The Black Horse Extra website is designed primarily to promote Western fiction, and Westerns published by UK publisher Robert Hale in particular. The latest issue, however, as editor Keith Chapman told me in an email from him earlier this week, has at least one item of considerable interest to mystery fans as well.

   The lead piece, though, is a long profile of western writer Gary Dobbs, aka Jack Martin, whose Tainted Archive blog is always worth a visit. Gary’s also a one man publicity factory for the revival of western fiction in general, making every effort he can to promote the genre and to keep it alive and well — and succeeding, too.

   The direct connection to Mystery*File is further down the page, and at this point, I’m simply going to quote:

    “A NUMBER of authors seem to abandon their series characters once they begin to tire of them — which I can certainly relate to — starting with Doyle and Holmes,” says Steve Lewis in a [comment to a] post at his wide-ranging Mystery*File blog.

    Steve admitted it was no more than “a premise,” and counter-examples would strike him as soon as he had hit the submit button to circulate his view.

    He went on, “But also sometimes (not always) their non-series books lack something their series characters provided … their previously established personalities that the books they’re in can rely on for easy reader recognition and (even better) a solid foundation from the very start.”

    The BH Extra put Steve’s contention to a panel of BHW writers: Keith Hetherington (aka Jake Douglas, Tyler Hatch, Hank J. Kirby and Rick Dalmas), David Whitehead (aka Ben Bridges, Matt Logan and Glenn Lockwood), and Keith Chapman (aka Chap O’Keefe).

   Some of the authors seem to be one side, while others are on the other. The consensus answer, if any is arrived at, appears to be “It all depends,” which although I’m not an author, would have to be the answer I’d give if I were one.

    Of course there’s a lot more to it than that. Since mystery writers face the same dilemma, I think most mystery readers will enjoy the far-ranging discussion that follows. (Follow the link in the first paragraph above.)