A Conversation With Matthew Mayo, Part One
Matthew P. Mayo’s first published novel, Winters’ War, was the second Black Horse Western I read, and later in the year, hoping to discover more of his work, I visited his web site. The news there mentioned additional novels, but also a soon to be published non-fiction book called Cowboys, Mountain Men & Grizzly Bears. Soon after, I was pleased to find him included in the Express Westerns anthology, A Fistful of Legends. To say Mayo is prolific can be verified by visiting his newly redesigned web site www.matthewmayo.com. To say he’s talented can be underscored by his being named a Spur Awards finalist by the Western Writers of America for “Half a Pig,” the story from A Fistful of Legends. It’s a privilege to visit with Matt, and I’m grateful for his time in answering my questions.
MB: First, congratulations on being named a Spur Award finalist. How does it feel?
MM: It feels grand. I didn’t expect such a fine honor. I was–still am–pleased with the story. I wrote it in Montana, staring out my office window at a lone, dead tree on a hilltop behind our place, and the Marty Robbins song “Hanging Tree” popped into my head, and I worked it out from there. It feels good that first the Express Westerns editor Nik Morton liked the story, and then that the Spur judges found merit in it, too. And to be considered with John D. Nesbitt, a writer I admire and who I’ve come to know, makes it extra special.
MB: After a life-long love affair with the American West, you moved to Montana from Maine. Culture shock?
MM: Not so much culture shock—My wife and I had been out West prior to that and already loved it. But it was one of those crazy moves that came about because of a job. We’re both freelancers—I write and my wife’s a photographer—so our work is fairly mobile. We knew the West, liked the West, and after another tour of it, following the Western Writers of America convention in Scottsdale, Arizona, in June, 2008, we knew we had to give it a go. We headed back to Maine and sold our much-loved, refurbished Maine farmhouse (on four acres of blueberries!) and headed to Bozeman, Montana. The move turned out to be great. We rented a house at 6,000 feet in the Bridgers. Fantastic. Our first morning, we strolled out onto the deck, coffees in hand, and a bull moose, not twenty yards away, was snoring. Snoring! An hour later, a black bear walked through the same spot. Just like Maine….
MB: I know you worked a day job with Big Sky Journal, a lifestyle and culture magazine of the Northern Rockies. Tell us about taking the plunge into a full-time writing career.
MM: Though I went to Bozeman for the managing ed’s position of Big Sky Journal, I worked largely from home while there, as I was also still editor in chief of Miami Living Magazine (yep, that Miami—gotta love the Web!), copy ed of another publication, and I was writing books and short stories, too. Then the economy went wonky, forcing the Bozeman publisher to instigate belt-tightening changes. We decided that though we loved living in the West, professionally we would be better off back in Maine. We have many professional ties in New England, my wife’s a college instructor here, etc., so it made sense. So now we’re in Maine again, but still travel out West throughout the year.
As for the plunge, I’ve been a full-time freelancer since 2003. I’m still managing editor of Big Sky Journal magazine, responsible, among other things, for reviewing books, CDs, DVDs, writing the occasional feature, and writing our news sections. I’m also copy editor of BSJ’s sister publication, Western Art & Architecture. Plus I review books for a few other publications. But in addition to the magazine duties, I write books nearly full-time now. That part of my work is building a head of steam and looks promising.
MB: You’ve mentioned the multitude of tasks unique to non-fiction books, not the least of which is pure research. In your new book, Cowboys, Mountain Men & Grizzly Bears, Fifty of the Grittiest Moments in the History of the Wild West (2010, Globe Pequot Press), your list of acknowledgements includes places like the Oakland Museum of California and the University of Oklahoma libraries. In general, how did you approach researching the book?
MM: Some of the venues listed in the book are places that my wife and I corresponded with in pursuit of historic images and/or information (Jen’s been a huge help in researching and obtaining historic images and artwork, licensing rights, etc.—I couldn’t have done it without her). I began researching the book by mining thousands of books at various libraries, bookstores, my own stacks, collections at historical societies, museums.
Plus I used online resources—though only to begin research. (As a rule I don’t trust online resources unless I can cross-reference and verify the info offline, primarily because I’ve found so many errors in online sources. Too many people think they’re experts of, say, Wyatt Earp or Custer, and end up passing along info they learned from Hollywood. Wikipedia is a fantastic place to begin digging, but it’s full of errors such as incorrect dates, etc., which makes it unreliable as a single source.)
MB: Did you make any field trips specifically for research?
MM: Being out West while I wrote the book, we made lots of trips to town archives, libraries, historical societies’ collections, museums, ghost towns. It was great fun and I turned up great resources that I’ll be able to use for future projects.
MB: You grew up on a dairy farm so the ambivalence of nature and violence inherent in wild animals must be something you’ve always known about. Still, were you at all surprised at just how tough things were for the folks who settled the west?
MM: I recognized, over and over, just how difficult life was at times for people venturing West. But because I’ve been studying this for years, it didn’t really come as a surprise so much as it verified certain suspicions I had that people then were quite similar to folks today, in many ways.
Oftentimes people who made the biggest gambles had the least to lose, possession-wise. There was always that hunger for betterment—as individuals and as a nation. It reminds me that we lead such wealthy lives today, in comparison, that a 19th-century pioneer would be amazed, at both our general apathy as a culture and at the technological achievements we all enjoy daily.
Up Next: Tune in on Thursday for the second part of my visit with Matthew Mayo. We’ll talk gritty sequels, Winters’ War, and how you might be able to earn a lobster dinner…
on March 23, 2010 at 9:47 pm
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Fine interview, Rich. And congrats on the near-win, Mr. M!
on March 24, 2010 at 4:46 am
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Excellent interview. Looking forward to part two and reading Cowboys, Mountain Men & Grizzly Bears.
on March 24, 2010 at 10:31 am
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Thanks, Rich. Probably took a lot to pin Matt down, he’s so busy! Looking forward to part 2.
Nik