Journal Notes

The final stop of the Women Who Refuse to Behave book tour has brought me to beautiful Deadwood, South Dakota, and Deadwood never disappoints. It is always a pleasure to work with the generous and welcoming people at Deadwood History, Inc., who do so much to preserve and share the remarkable stories of the American West.

Thank you to everyone who joined us tonight at the Deadwood Library for a presentation about the women physicians of the American West – courageous women who broke rules, challenged conventions, and entered a profession many believed should remain closed to them. In 1851, men at Harvard famously declared medicine was no place for women. Thankfully, many determined women refused to listen.

Tomorrow, I’ll be speaking at the Homestake Adams Research and Cultural Center about the book The Widowed Ones: Beyond the Battle of the Little Bighorn, followed on Friday by presentations on Wicked Women and An Open Secret, both exploring the lives of soiled doves in the American West.

It seems especially fitting to discuss those stories here in Deadwood, as May 21 marks the anniversary of the city’s brothels being officially shut down. History always has a way of lingering in Deadwood’s streets, buildings, and stories.

As always, it’s a good time in Deadwood.

The final day in Oklahoma planning the October events for the Will Rogers Medallion Award program has been filled with inspiration, laughter, and gratitude. One of the greatest joys of this journey is meeting so many kind and warm people including authors, publishers, museum professionals, historians, and storytellers who are dedicated to preserving and celebrating the stories of the American West. Their passion for the written word and Western heritage is truly remarkable.

The guest list for the WRMA events in October continues to grow, and each new addition brings even more excitement for what promises to be a memorable celebration of Western literature, history, and storytelling. There’s something very special about seeing so many creative minds come together to honor the enduring spirit of the West and the legacy of Will Rogers.

It was also a treat to see my book displayed alongside titles written by and about Will Rogers at the gift shop at the Will Rogers Memorial Museum. Moments like that never lose their magic.

Tomorrow, it’s off to Deadwood to spend time with Rose Spiers, Jim Williams, and the other wonderful historians in the famous Western town. I’ll be giving presentations about the accomplishments of the brave women who helped settle the West and shape frontier history. More to come soon from the Black Hills.

The Oklahoma tour continues – sharing the stories of the remarkable Women of the American West while also working through the exciting details of the October Will Rogers Medallion Award program with the brilliant Laurie Cockerell. WRMA would be lost without her.

This week has been filled with unforgettable conversations and meaningful meetings. I had the privilege of spending time with Linda Clark, granddaughter of one of the legendary cowgirls featured in the book Along Came A Cowgirl, hearing firsthand stories that remind us why preserving Western history matters.

At the University of Tulsa, Professors Bob Pickering and Jill Kreftt joined discussions surrounding the proposed Endowment Chair for education in Will Rogers Western American Literature studies – an inspiring step toward ensuring these stories and traditions continue for generations to come.

We also finalized coverage plans for the “Evening with Will” event scheduled for Friday, October 30, alongside the wonderful teams at KVOO and News On 6.

Today I’m headed to the Pioneer Woman Museum to talk about Daughters of Daring: Hollywood Cowgirl Stunt Women.

More stories, more history, and more adventures to come.

Over the past two days in Claremore, Oklahoma, I’ve had the privilege of speaking about the stories, history, and literary traditions of the American West. I spoke to the local Rotary Club about the Will Rogers Medallion Award program and its mission to honor excellence in Western literature.

I also had the pleasure of speaking at the Claremore Chamber of Commerce Leading Ladies Luncheon at the Will Rogers Memorial Museum, where I shared stories from my books about women of the American West, including Daughters of Daring: Hollywood Cowgirl Stunt Women.

Judging from the event photos, standing next to average-sized women apparently turns me into Hagrid from Harry Potter. I’m pretty sure people are looking at the pictures and thinking, “That woman could hunt geese with a rake.”

Tomorrow it’s on to Oklahoma City for presentations at the Oklahoma Historical Society, along with meetings with the brilliant Professor Bob Pickering and Professor Jill Kreftt at the University of Tulsa as we continue solidifying graduate degrees for the first-ever Will Rogers Western Literature Studies program.

So many places still to visit, so many stories waiting to be uncovered, and so many remarkable women of the West whose lives deserve to be remembered and celebrated.

The Women Who Refuse to Behave Tour is officially rolling across the West — and what a ride it’s been already!

First stop: the incredible U.S. Marshals Museum where I signed copies of Tilghman: The Legendary Lawman and the Woman Who Inspired Him and Sam Sixkiller: Cherokee Frontier Lawman. I also had the pleasure of spending time with some truly amazing Western authors during the fundraising event benefiting the U.S. Marshals Survivors Benefit Fund — a meaningful evening supporting the families of America’s law officers.

Then it was on to the fascinating Gangsters of America Museum in Hot Springs where I talked with a local news station about Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother. Because apparently one perfectly reasonable way to spend Mother’s Day weekend is discussing the mother who helped her boys land spots on the Bureau of Investigation’s Most Wanted list.

Of course, no trip through Hot Springs would be complete without a stay at the legendary Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa — once a favorite getaway spot of Al Capone himself.

Now it’s onward to Oklahoma with the amazing Laurie Cockerell for more book presentations, more stories of daring women and legendary lawmen, and planning for this year’s Will Rogers Medallion Awards.

The road trip continues — fueled by history, storytelling, and just enough mischief to keep things interesting.

The road tour starts May 9 from 9 A.M. to 4 P.M. at the U.S. Marshals Museum in Fort Smith, a place where the history of frontier justice still lingers in the walls. I’ll be signing copies of Tilghman: The Legendary Lawman and the Woman Who Inspired Him. Bill Tilghman’s legacy is deeply tied to Fort Smith, once a gateway to Indian Territory and a stronghold of federal law enforcement during the most turbulent years of the West.

I’ll also be signing Sam Sixkiller: Cherokee Frontier Lawman. Sam Sixkiller helped bring order to the so-called last frontier, working alongside men like Tilghman to establish law where it was often in short supply.

From there, it’s on to the Gangster Museum of America in Hot Springs for a 1 P.M. event on May 10, where I’ll be presenting Meet the Kellys: The True Story of Machine Gun Kelly and His Moll Kathryn Thorne, along with a discussion of Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother. From frontier lawmen to Prohibition-era outlaws—the stories don’t get any quieter.

Next stop: Claremore and Tulsa. I’ll be presenting Daughters of Daring: Hollywood Cowgirl Stunt Women at the Will Rogers Memorial Museum on May 13, and then at the Pioneer Woman Museum in Ponca, Oklahoma, on May 16.

Then it’s north to Deadwood beginning May 19, with presentations running May 20–24 at various locations. I’ll be speaking on:

• The Widowed Ones: Beyond the Battle of the Little Bighorn
• The Doctor Was a Woman: The First Female Physicians on the Frontier
• Frontier Teachers: Stories of Heroic Women of the Old West
• Wicked Women: Notorious, Mischievous, and Wayward Ladies from the Old West
• An Open Secret: The Story of Deadwood’s Most Notorious Bordellos

If you’re anywhere along the route, I’d love to see you.

Visit www.chrisenss.com or deadwoodhistory.com for full event details—and head to www.chrisenss.com now to enter to win a copy of An Open Secret.

Different towns. Different stories. Same women who refused to behave.

It’s been a long ride across the prairie, but the dust is finally starting to settle.

Thunder Over the Prairie: The Story of a Murder and a Manhunt by the Greatest Posse of All Time is officially riding toward the screen, optioned as a four-part limited series written and directed by Emmy Award–winning filmmaker Walter Hill.

Already being described as “a cinematic Western event,” this adaptation brings to life one of the most compelling true stories ever to come out of the Old West.

Before they became legends, men like Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Bill Tilghman, and Charlie Bassett were simply lawmen trying to impose order on a lawless frontier.

That changed the night beloved saloon singer Dora Hand was gunned down.

When the son of a powerful cattle baron fled town after the murder, these four men—each deadly with a gun and intimately familiar with the unforgiving terrain—formed a posse and rode out in pursuit. What followed was a relentless manhunt across a harsh, desolate landscape… a pursuit that would test their courage, shape their futures, and forever alter their understanding of justice.

This is more than a Western. It’s the origin story of legends.

It’s been a long time coming, but the wait is almost over.

To experience the true story behind the series, read Thunder Over the Prairie.

Enter now to enter to win a copy of the book.

It may look like a departure… but in many ways, it’s a return.

Long before I was writing history books about the women of the American West, I was a stand-up comedian and a comedy writer, drawn to sharp dialogue, impossible situations, and characters who find themselves in over their heads. That spirit never really left. It just took a different form.

Now, it’s coming full circle.

I’m putting the finishing touches on Jessica of the Jungle, a romantic comedy set to hopefully debut in 2027.

At the center is a washed-up morning radio host who fakes her way onto a National Geographic expedition in Africa, posing as a photographer she has absolutely no idea how to be. What follows is a full-blown fish-out-of-water disaster – complete with wild animals, professional deception, and a complicated love triangle involving a rugged game warden and a glamorous (and very married) photojournalist.

It’s funny, fast-paced, a little chaotic and very much about reinvention, identity, and what happens when the life you’re pretending to live starts demanding the truth.

More to come soon.

Profanity and Poise: When Western Dialogue Needs Cursing and When It Doesn’t

The Western has always been a genre of extremes. Vast landscapes. Stark moral codes. Sudden violence. Deep silences. And, perhaps surprisingly, wildly different approaches to language. Some Westerns lean into rough, profane speech to convey grit and realism. Others strip dialogue down to something cleaner, sharper, and almost poetic, proving that restraint can be just as powerful as rawness.

The question isn’t simply whether cursing belongs in Westerns. It’s when it works and when it doesn’t.

There is a persistent belief that earlier Westerns avoided profanity because audiences were more polite or moral. That’s only partially true. The real reason is largely industrial: the Motion Picture Production Code (enforced from the 1930s through the 1950s) placed strict limits on language. Writers had to find other ways to convey anger, menace, and humor.

And they did – brilliantly.

Instead of explicit language, classic Westerns relied on rhythm, implication, and subtext. A line could cut deeper because it wasn’t cluttered with profanity. A threat didn’t need embellishment; tone and timing carried the weight.

Consider how often a single word, “Mister,” could sound like a warning.

Or how a pause could speak louder than a shouted insult.

These films created a legacy of dialogue that still shapes the genre today.

Many of the most memorable Westerns contain little to no profanity, yet their dialogue remains iconic. The absence of explicit language forces writers to sharpen every line.

Take High Noon. The tension builds not through shouted obscenities, but through clipped, urgent exchanges. Every word feels measured, as if time itself is running out, which in the film, it is.

Or Shane, where the dialogue is almost lyrical. The famous plea, “Shane, come back!” lands with emotional force precisely because it isn’t surrounded by noise. It’s simple, direct, and devastating.

In The Searchers, Ethan Edwards expresses hatred, obsession, and grief without relying on profanity. His words are often restrained, but his tone carries the fury. The absence of cursing doesn’t make the character less intense, it makes him more controlled, and therefore more unsettling.

And then there’s Rio Bravo, where humor and camaraderie emerge through wit rather than vulgarity. The banter feels natural, unforced, and timeless.

The following are a few examples of clean, powerful lines from classic Westerns:

Here’s an exchange between saloon singer Frenchie (Marlene Dietrich) and Sheriff Tom Destry (James Stewart) from the 1939 film Destry Rides Again.

“You’d better mind your own business or you’re heading for trouble,” Frenchie warns the sheriff.  “Trouble is my business,” Sheriff Destry responds.

Between good son Jesse McCanles (Joseph Cotton) and his father Senator Jackson McCanles (Lionel Barrymore) in the 1946 film Duel in the Sun.

“You mean to shoot down unarmed men?” Jesse asks the senator. “Just like he was a rattlesnake,” his father tells him.

And from the 1959 film The Hanging Tree – Ben Piazza’s character Rune to Doc Joe Frail played by Gary Cooper, “If you ain’t the devil, well, he’s sure sitting on your shoulder.”

By the late 1960s and 1970s, Westerns began to shift. The Production Code faded, and filmmakers pushed toward realism – grittier visuals, morally ambiguous characters, and yes, more explicit language.

This was partly influenced by broader trends in cinema, but also by a desire to strip away the mythic polish of earlier Westerns. The Old West, after all, was not a polite place.

In The Wild Bunch, language becomes part of the film’s brutality. Characters speak as harshly as they act. The profanity isn’t ornamental, it reinforces the moral decay and desperation of the world they inhabit.

Unforgiven uses cursing more sparingly, but when it appears, it feels earned. Clint Eastwood’s William Munny doesn’t waste words. When he does speak harshly, it lands like a gunshot – rare, but final.

Then there’s Deadwood, perhaps the most famous example of profanity in Western storytelling. The show is saturated with inventive, relentless cursing and yet it’s often delivered in elaborate, almost Shakespearean rhythms. The language is paradoxical: vulgar and sophisticated at the same time.

And Tombstone strikes a middle ground. While not devoid of profanity, it relies more on stylized, memorable lines, especially through Doc Holliday. His insults and observations are cutting without always being crude.

Here’s an example of an exchange between Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer) and Ike Clanton (Stephen Lang) who wasn’t doing well at the gambling table.

“It seems poker’s just not your game, Ike. I know, let’s have a spelling contest! “

Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp in Tombstone warned the cowboys at the Tucson train depot, “You tell ’em I’m coming! And Hell’s coming with me! You hear? Hell’s coming with me!”

And then there’s John Wayne’s character Rooster Cogburn in True Grit from 1969. “Fill your hand, you son of a bitch!”

Not all uses of profanity improve a Western. In fact, overuse can flatten dialogue, making it feel repetitive or lazy.

If every line is laced with the same expletives, they lose their impact. Characters begin to sound interchangeable. The language stops revealing personality and starts masking a lack of specificity.

In some modern Westerns, profanity is used as shorthand for toughness. But toughness isn’t about volume, it’s about presence. A quiet threat can be far more intimidating than a shouted obscenity.

There’s also the risk of anachronism. While people in the 19th-century West certainly used coarse language, not all modern profanity translates historically. Overly contemporary phrasing can pull audiences out of the story.

One of the most effective techniques in Western dialogue is contrast, using both restraint and profanity strategically. A character who rarely curses but suddenly does can command attention instantly. The shift signals a change in stakes or emotion.

Similarly, placing a profane character alongside a more restrained one can create dynamic tension. Their differing speech patterns reveal their worldviews without exposition. This contrast is often what makes dialogue memorable. It’s not the presence or absence of cursing alone, it’s how it’s used in relation to everything else.

Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of Western dialogue is silence.

The genre is uniquely suited to pauses. Wide-open spaces invite stillness, and that stillness can be filled with meaning. A look, a gesture, or the absence of a response can say more than any line, profane or otherwise. Many classic Westerns understood this instinctively. Modern ones sometimes forget it. When every moment is filled with words, especially loud, profane ones, there’s no room for tension to breathe.

One of the most powerful near-silent moments in a Western comes from the 1966 film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, during the final three-way duel in Sad Hill Cemetery. Three men – Blondie (Clint Eastwood), Tuco (Eli Wallach), and Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef) stand in a vast circular graveyard. No dialogue is exchanged. No one explains the stakes. Everyone already knows: only one (or perhaps two) will walk away.

Or the doorway ending from 1956 film The Searchers. Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) stands in the doorway after returning his niece Debbie. The family goes inside. He doesn’t. There’s no speech a hand flexing at his side, a slight shift of posture, then he turns and walks back into the desert.

And then there’s William Munny (Clint Eastwood) stepping into the bar at the end of the 1992 film Unforgiven, after his friend Ned’s death. Before the violence the room goes still. Men stop talking. No one reaches for a gun. The silence signals a moral shift. It’s not a flashy showdown, it’s the quiet arrival of something inevitable and deadly. The silence carries dread rather than suspense.

Westerns thrive on tension, between civilization and wilderness, law and chaos, myth and reality. That tension extends to language. Some stories demand grit. Others demand grace.

The greatest Westerns understand that dialogue isn’t about how much is said, or how loudly, but how precisely it captures the soul of the moment. A single clean line can echo for decades. A well-placed curse can hit like a hammer. But in both cases, the principle is the same: Say only what matters. And let the rest hang in the air like dust at sunset.