1,000 Words: The Coyotes of Silver Moon

I’m going to try to get this cranked out while at work today. I probably should have started an hour or more ago, when I got back from lunch and everyone else was out. Now people are starting to come back, and I’ll have to get back to work shortly. So I may have to pound this one out as quickly as possible.

Still working on the Coyotes of Silver Moon. I’ve still got the germ of the idea: three outlaws discover a belt that turns the wearer into a coyote. I’ve still got the US Marshal and his posse tracking them down. But I don’t have much more than that.

I want the outlaws to be genuinely afraid of the Marshal, but I don’t know if I want the Marshal to be a bad guy. It would be so easy to make the marshal a corrupt cop stereotype, but that would make him a stereotype, wouldn’t it?

Wait, I may have just had an epiphany. What if I took a page from O Brother, Where Art Thou? That movie was about three convicts on the lam, followed by a Marshal who was truly frightening. Even though he had no ulterior motive, just the fact that he was always there, just a step or two behind them, and his presence was so ominous that the three convicts often escaped by the dumbest of luck. Of course, that was a part of the charm of the movie. But I think I want that kind of relationship between my characters. Once the outlaws discover who’s after them, they’ll be jumping over each other to get away.

But I still don’t know what to do with the belt. Which is just kinda important to the whole story, don’t you think?

I think I need to go to the bathroom and stretch my legs (and hips) for a moment. That’s what I think.

620 words to go.

But I’ll get to the belt in a little bit. Let’s take a look at the outlaws. I know I want at least one of them to be severely injured, probably dying, wounded in the shootout resulting from the botched robbery.

Gutshot. Something that produces a lot of internal bleeding, but won’t allow the person to die for several days. Like, in the kidneys or something.

But why not just leave him behind? Maybe he’s someone’s kid brother?

Okay, I’m getting a real vision of Déjà vu here, and I don’t know why. Is it something about the kid brother that’s setting this off? I don’t know.

What other reason would two of these outlaws have for not abandoning the gutshot outlaw? Younger brother… what else? Maybe he’s the leader of the group, and they’re loyal to him. Maybe he’s holding a secret of his own, like a stash of gold he’s been hoarding for years… or something else. But my gut tells me that the kid brother idea is the winner. I like the idea that one of the outlaws is trying to save his brother—maybe not even a kid brother as much as his TWIN brother… hmmm…

They’re all going to be young. In their 20s, at the oldest. I don’t know that any gunfighter outside of the famous lawmen like Wyatt Earp really lasted past their 30th birthday.

The other two outlaws… I don’t think either one of them should be the ‘leader’ of the gang, the mastermind. One may outrank the other because of his familiarity with the gang leader, but, hey, if the boss gets shot and killed or captured, I think it’s perfectly reasonable that the foot soldiers start fighting amongst themselves.

Sorry about that. Got distracted trying to come up with names and ended up looking at county maps for California. Such is life.

The twins will be August and Alexanander Luther. Well, crap. I just realized—Alexander Luther—Lex Luthor. Can’t use that, can I? Or can I? Well, why not. As long as I –

Hold on, just realized something. I changed my mind. They’r—Alex and August—aren’t going to be the Luther boys, they’re going to be the McHenry boys.

Okay, how about this for a little bit of conflict. Luther Slope, the third of the outlaws, was maybe second in command of the gang, or maybe one of the ranking lieutenants, while August and Alex were a bit younger and hotter tempered. August was looking to make a name for himself and his brother—the McHenry Boys, and he wanted to start up his own gang. So it was something August did that caused the robbery to go south, and yet he gets away. I like that. Lots of conflict. The McHenrys boys, August specifically, were causing trouble within the ranks, disagreeing with the way things worked. Maybe they were more educated than the others, graduated high school. That’d be fun. The McHenry boys are more schooled than the rest of the gang, and August flaunts this as much as possible, challenging decisions and plans and such.

And Luther Slope was an older, high ranking officer.

Scratch Alexander—How about Julius? Julius and August McHenry. Okay, THAT sounds like a couple of city slickers brothers who get in over their head. I like that a lot. Julius and August.

And they were all members of the Rollie Pierce gang. Julius and August McHenry, Luther Slope and Rollie Pierce. I like that a lot.

Now, what actually happens in this story? How do they find out about this shaman? And more importantly, what do they do with this belt—and maybe most importantly, and what will define this story, will they get out of it alive?

I know I DON’T want to show the actual robbery going bad. That’s beyond the point of this story. I want to start with them on the run, being chased by the Marshals.

NOTE TO SELF: I really need to pick up (again) The Writers Guide to Life in the 1800s (or the Old West—I forget which).

I may work on this more tonight, just fleshing out some ideas. But as of here, I’ve got my 1,000 words.