Durango Public Library will bring award-winning novelist C.J. Box to town this weekend as part of the fourth annual Literary Festival. Box stands out in the crowd. Sporting his signature big, black cowboy hat, Box could easily be mistaken for the hero of his own literary series, Joe Pickett.
For readers unfamiliar with Box’s book series, Joe Pickett is his everyman hero. A Wyoming game warden, Pickett is underpaid, overworked and honorable. Pickett is a very likable character and most readers can related to him.
Unlike most protagonists, Pickett’s family is ingrained into each story of the series. There is wife, Marybeth, who contributes by using her computer skills to ferret out information on the Internet. Then there are daughters Sheridan, Lucy and foster daughter, April, who, depending on the plot, aid the action or complicate it.
The first novel, Open Season, started with a bang. Literally. “When a high-powered rifle bullet hits living flesh it makes a distinctive pow–WHOP–sound that is unmistakable even at tremendous distance.” With this riveting statement and the following engrossing story, Box earned many prestigious awards. He has received The Anthony, The Barry, The Edgar, The Gumshoe, The Macavity and France’s esteemed Prix Calibre 38 Award.
I reached Box at his home and asked him about his writing schedule after turning out 13 Joe Pickett books and four standalone novels.
“Like everybody, I go to work every morning,” he said. “First, I work out, have breakfast, then descend into my basement office or, if I’m at my cabin, to my desk in the corner of the ground floor) and get after it. I generally try to produce a thousand words a day minimum, but sometimes I’ll write much more. Then I take a break, edit what I wrote, re-write and move on. I’m an outliner, so I always know where the novel is headed although I may make changes or throw in a curve that wasn’t planned.”
This disciplined schedule makes it possible for him to pursue standalone novels. His first, Blue Heaven, won the Edgar Award for Best Novel for 2008.
“There are just simply some stories I’ve got in my head that couldn’t be series novels, like The Highway,” Box said. “Some of it has to do with where the novel must take place. When the storyline is outside of Joe Pickett country, a standalone is necessary to make it work.” Thus, Blue Heaven (Idaho), Three Weeks to Say Goodbye (Colorado), Back Of Beyond (Montana and Yellowstone) and The Highway (Colorado, Wyoming, Montana).
Box’s successful Joe Pickett series uses issues unique to the American western experience. This weaving of environmental concerns that sometimes pits old-timers versus new and government agencies versus almost everyone, brings home to readers that “the times, they are a changing.”
Box explains his approach. “I’m interested in Western issues and controversies,” he said. “Many of them are resource-based, or environmental. So when I feature an issue in one of the Joe Pickett novels, I try to present it with fairness, and trust the reader to come down where they may. I don’t write agenda books, but try hard to present both sides of an issue.”
When the next Picket book, Stone Cold, is released in March, it will be interesting to see what issue will intrude on Joe Pickett’s life this time.
Box’s latest standalone book, The Highway, is dark, dramatic and pulled from the headlines as well as many parents’ nightmares. The story involves several characters that were introduced in Back Of Beyond and includes sisters Gracie and Danielle Sullivan.
Danielle is determined to find out why her “boyfriend” Justin Hoyt is ignoring her. She drags her younger sister on an ill-advised road trip through the lonely Montana roads, unaware that these same roads have become the personal stalking grounds of a highly organized killer.
When the Sullivan girls seem to disappear into thin air, Justin’s father, Cody, a recently fired law-enforcement officer, and his protégé Cassie Dewell work against a ticking clock to try to find and save the girls before the unthinkable happens. Box has crafted a terrifying, suspenseful novel that plays on fears of random and senseless violence and highlights some of the best and worst aspects of human nature.
To bring the reality of long-haul trucking to life, Box did considerable research.
“I love doing research to establish the basis of every novel, and it’s extremely important to me that the books come off as authentic,” he said. “With The Highway, I lurked on Internet trucker forums and rode along with truckers... Research is the foundation of my novels.”
As readers will discover, the world in The Highway seems all too real. Prepare for a gripping, page turning ride.
sierrapoco@yahoo.com. Leslie Doran is a Durango freelance reviewer.
Meet the Author
The 4th annual Durango Public Library Literary Festival will begin with an opening reception at 5:30 p.m. C.J. Box will present “Life and Writing in the Mountain Time Zone” at 7 p.m. Box also will appear at a fundraising luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. Tickets cost $30, available at the library.
Also Saturday, the library will host the Local Authors Fair from 1:30-3:30 p.m. More than 20 local authors will be at the library to meet and talk about their work and the writing and publishing process.
For more information, visit www.durangopubliclibrary.org or call 375-3387.
