Like so many of his characters, L'Amour had to find ways to survive as does Sweetwater.

A bawdy honky tonk song beats up from the Diamond Belle Saloon into room 222 at the Strater Hotel in Durango, Colorado.

Louis L'Amour, master storyteller of the American frontier and writer of over a hundred western novels clicked his typewriter at the Strater, the beat of the Sackett's.

A witch pagan song Circle of Stone echoes on her eleven acres of ritual smoking wild sage in the Wet Mountains of Colorado.

Sage Sweetwater, firebrand lesbian storyteller of the modern-day
Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico frontier and writer of six lesbian pulp fiction dime store novels, taps her keyboard, the beat of THE BUCKSKIN SKIRT OAR TRAVELER, and THE FOUR CORNERS SERIES; FROM THE CONVENT TO THE RAWHIDE: THE SAGA OF SADIE CADE AND VI MONTANA, BLUE CORN WOMAN, LORAINE LEATHERBOW: THE HOUSE OF SPLEEN, and STONE CREEK WOMAN.

Like so many of his characters, L'Amour had to find ways to survive as does Sweetwater.

During all of his travels, L'Amour stayed true to his passion---storytelling, talking to old-timers to hear first-hand experiences, writing poetry and short stories as does Sweetwater.

In 1935, L'Amour sold his first short story for cash.  It was a gangster story.  It fetched $6.54.

In 1985, Sweetwater sold her first short story to the world's largest selling men's motorcycle magazine.  It was a biker story.  It sold for $100.00 after it won first place in the magazine short story contest.  Sweetwater was contacted by the editor of the motorcycle magazine who informed her she won...BUT...it would only be published as the winner if she chose a man's byline.  "No, I won't do it, I write under a female byline and that's how it is, Mr...."  The editor then told her she could accept second place and $100 and the biker story would be published under her female byline.  Sweetwater accepted that deal, knowing very well about a man's world.  It was good enough for her, and she took that story along with seven others to the recording studio and recorded THE BIKER CHRONICLES which is geared for future release on CD.

"To write, of course, I've got to make a living," L'Amour told a colleague.  So does Sweetwater, to write, of course, she has to make a living.

The colleague told L'Amour, "You know the West, write some westerns and I'll buy them."  And that's what Louis L'Amour did.  He tramped the Four Corners of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah and put accurate details of the land in his stories as does Sage Sweetwater.  He researched his own historical material and read diaries and journals.  He listened to the stories of old gun-slingers, prospectors, law men, and Native Americans as does Sage Sweetwater who also has the stories in her head like L'Amour for years before they ended up on paper.

L'Amour's Sackett stories were born from a long encounter when he wandered into a small town in New Mexico crowded with ranch hands.  Sweetwater's stories are the flagship of STONE CREEK WOMAN, where she enlisted in a medicine camp on Colorado's western slope.  Many of Sweetwater's fans think she is Stone Creek Woman and have told her so, only Sweetwater knows and she's not telling.  It adds to her mystique, a woman who leads other women across Colorado's western frontier to get themselves back into the primal element of life in an undiluted, natural environment.

L'Amour's stories played well in the movies.  Sweetwater stories are intentionally written for the movies, making sure her characters and plots are visual and translate well on screen.  THE GIFT OF COCHISE, L'Amour's short story became the movie HONDO in 1953, 5 years before Sweetwater's birth, starring John Wayne, Ward Bond, and James Arness.  The demand for Western movies and western television shows created a huge market.  45 of his books were made into movies and television shows. Soon his novels hit the marketplace at 3 a year.  JUBAL SACKETT was on the New York Bestsellers list for 19 weeks, THE WALKING DRUM for 16 weeks.  L'Amour just finished working on THE SACKETT COMPANION, THE FACTS BEHIND THE FICTION a few months before his death in 1988.  His wife, Kathy, and his daughter, Angelique and son Beau, still work hard to bring his books out.

The West, L'Amour loved as does Sweetwater.  In THE DAYBREAKERS, L'Amour wrote, "Sometimes I wonder if anything is ever ended.  The words a man speaks today live on in his thoughts or the memories of others, and the shot fired, the blow struck, the thing done today is like a stone tossed into a pool and the ripples keep widening out until they touch lives far from ours."  Sweetwater wrote in FROM THE CONVENT TO THE RAWHIDE: THE SAGA OF SADIE CADE AND VI MONTANA, "Mormon Crossing, St. Michaels Indian Mission School, The Pish Convent, The Orchard of Retreat; at first, they may have been historical toil for survival, random kindness, a 3,250 pipe-organ dream and meditative contemplation that all grew out of great-hearted decisions that made positive differences in lives.  It's the kind of thing that inspires authors to write books."




Copyright 2006 Sage Sweetwater, firebrand lesbian novelist