S.L. Kotar

S. L. Kotar and J. E. Gessler

“I write, therefore I am.”

My two earliest memories are being drawn to two diverse subjects: baseball and the Civil War. In a strange way, they both directed me toward where I am today.

My drive to absorb everything there was to know about the Civil War naturally drew me into the pre- and post-periods of the conflict, which developed into an intense love of Westerns. I began developing plots for the iconic series of the time: “The Lone Ranger,” “Maverick” and “Wagon Train.” At age 15 the direction of my life solidified when I saw my first episode of GUNSMOKE (“Seven Hours to Dawn.”) From that moment forward, my sole drive in life became the desire to write a script for Matt, Kitty, Doc and Festus. That dream came true in 1973 when my high school partner, J. E. Gessler, and I sold a script we had mailed in from Mechanicville, New York. Jack Miller, the story consultant, later wrote to us that the script was so professional he believed it had been ghost written by two 45-year-old male friends. Imagine his surprise to discover both our ages added together didn’t reach forty-five! We subsequently earned a Writers Guild of America, West, award as contributing to the “101 Best Written TV Series.”

At the same time we had written a script for “Ironside,” tailoring the guest star role for William Shatner. We gave the script to Bill who offered it to the producer, offering to take the lead role and/or direct it, or just have them buy it. Unfortunately, the series was cancelled before any of that could happen, but years later we turned that script into four novels (minus Raymond Burr’s sentient Chief Ironside), called NEW BEGINNINGS. The third book in the series, “Arrow Song,” is dedicated to Bill. During this period Bill also asked us to write scripts for a series he was developing. It never came to fruition, but from our efforts for that service, he bestowed me with the title “Captain,” a nickname I bear proudly to this day.

Subsequently, Joan and I published a Civil War magazine entitled “The Kepi,” which, not surprisingly, featured footnoted, iconoclastic articles on battles and leaders, while offering insightful and well-researched studies on antebellum life. Recently, the complete series was compiled into two texts.

My love of baseball eventually took us from Los Angeles to St. Louis, Missouri, home of the St. Louis Cardinals. Drawn to the brilliant and innovative managing style of Whitey Herzog (Hall of Fame 2010), we arrived just in time to follow the “White Rat” and the team through the 1987 playoffs and World Series. I’ve been here even since, not, however, following the Cardinals in the post-Whitey eras.

After a decade devoted to writing non-fiction, including a professional text on the interpretation of EKG (“Ambulatory Cardiac Monitoring and Full Disclosure Telemetry”), we wrote fully annotated texts on “Riverboat: The Evolution of a Television Series” and for McFarland Press, “The Steamboat Era,” “The Rise of the American Circus 1716 – 1899,” “Ballooning,” and three studies on the evolution of diseases, including, Smallpox,” “Cholera” and “Yellow Fever.”

The first major book series we created is called “the ReproBate Saga,” otherwise known as “RB,” and thus the titles all bear the initials of the two major characters, being the only letters capitalized. True to our roots, this series is historically accurate, following the adventures of Rudy Blake, a gunrunning privateer and Rose “Bud” Theodore, his unusual partner in crime. Occasionally diverting to write a number of science fiction, dramas and horror novels, our latest production is called, “The Hugh Kerr Mystery Series,” centered around a trial lawyer and his associates in the 1950s.

To my eternal sorrow, Joan died in 2014 but I will always list both our names as co-authors, denoting the honor and respect I accord her contributions, both past, present and future.