The Western, I believe, is the ultimate genre.

The epic nomenclature of tough, strong cowboys in big hats with guns and horses pitted in physical and psychological contests of good versus evil fought on rugged frontier landscapes that externally mirror their own jagged internal natures is mythic and timeless. But while the entire world loves westerns, the U.S. owns the brand, and westerns remain our own uniquely American mythology and true contribution to pop culture. Westerns are the American Arthurian Legend.

Born from the harsh realities of the Old West, bred through a century of thrilling popular culture in novels and film that fired the public imagination, imprinted by books and movies that cross-pollinated each other to create a grand mythology that remains popular as ever today; it’s hard to tell now where the reality ends and myth begins with westerns, but cowboy good guys and bad guys are baked into our collective consciousness.

While there is a certain mystery to the mystique of the western, some things are certain: it’s a heroic genre, full of honor and nobility with bigger-than-life heroes and villains; it’s a physical genre, action-packed on the purest level with riding and fistfights and shooting; and it’s a cathartic genre, where morality tales about good versus evil end in a decisive, satisfying showdown at the climax that gives us a vicarious sense of triumph we rarely achieve in our complicated real world where right and wrong is not always clear.

Some part of us needs this as human beings on the deepest level, which is the appeal of all heroic mythologies going back forever. Reading or watching a western, however briefly, we experience the wish fulfillment of becoming the cowboys we played at being as kids and heroes we want to be as adults if only real life were as simple as saddling your horse, grabbing your guns, and riding to the rescue.

One of the things as a screenwriter and novelist I appreciate most about westerns is the genre can absorb every other genre into the storytelling; elements of other genres like thriller, mystery, crime, even horror, all can be injected into a western story. There is even a thriving genre of romance westerns! The classic template of cowboys and guns and horses and landscapes is a canvas that can be painted with many brushes; this very adaptability makes it such an exciting genre for a writer to explore.

While many folks know me for my horror and thriller films and books, in actuality westerns are my favorite genre and the genre I’ve worked the most in, having written and produced western movies, written western novels and even created a western comic book. The movie was an HBO film called The Last Outlaw starring Mickey Rourke, a gritty, bloody adventure about a gang of outlaws pursued by a posse led by their leader who they had left for dead.

Mixing the horror and western literary genres became the inspiration for my novels The Guns Of Santa Sangre and its sequel The Wolves Of El Diablo from SST Publications, about three tough American gunfighters battling several generations of werewolves who are bandits by day in Old Mexico.

My bestselling current western book series, the Joe Noose Westerns from Pinnacle Books & Kensington Books, revolves around the adventures of a tough and complex bounty hunter in 1800s Wyoming. With Noose, Hanging Fire, Branded and The Crimson Trail, the Noose series is on its fourth book with more to come.

My lifelong love of the Western genre continues to inspire me endlessly as a creative open range of possibilities always offering new frontiers in storytelling.

Saddle up.