Jodie Walls Rides Again

By B. L. Blankenship

The tragedy known as the American Civil War had left a bad taste in the mouths of folks old enough to remember it, but that was a long time ago. It wasn't the kind of thing that many people up north would pay any mind to at all, let alone during the turn of the 20th Century.

Billy Johnson was different, though. He was a boy who

• Language: English
• Publisher: B. L. Blankenship
• Release date: Jul 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9781088215531

B. L. Blankenship

About the AuthorB. L. BlankenshipBenjamin Lee Blankenship was born in Toledo, Ohio in 1981 to his two southern parents Larry Brown Blankenship of Giles County, Tennessee & Jonelle Blankenship of Harlan, Kentucky. During his youth in the mid-1990s, he moved to Roane County, Tennessee. Having a deep love for literature and history, he's studied many aspects of the American Civil War.Like many Americans his ancestors fought on both sides of the war. Each of his direct bloodline kindred that fought for the Federal Government (i.e. Union Army) lived in the Republican stronghold of Harlan County, Kentucky. They were: • James H. Ticky Howard (1832-1922)• Leonard Samuel Scott (1825-1889)• David E. Lee (1824-1905)• Elijah G. Helton (1829-1904)• William Burton "Gabby Burt" Hensley (1832-1906)Each of these willingly submitted to the federal draft under the direction of Robert Hays, Prevost Martial of the 8th Kentucky District.Likewise, his family housed many proud Democrats who fought for the Confederate States of America. Unlike the array of Harlan Co. Union Soldiers within his bloodline, those who chose to serve as Confederates were spread abroad; they were:CONFEDERATE HERITAGE:Richard Pierce Stracener (1843-1906)7th Reg. Georgia Infantry--------------------------James W. Farmer (1834-1910)Company C, North Carolina 3rd Light Artillery Battalion--------------------------Jefferson Pack (1830-1864)35th Regiment Tennessee Infantry, 5th Infantry,1st Mountain Rifle Regiment--------------------------Granville Smith (1843-1923)60th Regiment Virginia Infantry3rd Regiment Wise Legion, Company A--------------------------Gabrial "Rial" Smith (1820-1912)4th Regiment, Virginia Reserves, Company F--------------------------William Riley Thurman (1816-1907)2nd Battalion, Arkansas Infantry--------------------------All of B. L. Blankenship's direct bloodline ancestors lived through the American Civil War except for the confederate Jefferson Pack. He was born in Stokes, North Carolina (1830) and died on November 12th, 1864 while imprisoned at Camp Douglas, Illinois.

Book preview

COPYRIGHT 2023

B. L. BLANKENSHIP

JODIE WALLS

RIDES AGAIN

Dedication

    I’d like to dedicate this to all of the folks who are fans of Westerns and historical fiction in general. Clearly, I am too, or I would not have written this book. As many of you may know, it was initially entitled Josey Wales Rides Again before I found out that the character is under copyright. Hence, the title and name was changed. It was kind of sad as I wanted to honor a brilliantly constructed character and the extremely talented author who created him. Having that feeling as I wrote this added a little pressure. Howbeit, this isn’t a book that I mapped out. I merely let it flow out of me via my love of Josie Wales, or as he’ll hereby be called in this book, Jodie Walls.

Contents

DEDICATION

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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INTRODUCTION

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CHAPTER 1:

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CHAPTER 2:

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CHAPTER 3:

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CHAPTER 4:

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CHAPTER 5:

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CHAPTER 6:

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CHAPTER 7:

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CHAPTER 8:

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CHAPTER 9:

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CHAPTER 10:

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CHAPTER 11:

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CHAPTER 12:

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CHAPTER 13:

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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Acknowledgements

  I’d like to thank all of the people who’ve been absolutely wonderful to me as I’ve come to different conventions as a vendor, a panelist, and a special guest. I’m grateful for all of the authors, readers, and artists who’ve been kind to me, and everyone who has enjoyed my work. Thank you to everyone who has said nice things about this book — prior to me changing it. I appreciate all of you so much.

Introduction

  Years before the creation of the original book — this being the revised version — I read on the internet some false information claiming that the character Josey Wales — who exists in tw books published under the pen name of Forrest Carter, two movies based on those books, and subsequently audio versions of each of those books — was public domain. The fact is that he is not.

        As someone who consistently wrote violent western horror books that tended to have the United States in an antagonistic role, this fictional Confederate character seemed ideal for me to write a book about. In the previous version’s introduction, I sang praises to the artistry of the two original books, the film based on the first book — starring Clint Eastwood — and so forth. Howbeit, that was all cut short. Immediately after it became available, someone began trolling me. This random individual — who, it seems, is also a published author — was publicly stating that I was infringing on copyright material. It was something that I just knew wasn’t true based upon what I read, but after a few days of this, I dug deeper and found out that I had known wrong.

        My easy answer was to contact the author who owned his own company that produced the audio books of the two Forrest Carter books about Josey Wales. After all, I had purchased each of them and listened to them both on Audible(dot)com as a means of brushing up on the character’s exact backstory before writing this book. The first few short conversations went well enough. The person promptly replied to me, told me that it was copyrighted material, and while they didn’t seem necessarily compassionate that their literary brother had stumbled into a ditch and was trying to do the right thing, he did at first seem like he was being helpful.

  The Forrest Carter estate was left to his wife. The literary works are managed by another presumably self-proprietorship or small mom-and-pop type company out of the New York City area. Its owner is a school teacher, or board member, or something like that. She appears to have written a few books too, or so said the internet.

        I was given her email address, reached out to her, heard nothing back, reached back out to the first person who had seemed helpful, only to essentially be told to get lost. Months later — instead of kindly being replied to by email, I received a letter filled with misinformation that ended with a cease and desist. Honestly, I was already miles ahead of that. I’d been working with my publisher to stop the flow of this book. My original version of this book, Josey Wales Rides Again, was only available for one month. The books that I ordered for resale were given away. Ergo, I lost money on it.

  A number of different readers and fellow authors who were able to read the original version of this book — which contained the name Josie Wales, instead of Jodie Walls — have been extremely complementary. It seems one person after another thus far feels that this would have been a terrific tribute to a talented author, the character that he created, and so forth — as it was intended — but alas, I’m just going to make the changes and move on.

  For my regular readers, you know that every novel, novella, short story, and narrative poem up unto the initial publishing of the original version of this book under B. L. Blankenship was consistently Western horror — often within the splatterpunk/extreme horror end of things. This book however is a straight up late Western, coming of age, young-adult, very PG sort of book. I just felt like the ghost-from-the-past character that Western fans know and love melds with my harsh 19th Century stories well.

CHAPTER 1

Doug Johnson sat in a wooden folding chair, around what was used for an outside patio table, along with his coworkers on a Friday evening get-together that they and their families had been looking forward to for some time. The workweek was long and hard, yet they got by just fine, as it were, there in the town of Chicago, Illinois. A sweet something filled the air, as it was the beginning of summer, and thereby it was warmer than it would have otherwise been at this time of day just weeks before.

  Yessir, with the workweek having come to an end, this all seemed to them like the perfect time to relax. Doug listened to the sound of bird songs while Ted Turnbull reminisced about the incompetence of his bumbling supervisor, Charlie Hedrick, from down at the mill. Calmly dipping his fingers into his pocket and fishing out a pack of Philip Morris brand cigarettes, of which he first partook, Doug thereafter passed the box around the table as if this were some kind of holy communion or such amongst friends, in which his brethren were all but too happy to indulge.

  Steadily, one of the three, Mr. Bob Howard, took the long, thin, wrapped tobacco and drew its smoke down into his lungs. He held it there for a lingering moment and exhaled the vapor from his nose. Still, with his two fingers keeping it in a scissor hold, he pulled it from his lips and told his fellow men with certainty,

Now, boys, that is what I call smooth.

Jim Miller chuckled with amusement, not at all disagreeing as he, too, was smoking a Philip Morris brand cigarette.

       It was as quickly as all of this happened that Doug both thanked and agreed with the sentiment of his friend for his express appreciation of the sheer quality tobacco that Philip Morris provided.

  It was because of such quality that they were an enduring brand; an all-American staple, Doug explained. Why, Philip Morris USA had been supplying hard workers such as them, their fathers, their grandfathers, and even their great grandfathers quality tobacco since 1847; that was before the American Civil War, he boasted. The bunch of them smiled and laughed, no doubt knowing that this conversation would likely turn into a discourse about something else. All of the men – Doug Johnson, Bob Howard, Jim Miller, and Ted Turnbull – were in one way or another connected to the railroad industry. Three of them worked in it currently, while their friend Bob Howard’s family had ties in it seven ways from Sunday; that is, all but himself.

  Some