The origin of the Llano Kid moniker goes back to the 1930s, at which time my father was growing up in rural Texas. In the small town of Burkett, the Kid was considered a neighborhood or “town” bully. It was said that he sought any form of mischief possible to pass idle time. One day, my father (known as Robert Brown) was swimming in the local river, infested with water moccasins, as Texas rivers can be in summer. The Llano Kid came along, saw his opportunity, and made off with Brown’s clothes.
Unknown to Llano, my father had seen the sneaky little heist occur and patiently resolved to teach the Kid a lesson. So came the big payoff! Within hours the news was all over town that Robert Brown had whupped the Llano Kid, who then never bothered anyone again.
After hearing various strains of this story during my own upbringing (Texas folks enjoy sharing a good story more than a few times), I never forgot the infamous name. Decades later when it came to writing a series of short westerns, the Llano Kid moniker fit. However, I was looking for a protagonist. So it came to be that in 1876 the mixed race 19 year-old is riding through Texas in the first book, an Irish/Cherokee “breed” as folks called them in those days. Dropping his given Cherokee name, too difficult to pronounce or remember by most, he adopts the Llano Kid moniker after making a name as a trouble shooter in Llano Texas. Though he is clever where he aims and never kills his foe.
Four Llano Kid short novels are live on Amazon. A fifth is in the making.