Today, Feathered Quill reviewer Tripti Kandari is talking with Dan E. Hendrickson, author of Railroad Man, Legacies Son.

FQ: Our hero, Arthur Edwards, carries deep trauma from the Civil War. How did you approach writing his emotional healing alongside his role as a hero?

HENDRICKSON: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a very serious condition that many soldiers have as a result of something terrible that happened to them or that they saw/experienced during war. My own father experienced this from trauma and life-threatening wounds he received serving in the Philippines during WW2. I can still remember my mother telling us about the nightmares he had that he refused to talk about with me or my siblings. He was able to open to my mother eventually and talk about what he experienced and that was key for him growing and learning to deal with it. I used that experience to help develop Arthur’s journey to healing in the book.

FQ: Railroad Man, Legacies Son blends romance, historical conflict, and thriller-like suspense. How did you decide on this mix of genres, and which element was the hardest, and the most enjoyable, for you to write?

HENDRICKSON: Life cannot be put into one genre. For me a story is not worth its salt unless it has at least an element of romance in it. I love to write action and adventure and in my last few novels I have delved into writing more historical fiction. Although the research for historical fiction can be intense at times, I really enjoy it probably due to my journalistic background. The Romance in this book was my biggest challenge. I wanted to develop that portion of my writing to another level. I took a writing class with Oxford University while I was in the middle of working on Railroad Man, Legacies Son and it really helped me in this category.

FQ: The tension between railroad expansion and Indigenous land rights is central to the plot. What message or perspective do you want readers to take away from this conflict?

HENDRICKSON: The message is that there is no cookie cutter stance that you can take on this issue. In my research into the conflict that occurred amidst the controversary with the railroad, cattlemen, and Indian Tribes in western United States over the beef market and using rail lines to ship the product exposed it to be a very complicated issue. Everyone was in favor of the lines going through. But it was the competition to benefit the most from it. The railroad wanted the business, the cattleman wanted the convenience, and the Indians wanted to benefit. The cattlemen were afraid that if the Railroad gave into the tribes demands and offered them unlimited at no cost shipping in payment for using their land it would undercut them at the beef market. They didn’t want the tribes to develop herds bigger than their own. The railroad made a lot of wealth off the cattleman but needed the tribal lands also.

FQ: How much historical research went into the railroad and frontier setting? Did you rely more on archives, real events, or imagination?

HENDRICKSON: All of the above. I grew up in Sheridan Wyoming and a lot of this stuff is common knowledge there. Though not so well known in the rest of the country.

FQ: Aylen represents a new kind of woman in the West, a woman who is educated and independent. Can we see this as your attempt to challenge stereotypes about women in historical Western fiction?

HENDRICKSON: Wyoming gave women the right to vote in 1869. It was the first place in the US to do so. There was a lot of reason why the then all male legislatures did that, but the women’s suffrage movement was a vital factor. By 1883 the territory was considered a stronghold in the union for women’s rights. So, a lot of the character attributes of Aylen are quite believable for that time period. Yes, I did want to represent a more truthful aspect of independent women who existed back then.

FQ: Which scene was the most emotionally difficult for you to write, and why? 

HENDRICKSON: When Swiftwind, the Appaloosa Stallion, chose Arthur at the railroad work camp north of Sheridan. Swiftwind is such a key part of Aylen’s past and connection to her Crow heritage. I was really concerned about getting it just right. Depicting the man who hates, and is terrible at riding horses, to be chosen by the most unrideable horse in the territory. It could have been a disaster but they had to learn to work together in order to go and save the ones they love the most. I wanted it to be both magical and humorous.

FQ: If this novel were adapted into a film or series, who would you cast as Arthur and Aylen?

HENDRICKSON: Arthur: David Corinswet, Aylen: Amber Midthunder

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