Action on the Range

We weren't the first guys to think of reviving the "men's action adventure series" for the Kindle & Nook -- the immensely talented Colby Jackson beat us to it with his RANCHO DIABLO series of original ebook westerns, starting with Shooter's Cross. But we're big admirers of Jackson...who is actually the "house names"" for three writers of upcoming DEAD MAN tales...Mel Odom, Bill Crider, and James Reasoner. Pulp Serenade has a great interview with Bill discussing the evolution of the series. Here's an excerpt:

Pulp Serenade: Can you tell us a bit about your cohorts in Rancho Diablo and how you all came together?
Bill Crider: The Rancho Diablo crew is me, James Reasoner, and Mel Odom. Mel is the driving force. He's very into the e-book market, and he thought we should get into it as soon as we could. He thought it would be fun to do something in the spirit of the old pulps. Instead of, say, THE RIO KID WESTERN MAGAZINE, we'd have RANCHO DIABLO WESTERN MAGAZINE, and instead being a print magazine, it would be an e-publication. Mel knew that James and I were big fans of the fiction in the pulps, so he asked what we thought. We thought it was a great idea, and we jumped at the chance to be part of it.
PS: How did you all come up with the main character of Sam Blaylock?
BC: This was a group project from the beginning. We used e-mail to bat around ideas, and everybody contributed. Mel originated the concept, and then we hashed things over until we had characters and a setting that everybody liked. I think I've saved all the e-mails for posterity.
PS: How are you all splitting the writing duties for the Rancho Diablo books?
BC: Mel wrote the first one, James will do the second, and I'm in line to do the third. The idea was that sometimes we might do just a short story instead of a novella, and who knows what might happen as we go along? I'm eager to read James's contribution. After I do mine, we'll see where we stand, and if things are working out, we'll keep going.