Cowboy Character Captures Author’s Interest Once More

When novelist Randall Beth Platt talks about her favorite protagonist, you get the feeling she’s talking about somebody real.

Sometimes it seems as if Royal Leckner is - real, that is. A rancher living in the Walla Walla/Milton-Freewater area around the turn of the century, Royal is the main character in two of Platt’s novels.

The first was “The Four Arrows Fe-As-Ko” and, most recently, Royal showed up in “The Royalscope Fe-As-Ko,” from which Platt will read on Wednesday at Auntie’s (see Reader Board below).

“Rather than a sequel,” she says of “Royalscope,” “I call it the second in a series. I call the series ‘The Fe-As-Kos,’ as a matter of fact.”

And Royal? “This character is an awful lot of fun to write,” she says. “I find that I can’t go more than a couple of years without him sneaking up on me, tapping me on the back, driving me to my chair and saying, ‘Here, I got another story for you.”’

Platt, a Gig Harbor author who has written four novels in all, not only will read from “The Royalscope Fe-As-Ko,” but she also will talk about her young-adult novel, “Honor Bright.”

However, it is Royal, her pet cowboy, who has cornered her interest.

In the second book, which is set in 1915, Royal’s wife heads for Los Angeles where she gets involved with an unscrupulous movie producer named, believe it or not, Marco Magellan. Before long, she has invested the family’s finances in “this so-called fad,” and Royal sets off in rescue.

Not that she’s helpless, mind you.

“At one point, Royal’s wife made him move from Oregon to Washington because they were going to give women the vote earlier,” Platt says. “That gives you an idea of his character and the kind of relationship that he has with his wife.”

Even though Platt’s books are published by small presses, she doesn’t have a regular day job. “When I’m not writing, I’m promoting,” she says. “I don’t make an awful lot of money, but a film option now and then really helps.”

She got a healthy one for a Canadian film adaptation of “Four Arrows Fe-As-Ko,” which was retitled “Promise the Moon” and was broadcast on Canadian television Feb. 27. The process, though, didn’t exactly please her.

For one thing, the producers cast Henry Czerny as Royal. Czerny, for you movie fans, may be best known for his roles as sneaky espionage officials in “Clear and Present Danger” and “Mission: Impossible.”

“When I heard he was going to play my cowboy hero, I said, ‘No way. That little weasel?”’ Platt says. “But he is adorable. You put a mustache on him and put him on a horse and you don’t know that he’s that short.”

The lesson seems clear: Never mess with a woman’s fantasy man, especially one wearing boots.

A quality sales pitch

We get lots of phone calls around here from folks trying to sell things. Most of the book-related sales pitches come this way.

It’s not often, though, that I’ll get to hear a more fervent appeal than the one put forward by a publicist for Counterpoint Press of Washington, D.C.

Here is how one Jessica Kane (“K, A, N, E,” she said) talked up “Diamond Sutra,” a debut novel by former Zen monk Colin Hester.

“The book is a very literary debut driven by its dialogue,” Kane said. “The style of his dialogue is similar to Cormac McCarthy. The book is a Zen American odyssey of sorts. The narrator goes on a cross-country odyssey in search of his childhood love and first friend, a woman he’s re-met and who suddenly disappears.”

Overall, Kane said, “It’s a book about baseball and alcoholism, suicide, what redemption really offers.”

Hester will read from his book at Auntie’s on Monday (see reader board below).

Our fathers, who…

The Rogue Readers, a literary-minded offshoot of the Rogue Players drama troupe, will make its third appearance at Auntie’s Bookstore at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

Their subject this time: Father’s Day.

“They’ve been here twice before, and it’s been just a bang-up event,” says Mitch Finley, Auntie’s literary event coordinator. “It’s more fun than you can imagine. They just knock people’s sock off.”

Look for the troupe on July 3, too, also at 7:30 p.m. The subject of that event will be - what else? - patriotism.

Over the transom

If the waters of the Inland Northwest interest you, then you might want to pick up a copy of “River Tales of Idaho” (Caxton Printers, 342 pages, $17.95 paperback) by Darcy Williamson.

The book, published by the Caldwell, Idaho-based publisher, is a collection of 58-odd stories, ranging from Coyote stories to reconstructions of murder, from river rafting to the damming of Hells Canyon.

“As each story unfolds,” Williamson wrote in the book’s introduction, “there is one continuous thread. Of all the natural resources that have contributed to the economic growth of Idaho, its rivers have made the largest contribution - and paid the greatest price.”

For ordering information, call (208) 459-7450.

Looking ahead

Mystery fans have a couple of fun evenings to look forward to. Both will occur at Auntie’s Bookstore.

Karen Kijewski (kuh-CHEF-ski), author of the Kat Colorado series, will read from her latest book, “Kat Scratch Fever,” on June 18. And J.A. Jance, the Seattle/Arizona author of both the J.P. Beaumont and the Joanna Brady series, will read from her latest Brady book, “Skeleton Canyon,” on July 11.

What’s your signing

Alan Liere, author of “…and Pandemonium Rained,” will sign copies of his book between noon and 3 p.m. Saturday at the Book & Game Co. in Coeur d’Alene’s Silverlake Mall.

Liere, whose previous book was “Bear Heads and Fish Tales,” is a writer of outdoors-oriented humor.

The reader board

Colin Hester, author of “Diamond Sutra,” will read from his novel at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Auntie’s Bookstore.

Randall Beth Platt, author of “The Royalscope Fe-As-Ko,” will read from her novel - and discuss her young-adult novel “Honor Bright” - at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Auntie’s Bookstore.

, DataTimes