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Award-winning publisher Garrick Feldman dies Guest Column: Cut down on the exclamation marks
Arkansas Press Association
Publisher Weekly
By John Foust
Vol. 16 | No.48 | Wednesday, December 9, 2021 | Serving Press and State Since 1873
Rollicking Westerns the next adventure for Russellville editor Russellville Courier editor Randal Seyler had a new side hustle in 2021: he’s the published author of a new series of Western novels aimed at young adults. The series spins the adventures of Jehovah Moon, a 16-year old boy in the late 19th century who is training to be a Texas Ranger. The fast-paced adventures are coming out quickly. Seyler’s first novel, Jehovah Moon: Texas Ranger: Stagecoach Shootout was published Sept. 27 by Dusty Saddle Publishing, a well-known publisher
of Westerns, as part of a five-book deal. Its sequel was published in mid-October, and the third book came out Nov. 7. A fourth book is expected soon. Seyler says the fast pace is influenced by a couple of factors. “As a kid I grew up reading pulp westerns, pulp mysteries,” Seyler explained. “People like James M. Cain, Donald Pendleton, Donald Hamilton. Guys who basically cranked books out like one a month. That industry’s gone away.” “Now it’s finally coming back online with some of the publishers that are really concentrating on online publishing. You can get hard copies, but they aren’t the focus. But that’s what the pulp fiction industry was. They published them quickly, on the cheapest, lowest grade of paper—that’s why they’re called pulp.” He said e-books eliminate production costs, allowing faster publishing at often bargain rates. In this part of the publishing industry, paperbacks are almost an afterthought, a way of extending the e-books’ reach to paperpreferring audiences. The other reason? He’s a journalist. Before the Courier, Seyler edited the Daily Record, in Roswell, New Mexico, and was bureau chief for the Sun-News in Silver City, New Mexico. In Arkansas he’s worked for newspapers in Osceola, Berryville, Washington County, Dumas, El Dorado and Jonesboro. “I tend to do most of my revisions
as I’m writing, reading back through the previous day’s pages. It’s that journalism training. When you’re meeting daily newspaper deadlines, you don’t do a lot of rewriting. You write it. You print it. You move on. In this genre, that works for me.” He also says the writing tip he had been hearing everywhere for 30 years finally sank in: write every day. Since February, he’s written 1,000 words per day, usually in the morning before heading to work at the newspaper. In between his journalism careers, Seyler had a 15-year stretch working in human resources, much of it at a wheel factory with 2,600 employees. “In 2019 I had in mind to do some APA seminars on selfdefense for journalists, but discovered that copying the handouts was pricier than publishing them as a booklet,” he said. Then Covid hit and the seminars got put on hold. The seminar subject was inspired by the newsroom shooting at the Capital-Gazette in Maryland, and informed by Seyler’s deep experience in human resources and in self-defense. Seyler taught martial arts, Continued on Page 2