Craig Johnson guest post

Janet Rudolph & Craig Johnson

Craig Johnson sent this post to his fans and readers, so I asked if I could repost it for all and sundry to read. I'm looking forward to Longmire which starts on A&E in June, and I've just finished Craig's lastest novel, As the Crow Flies. It's terrific!

Craig Johnson:

We were filming the pilot episode for A&E’s Longmire last March, when the director, Chris Chulack, turned to me and said, “Do you want to be in this scene?”
          
I glanced through the twin monitors and onto the street outside the Absaroka County Sheriff’s Office set in Las Vegas, New Mexico, doing its best to appear as northern Wyoming. Across the street Katee Sackoff, the actress who plays Victoria ‘Vic’ Moretti, was rehearsing a scene with another actor, Rio Alexander, by yanking the much larger man from her unit, throwing him onto the hood of a parked car, cuffing him and dragging him across the street toward us.
         
 “I don’t think so.”
          
Chris smiled. “I meant you could stand on the sidewalk and do a cameo; all the authors do it.”
          
I remember seeing John Irving as the conductor in Cider House Rules, and even heard that Lee Child did a stint as an NYPD cop who hands his character Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise) his toothbrush in an upcoming film One Shot, and when I asked him about it, Lee told me he delivered his one line flawlessly. But the story that always hangs in my mind is the one when Tony Hillerman had a speaking line in the 1991 film The Dark Wind, where he played a state penitentiary warden. The scene is documented in one of my favorite books, Tony’s autobiography, Seldom Disappointed, with a photograph of Tony in a suit and tie alongside the young actor playing Jim Chee in the film—Mr. Lou Diamond Phillips. What goes around comes around in that Lou is now playing Henry Standing Bear in the televised version of my books. The looks on the two men’s faces in the photograph are priceless—Tony has a look of disappointed perplexity and Lou’s expression is one of devastatingly wry humor.

Lou tells it best, “Hillerman was a warm and kind gentleman, who made me extremely proud and grateful to bring such an iconic character to life. Every once in a while, we get blessed with the kind of writing that brings out the best in us and challenges us to bring our hearts, minds and souls to a role completely. Funny thing is, he could write the words so very eloquently but had a little more trouble making them come out of his own mouth.”

What Lou is graciously saying is that Tony blew his lines on every take, so much so that they decided that maybe it would be best if Tony simply ‘looked’ the line. I guess that didn’t work either because, in Tony’s own words, “I ended up on the cutting-room floor.”
          
I stood there looking at Chris Chulack, the captain of the ship, the man I was entrusting to coax the best performances from the best and brightest performers, the man who wanted me to go out on the sidewalk and represent some semblance of humanity. “I don’t think so.”
          
He studied me, a little surprised. “Really? You’re sure?”
          
“Um, yeah.”
         
 “You don’t have to say anything.”
          
I thought about it, figuring I’d trip over the curb. “That’s okay.”
         
A few days later, I guess not completely satisfied with my response, Chulack gave me another shot at a scene in Henry Standing Bear’s Red Pony Bar. There were dozens of extras in the place, loud and raucous so much noise that you wouldn’t have been able to hear me stumble through a line if I remembered it.
          
My wife, Judy hung on my arm in hopes that I would say yes, the two of us immortalized in television posterity.
         
 “Nope, I don’t think so.”
          
So Longmire is on Sunday, June 3rd at 10pm EDT/9c on A&E. I hope you enjoy the show but don’t look to see me peeking around trees or dancing at the Red Pony; I think I’ll stick with writing books.

As the Crow Flies, the newest in the Walt Longmire series was named the Barnes & Noble, Mystery and Crime Hardback Pick of the Month along with Hell is Empty as the Mystery and Crime Trade Paperback Pick of the Month—the first time a single author has received such an honor they tell me. Look for them both on the shelves (As The Crow Flies, Tuesday, May 15th) or get out there and pre-order, or better yet, come see him on tour.

Photo: Carol Fairweather

A&E picks up Longmire

WOOT! (now a word in the OED)

According to TV/LINE A&E has given a 10-episode, first season order to Longmire, an hour-long Western-themed drama starring Matrix actor Robert Taylor as the show’s titular charismatic, dry-witted Wyoming sheriff. Katee Sackhoff will play Vic, one of his deputies.

The series, based on the Walt Longmire Mystery series by Craig Johnson, also stars Cassidy Freeman (Smallville) as Longmire’s daughter, Lou Diamond Phillips (Numb3rs) as his best friend, and Bailey Chase (Saving Grace) as another deputy.

Can't wait for the series? Get reading. There are 7 books in the series. Craig Johnson was recently in Berkeley for a Literary Salon with Mystery Readers NorCal.  

Photo: Craig Johnson & Me--I'm the one wearing Craig's Stetson :-)

Hat Tip: Omnimystery News

Craig Johnson: June 19 in Berkeley

From Shelf Awareness comes this terrific and timely post about Craig Johnson, one of my favorite authors. Mystery Readers NorCal will be hosting Craig Johnson (who will appear with Stetson) on June 19 at 7 p.m. in Berkeley, CA.  Comment below to RSVP and for directions.
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Mystery author and Wyoming resident Craig Johnson knows not to appear at signings without his signature accessory: a cowboy hat. Although space is at a premium when he travels by motorcycle, "I have to designate one entire saddlebag just for holding my hat," he said. One year he sported a baseball cap on tour instead. "Everybody was totally disappointed. Every time I showed up at an event people asked, 'Where's your hat?' "

With hat in hand, Johnson is trekking across the country this summer promoting Hell Is Empty (Viking), the seventh novel is his series starring Wyoming Sheriff Walt Longmire, and the newly released paperback edition of Junkyard Dogs (Penguin). After a national, publisher-sponsored tour takes him to 15 cities from Pennsylvania to California, Johnson will hit the road again to visit independent bookstores in the West and Northwest.

Johnson's mode of transportation during the regional excursion is an iron steed dubbed Rocinante, a nod to Don Quixote's horse and John Steinbeck's camper-truck. Putting the seldom-used motorcycle (which gets excellent gas mileage) to good use was part of the motivation for the tour. "I thought I was going to have to donate it to the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles," joked Johnson. In the five years he has been doing the road trip, the number of stores he visits has increased from a few to nearly 20 in six states--Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Oregon and Washington.

Johnson sets aside about two months each year for book-related travel, an undertaking he looks forward to after the solitude of writing. "When it comes time for me to go on tour, I've got to be honest. I really enjoy it," he said. "I like meeting people who have read my books and discussing what's happening with the characters, where they're going, the relationships, and the underpinnings of the sociological and cultural aspects of the stories."

Johnson moved to Ucross, Wyo., two decades ago after a rather nomadic lifestyle--residing in Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and New York City. "I had some education in writing, but I wasn't so sure that I had something to write about," he said. For me it was important to go out and experience life, which sounds very Hemingway- or Steinbeck-esque. But that's the way I felt about it. If you're going to write about people then you had better go out there and see who people are. Not just the ones in your neighborhood but all over the country."

Turns out, Johnson found his stories in the dramatic landscape and intriguing inhabitants of the American West. "If you ever come to Wyoming, you'll meet all the people that are in my novels," he confessed. Home for the writer is a 260-acre ranch. He built the house himself--living in a tent during construction--along with a garage, barn and corrals. "Building the ranch was probably the only way I could settle in and stay in one place," Johnson said.

The abode is situated in the shadow of the Bighorn Mountains, where much of Hell Is Empty takes place. In his latest adventure, Longmire aids an FBI taskforce transporting a group of prisoners though the mountains. When the convicts escape and reinforcements are trapped by impassable roads during a severe snowstorm, it's up to the sheriff to stop the bad guys.

Woven throughout the nail-biting storyline are elements of western lore, Indian mysticism and references to Dante's Inferno. Mystery readers "want what literary fiction has to offer--fully developed characters, arc of storyline, place, history, humor," Johnson noted. "They want all of those things, and at the end they want to know who the hell did it." Making sure fans get their money's worth is his top priority. "I treat it like a contract between myself and the reader. When they shell out hard-earned bucks for my books, I need to come through with all of those things--the literary aspects and the crime fiction aspects. If I fail, I don't expect them to pick up the next contract."

Sheriff Longmire and his comrades have garnered fans around the globe, from China to the Czech Republic. The characters and their creator are especially popular in France, where Johnson has visited eight times in the last two years to promote the page-turners and accept awards. (A group of schoolchildren once befriended "le cowboy" outside the Louvre in Paris.)

Johnson recently returned from New Mexico, where the pilot for the A&E television series Longmire was filmed. What is it like for him to see his characters come to life? "I acquaint it with having a houseplant for 10 years and then getting up one morning and all of a sudden it starts talking to you. It's a little unsettling. But it's also wonderfully fantastic because they've done such an amazing job." He was invited to be a creative consultant on the set, where actors toted copies of his books and avid reader Lou Diamond Phillips (cast as Longmire's friend Henry Standing Bear) quoted passages to him from the text.

As Johnson indulges his wanderlust and logs the miles this summer, his focus is on renewing contracts with readers and on lassoing new ones. Whether it's a gathering of two or two hundred, "it really doesn't matter to me," he said. "If someone has made the effort in this chaotic, hectic world to track you down on tour and come into a bookstore and talk with you about your books, that's a wonderful thing."