My current Westerns are a series starring
Joshua Block, U.S. Marshal. This story, Caprock, is set in the Llano Estacado area of West Texas and Eastern New Mexico.Westerns
The so-called western period in our history begins in the early 1800's with the expansionist 'Manifest Destiny' fever that swept our country following purchases and outright theft of lands to the west of the Mississippi River. The promise of free land and room to grow called to those pioneers with sufficient grit and a certain fearlessness who flocked west in search of their own destiny. It was a time of unbridled freedom and hope.
I wonder how many of us living today can fully understand the raw courage and guts it took to settle this great land? There were no roads, supermarkets or laws. Hostile Native Americans and thieves of every ilk preyed on the settlers. A man (or woman) was free to take all he or she could hold, by any means possible. It was, simply, survival of the fittest, a time of might makes right. By most accounts, it was a period that covered roughly eighty years until civilization finally put a bridle on it.
There is a certain 'romance' connected with the settling of the Wild West, just as there is about the times of the Knights of Camelot, or the Pirates of the Caribbean. I grew up on that romance through old TV shows of Roy Rogers, the Cisco Kid, Zorro and The Lone Ranger. Also from the works of Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour. I've often wondered why this period in time is so attractive to so many people and I guess it's for the same reasons I'm hooked on it: Justice, and the eventual triumph of the underdog.
People are the same as they've always been, today, 100 years ago, or even 1000 years ago. Some are greedy, fearful, introverted, extroverted, you name it, mankind (and womankind) never really change. But a time like our Wild West accentuates our faults and attributes, brings out the worst and best in people. When everyone wore a gun, people were more polite, watched what they said or did because the consequences could be immediate. If you had a dispute with someone, you faced them and dealt with it, you didn't call a lawyer or a cop, they were few and far between. When the law did catch up, in the form of Sheriff or Texas Ranger or U.S. Marshal, justice was usually done, perhaps overdone, but there was still a balance of sorts. Unbridled freedom leads to anarchy over time and some law is necessary to protect the weak. Some law, not what we have today. I believe that's why the Old West is still popular.
My current Westerns are a series starring
Joshua Block, U.S. Marshal. This story, Caprock, is set in the Llano Estacado area of West Texas and Eastern New Mexico.
"The Llano Estacado . . . thousands of square miles of nothing, the Great Desert, big enough to hide a stolen herd of cattle and the secret of Coronado’s gold. Was it big enough to hold the passions of those within it or the Justice of Joshua Block, U.S. Marshal?"
Joshua was 'born' on the Texas Gulf Coast and became a lawman by choice; either sign on, or swing from the end of a rope. As a boy he witnessed the murder of his parents and from that point on became obsessed with justice and retribution. Intelligent, resentful of authority, and lightning fast with a gun Josh seemed headed down the outlaw trail until U.S. District Judge Halloran brought him into the fold.
There are many Chapters in the life of a man, each one a book unto itself. My next installment, due out in three months, is set just after the Civil War and involves greed, passion and slavery all within the confines of the Palo Duro Canyon, the tentative title. The following installment, in the planning stages, centers on Josh's early life, and offers clues to the man.
I research my stories from a historical perspective and walk the same ground my characters did. In the cover above is a view of the Llano Estacado today, although the inset exists only in the story. I invite you to ride with Josh and be a part of his adventures.
Excerpt
They were interrupted by the sound of horses approaching the front of the cantina, and while Carlos went out the front door, Josh went out the back
As Carlos stood before his cantina, Big John Stedman reined in his horse directly in front of him. There was anger on Stedman’s face, and Carlos took notice as the dust from Stedman’s horse, and three others, settled over him. This was not a friendly visit. Carlos calmly waited as Stedman glared at him.
“Where is that thieving mother of yours, Vega?” Stedman roared. “I want my books back!”
Carlos was now deadly calm. He was unarmed, but unafraid. “You call my mother a thief, Gringo? You are tired of life?” Carlos said these words softly, and they had more impact on the group than if he had screamed them. The three men with Stedman drew and cocked their pistols, pointing them at Carlos.
“Don’t shoot him, boys, you’ll only make him mad.”
The men jerked their attention to this new voice. It came from a man leaning against the corner of the building, his arms folded across his chest. A man with whom they were familiar, the man who had interrupted their fun with the woman.
“So, we meet again,” Josh offered
“That’s him, Boss, the stranger we told you about,” the older one said. “I told you we’d meet again,” this directed to Block.
“An’, I ain’t got my thong on, this time,” the big farm boy said, swinging his pistol to cover Josh.
Josh sighed, inwardly. Some boys were destined to die before they became men, before they learned reason. He looked into the farm boy’s eyes, and saw the boy was going to shoot. “Don’t!” Josh shouted, but he knew his words fell on deaf ears.
They would later say that Josh had a pistol hidden in his folded arms, that no man could draw from his holster, from folded arms, and beat a man who was already squeezing the trigger. Even Curry wasn’t that fast! Even as the farm boy’s body jerked backwards off his horse, with two holes, close together, between his pocket and the second button, to lie in the dust before them. The other two men froze, unable to believe their eyes.
Carlos Vega took advantage of this distraction to reach forward, grab the head of Stedman’s horse and twist it, bulldogging the horse to the ground. He seemed to expend no more effort that a man would spend in turning a doorknob. The horse and Stedman went down in a pile, Stedman’s leg pinned to the ground, under his horse. Stedman’s men started to turn to this new distraction, thoroughly confused; a moment before, they had been in control, and now nothing was going right.
“Drop the guns, boys,” Josh commanded. The men let their guns fall to the ground, and then placed their hands on their pommels, in plain sight.
Stedman’s horse struggled to its feet, unhurt, as did Stedman.
“Now, Gringo, I will ask you again. Do you call my mother a thief?” Carlos calmly asked, with an evil grin.
Stedman regained some of his anger. “I caught her looking at two books in my study yesterday. Now, they’re gone. She is the only one who knew of them.”
“And that is enough for you to die?”
Stedman had never lost a fight, never been beaten with his bare hands. He’d learned to strike first, talk later. He swung his right with amazing quickness, connecting solidly with Vega’s jaw. The blow merely turned Carlo’s head, did not remove his grin. Josh thought the big man had let himself be hit.
Stedman was shocked at how little effect his punch had made. That amazement was the last thing he remembered. Carlos retaliated with a right of his own, and Stedman flew backwards, unconscious before he hit the ground.
“I accept your apology, Gringo,” Carlos said to the unconscious Stedman. He stepped over to the body, flipped Stedman over, grabbed him by the seat of his pants and his collar, and chucked him over his horse’s back. Turning to the other men, he said, “Pick up your garbage and get it out of my yard.”
The two gunfighters struggled to get the farm boy on his horse then left, each leading a horse carrying their fallen comrades. Carlos and Josh watched them go.
“That was a curious thing, Amigo, no?” Carlos asked. “Over two books? My mother, for all her grace and effort, cannot read. But, she is my mother, and can do many other things. She has never been to la escuela, although Mrs. Tate was teaching her.” His expression was one of sadness.
Josh was wondering about that, too. What was so important about two books?
“You are a good man to have around, Amigo,” Carlos ventured. “You are ver’ fast. The best I have seen, I think.”
“Between the two of us, I think they will be wary of bracing us again,” Josh said. He had noticed something shiny in the place where Stedman had fallen, and went to see what it was. He picked up a gold pocket watch, and it was familiar. He opened the cover. To My Brother was engraved inside. He closed the cover. “Stedman is the thief, amigo. He may also be a murderer, if I can find more proof like this.”
Carlos looked the question.
“Mrs. Tate has a watch just like this one, engraved with the same message. It had belonged to her husband. This one belonged to Mr. Tate’s brother, Asa, I’ll wager.”
Carlos raised his eyebrows.
“I buried Asa Tate a few days ago.”
A Reader Reviews
Caprock by S.J.Beres
. . . is the most fantastic book I have read. From the first page it grabbed me
and set me right into the action as if I were right there alongside during the
whole story. It is full of integrity, mystery, emotions, all of which left
me sitting on the edge of my seat at times turning pages as fast as I could.
It had me laughing, cheering for the strength not to lose, holding my breath and
saying Yessss! Alright! Good for you! In other
circumstances, such as the groceries and in many other times. The fear, sadness
and admiration and the many emotions I felt are remarkable.
A story of the Wild West and the history of
Caprock and legends, the hardships of all that the desert endured, from the
elements to the dangers, showing the strength and courage of all who were there
daring and courageous enough to be there, including the animals and of the
relationships, bonding and trust between humans and animals and how much that
bonding was needed then. And the personalities of the animals definitely
made me smile, as it is so true of animals and their true beings.
Joshua Block, a fine and outstanding man along with others is
a man of fair play, second chances, justice, honesty, truth and gentleness
which, as Mr. Beres writes, comes with strength. So many twists and turns
throughout the story, which led to a very unexpected ending. The thoughts such
as, "Well there goes that clue", as Joshua Block works on the cases he was
assigned. The coming together of so many to help each other.
This book is wonderful and perfect for the whole family. It
is full of teachings of truthfulness to being a person of courage, strength and
honesty, the symbolism's of such things such as what wearing a gun means. A
world of men and women, respect and honor, the eyes that tell the truth in each
person is how Joshua Block would help things along to solving the crimes and
situations and how men and women lived and survived.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is a family story from the
youngest child to the grandparents and one to be read generation after
generation. I'd so like to give everyone I know
a copy of this book. It is just absolutely marvelous. And I must say to
Mr. Beres, the dedication of this book is that of the utmost caring, respect and
gratitude. Dedicating it to the Pioneers who settled the West for us. Thank You
S.J. Beres for that and this wonderful story. I can't tell enough people about
this book that I cannot get out of my mind and could not put down and could read
over and over again. Its absolutely Magnificent! I cannot wait to read the next
book in the series, Palo Duro Canyon , which I just received today.
Tracey O.
Now in Print
Palo Duro Canyon is the second novel in the Joshua Block Series.
The Emancipation Proclamation set their bodies free but murder enslaved their minds. Jubilee and Nefertiri Strong escape the bonds of slavery and make a new life for themselves in the Palo Duro Canyon, only to be hunted down by a United States Senator who commands the U.S. Marshal's office to perform a statuary duty: recover escaped slaves.
They sent the wrong man for the job. Joshua Block will find them all right, but he will set them truly free, or die trying!
Palo Duro Canyon, big enough to hide a Comanche Tribe and Charlie Goodnight's cattle, but was it big enough to hide two people who only wanted to be free?
Excerpt
A large crowd, probably most everyone in town, gathered in the main street surrounding two mounted cowboys, their ropes around a very large man who stood with his back to Josh, two other men lying, bloody, in the street, and a small Negro boy with a noose around his neck, its loose end trailing in the dirt. The sight of this child pushed Josh instantly into rage. He drew his pistol and fired into the air.
"United States Marshal, freeze!" Block bellowed. "I'll shoot the next man who moves!"
And freeze they did. All except the lassoed big man, who had his arms outstretched on the confining ropes on each side. He gave a quick, mighty pull and the two cowboys, who had neglected to wrap their ropes around their pommels since they were only roping a mere man, flew off their horses to land in the dust at his feet. The giant turned to face Josh as he slipped the ropes from his body. A huge grin spread over his black face. "'Bout time you got here, boy."
Josh stared down into the old, battered face of the man he loved most in this world, Samson DeWitt. "Looks like you have the situation in hand, Samson," he grinned back.
Block noticed some members of the mob starting to fade away. "Everybody stay where you are until this is settled," he ordered. "I want to see the shame in your face." Movement stopped. Josh stared at mob members in turn, a fleeting glance that rooted them to the spot. His normal face was friendly and open, laugh lines crinkling at the corners of his eyes; his face now was stone cold fury, his gray eyes piercing into the very souls of the crowd, prying, condemning eyes that brought guilt to the surface, naked and in the open. In his life Josh had avoided more trouble with this look than his gun.
The two downed cowboys went to look after their two downed friends, and Samson went over to the boy, Josh following, his eyes and gun on the crowd. Samson picked the boy up, and removed the noose from his neck. The boy was stolid, no tears in his expressionless face. He was scared, yes, but he wasn't about to show it. Josh knew that Samson could tell him the story, indeed, Josh had it mostly figured out already, but he wanted the townsmen to tell him.
"Who started this, and I want the answer now," Josh asked, as he faced the crowd. No one could miss the anger on his face.
In the short silence that followed, eyes sought the ground and red crawled up some necks. "Feller said that kid stole some candy," someone opined, whom, Josh couldn't tell.
"What feller?" He asked.
Everyone looked around at everyone else and came up with the verdict: "He ain't here now."
"So, a feller, someone you all don't know, says this child stole some candy so you figured to string him up?"
Silence as the crowd looked at the ground. Josh knew all about mobs, how people got caught up in them, how the petty hatreds fueled their foolish actions. Most of these folks were just caught up in watching, never really thinking about what was going on. Just another black person being hung, and what will I make for supper? Josh felt sick to his stomach.
"Is the storekeeper here?" Josh asked. Everyone looked around again. "One person, go get him," he ordered. One man at the edge of the crowd moved away. Josh moved Bub over to the cowboys.
"Are you Stedman hands?" he asked.
The two men who weren't beaten to a pulp looked up, shock on their faces. "How'd you know that?" One asked.
"I can read a brand," Josh answered. "And the John Stedman I know would never have a hand in anything like this. Who's your ramrod, Marcus?"
The hand looked scared. "Yeah, he should be here tomorrow, to finish things." He looked toward the two beaten men. "It was mostly these two. They joined us on the trail when we was shorthanded. Never liked them, but your friend was fixing to kill them with his bare hands, and we couldn't let him do that." Two young cowhands, riding for the brand. Even if they didn't like the men, they would defend them, simply because they rode for the same outfit. Josh waited.
"Kid was just walking down the street when a feller yelled out that he had stole the candy. Red and Cletus here grabbed the kid, said they were gonna teach him a lesson. Red made a noose while Cletus held him, when out of nowhere that big guy showed up and laid them out. He was so mad we thought he'd kill them, so we dropped a loop over him, you know, to calm him down. Then, you showed up." Shame was evident in their faces, but, at least, they had done something. "Honest, Mr. Marshal, we wouldn't have let them hurt the boy." Josh could feel that he was telling the truth.
"This town got a jail?" No one answered.
"They ain’t even got a sheriff. There's a boxcar on the siding by the pens. We could hold them in there," the cowboy offered.
Josh nodded. "Good, and they'd better be there when your boss shows up." The two hands nodded, and then moved to comply with Block’s order. Josh turned his attention back to the crowd.
A thin man wearing an eyeshade and an apron approached him. “You the storekeep?” Josh asked. The man nodded.
Josh pointed at the child Samson was holding. “Did that boy steal anything from your store?”
“Theodore? Of course not! Samson always buys him candy when he comes to town. Is that what all this is about?”
Josh turned to the crowd. “I want a description of the man who started this.” More silence. His rage grew again. “Then get out of my sight! You disgust me!” The crowd moved quickly away.
Josh turned to his old friend and the boy. “How about it, you see the man?” Samson shook his head slowly. Josh centered his gaze on the boy. “How about it, son?”
Theodore spoke for the first time. “I’ve never seen him before, but he shouldn’t be hard to find . . . he has only one arm.”
Coming Attractions
Under consideration, right now, at Avalon Books is the story that started the saga of Joshua Block, U.S. Marshal, entitled Second Chance. It is the story of an eighteen-year-old boy growing up in Galveston, Texas and the experiences that made him what he is, the death of his parents, his brush with slavery, and his time as a bounty hunter, relentlessly pursuing the men who murdered his parents.
Should Avalon decline to accept it, I will self-publish it as I have all of the others.
Almost finished is another Joshua Block novel, Valley of the Gun. A close friend of Captain Halloran, Josh's boss, loses his daughter and her family to a roving Mexican bandit who declares himself a patriot in his personal war against the United States. Josh volunteers to give up his badge and again becomes a bounty hunter, traveling to Mexico and the fortress Escobar maintains in the Valley of the Gun. Can Josh go against and capture the killer, elude the Mexican Army, and bring Escobar to justice?
IDEAS
Two other Josh Block ideas I'm fleshing out:
Oro Grande: Helena Lindstrom, descendant of Vikings, grew up in a lumber camp. After her father's death, she strikes out on her own, finding a new town, caught up in gold fever, on the slopes of the Sierra Madres. She is taken by the beauty of the locale and decides she wants to open a lumber camp there, if she can manage to keep the town alive after the gold peters out. But right now, the gold is going great guns, until the first shipment to Reno is hijacked. The town needs a Sheriff and Helena, never one to shirk, volunteers for the job. Her investigation of the robbery takes many turns, and since the gold was under contract to the San Francisco Mint, the U.S. Marshal's office is soon involved and Josh is dispatched to help.
Once and Future Marshal: Joshua Block, traveling through southern New Mexico territory, finds a burned-out wagon and a murdered couple whose death is made to look like an Indian attack. Josh is uncertain about the slaughter, especially when he discovers an eight-year-old girl hiding nearby. The little girl and her parents were traveling to Las Cruces so Josh takes her there to her uncle. Riding out he encounters a violent lightning storm on the flats and seeks cover, finding, at the last second, an abandoned Indian Kiva to hide from the storm. The Kiva is struck by lightning and Josh is rendered unconscious. When he awakes, he finds himself in a strange new world, Las Cruces in the 21st Century. The police disregard his story and publish his name and picture in the newspaper hoping to find a relative who might have lost this demented cowboy. His name strikes a chord in the memory of Dr. Mary Clarke, named for her great grandmother and keeper of the family history. The original Mary Clarke was rescued by a man named Joshua Block! Could this possibly be the same man, 166 years old? How?