Here’s the truth. I was going to write The Juniper Wars, all six books, and then if they took off, I would become a writer. If they didn’t, I would hang up my pen. Okay, it was more of a laptop situation, but I didn’t think it would look good on the wall.
In The Juniper Wars, I included all the things I love about books—action, romance, questioning the existence of God, song lyrics, the West, road trips, I-80, camping trips, family drama, hating life, loving life, and everything in between. I had a drug addict sniper who was trying to destroy herself and the twisted priest who loved her.
Ah, Father Pilate. He was a joy to write. I’ve known a few Catholic priests who were atheists in my time. Because God is our voices—all of our voices—in the crushing silence of the universe. Prolly ain’t nothing else.
So by 2018, I’d written five of the books when James A. Hunter and Jeanette Strode found me at a local sci-fi/fantasy con called MalCon (Myths & Legends Convention) selling my Juniper Wars books as well as my other young adult novels.
They took me in, I wrote some other books that sold better, and so I spent eight years writing profitable stuff in a variety of genres under a variety of pen names.
But book six was calling to me.
I didn’t want to die without finishing book six. This was my magnum opus. This was the series of my heart. I had to write that sixth and final book, and yeah, I had some chapters and some notes, but I didn’t have a book.
I kept thinking about Wren. I couldn’t abandon her like that, though she was the kind of woman who would’ve left me stranded on the highway outside of Amarillo without a second thought. Because when the world hurts you, you have to hurt it back.
I kept thinking about Cavatica, who was my broken-hearted hero. They don’t tell you that sometimes when you do the hard stuff in life, it crushes your heart under its heel, especially when you’re drinking hard to avoid feeling anything at all—good, bad, or indifferent.
And I kept thinking about Sharlotte. She had to have her turn with Wren’s Colts because early on, I said all the sisters had a turn.
Funny, I was in a critique group back in the day, and one of the members said that Wren was the real hero. Who would want to read a book about scared, conflicted Cavvy?
So what did I do? I turned Cavvy into Wren, and oh, the transformation makes me so sad. Because being Wren was the very worst job in the world.
Oh, book six, I knew it started out at a poker game and ended with a funeral, but I didn’t know much more than that. Well, I knew that Wren was going to confess why Mama didn’t want anything to do with her. I knew about that scene. But what was I going to do with President Jack? I didn’t even know how he survived book five, dammit. In the first draft, I killed him dead.
Wanna know one of my favorite passages in the book? I’ll quote it here:
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I thought about all that while I stood at my window, looking into the darkness, while the man was dying upstairs. While I worked on my book.
Hard to work on a book when people are dying around you.
Hard.
But not impossible.
<<<>>>
That was my story. I had to write books while people died around me. I wrote five books sitting next to my brother’s hospice bed in 2021, while early-onset Lewy Bodies dementia ate away at his body, mind, and spirit.
I wrote books in the hospital cafeteria in 2023 when my mother was dying of cancer up in her room. But death came for her quick. Thank the Lord Jesus.
Hard. But not impossible.
When she passed away on December 18, 2023, she was the second person I kissed on her forehead when she died…my brother being the first.
And then?
I knew I had to get busy with things that couldn’t wait.
So in 2024, I started learning how to play the guitar, since I loved music.
And that’s another thing about The Juniper Wars—the idea came from a song, “Dead Run” by 16 Horsepower. It’s punkish country goth music, and I love it so. And then there was “Missile” and “Gun in my Hand” by Dorothy. And “Short Change Hero” by The Heavy. And Kesha’s cover of the Bob Dylan song, “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.” Or Silversun Pickups’ cover of another Dylan song, “Not Dark Yet.”
Just two more: “Hell on Heels” by The Pistol Annies and “Kill Your Heroes” by AWOLNATION.
I could go on and on. If you’re interested, hit me up and I’ll share my Spotify playlist. It’s both eclectic and heartbreaking.
Oh, and I also started taking Italian lessons. Gonna move to Italy at some point ‘cause life is meant to be lived.
The real thing I did? I finished projects. I finished a bunch of Aaron Crash series, and I wrote book six.
I cried the whole time—working on the AMR stuff, not the Aaron Crash stuff.
I cried reading all five of the published Juniper Wars books, and I cried when I started the Magnificat of book six, which I’ll quote here:
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Holy Mary, mother of God, I see you in the sagebrush of my Juniper homestead, but you don’t have your little baby Jesus in your arms. It’s after the crucifixion, and you are on your knees, in the sagebrush as the wind blows.
<<<>>>
I cried when Cavvy relapsed again. And I cried over Wren’s confession. And I cried when I wrote “The End.”
You see, I always wanted to be a writer, ever since I read A Princess of Mars in the third grade. Yeah, but dreaming of being a writer and being a writer are two different things.
A wise man once said that writing books is a great way to make a fortune but a terrible way to make a living. Amen to that.
But that’s what I wanted. I wanted to do the impossible. I wanted to write books—full-time—and pay my mortgage with my royalties. And I did for a while.
And then? Sales dropped. I needed to write books that I knew would sell.
Instead? I wrote Exodus Girls ‘cause these are the books I love, the first one got nominated for a Dragon Award, and I know that someday they are going to find the readers who will love them. Hell yeah, I use hope as a weapon.
I’m like a Weller girl in that way.
And I’m also like Cavvy in one other important area.
I’m in my fifties, and I’m sober. Hurray.
And doing the impossible marked me.
That’s what they don’t tell you. Sure, doing impossible things like writing books for a living can be done, but there is a price to be paid for such audaciousness.
I’ve known such disappointment in the writing game. Maybe I just had the normal amount of rejection, but maybe not. Kinda doesn’t matter.
Got my hopes up. Had my hopes shattered.
Fought with editors—fought way too much with some editors over these books, dang kutias.
Had publishers go under.
Published books that no one read.
And here I was, needing money, and I chose EXODUS GIRLS (The Juniper Wars Book 6) instead.
Even though it made me cry.
But do you know what? It was one of the best experiences of my writing life. Because it turned out so much better than I ever would’ve thought.
Who knew that Foxy would become one of my favorite characters? Who knew I had another wife for Sharlotte? Who knew that we’d get the Weller girls together in the end, thundering across the plains?
Sure. It hasn’t been easy, but this is what I was born to do. And I was born to write The Juniper Wars in particular. As our Lord once said, “It’s finished.”
Gonna write more books in my life, but they won’t be like these beauties. And you lucky jackerdans get to read ‘em. The whole thing. The full story.
Maybe that’s why I cried so much writing book six.
Because it was the end.
There’s a bittersweetness there—like the feeling at the end of a convention and all the people are gone and all the tables are empty and all the chairs stacked away.
But I got to be at the party.
I got to write the books of my heart.
Enjoy.
— Aaron Michael Ritchey
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