[CoffeeMug]

coffeemug - I'm sorry to say this, but in Guns in the Night, which I'm reading now, Belle Starr is murdered.  I've just come across the part where she is found by Mark Counter, Dusty Fog and the Ysabel Kid.  This is mentioned in the appendix of other books, but this is apparently the book in which it happens.   

Yeah, I had seen that in the summaries I read while reading up on Edson.  She was murdered while pregnant with Counter's kid, right?  My feeling is, If I don't read it, it didn't happen.

[maine516]

sinclair - In The Texan, there's a picture of Pauline Cushman in the hotel/saloon she owns that's from her days in the War.  The title under the picture is "The Major".  It's Pauline, that's who she was.  I don't get an inference from that she was also Eve Coniston.  From what I can tell, they were both spies for the union, one just more famous than the other.  I'm still feeling they were 2 separate women.  Unfortunately, I think Eve only appears in the 2 Bloody Border books and Pauline in The Texan.  I don't think they are in any other books, unless they are and I've just not come across them yet, that can shed any more light on this.

coffeemug - I admire your take on "if you don't read it, it didn't happen".  Yes, she was carrying Mark's baby.  I'll say no more other than it looks like Calamity Jane takes out Belle's killer at the end.  That may increase your interest in Calamity.  Otherwise, there are no catfights in this book and it's a sad story, so you should probably stay away from reading this one.  I like Belle Starr too.

[CoffeeMug]

Honestly, a lot of my attitude toward Calamity Jane in Edson's work is because of my eternal love of HBO's Deadwood.  To me, Calamity Jane will always be a sad woman trying to drink herself to death, and I can't quite get that out of my head while reading Edson's busty, aggressive twentysomething.

[sinclairfan]

Edson would have been ok with Calamity being hard-drinking, for what it's worth.

The epic Madame Bulldog/Calamity Jane went down after a night of binge-drinking, if I'm not mistaken.

[CoffeeMug]

Edson would have been ok with Calamity being hard-drinking, for what it's worth.

The epic Madame Bulldog/Calamity Jane went down after a night of binge-drinking, if I'm not mistaken.

If you think that's comparable, you should re-read my post and/or watch Deadwood.

[maine516]

I only saw a small amount of Deadwood so I don't have that image of CJ.  What you may want to consider is that many of the better fights in JT's books involve CJ.  The Madame Bulldog/CJ battle in The Wildcats is indeed epic, and the only fight CJ looses, in part because she is hung over, as is Madame Bulldog to a lesser degree.  The main reason CJ looses though is because Madame Bulldog is her mother!

I have to admit, I find the theme of mother/daughter battles stimulating.  On the "We Bring It" website, there's a hot-looking match between long time catfight video star "Chantel" (she did several California Wildcats videos) and her daughter Katie.  A mature vs. younger sexy match.  I also find mother/daughter vs. mother/daughter matches to be appealing.  Hoping to come across more of these.

[sinclairfan]

There's a book called "A Glimpse of Stocking" by Elizabeth Gage where blonde mother-daughter outlaws have a hotel room catfight to the death.  During the book, I was picturing Farrah Fawcett and Nicole Kidman as the pair.

[maine516]

"A Glimpse of Stocking" sounds interesting.  Can you give any info/details regarding the quality, length of the catfight?  For example, is it long or short?  Is it even, back and forth, or is it one-sided?  Any nudity?  Thanks.

[maine516]

Also, just finished another JT book, "Guns In The Night".  No catfights.  It's a rather sad story for fans of Belle Starr as it's largely about finding Belle's killer.  Seems like it's one of the closing stories about the famed "floating outfit", or at least it's a point of major changes in the lives of some of the favorite leading characters.

[sinclairfan]

The Glimpse of Stocking fight is a couple of pages long, and definitely up in the air until the end.

[CoffeeMug]

Update!

Finally got my copy The Lawmen of Rockabye County today.  No catfights, plus lots and lots of far right sentiments.  The most bizarre is that a doctor who pushes for socialized medicine is also a child rapist (the sentence that reveals the rape stresses the doctor's being in favor of socialized medicine, as if the one causes the other), but there are multiple descriptions of "liberals" with scare quotes around the term, plus one very pleasant passage that implies that southern whites were the real victims of bias (the book doesn't state it outright, but it's clearly describing the aftermath of southern apartheid) and in reality, unlike "liberals," are the ones who treat everyone equally.  Yikes.

So, that aside.  I have JT's Ladies, but there two other similar books, right?  Anyone have them?  I think I'm about done buying JT Edson books at random in hopes of finding a good fight.

[maine516]

Coffemug - Thanks for the update - I'll stay away from that book for sure.  You can tell even in JT's older westerns that he was pretty much anti-liberal.   Maybe as he got older he became even more extreme in his views.  At this point, I'm still willing to buy several more of his earlier westerns in the hope of finding some gems.  A lot of his book titles out there have not appeared on any catfight list, so I'll continue hunting for a while and provide updates here.  The problem at the moment is I've a backlog of about 15 books to go through before I order any more.  But I read through them fairly quickly.

Also, I've read the 3 stories you've done under "Kim" on Seakings website.  I though all three were pretty good.  My preference for catfights is that they are private affairs, so the one I particularly enjoyed is the follow-up fight scenario where 1 woman is a realty agent and the other woman shows up when the client is a cancellation (sorry, I don't recall their character names at the moment) and they fight around the house.  I also liked the swampland fight as that's a good theme.  I'll be re-reading these so I may have further comments later.

Here's a couple of themes that interest me, along the lines of western catfights: There's a old movie with Gregory Peck called "Duel In The Sun" that was intended to be another large scale movie like Gone With The Wind but failed to be as good.  There's a beautiful Mexican woman in the movie that has a love/hate relationship with Peck's character.  At the end, she rides out into the desert, rifle in hand, and shoots in out with Peck amongst the rocks in a hilly area.  Her ride out is dramatic and she looks hot.  Now, what if instead of meeting Peck, she was riding out to shoot it out with a female rival.   Let's say the rival is a blonde, white woman and the 2 woman hate each other over a man, and/or something else.  The fight starts out as a rifle shooting battle as they move around the rocks.  The come close but keep missing each other and eventually run out of bullets at the same time.  The drop the rifles and begin an intense hand-to-hand (and body to body) female fight.  Maybe they role down into a grassy are, or a small watering hole or sandy area.  Their clothes are torn off as they battle.......etc.  A good story to write up possibly.

Also, similar themes: Indian woman vs Indian woman, perhaps daughters of chiefs from warring tribes who meet by accident out on the range.  Or an Indian women vs a white woman rancher.  Or, the mothers and daughters of two feuding families fight in out in a barn.  I don't know why, but lately I seem to be interested in mother vs daughter and mother & daughter vs mother & daughter matches.  Anyway, just some possibly story ideas to throw out there.



 

[JT Edson]

Coffemug - Thanks for the update - I'll stay away from that book for sure.  You can tell even in JT's older westerns that he was pretty much anti-liberal.   Maybe as he got older he became even more extreme in his views.  At this point, I'm still willing to buy several more of his earlier westerns in the hope of finding some gems.  A lot of his book titles out there have not appeared on any catfight list, so I'll continue hunting for a while and provide updates here.  The problem at the moment is I've a backlog of about 15 books to go through before I order any more.  But I read through them fairly quickly.

Also, I've read the 3 stories you've done under "Kim" on Seakings website.  I though all three were pretty good.  My preference for catfights is that they are private affairs, so the one I particularly enjoyed is the follow-up fight scenario where 1 woman is a realty agent and the other woman shows up when the client is a cancellation (sorry, I don't recall their character names at the moment) and they fight around the house.  I also liked the swampland fight as that's a good theme.  I'll be re-reading these so I may have further comments later.

Here's a couple of themes that interest me, along the lines of western catfights: There's a old movie with Gregory Peck called "Duel In The Sun" that was intended to be another large scale movie like Gone With The Wind but failed to be as good.  There's a beautiful Mexican woman in the movie that has a love/hate relationship with Peck's character.  At the end, she rides out into the desert, rifle in hand, and shoots in out with Peck amongst the rocks in a hilly area.  Her ride out is dramatic and she looks hot.  Now, what if instead of meeting Peck, she was riding out to shoot it out with a female rival.   Let's say the rival is a blonde, white woman and the 2 woman hate each other over a man, and/or something else.  The fight starts out as a rifle shooting battle as they move around the rocks.  The come close but keep missing each other and eventually run out of bullets at the same time.  The drop the rifles and begin an intense hand-to-hand (and body to body) female fight.  Maybe they role down into a grassy are, or a small watering hole or sandy area.  Their clothes are torn off as they battle.......etc.  A good story to write up possibly.

Also, similar themes: Indian woman vs Indian woman, perhaps daughters of chiefs from warring tribes who meet by accident out on the range.  Or an Indian women vs a white woman rancher.  Or, the mothers and daughters of two feuding families fight in out in a barn.  I don't know why, but lately I seem to be interested in mother vs daughter and mother & daughter vs mother & daughter matches.  Anyway, just some possibly story ideas to throw out there.



 

Wow. All these are great scenarios.

[SunnyB]

Mmm, I too have over the years thrilled at the sexy fights in JT Edson's various books! 

[maine516]

Another book finished - "Gunsmoke Thunder". There is a catfight between Comanche Blake and 2 unnamed Ute indian women. I'd rate it at either average or less than average. The description isn't very long. It's not that sexy and it's deadly in that CB shoots one of the Utes. There are some references to indian women fighting in the following chapter, which adds some interest. I've read so many on JT's westerns now that I have a liking for several of the main characters. That said, this story is sad in that "CB" becomes the girlfriend of the Ysabel Kid in this book and is killed. The hunting down of the killers by the kid is intense though.

I'm only 3 chapters into "A Matter of Honor", but have already come across the catfight in this book and it's better than average. For those who like a lengthy description, basically the entire 10 page 3rd chapter is about the fight. There's also an interesting lead up in the 2nd chapter. The fight is between Mary Wilkinson, a tough anarchist, Belle Boyd (disguised ad Francoise) and a blonde name Lotte. It's a 3-way battle in front of an audience and all 3 women become naked to the waist. The primary fighting is between Mary and Belle. There is a horse chase and shoot-out between Mary and Belle later in the book, but no further fighting between them.