Writing “A Tale Out Of Luck” with Willie Nelson

            I met Willie Nelson in the Austin, Texas, airport, quite by chance, in 1997.  I was flying to Denver with my dad, with whom I often perform western music and cowboy songs.  Willie was doing a good job of remaining incognito, but I saw through his ball cap and sun glasses.  So, with musical instruments hanging off of us, my Dad and I risked revealing Willie’s identity  by sitting down next to him at the boarding gate.

            In the course of our pleasant conversation with the music and film icon, I happened to mention to Willie that in addition to playing music, I wrote historical novels set in the American west.  Willie told me that I should write a western designed for him to play the lead role in the film version of the story.  Before that invitation could even sink in, Willie Nelson boarded his plane, first class, and was gone.  I didn’t have a chance to get any contact information for the project, and I wasn’t really sure how serious he was.

            I had a four-book contract to fulfill at the time, so gradually, the chance of following up on the offer from the great Willie Nelson slipped away.  Over the years, I began to regret that I had not at least tried to break through the shield of managers and agents that protects popular stars such as Willie Nelson, to see just how serious he might have been about that western novel.  But, sometimes, life gives you a second chance.

Eight years after my chance meeting with Willie, a New York City editor with whom I had worked many times called and asked if I wanted to co-write a novel with Willie Nelson.  “Willie’s been wanting to write a western for years,” he said.

            “I know,” I replied, “I talked to him about it at the airport one day.”

            Details and contracts were hammered out in due time, and I had my first scheduled meeting with Willie.  I met him on his tour bus, which was parked on his ranch.  He came off his private golf course about the time I arrived.  On the bus, his granddaughter prepared his dinner while his great grandson showed off his kindergarten homework.  Through all the charm of the multi-generational family interaction, Willie and I managed a productive meeting where we decided on characters, plot, and setting for our novel.

            After the meeting, Willie invited me to our setting: Luck, Texas, his own western movie-set town of frontier facades and dirt streets, located on his ranch along with his golf course, recording studio, and herd of rescued horses.  There, Willie had to go straight to work, shooting a wild west video with his karate team!

            After a few more face-to-face meetings, the ever-in-motion Nelson hit the road in his tour bus.  We bandied chapters back and forth via email, Willie sometimes corresponding with me about the book on his blackberry or his I-phone.  With the novel completed, we immediately began working on the screenplay adaptation.  The computer savvy Willie more than once schooled me on handy cyber shortcuts, like how to convert computer files to facilitate emailing. 

            The project was a professional highlight for me, and one of the most enjoyable experiences of my fiction writing career.  The book, “A Tale Out Of Luck,” releases in September of 2008, some eleven years after my chance encounter with Willie Nelson, whom I can now honesty call a friend.

This article is used with the permission of Hachette Book Group and Mike Blakely. All rights reserved.