Character Interview Questions for Western Hero, Stuart Brannon

Stuart Brannon

Stuart Brannon Character Interview

I thought Stuart Brannon fans would enjoy some character interview questions. Devised these while my three sons and I finished Stephen Bly’s last novel, Stuart Brannon’s Final Shot. Stuart Brannon is the main protagonist and western hero of the The Stuart Brannon Western Series. In addition, he also appears in or has a cameo mention in every Stephen Bly or Janet Chester Bly novel.

JANET CHESTER BLY – Stuart, I’ve got some character interview questions for you. Feel free not to answer any you don’t want to. Here’s the first one. How come you’re not too fond of Christmas time?

STUART BRANNON – Oh, I enjoy celebrating the birth of Jesus my Savior. It’s just that Christmas also brings some tough memories. Lost my wife and baby back in 1875 on Christmas Day. Afterward, my cattle got wiped out with the disease, I rode through a bitter blizzard to a hard winter at Broken Arrow Crossing. That was the Christmas of ’76. Tended to a wounded prospector, an abused, pregnant Indian girl, and faced off with a band of wild outlaws. All that comes rushing back on a blustery, December day.

JCB – Did you ever have any children after that?

BRANNON – I adopted 12-year-old Littlefoot, a Nezperce Indian boy, back in ’88. He later married and gifted me with a passel of grandkids. They’re my pride and joy.

More Interview Questions

JCB – Relate a bit of your background for this character interview. What have you done in your life?

BRANNON – I trailed several cattle drives to Kansas, scouted for the U.S. Army, prospected for gold in Colorado. In New Mexico and Colorado, I served as marshal and battled phony Spanish land grants. Then I drove one of the earliest large herds of Mexican cattle north into Arizona Territory.

JCB – I read somewhere that you twice refused appointment as Arizona Territorial Governor.

BRANNON – Yep. Men with violent pasts make inferior lawmakers.

JCB – So, you consider yourself a violent man?

BRANNON – Nope. Out of necessity, I’ve had to endure many a fierce gunfight.

JCB – In Gearhart, Oregon, in 1905, you’ve still got a full head of hair, though it’s pure gray. And you still seem a formidable man to tackle. What’s your biggest challenge these days?

BRANNON – Doing a character interview like this. And finding my missing friend, U.S. Marshal Tom Wiseman … and golf. I suffer the effects of my many injuries over the years. That hampers long rides on my horse Tres Vientos and driving a ball on a course.

Lord and Lady Fletcher Character Interview

JCB – I didn’t realize you enjoyed playing golf.

BRANNON – I don’t. As a favor to Lady Harriet Reed-Fletcher, I’m trying to learn to play the fool game. So’s I can participate in her charity celebrity tournament, on behalf of the Willamette Orphan Farm. At the present time, with the crook of my arms, the way they work after all these years, I aim straight and the ball hooks right. If I shoot to the right, the ball flies down the middle. I guess that’s part of my handicap.

JCB – Ahh, Lady Fletcher, wasn’t she a former lady friend? That is, wasn’t her husband, Lord Edwin Fletcher, a trail partner of yours in the old days?

BRANNON – When I first met Edwin Fletcher, he was half-froze and lookin’ for gold at the Little Yellowjacket. Before that, he told me he’d been in northern India trying to keep the Monguls and Hindus from killing each other. The last ten years he’s mostly been sitting around English gardens sipping tea and managing world affairs. Dreadfully boring, don’t ya think?

JCB – You miss the old days?

BRANNON – I don’t miss the backbreaking work of single-handedly keeping bad guys under control. However, I do miss the sense that we lived in momentous, history making times.

Brannon Character’s Faith

JCB – Tell me something about your faith.

BRANNON – I talked to God before I knew his name and long before we were properly introduced. My creed is duty to decency, people, and God. That’s why I get involved. Law, decency, the will of God and future generations demand this country be safe for women, children and families. That’s who I am.

JCB – You’ve traveled and trailed a lot of places. Where do you consider home to be?

BRANNON – Arizona bears my camp. My ranch. My outfit. And its citizens, my brothers and sisters. They’re my tribe. The west of the future belongs to my descendants, my offspring, my legacy. I find myself almost possessive about the west that is yet to come.

JCB – Stuart Brannon, you’re quite a legend, right up there with Wild Bill Hickok and the Earp brothers. I’m honored to do a character interview with any one of you. How does that make you feel?

BRANNON – I don’t see it that way. When they take the great photograph of the earth’s family reunion, I’ll be the one in the tenth row from the back, fifth from the end. I’ll also be partially blocked by the lady in the big hat, as well as staring down at my scuffed, dirt-brown boots. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t had a shining moment or two.

Parting Words

JCB – In conclusion, thank you so much for agreeing to answer these interview questions. Any last words you’d like to share?

BRANNON – For one thing, I believe this is the only character interview I’ve ever done. Secondly, I do have a thought that comes to me at this latter season of my life. It’s this. By the time a man figures out what he is missing, it’s already gone. So, above all, this is my daily philosophy. We have the opportunity to saddle up this day and ride it into our memories, but that also means staying awake.

Janet Chester Bly
Copyright©2012

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Stuart Brannon’s Final Shot, Book #7, Stuart Brannon Series

~~ Find the 7-book Stuart Brannon Novel Series here STUART BRANNON SERIES

~~ Book #7, Stuart Brannon’s Final Shot found here STUART BRANNON’S FINAL SHOT  

~~ Bly family timeline for finishing Stephen Bly’s last novel THE TICKING CLOCK

A Stephen Bly Family Affair: Finishing Dad’s Novel