Ken Farmer's dialogue flows like a beautiful western river...it's the gold standard.
- Carole Beers
Ken Farmer was born in Kilgore, Texas in 1941, the son of a Driller/Tool Pusher for Shell Oil Company. Ken attended 21 grade schools in 7 states, living in most of the ‘boom towns’ of the time. He graduated college with a BS degree from Stephen F. Austin State University where he attended from ’61 to ’63 on a full football scholarship.
Ken didn't write his first full novel until he was sixty-nine years of age. He often wonders what the hell took him so long. At age eighty-two, he released novel #37 on Sept. 19th, 2020...THREE CREEKS. it just may be his opus. He has released #52, book #10 in the THREE CREEKS series...CORNIE BAYOU - 1/12/24.
The THREE CREEKS series is a late ‘40s and early ‘50s Southern Noir Murder Mystery series in the vein of To Kill a Mockingbird, Where the Crawdads Sing, Catcher in the Rye, and The Rock Hole.
The first in the series, THREE CREEKS won the Firebird Award for Best Mystery of 2020 and the CLUE Award from Chanticleer Book Awards for Best Suspense Thriller of 2020 and was named Book of the Year by Author Network Group. Book #2 RED HILL ROAD has won the Firebird Award for Best Mystery of 2020 and Best Southern Noir as has book #3...THE POND - 2021. He has won a total of 10 Best Novel awards to date.
Novelist, Playwright, and winner of three Clio Awards, Robert Joseph Ahola, pened: Farmer writes with a sense of irony that is palpable and a way of twisting a plot that keeps you hooked from page one to the end. The first in a compelling series, Three Creeks is a seminal master class.
There has been an evolvement in Ken's writing from third person omniscient to first person deep POV in the Three Creeks Series. He wrote his first novel...with a friend, in 2010 after retiring from a professional film/TV acting career of some 45 years. Like most actors, he dabbled in writing screen/teleplays, so, moving into novels was not a great stretch. There's not a lot of difference, especially in dialogue, but the novel narrator has to write down what the camera would see and the sound engineer would hear for the reader.
Ken is a pure pantser, meaning he doesn't outline...It's like Improv in acting. He takes the four Ws - Who, What - Where - When, and just starts writing. He says he just listens to what the characters say and writes it down. It's like watching a movie in his head.
As mentioned, his first 36 novels were third person omniscient but there was this story,..loosely based on his own childhood in the ‘40s and ‘50s sans the murders...that had been rattling around in his head for a number of years and the only way he could think of to tell it...was in first person. Thus, THREE CREEKS was born.
Ken has written in modified Deep POV for the past twelve novels. If you're not familiar with Deep POV, it has to do a great deal with removing most of the narrator from the text, things like tags...said, asked, commented, opined, exclaimed, and so on. Any time the reader sees, 'said', 'asked' (Charlie said,) that it takes the reader out of the story and to the narrator. Therefore most of his dialogue has 'action' lines that tells the reader who the speaker is.
Ken spent forty-five years as a professional film/TV, and stage actor (after a stint in the Marine Corps), and concurrently thirty years raising Beefmaster cattle and Quarter horses in Texas. Those years gave him a background for storytelling…or as he has been known to say, "I've always been a bit of a bull---t artist, so writing novels kind of came naturally once it occurred to me I could put my stories down on paper. I don't write about outlaws, peace officers, and murder mysteries...I write about people.
He did such movies as “Silverado”, “Uncommon Valor”, “The Newton Boys”, and “Friday Night Lights”. He also performed in over fifty TV shows like, Dallas, Walker, Texas Ranger and General Hospital, plus he quit counting commercials at 260. His most famous was as spokesman for Wolf Brand Chili which ran for eight years.
Ken's writing style has been likened to a combination of Louis L'Amour and Terry C. Johnston with an occasional Hitchcockian twist.
In addition to his love for writing fiction, he likes to teach acting, voice-over and writing workshops. His favorite expression is: "Just tell the damn story."
Writing has become Ken's second life. He’s often asked, ‘What do you do for relaxation? He answers...’Write’. As mentioned, he has been a Marine, played collegiate football on full scholarship, been a Texas wildcatter, cattle and horse rancher, professional film and TV actor and now...a novelist. Who knew?
Good morning, Ken, and welcome to Vision and Verse. I am a bit starstruck here! I am a big fan of western novels, any good story set in the southwest just seems to come alive for me. What have you written?
I have written in Military Action, Police Procedural, Historical Fiction Western, Sy/Fy – Horror, and Southern Noir Mystery.
I'm currently working on novels #52 – BACK, book #4 of the western COLTRANE Series and #53 – ROUGARAUX, book #11 of the Southern Noir THREE CREEKS Mystery Series
What is your favorite genre to write?
My favorite is actually Southern Noir Mystery
Favorite food.
Fried chicken or a good thick bone-in rib eye
Tea or coffee?
Oh, coffee, but only two cups in the morning...large cups.
Pizza or ice cream?
This is a toughie, probably ice cream, though sometimes I would kill for a good pepperoni/extra cheese pizza
There is no good reason why you can't have both. Wine or beer or soda or what?
Tequila – I have one 4 oz shot-neat, per day at 4:00pm
Where would you like to visit?
Hawaii
Favorite musical artist.
Another toughie – I guess Elvis.
Do you listen to music when you write?
No, I listen to green noise
What makes you laugh?
Good situational humor/dialogue
This is an Art AND Author website, so I am obligated to ask:
Favorite work of art or sculpture.
Almost anything by Charles Russell or Fredrick Remington
How old were you when you started writing?
First novel at age 69...I'm now 82 – 83 in June and working on #52 and #53
Do you plan out your book with outlines and notecards? Or just write?
I'm a pure pantser...Never outlined in my life.
Describe your perfect evening.
Peace and quiet with my three dogs and a good movie
Where do you get your inspiration?
I never know. As a former professional film/TV actor, I'm a trained observer. Never know from whence it will come
What do you do when you get a writer's block?
Never had it...knock on wood
Who is your favorite author?
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Best book you ever read.
Tarzan of the Apes
 |
| Sparky |
Last book you read.
JINX: A Novel of the Great Depression
What would you do for a living if you weren’t a writer?
I was a professional film actor for 45 years before I discovered I could write...I would still write
Who is the one person who has influenced your personal life the most and why?
My father...That I could be half the man he was.
If you could sit down and have a conversation with ONE person, living or dead, real or fictional, who would it be and why?
Love talking with my friend, actor/cowboy Ben Johnson. The only man in history to be a World Champion in rodeo and win an Academy Award.
What advice would you give someone who aspired to be a writer?
Don't think about it...Just sit down and write.
Do you have links for us to follow you?
Contact: pagact@yahoo.com or Ken on FB - https://www.facebook.com/groups/343634849935636
www.facebook.com/ken.storyteller/
www.facebook.com/groups/2106909899538576 – Fan page
www.amazon.com/stores/Ken-Farmer/author/B0057OT3YI
Newest release: CORNIE BAYOU – #10 of Three Creeks series - www.amazon.com/dp/B0CR1HWBR3
Haunted Falls - Historical Western novel - Winner - Laramie Award - 2013
Book Trailer - https://vimeo.com/109625264
http://tinyurl.com/KenFarmerAmazon
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/KenFarmerAuthor
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