< The Latest 2025-05-31T01:35:31+0000
The Pasadena Star-News | Fri 05/30 06:35pm PST | Erik Pedersen
Dane Huckelbridge, whose books include “No Beast So Fierce” and “Castle of Water,” is the author of the new Belle Starr biography, “Queen of All Mayhem.” He lives in Paris.
Q. Please tell readers about your new book, “Queen of All Mayhem.” What was one of the surprising things you learned while researching Belle Starr’s story?
“Queen of All Mayhem” tells the life story of Belle Starr, a prominent female outlaw of the Wild West era who has been forgotten to a certain extent over the last half-century. A horse thief, whiskey smuggler, and stick-up artist who led a criminal gang in the Cherokee Nation in the 1880s, she became something of a household name in the decades following her death, only to to be eclipsed by figures like Annie Oakley and Calamity Jane in the post-war years. I found her to be a great subject for a book, because she truly was a gunslinger and a desperado, unlike those two more celebrated figures.
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As to something I learned while researching Belle Starr’s story, I had no idea how violent life could be in the Old West. Of course, I’d seen plenty of Westerns and cowboy movies, but I always assumed those were exaggerated depictions created for cinematic appeal. Obviously, I can’t speak for the entire Western experience, but Belle Starr had two brothers, three husbands, and a son who all died in gunfights, and she herself was shot off her horse and killed by a shotgun-wielding assailant. So at least in her case, the Wild West cliches hold pretty true.
Q. What are you reading now?
I just finished reading “The Night in Lisbon,” by Erich Maria Remarque. As an author, he’s much better known for “All Quiet on the Western Front,” which is indeed a masterpiece, but “The Night in Lisbon” is a fantastic book as well. It’s a moving love story and a haunting depiction of Europe under Fascism, when refugees were desperate to flee the continent. Lisbon at the time was one of the few safe ports for escape, which comes to play a pivotal role in the novel’s plot. I highly recommend it.
Q. Do you remember the first book that made an impact on you?
I can think of two books that made an impact on me, in slightly different ways. I remember reading “Dandelion Wine” by Ray Bradbury when I was 11 or 12, and it left an impression because it was the first time I’d ever read a book about boyhood that captured experiences so close to my own. It opened my eyes in a way, because it had never occured to me, growing up in the Midwest, that anything about my world was noteworthy, let alone book-worthy, and in reading such a beautiful story based on Bradbury’s own childhood in Illinois, I realized I was wrong.
The second book that made an impact would be “The Sun Also Rises.” While “Dandelion Wine” may have described a world I already knew, Ernest Hemingway revealed one that I desperately wanted to explore, with a direct, honest style that appealed to me at the time. It made me want to be a writer, and it made me want to live in Europe, both of which I ended up doing. I currently live in Paris, as a matter of fact!
So I owe a tremendous debt to both Ray and Ernest, for showing me that a kid from Ohio could actually grow up to become a writer, and for inspiring me to see a bit of the world. I’m truly grateful for that.
Q. How do you decide what to read next?
When I lived in New York City, I used to love going into used bookshops to peruse the shelves for interesting finds. It was a great way to discover older or more obscure books I’d never heard of. Here in Paris, it’s a bit harder—there aren’t that many English-language bookshops, let alone used bookshops with dog-eared American paperbacks. I do go to some of the old standbys from time to time, but the English books are rather expensive to take a chance on, so I tend to rely quite heavily on recommendations from friends these days.
Q. Is there a book you’re nervous to read?
This is a great question, and I think I have an interesting answer: my own! Once one of my books is published, I almost never go back and read it again. This is in large part because inevitably, as an author, you always find little things you wish you could have done differently or better when you review your own texts. It’s very rarely the sort of thing readers would even notice, but when it’s your own writing, it can drive you a bit crazy. So I learned the hard way that it’s better just to set the book down, be grateful for the opportunity to share your work with other people, and then move on to the next project. For me, anyway.
Q. Do you have a favorite character or quote from a book?
I’ve always been partial to Heathcliff from “Wuthering Heights.” I’m generally drawn to stories of outsiders, but in his case, I just loved his swarthy, brooding demeanor, his mysterious origins, and the fact that he was so haunted by his past. I can easily imagine him stalking across the moors, hair whipped by the howling wind, eyes blazing with an implacable and unholy fury. What a character!
Q. If you could ask your readers something, what would it be?
Well, I write novels and nonfiction both, and I’m always looking for new ideas, so I suppose I’d like to ask them what I should write next. You never know where your inspiration might come from, so if anyone has any good ideas, I’m all ears. In fact, my latest book, “Queen of All Mayhem,” came from a casual discussion with my editor, in which I mentioned that there was an old bit of family lore—difficult to substantiate—that I was distantly related to the notorious outlaw Belle Starr. It never occured to me that I could make a book out of that, but my editor saw something I didn’t, and the next thing I knew, we were off to the races. So yes, tell me what you’d like to read! You never know what might stick.