studied them also, stroking his pointed beard. Diego sat opposite them on another bed.

She laid a hand on the shoulder of the freckled lad. ‘Didn’t I see you in Conejos Blancos?’

Lowering his coffee mug, the boy said, ‘Yes, Ma’am. Name’s Emmett – Emmett Rosco– ’

‘The sheriff’s son,’ she said. ‘Yes, now I remember.’

‘I’m Gene, his best friend.’

Josefa studied them both, surprised at their appearance.

Diego growled, ‘Don’t you know you could be in deep trouble, sneaking in without paying?’

Looking glum, the pair nodded.

‘Leave them be, Diego, they’re doing no harm,’ Josefa said. ‘The show’s over.’

‘That may be so, but I’ve a good mind to send these two back to the sheriff. His father will know how to chastise him.’

Emmett’s lips quivered. Something was wrong; Josefa felt it in her bones.

Gene stood and moved protectively in front of Emmett, his face screwed-up. ‘Leave him be! His pa’s dead – murdered on Sunday!’

‘Oh, Madre de Dios.’ Her heart somersaulted and she knelt in front of Emmett. She grasped his shoulders gently. ‘Is this so?’
 
Tears rimmed his eyes as he nodded. ‘Yes… We escaped to get help – your help,’ he croaked.

‘Escaped?’ Diego echoed.

‘The town’s been taken over by a bunch of desperadoes,’ Emmett said in a quavering voice.

‘And they’re going to rob the mine!’ Gene added. ‘We’ve been walking all night!’

Josefa eyed Mateo. ‘That explains the state they’re in.’ She gestured at their muddy clothes, dirty faces, and tired eyes.
 
Emmett shrugged off her concern. ‘It doesn’t matter about us, Ma’am. They’ve taken everybody’s guns…’ Then, haltingly, he explained how the town was so swiftly taken over, mentioning the wounding of the doctor’s wife and the murder of the town drunk, Mr Watzman. Between them they enumerated the number of sentries and guards they’d spotted – sixteen plus five leaders. ‘We need your help, Ma’am.’ He delved into his pants pockets and brought out a weighty handkerchief bundle, opened it and displayed many coins. He held them out to her. ‘We can pay.’

‘Yes,’ said Gene. He looked at Emmett, seemingly at a loss to say more.

Emmett said, as though his words were rehearsed, ‘You’re all heroes. We’ve seen how good you are with so many weapons. And I – we – reckon you could whup the bad guys real good.’

 
Gene nodded vigorously. ‘Yeah, you’re handy with knives, guns and bow and arrows – sure, you could…’
 
Diego held up a hand. ‘Wait, that’s enough!’ He sighed, adjusted his tight-fitting vest. ‘I sympathise with your town’s plight.’ He pursed his lips. ‘And I’m sorry about the sheriff – I mean, your father… But I have a business to run.’ He was about to say more, it seemed, but stopped and stared at Josefa as she spoke.
 
‘Mateo, get the family together,’ she said.
 
Diego shook his head, his jowls wobbling. ‘No, Josefa, you can’t be serious about this.’
 
She offered him one of her smiles. ‘We’re just going to discuss it.’
 
A few minutes later, the rest of the Mendoza troupe crowded into the wagon.
 
Ramon said, ‘Mateo’s told us everything.’
 
Antonio eyed Emmett. ‘Is Naomi – I mean, Miss Gray – is she all right, son?’
 
Emmett evaded his piercing deep brown eyes. ‘I don’t know for sure, Mr Rivera, but I think so. She’s being held prisoner in the mine office with her pa.’
 
Josefa had never seen Antonio look so tense, so angry. He’d never seemed to care a fig for any woman before; he simply used them. But something now in his manner was different. Maybe he was a changed man.
 
‘I must go,’ Antonio said, casting his gaze on the others. The look was plain enough. Come with me.

Diego grunted in disgust. ‘How can you agree to help those gringos?’ he demanded.

 
José nodded. ‘We owe that town nothing!’
 
‘They beat up Ignacio,’ Juan argued.
 
Arcadia clung to Juan’s arm. ‘And our takings weren’t so hot, either.’
 
‘It wasn’t the whole town who attacked Ignacio,’ Josefa said, ‘just a couple of drunk miners.’
 
‘Josefa has a point,’ Ramon said, his tone reasonable. ‘We shouldn’t brand all gringos the same.’

‘Why not?’ snapped José. ‘They do exactly that to us!’

 
Arms akimbo, Juan said, ‘José is right. Why put ourselves in danger for gringos?’
 
‘Precisely!’ Diego shouted.
 
‘Then I will go alone!’ snapped Antonio.
 
‘No, you won’t,’ Josefa said. ‘I’ll go with you.’ She glanced at José and gleaned pleasure from his disapproval, his face twisting.
 
‘Where my wife goes, so must I,’ said Mateo, resting an arm on her shoulders.
 
‘This is ridiculous!’ José barked, glaring at Josefa.
 
‘You forget,’ Diego said, ‘you’re going up against desperate men – killers. You heard the boy, they’ve murdered two people, shot a woman… When was the last time any of you fired a weapon in anger or killed anyone?’
 
Ramon cleared his throat, pushed out his chest. ‘We’ve done our fair share of fighting, Diego – before we joined your circus. None of us might like it, but we’ve spilled blood in our defence and that of our loved ones...’
 
‘This is different!’ Diego snapped.
 
Mateo shrugged and stroked his moustache, studying Juan, Arcadia and José. ‘I recall my cousin telling me about seven gringos who helped his pueblo against many bandidos.’
 
Juan laughed. ‘That was just a story.’
 
‘No, it was true.’ Mateo pulled a gleaming knife from the sash round his waist. ‘Pepe showed me his bullet wound scars,’ He gently touched the blade point to his left arm, the bicep and the forearm. ‘Here and here.’ He jabbed his chest, below the heart. ‘And here… He was lucky to survive. Not all of the gringos survived.’
 
‘Precisely,’ Diego said again. ‘You would risk your life and the lives of your family – your entire troupe – for strangers?’
 
‘The two little gringos have offered us much.’
 
Diego guffawed. ‘Twenty dollars?’
 
‘Twenty two and forty cents!’ Gene corrected.
 
Smiling, Mateo returned the knife to his sash. ‘No, Diego, I do not speak of the money they have offered. It’s called faith. These boys have faith in us, my friend.’ He scanned the rest of them and one by one they nodded agreement. ‘Just so.’ Mateo smiled. ‘You go on, Diego. We will catch you up in Colorado Springs.’
 
‘This is utter foolishness.’ Diego shook his head and made his way to the exit flap. ‘You’re all crazy, but I will pray for you.’
 
Josefa smiled at the circus owner. He clearly wanted to be angry, but he couldn’t bring himself to be, and she understood this as she looked at the trusting faces of the two boys, Emmett and Gene. They melted all their hearts, she felt sure.
 
‘But I don’t know what I will do to replace the Magnificent Mendozas!’ Then Diego flung the flap aside and left.
 
Emmett stood up. ‘Ma’am, I thought all of the circus people would come back to help.’ 

Mateo chuckled. ‘Sorry, young man, but your rate of pay is not very enticing. You get seven of us – the Magnificent Mendozas. That should be enough.’

 
Eyes and mouth wide, Gene stared, then said, ‘Seven against twenty-one?’
 
Mateo nodded. ‘Three-to-one – not bad odds, I think. Your Texas Rangers would be comfortable with these odds, no? Besides, we will have the element of surprise.’
 

***

Notes of interest, perhaps.

1. In fact the odds are somewhat greater than three-to-one, but they don’t know that at this stage.

2. I’ve tried not to be too blatant with the allusion to the seven gringos who saved a Mexican village.

3. I’ve attempted to inject humour, pathos and the kindness of strangers.

4. Already implied in the book, José covets his brother’s wife, Josefa, hence the interchange here.

 

5. Antonio had developed an attachment to Naomi Gray, the mine owner's daughter, hence his concern here.

6. If this were a film, each speech would be short, perhaps no more than two or three lines; in fact, even in a book, the length of a speech should be broken up, to reflect real life. So that's what I've attempted here. The only potentially long speech is Emmett’s, but that is broken up by reported speech, briefly relating the events that the reader is already privy to.

7. Ideally, each character present should contribute to the dialogue or why is he or she there? The downside of that is that giving each character something to say or contribute means that there’s the strong risk of overdoing the use of ‘said’. In this scene I’ve tried to reduce the frequency by using actions tied to speech.

8. Bravery is down-played; no histrionics (well, just a little – ‘not bad odds’).

***

The Magnificent Mendozas is available now in hardback only.

 

 

From the book depository, post-free worldwide here

 

From Amazon UK here

 

From Amazon COM here

Making of The Magnificent Mendozas

The story of The Magnificent Mendozas runs something like this:

Southern Colorado, 1879. The gringo town of Conejos Blancos has just hosted the Mexican circus; no sooner do they move on to their next venue when Hart and over thirty desperadoes take over the town – and the adjacent silver mine! The sheriff is slaughtered and many of the citizens are held hostage.

            In desperation, two boys escape from the locked-down town. They recruit seven Mexican circus performers, the Magnificent Mendozas: the troupe comprises Mateo, the leader, and his wife Josefa, both expert knife-throwers; José, younger brother of Mateo, a trick rider who lusts after Josefa; Antonio Rivera, sharpshooter; Juan Suaréz, gymnast and trapeze artist with his companion Arcadia Mendoza, who is also expert with bow and arrow; and Ramon Mendoza, escapologist. In order to penetrate the cordon of sentries and free the hostages, the troupe employs their many skills.

            Not everything runs smoothly, however. Soon, it’s a battle of wits between the Mendozas, Hart and his men and the townspeople. There’s betrayal, bravery and plenty of quick-fire action… and death on both sides.

 

***

If you read yesterday’s blog (Magic Seven), you might have a strong inkling how I was influenced to write this book.

A few years ago, I was intrigued by the Mexican government’s objection to how Mexicans were perceived in several western movies. So, I thought, why not turn the idea on its head?  Instead of gringos coming to Mexico, why not have some Mexicans helping out a gringo town?  Then I had to decide who these Mexicans were going to be. I didn’t want to slavishly copy the original western (though that was a copy, as we know, of a Japanese movie). So, I would not make the Mexicans gunfighters. Then, after I’d done a little research, it came to me in a blinding flash.

Many circuses toured the American West in the latter half of the nineteenth century, and several were Spanish or Mexican. Before I began writing The Magnificent Mendozas, I noticed a little film had been released and for an instant my heart sank. Was The Warrior’s Way (2010) going to ruin my storyline? Would I have to make adjustments to avoid copying? (Synchronicity in creative work crops up a lot, more than plagiarism, and that will make a blog one day, too!) The Warrior’s Way is a fantasy where East meets West and although it features a circus and fairground, it is happily nothing like my storyline: it is weird, colourful and quite spectacular, however.

 
So, now I had to knuckle down and create a circus troupe who would in effect be the magnificent seven. Like the movie characters, each would possess a skill that would prove useful. [I felt that the skills of the seven men in the movie were underplayed at the end, but that might have to do with the rushed script and filming as much as anything else.] That’s one of several unwritten laws about character creation – if your character has a skill, she or he should be seen to use it.

I enjoyed plotting the book, and writing it. I was a little daunted by the number of subsidiary characters (who had to be named), but noted that most genre films of this type would have a similar number in the cast. Here, I purposefully mention ‘films of this type’ while referring to this book, as it was my intention to write cinematically as much as possible, while still sticking to character point of view for particular scenes.

Initially, I wanted my seven to avoid killing since they were not hired gunmen though they had experience at killing in their past; a small departure from the shoot ‘em up perception of westerns. Inevitably, the action ramps up to a point where that becomes impossible and the killings do begin… At risk are not only the seven, but the townsfolk held hostage. And there will be deaths and loss on both sides, as the blurb promises…

 
Tomorrow, I’ll post an excerpt and continue with this analysis.

You can obtain a hardback copy of The Magnificent Mendozas

From the book depository, post-free worldwide here

 

From Amazon UK here

 

From Amazon COM here

Magic Seven

Of all the numbers, seven is considered the most mystic or sacred.

Pythagorean considered four and three to be lucky numbers, and of course when added together they make seven. Among the Babylonians, Egyptians and other ancient peoples there were believed to be seven sacred planets, and this was espoused by old astrologers and alchemists, each planet having its own ‘heaven’ (and there’s the phrase ‘to be in seventh heaven’).

We don’t need reminding that there are seven days in creation, seven days in the week, seven virtues, (seven deadly sins!), seven divisions of the Lord’s Prayer, seven ages in the life of man.

Ancient teaching propounded that the soul of man, or his ‘inward holy body’ is compounded of seven properties which are under the influence of the seven planets. Fire animates, earth gives the sense of feeling, water gives speech, air gives taste, mist gives sight, flowers give hearing, the south wind gives smelling; so the seven senses were perceived to be animation, feeling, speech, taste, sight, hearing and smelling. [Not sure what the other three winds gave!]

The Seven is used to identify a group of seven people, such as the Seven Champions, the Seven against Thebes, the Seven Sages of Greece, and in modern times, Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven.

 

The option rights of Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 epic film Seven Samurai were bought by producer Lou Morheim for $250 in 1958, with a view to making an Old West version of the story. Morheim took the project to Anthony Quinn, then directing Yul Brynner in The Buccaneer. Quinn agreed to take the part of Chris, the chief gunfighter, and Brynner would debut as the director. However, UA persuaded Brynner to take the lead and Quinn a supporting role, but Quinn backed out acrimoniously. Brynner hired Martin Ritt to direct, but delays with the script meant that Ritt dropped out and in his place came John Sturgess.

The first version of the screenplay presented the Seven as ageing Civil War veterans, but it was then rewritten for younger characters. Several writers worked on the film before it was ready, though it was rushed as an actors’ strike was imminent.

The film was planned to be shot entirely in Mexico. However, the Mexican government still sourly recalled the less than favourable treatment of Mexican characters in Vera Cruz in 1954. They insisted that the script be amended so that the villagers initially attempted to buy guns rather than straight away hire gunmen, so they wouldn’t appear cowardly.

The studio wasn’t taken by the film, thinking it was slow and outdated and its release in 1960 didn’t set the world alight in the States. However, when it hit Europe, the box office returns told a different story. The studio revised the poster and re-released the film in a lot more US theatres. By the mid-60s, the film was so profitable, they wanted a sequel; there were three made in total: Return of the Seven (1966), Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969), and Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972). And in the 1990s there was a TV series. Now there are rumblings that MGM will do a remake of The Magnificent Seven.

 
While you’re waiting for that, you might like to read the hardback The Magnificent Mendozas, which puts a different slant on the familiar tale.

From the book depository, post-free worldwide here

 

From Amazon UK here

 

From Amazon COM here

More tomorrow…

'...a very entertaining read...'

We write genre fiction to entertain. If you want to send a message, then that's fine too, though Western Union might be more appropriate (as Sam Goldwyn reportedly said) – or, these days, maybe use Facebook or Twitter!

I’m pleased to say that a reviewer has been entertained by one of my books:

“With a strong mix of male, female, and child roles, and the dramatic rescue methods used, all told in Ross Morton’s very readable style, this book proved to be a very entertaining read.”

My latest western, The Magnificent Mendozas has received an advance review. Please ride on over to Steve Myall’s blog to read the full review; you won’t see this review on Amazon.

 

http://westernfictionreview.blogspot.com.es/2014/07/the-magnificent-mendozas.html

Thank you, Steve!

This hardback can be purchased at the book depository and despatched post-free anywhere in the world. http://www.bookdepository.com/Magnificent-Mendozas-Morton-Ross/9780719813221

I'll be writing a little more about the book later this week.