I have many good memories of the Western Writers Convention in Albuquerque. The two gentlemen pictured contributed to them. Estleman, wearing the hat, writes in two genres: western and crime fighting and has published over 70 books and 200 short stories.. He was present to receive the Owen Wister Award which is a lifetime achievement honor not given often. His two main character subjects are Amos Walker, Private Investigator, and Page Murdock, Old West Marshall.
L. Q. Jones presented an energetic, well-experienced personality and was very interesting to boot. I caught the two of them in this shot; I had the camera and took pictures earlier. Then, when I went to download them from the memory card, I discovered the card was still in the laptop. So I put the card in my camera and hurried downstairs to take more pictures, this one being the result. A half dozen of us stood around listening to him talk about his movie making experiences of being in over 150 movies and tv programs. Often playing a bad guy character, he was in films such as Battle Cry, Ride the High Country, Major Dundee, The Wild Bunch, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. He worked many times with the director Sam Peckinpah and told stories of how hard he was to work for, yet a genius at what he accomplished.
A great story he tells dealing with Peckinpah was this. They were filming The Wild Bunch and driving in Peckinpah's car in a very rough district in Mexico. Peckinpah tells his driver to stop in front of this seedy bar. L. Q. grabs him by the shirt to stop him from going in, but he gets away. So Jones and Ben Johnson follow him in and see Peckinpah order a beer, take a drink, spit it in the bartender's face, and say, "You've been pissing in the beer again." and the fight is on. Jones and Johnson are fighting off the offended crowd and realize Peckinpah is no longer in sight. Turns out, he went out, got back in his car and left, leaving them there. I don't know how that story ended, but I would not have wanted to be with them.
The strength of the convention was the sharing and camaraderie. Everyone was easy to talk with, and an upstart like me could learn a great deal. People would ask me what it was I wrote. I'd always reply a variety of things such as many blog entries, a couple books of poetry, some book reviews in the Bismarck Tribune, etc. Just enough to be eligible as a member. I hope to add many short stories to the collection before the next convention next summer in Las Vegas.
L. Q. Jones presented an energetic, well-experienced personality and was very interesting to boot. I caught the two of them in this shot; I had the camera and took pictures earlier. Then, when I went to download them from the memory card, I discovered the card was still in the laptop. So I put the card in my camera and hurried downstairs to take more pictures, this one being the result. A half dozen of us stood around listening to him talk about his movie making experiences of being in over 150 movies and tv programs. Often playing a bad guy character, he was in films such as Battle Cry, Ride the High Country, Major Dundee, The Wild Bunch, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. He worked many times with the director Sam Peckinpah and told stories of how hard he was to work for, yet a genius at what he accomplished.
A great story he tells dealing with Peckinpah was this. They were filming The Wild Bunch and driving in Peckinpah's car in a very rough district in Mexico. Peckinpah tells his driver to stop in front of this seedy bar. L. Q. grabs him by the shirt to stop him from going in, but he gets away. So Jones and Ben Johnson follow him in and see Peckinpah order a beer, take a drink, spit it in the bartender's face, and say, "You've been pissing in the beer again." and the fight is on. Jones and Johnson are fighting off the offended crowd and realize Peckinpah is no longer in sight. Turns out, he went out, got back in his car and left, leaving them there. I don't know how that story ended, but I would not have wanted to be with them.
The strength of the convention was the sharing and camaraderie. Everyone was easy to talk with, and an upstart like me could learn a great deal. People would ask me what it was I wrote. I'd always reply a variety of things such as many blog entries, a couple books of poetry, some book reviews in the Bismarck Tribune, etc. Just enough to be eligible as a member. I hope to add many short stories to the collection before the next convention next summer in Las Vegas.
