My Inspiration Behind A Bloody Bloody Mess in the Wild Wild West

After having published my first book, The Macabre Masterpiece in 2010, I didn’t really have the thought or idea to write another book. Looking back it seems juvenile. However, given the fact that I had my first book published by a vanity press and was in a bad contract the thought of a second book just wasn’t there. A year and a half into my contract I immediately realized I wanted out but that wouldn’t happen for another four years. What did happen was inspiration struck me almost out of nowhere from several directions. As I said, I had no plans for a second book but it was around this time that I joined Goodreads and came across the great sub-genre of Western Horror. Liking both westerns and horror I was intrigued. Little did I know that I was placing my interest in this newfound genre in the back of my mind.

One day I was watching a spaghetti western, one of the Dollar Trilogy series movies starring Clint Eastwood, which was either A Fistful of Dollars or For A Few Dollars More. As I was watching, one of the bad guys uttered a line, something along the lines of a bloody mess, I wish I could remember what exactly but its escaped me, but when I heard it for whatever reason the title A Bloody Bloody Mess in the Wild Wild West popped into my head. I don’t remember what the bad guy said but I do remember jumping off my couch and running to my room where I grabbed a pencil and a piece of paper and wrote down the title A Bloody Bloody Mess in the Wild Wild West in big bold letters at the top. I stared at the page and asked myself what it this for exactly and once again my brain told me, it’s the title of your next book, the book you didn’t know about, the book you didn’t know you were gonna write, a western horror that will be your second book.

I eventually went back to watching the movie and perhaps taking in little bits of inspiration as my eyes were fixed on the screen. I believe I watched all three movies in the series that day and little did I know that I was subconsciously making mental notes of stuff to include in my book. From the tools that make up a bad guy in westerns to the grit and intimidation, Clint Eastwood gave as he slowly talked to those that would become his victims. I ended up watching more westerns and reading up about the history of weird westerns and western horror. After I realized I had enough information I went back to the piece of paper with the title on it and began constructing the chapters of the book from the title of them to what they would be about. When I completed all of the chapter info I realized I was missing two important things, a protagonist and an antagonist. No western is complete without a hero cowboy and a bad hombre who longs to gun him down.

I wanted the main character to be his own person. Sure, I could make him like Clint Eastwood but people would see right through that. I don’t believe I was inspired by any person to create him but one day as I was thinking of names two came into mind and soon enough the protagonist Emerson Shaw was born. Now I needed his nemesis. A guy so ruthless, so gritty, so bad, that you’d swear he existed in real life. Well for this one I decided to take a few bad Mexican outlaws I’d seen from movies put them all together and add a dash of Yosemite Sam and Javier “Bones” Jones” was born. After I came up with the two main characters' names I had reached the stage to start writing. That is how inspiration struck me and how I came up with the idea to write A Bloody Bloody Mess in the Wild Wild West.