Kit Mackenzie
WESTERN AUTHOR
Welcome to
Kit Mackenzie's
Western Author
Website!
HOWDY!
Before I go any further, I've designed this site to be read on phones primarily, so if the layout seems all over the place on laptops - that's why. I'm working on a layout that's readable on both but it's not always going to work. If it looks barmy and unintelligible on your laptop, please give me nudge and I'll try to fix it. Thankyou so much!
Now that that's out of the way, allow me to introduce myself.
I'm Kit Mackenzie, author of Alias Jeannie Delaney - Book 1 - Go West, Girl!, the first book of my self-published epic western trilogy.
ABOUT ME
I've been fascinated by the wild west since my teens, and I'm now a granny. The fact that I live in bucolic Hampshire, in the UK, makes this a tad bemusing. As an adult I donned fringed buckskin and weapons and my soulmate hubby and I joined in living history camps under our western aliases Kitty Le Roy and JC (Doc Jack Coltrane). The story of my western experiences will be told under Kitty Le Roy's Wild West, further on on this website.
Alias Jeannie Delaney also came into being during my teens. The story began as daydreams before going to sleep. I'd watched enough westerns during the sixties to know that strong female protagonists in the mold of Clint or Gary didn't exist and was desperately needed. The story was engraved in my mind because it was a case of writing the novel I wanted to read because no one else had written it, plus Jeannie was ahead of her time at the time. Writing a novel was among the zillion things I wanted to accomplish and it had to be a western, duh.
So, encouraged by hubby years after I'd begun to daydream, I started typing one-handed while feeding my baby over thirty years ago, and, sporadically, kept going. The words poured out, almost literally, because I knew what I wanted to say. I typed 'The End' over many drafts, and when I discovered that I had, indeed, written a three-book series, I was, to put it mildly, gobsmacked!
Currently I'm editing Book 2 and promoting Go West, Girl! - a long-term process.
ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY - BOOK 1 - GO WEST, GIRL!
Book 1 of this crack shot western trilogy introduces the reader to Jeannie, who is tough as a miner's boots and who's gaze kills just by looking at you.
Devastating and charismatic Cowgirl Jeannie Morgan has a lethal gun hand and a queer sexuality - many men and women desire her and she's an incredible lover. But can she be herself in a land she loves but where men fear her and want to kill her? In this first book she's killed twice in self-defence and she's desperate to kill again for revenge. On the other hand will her sexuality and powerful persona be the death of her?
The three novels chart a young cowgirl's journey to find her true self.
Away from the wild west I've published anecdotal articles and I'm an artist. In fact I was born an artist and began writing after my kids were born. I have aspirations s of becoming a multidisciplinary artist - one of those creatives who will turn their hand to any medium.
Among the many things I've done unrelated to writing was learn to fly a small plane aged seventeen and have the mickey taken out of me at school. I shoot arrows like Robin Hood, and discovered that, although I'm fascinated by the paranormal, ghost hunting scares me silly. I'll stick to watching other people being scared silly on TV ghost shows, if you don't mind.
My desire for adventure is shared with my soulmate and PA hubby. My family are my greatest fans and that includes my lovable cat Lulu.
I'll update my trilogy progress as I go and I hope it meets with my readers' approval!
NOVEL UPDATES
I'm over ninety percent of the way through editing Book 2, and before long will be sending the MS to my editor. After that my cover designer will be called into action. Book 2 will certainly be out by the summer, a year after Book 1 was launched, so keep your eyes open for it!
Here's my latest blog post, in which I'm talking about the niche-y ness of Alias Jeannie Delaney and the singular nature of the story. The fact that, when some readers do come across it, organically or otherwise, they seem to steam through it at a rate of knots without putting it down. Or so I have been informed by Kindle Unlimited, a library system which tracks a reader's progress, and I've had a number of readers discover my novel there. Long may this continue!
I'm Jo, alias Kitty Le Roy, western enthusiast, alias Kit Mackenzie, Western Author. I'm an artist and writer from Hampshire in the UK and I've been fascinated by the wild west since my teens.
I'm even more fascinated by the rough n'tough, sharp shootin' western gals, which was spurred on - pardon the pun - by the various westerns I watched during the sixties - The Virginian, Alias Smith & Jones, The High Chaparral, and, at the cinema, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (my westerns had to have humour).
It's a mystery where that passion
comes from, but as I'm equally drawn to the paranormal, I wonder if I'm re-incarnated from Annie Oakley or Calamity Jane! Who knows?! Early on I couldn't decide whether to go for cavalier and join the UK Sealed Knot Society, who hold re-enactment battles and living history displays during the summer months, or become a pirate! I love the idea of all of it. In the end the wild west won out, but because hubby and I also enjoy steampunk, the options of being wild west or pirate within that genre are fully embraced. I'll talk about that later on.
Back to the wild west, however...
Those notorious and adventurous wild west women - cowgirls, ranchers, stagecoach drivers, prospectors, adventurers - captivated me to such a degree that I wanted to emulate them and don fringed buckskins and guns with other westerners.
As a teenager, I'd borrow my Dad's air rifle and shoot at empty plastic washing up liquid bottles and cat food tines from an (open) window. I wasn't a bad shot and Dad called me Annie Oakley (I loved that!).
I married my soulmate hubby who loved my passion and together we donned western kit and camped at wild west living history events. He adopted his persona of quack Doc Jack Coltrane (JC) - John Clutton was his grandad and Robbie Coltrane his hero. I was his partner, prospector and adventurer Kitty Le Roy. My brilliant hubby really encouraged my passion, suggesting I create my western persona, Kitty Le Roy. Kitty was a sharp shooting gambler I came upon in the now defunct Titbits magazine. She was wild and 'bristled like a cactus' with guns and knives, and was shot dead by husband number five in a shootout 'on the dusty streets of Dallas', Texas. Kitty was my granny's name so I adopted it and I've been Kitty ever since.
I've come across many old west wild women since who've aligned more with my western desires, but more on them later.
By my early twenties I wanted to find like-minded folk, especially women, who were at least interested in the west, but I knew no-one. This was an unusual hobby, particularly for a girl, and I've always been rather proud of the fact. Also by the fact that I'm a renaissance soul - someone with many disparate interests.
No internet back then, so finding western clubs and like-minded folk was very hard. I found two local western clubs through newspapers, and the boss of one of them spoke to my bemused mother when she answered the phone. What happened after that is lost in the mists of time.
Years later I discovered a number of wild west groups in the UK, including The British Westerners Association, and groups here in southeast England.
We joined the Whiskey Creek Western Club in West Sussex and for several years we attended living history camps with them. Everyone knew Kitty and I loved that!
I researched wild west women I could incorporate into my persona and discovered Sally Skull and Captain Ellen Jack, two amazing characters who really captured my imagination! There are many other women who inspired me, proving that Les Wild West Gals were certainly not thin on the old west ground.
The Kitty I portray is a pipe smokin', pistol packin' , saloon lovin', prospectin' gal in pants/ fringed calf length skirt either in 1880s Colorado or the 1890s Yukon gold rush. Colorado appeals greatly, and the Yukon is inspired by a prospectin' ancestor by marriage. (more of that later). Kitty has a mule called Jenny. Mules suit her better than hosses, 'cuz mules are daft n' ornery. If Jenny had been a Jack, she'd have been a jackass - a male donkey/mule/burro.
At the top was my cabin as it was originally - it's gone through many a metamorphosis since then! The story of my owning a cabin stems from a very different background.
When I was a kid, my dad's cousin offered his New Forest cabin for us to use for a day. I have vague memories of the cabin being in the depths of the woods surrounded by the sound of dripping water - stream/rain - and the rustic interior with its pots and pans and other domesticalia (my own word). Thereafter, I wanted a cabin of my own. So I was delighted when we acquired this one.
We built it from garden shed parts many years ago because it seemed the best fit. It originally came with window boxes for flowers. Very Wendy house! I turned those into shelves on which bottles of booze now sit.
It's become more authentic now. It went through various names including Calamity Creek Trading Post, which we used as our postal address at one point (our postie loved that!). It's now Kitty's Cabin.
It's weathered now - the lower picture - and distressed (a bit like me). I shouted at it and scraped the somewhat pristine wall planking. It's also filled with western artifacts - goat skull, steer horns, canned grub, whiskey bottles and my own western artwork. At one point we decided that it was far too small, so, using JC's amazing talents, we doubled its size and added a covered boardwalk with railings.
I've yet to shingle the roof, but we've enjoyed many a coffee, lunch and alcoholic drink on the boardwalk during the summer months. It came into its own during the pandemic when our son Tom slept in it while he was working. Very cosy, he said. :D!
I'm rather proud of my collection of wild west weapons - and me a UK granny, too. (That fact gives me kicks! It's not just big, hairy blokes who're heavily into it :-D!). I'm interested in swords as well, and almost went for cavaliers and pirates
The Winchester '73 rifle, Colt .45 and my Bowie knife, all quintessential images of the west, are my favourites and owned by my protagonist Jeannie, in my novel Alias Jeannie Delaney.
I have a .177 caliber pellet firing air rifle, given to me by Husband as a romantic anniversary pressie. I'd always wanted one after firing my dad's rifle! I've got archery kit, too. I'm armed and ready!
