…from the first page throughout the story the heroine had been shouting, "I could kill Oliver Burton (villain)!" The villain was doing everything he could to take her Spanish land grant ranch. He was a threat to everything she held dear -- and she (and I, as the writer) had promised the reader by her continuing rejoinders that she would dispatch the villain. So she had to do it. When I sat down again to write the scene with Serita in charge, it worked beautifully. 

Crescent Blues: When and where does research enter the picture?  

Vivian Vaughan: As soon as I settle on a setting (location and time period) and the focus of the story (such as timber theft in Secret Surrender), I begin research. Before I can start writing a story I must have a feel of the place; I must know who lives there and why the major characters are there. In most cases at least one of the two major characters is new to the area. This allows the author to present information about the story and setting without having local characters sound redundant or stupid. 

Crescent Blues: You're a sixth generation Texan. How much do you use family history and tradition in your work?  

Vivian Vaughan: I use a lot of family stories and legends. An example is from my first book, Heart's Desire (Zebra, 1987). The heroine assumes responsibility for the community's medical needs. At one point I needed her to deliver a baby, but of course it had to be a difficult birth. Preliminary research turned up nothing, so I asked my mother, who told me the story of a cousin's birth, which was indeed difficult and which I used almost verbatim as she'd told me. 

Crescent Blues: Does having so much family background make your research harder or easier?  

Vivian Vaughan: I'd have to say easier, since I've always been interested in family stories. That interest has expanded to other families' histories and history of the settlement of the West, in general. 

Crescent Blues: You've mentioned elsewhere that your great grandfather, a Texas Ranger, wrote sonnets. Any chance we could persuade you to share some of his poetry with Crescent Blues readers? 

Vivian Vaughan: The sonnets were actually letters written by my great grandfather, James L. Parchman, Texas Ranger, to his wife Julia A. Stutesman Parchman while he was away on Ranger duty. One of them seems especially appropriate for this interview, since we've discussed my beginning a romance writing career at mid life. If you'll indulge me, with the permission of my family (Arnold/Parchman Family Letters) here is "To the One Most Dear:" 

Oh, no not even when first we loved
Was thou as now thou art.
Thy beauty then my senses moved,
But now thy virtues bind my heart.
What was but passion's sigh before
Has since been turned to reason's vow,
And though I then might love thee more
Trust one, I love thee better now.
Although my heart in earlier youth
Might kindle with wild desire,
Believe one, it has gained in truth
Much more than it has lost in fire.
The flame now warms my inmost core
That there but sparkled once my love,
And though I seemed to love thee more
Yet oh I love thee better now.

James L. Parchman, About 1900
[See Editor's note below.]

Crescent Blues: Do you prefer to use real locations in your stories, or would you rather create your own settings?  

Vivian Vaughan: I would rather use composites of several locations. I strive to be accurate as to the landscape, the communities, the people. But I like to set my own community, ranch, or what have you down in the middle of a real place. My first four books, the Silver Creek Stories, were set in Menard County, Texas where I grew up. Everyone there knew the books were set in Menard; I used local legends and tall tales and a lot of actual history, but by calling it Silver Creek instead of Menard, I gave myself leeway to create things and not have people question the facts, where fiction was intended. 

Crescent Blues: What are some of your favorite settings? Do they remain constant over time?  

Vivian Vaughan: I fall in love with everyplace I write about! Usually my favorite setting, like my favorite story, is the current project. Fort Davis, Texas (setting of the Tremaynes of Apache Wells), is one of my husband's and my all-time favorite places. We go there a couple of times a year, stay in a state-run lodge in the mountains, and ride through the beautiful hills in our pickup, with a CD of Yanni's Reflections in Passion ringing in our ears and throbbing through our veins. 

Crescent Blues: Is it the landscape or the history that fascinates you most?  

Vivian Vaughan: A combination, I think. In Fort Davis, for instance, when I look at the hills I see all the history I've read about happening there. Also, I see my stories unfold there, the characters riding through the canyons, running across the parade ground, trudging up the road that separates the fort from the town. Every time I look at Sleeping Lion Mountain, I see its beauty, but I also see Tremayne charging down that cliff on his black stallion, almost running down Sabrina in her outrageous green silk gown. History, they say, repeats itself the world over. Yet nothing ever happens in exactly the same way from one place to another, because the land shapes the people, just as the people shape the land. 

Crescent Blues: Your first book was a western that soon became rewritten as a western romance. Did you always want to write westerns? If not, what caused you to change your mind?  

Vivian Vaughan: In a word, family. Both my grandfathers died when I was very young. I grew up hearing stories about them, but never felt like I really knew them. Then one day when I was in my mid-twenties, I think, I found an old Western novel my mother had sent her father while she was away from the ranch at boarding school. For some reason I felt that by reading a book she had chosen especially for him, I would learn who my grandfather really was. Whether or not that was true, from that time on I was hooked on Western literature and history. 

Crescent Blues: Which Western writers influenced you the most? Which non-western writers had a similar or greater impact?  

Vivian Vaughan: I'll divide the Western writers into two groups -- living and not. Of the latter Eugene Manlove Rhodes, author of the classic Western novel, Paso Por Aqui, and several other novellas; and Louis L'Amour, whose books I read and reread many years ago in an attempt to escape from city life into the fantasy Western lands.  

But we have many wonderful Western authors living and writing today, and their books have had a major influence on the direction of my career: Elmer Kelton, Mike Blakely, M. David Wilkinson. Probably my all-time favorite historical novel is A Time in the Sun by Jane Barry -- a thrilling western story, love story, and an extremely accurate and poignant recounting of the US Army's wars to take Arizona from the Apache. 

As for non-Western writers who have influenced my writing, there are many. In college I fell in love with writing through reading Hemingway's prose -- so simple, yet so complicated. Contemporary non-Western writers who have influenced my style and career while providing me with endless hours of entertainment: Jeffrey Archer, Ken Follett, Dick Francis, and the wonderful Southern short stories of Mary Hood. Today the majority of my reading time is spent on non-fiction, research for works in progress. 

Crescent Blues: What role did movies and television play in shaping your fiction? How much of what you do is homage and how much is an attempt to correct misperceptions and inaccuracies?  

Vivian Vaughan: Although I attended all the old Saturday afternoon Westerns, I honestly don't think they influenced my writing, other than in a technical sense -- pace and structure. In fact, I grew up preferring the musicals -- Singing in the Rain, Showboat, The Merry Widow.  

Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, we realize that the misperceptions and inaccuracies were many and yes, I guess I do try to set things straight. Not to be politically correct, but to show the other side, the other reality of life in the Old West, where in Eugene Manlove Rhodes' words there have always been "good men and true." Basically, I see the novelist's one and only mandate as being to entertain. My writing has been influenced more by music than movies. I love all the old Western ballads, as well as the ballads sung by Marty Robbins, some of Johnny Cash's work, and Rodney Crowell. 

Crescent Blues: Do you find any particular theme -- cowboys and ranches; expanding frontiers; the interaction of Anglo, Hispanic and Native American cultures -- more compelling than another? Or do you want to write stories about them all?  

Vivian Vaughan: I find all the above extremely compelling! Cowboys and ranches are simply a part of who I am. Expanding frontiers offer a novelist, historical or contemporary, exciting possibilities. We may not have great parcels of land left to explore, but we still have a lot of uncharted business of the mind and of the heart.  

The interaction of Anglo, Hispanic, Native American, and other cultures is to me the single most important issue before the world today. Whatever I write, whether historical or contemporary, whether set on a ranch or in a great world city, one of the themes will be the celebration of our world's diversity. It is our greatest asset as a nation and as a people. And celebrating it, or should I say capitalizing on the benefits of celebrating it, is our greatest challenge. 

Crescent Blues: How much do you feel your family and personal background shaped these interests?  

Vivian Vaughan: My family history led me to a love of all things Western. My mother taught me to that there was a huge world to explore. I've lived in the city (Houston area) since 1964, always with the plan to return to the ranch as soon as my husband retired from NASA. That was four years ago, and we have just moved into a high-rise apartment in Houston, Texas.  

All our friends and family think we should hate it. But we don't. We can still go to the ranch, and to Fort Davis, and to places as yet unknown to us to research books, but for our everyday living, we now choose the city. I read not long ago that America's cities are our new West -- our new frontier, where persons of all persuasions can live side by side, yet achieve a sense of anonymity; where a man or woman can be free to express themselves -- or hide themselves -- without the scrutiny prevalent in small towns.  

I don't advocate dropping out as a desirable way of life, nor do I deny the wonderful advantages of living in a small-town. Human relationships are vital, and unless we look out for each other, we'll all be in trouble. But freedom to celebrate the diversity of life is also valuable. 

Crescent Blues: Have you ever drawn a story directly from personal experiences?  

Vivian Vaughan: No. I live far too ordinary a life to use for fiction. I consider myself privileged to live vicariously through my characters, who lead much more exciting lives than I do! 

Crescent Blues: Do your friends and family see themselves in your books? 

Vivian Vaughan: They think they do, especially the men! 

Crescent Blues: How much of that is real, and how much is wishful thinking? 

Vivian Vaughan: Occasionally I may have used a heavy hand when borrowing characteristics from a cousin or friend. In a more straightforward way, however, I often name minor character after friends. I didn't realize how important this was to them, until at one friend's funeral, her husband introduced me to the mourners as the writer who had made him and his wife famous. That was lovely. 

Crescent Blues: Is there anything you'd like to add?  

Vivian Vaughan: I'm sure you've heard the old adage, a writer writes. I don't think many people who write fiction, choose to write; it just happens. That's what we do. The book market today is in a state of upheaval, and few writers know what their futures hold. Although I had planned the Tremaynes of Apache Wells as a four-book series, it now is apparent that there will be only two stories. My next projects will very likely be outside the realm of romance novels.  

Presently, I'm working on several projects: a "Women of the West" novel; a contemporary novel set in urban Texas; a few nonfiction book ideas, and a Western adventure novel to be written with my husband, as J. R. Vaughan. Although I may be leaving romance writing, I will never stop writing about love! Nor will I ever forget the readers who have loved my books and have graciously written over the years to tell me so! I love you every one. 

Jean Marie Ward

Click here to read the Crescent Blues review of Chance of a Lifetime.

Setting the Record Straight

In your interview with Vivian Vaughan, she speaks of a sonnet written by her great grandfather, Texas Ranger James L. Parchman, to his wife -- circa 1900. She then reprints the poem saying its "with the permission" of her family.

Perhaps, instead, she should have sought the permission of Thomas Moore's family. You see, it was Moore who wrote that sonnet sixty years before the romantic (and obviously well-read) Texas Ranger put his pen to paper.

Maybe, in her next interview, Ms. Vaughan can reference one of her great grandfather's other sonnets. I heard he once wrote a nice one to an ex-girlfriend that begins, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"

Dave Jenkins

Dear Dave,

Jean Marie passed along your observation on "my great-grandfather's poetry" and her very proper response to the situation. Please know that as a writer I take this extremely seriously. Although I am truly embarrassed that I trusted family lore without a thought to researching the validity of it, I will not use that as an excuse for an error of this magnitude. And I shall alert other family members immediately.

As to your final paragraph, I am uncertain of the tone you intended. By way of response may I say that I have not seen any of the other sonnets, therefore cannot speak to the content or authorship of them. I have not promoted, nor will I ever again promote, the authorship of a piece of writing that I personally have not verified.

My family will laugh this off. I am the one whose credibility is on the line here, and I sincerely apologize for the error. On a personal and historic note, this situation substantiates the often-made claim that many of the rough-and-tumble men who rode the West were well read. I have no way of knowing whether my Grandfather Parchman carried a volume of Thomas Moore's poetry and copied especially meaningful passages for his wife or whether he had memorized them beforehand. Although I would bet on the former, my paternal grandmother, Mr. Parchman's daughter, memorized poetry all her life and kept her mind active by reciting verses well into her later years. At her 88th birthday party, she stood, assisted by my father and a first-cousin, and recited in full Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Children's Hour." To my knowledge she never claimed authorship of the poems she recited. I know for certain that she is shaking her finger at me!

Dave, thank you for calling Jean Marie's attention to this grave matter. I sincerely apologize to you, to Jean Marie, and to all our readers.

Most sincerely,

Vivian Jane Vaughan