Larry Purcell

Y’all need to write a novel

-Doesn’t every writer? Perhaps not. However, a buddy asked if I wanted to co-write a mystery about a computer software company president who’s murdered. I knew the computer industry and he knew writing. Results - disaster! He challenged me to write one alone – on a subject he would provide. The subject? The White Train. What is it? Not a hint. Then he died!

- After months of research, I gave up. A strange Saturday morning call changed it all. The last commander of The White Train called me from Santa Rosa. Project just declassified, can have his file and any help I needed. Questions? Yes, what the hell is the white train?

- Okay, now that I know what it is, what do I do with it? I need good guys, bad guys, a hero, a cause and a happy ending, maybe. The President of the United States can always fit the bill as ultimate bad guy. And what single collection of individuals needs its long-standing wrongs righted more than our Native Americans? In researching Indians for the story, I learned of my own Native American heritage – Tuscarora and Cherokee.

- I completed the manuscript after working for months in a small room in Breaux Bridge, LA, with three cats, an air-conditioner and the continuous playing of Peter Kater’s hauntingly beautiful music from the sound track of ‘How the West Was Lost.’