Jackson Speed the Hero of El Teneria

Scoundrels are not born, they are made. When Ashley Franks uses her peach cobbler to seduce a young Jackson Speed in the 1840s, she makes a scoundrel. In "The Hero of El Teneria," a young Jackson Speed must flee an enraged and cuckolded brute who seeks vengeance after he catches Speedy with his wife. To escape this madman, Speed will run all the way to Mexico where he joins up with General Zachary Taylor's army seeking to prove America's "Manifest Destiny." In Mexico, Speed unwillingly storms the battlements at Monterrey, reluctantly joins up with the Texas Rangers for a midnight ride through Santa Anna's camp, and dodges rancheros determined to drag him to his death. If Jackson Speed is able to get out of the Mexican-American War unscathed, it won't be through manly courage but by hiding behind the skirts of his Spanish senorita. If you love historical fiction where the history is true but the story is a picaresque romp, then you'll love Jackson Speed. Even if you hate him. AUTHOR INTERVIEW: What can you tell us about the character Jackson Speed? On the outside, Jackson Speed is one of these 19th Century adventurers who live through some of the most interesting and turbulent times of America's history. His exploits carry him from the Mexican-American War to the California Gold Rush to the hills of Gettysburg, and finally into the history books where he is remembered as one of America's greatest legends. "The Hero of El Teneria" who discovers gold and wears the Congressional Medal of Honor and rode with Billy the Kid and the Regulators. But for those of us reading his memoirs, we discover that the real Jackson Speed is a rascal, an adulterer, and a confessed coward. The novels, held out to be Speed's recently discovered memoirs, unveil the true character of a man who bluffed his way into the history books. Why write about a scoundrel? When I was a kid, I wanted to grow up to be Han Solo. In Westerns, I loved James Garner as Maveric and Latigo. I'm a huge fan of the Flashman novels by George MacDonald Fraser. For me, the trope of the "loveable rogue" was always most appealing. And when I first decided that I wanted to write historical fiction that married my interets in history with my enjoyment of writing, it just made sense that the character I created would fall into that category. Jackson Speed is an unpleasant character. He's a womanizer. He's a coward. And because I set him in actual events of the 1800s, he's juxtaposed against men who were truly courageous, and that just seems to make him even more unpleasant. But I think readers find as they move along through the series - maybe even in the first book - that he really is the "lovable rogue." A scoundrel and a coward, sure, but you kind of like him anyway. Tell me about the history. I've read where you've talked about how important it is to get the history correct. That's absolutely right. I'm the guy that sits in the movie theater in films set during real events and mutters under his breath, "That never happened." I consume history like some people drink water or breathe air. My dad is a huge history buff, and from a very young age I had this intense interest in history. So when I decided to put a fictional character in actual events, it was important to me that I write those events as factually correct as possible. I footnote all the novels so that readers get the context (sometimes the joke of the story is found in the context of the footnote), and I also use the footnotes to let the readers know when I've taken liberties with the facts. Historical accuracy is hugely important to me. How many books will there be in the series? I don't know the answer to that. I hope to be writing Jackson Speed novels when I'm old and gray, so I hope the series doesn't end until I do. I love writing these novels. I love the research, and I love the complexity of dropping my character into historical events and letting him muck about a little.


Genre: Thriller