From journalism to Joe Pickett: How C.J. Box’s reporting roots shaped his Western thrillers

Best-selling Western novelist C.J. Box has been penning tales about fictional Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett since the early 2000s, but his writing career actually took shape long before that, at a small weekly newspaper.

Box, 67, said his first job after graduating from the University of Denver was as a journalist in the tiny Saratoga Sun newsroom in his home state of Wyoming. He reported on news and sports in addition to writing an outdoors column.

His writing at the time was strictly non-fictional, but he developed plenty of skills that still are proving useful today.

“The training I got being a reporter and then later a columnist for other newspapers has really served me well when it’s come to novel writing and meeting deadlines, writing a lot and writing with brevity,” Box said.

And, Box noted, there is some overlap between print journalism and novel writing.

“There’s not a huge difference in the opening line of a book and a killer lead in a feature story,” he said.

In addition to the reporting and writing skills, the newspaper gig also provided another important building block for Box’s books: the genesis for the Joe Pickett character.

In a 2015 introduction to a reprint of his 2001 debut novel, “Open Season,” Box explained how he came to land on a game warden as the protagonist for the story percolating in his mind.

Box wrote that he thought about making the character a newspaper reporter like he was at the time, “but I needed my guy to be able to take action instead of simply writing a story about it.”

In the meantime, he was going on ride-alongs with a local game warden in Saratoga who was “professional, taciturn, and a little intimidating,” Box wrote. Thus the idea for a game warden as the lead character was born.

What started as a plan to write one book has since grown into an entire series of novels and a TV show about the character: “Joe Pickett” on Paramount+.

His newest release, “The Crossroads,” is the 26th book in the Joe Pickett series. As with all the books he’s written, Box said he likes to start with an issue or controversy.

“That’s what I hang the story on and then I develop it from there,” he said.

The question in his mind, he added, is always, “How can I pull the reader through these issues in a page-turning way?”

In “The Crossroads,” several issues are at play, including fentanyl trafficking and rare-earths mining.

  Buy Photo

“In order to get that background information, I try to go out and not only interview people, but do the things that happen in the book so I can write about it from a first-person (perspective),” Box said.

That’s where his journalism training comes into play again, right down to the reporter’s notebook he uses to take notes.

“We just sit down with an open notebook and ask questions,” Box said of his research process. “I still do that, and I’m very comfortable doing that, and it’s always very valuable when it comes to writing the books.”

“The Crossroads” opens with Joe Pickett being gravely injured, and so part of Box’s research this time around included talking with a neurosurgeon about the ins and outs of head injuries and hospital care. He consulted with Dr. Theodore Schwartz, the author of “Gray Matters: A Biography of Brain Surgery.”

“In my experience, in all walks of life, if you ask an expert to weigh in on something, they really like to do that, because they don’t like anything to be portrayed incorrectly,” Box said.

Schwartz helped ensure the medical portions of the book are accurate, just like any good journalist would want. But Joe being out of commission meant Box had to turn elsewhere for a character to move the story forward. He settled on Joe’s three daughters, who have grown up throughout the series, from small children in “Open Season” to young adults in “The Crossroads.”

“I had always wanted to write a book that featured all three of the daughters more than Joe Pickett or his wife,” Box said. “And this book gave me the opportunity to do that.”

Box, who also is the father of three daughters, said writing from the perspective of Pickett daughters Sheridan, April and Lucy was “not as hard as you might think.”

“I’ve got a pretty good idea of how they think and talk and act,” Box said. “I’ve just never had them all do it simultaneously like this before, so it’s a little bit challenging to do that.”

It’s a challenge that Box tackles well, as the daughters take up the investigative mantle and dive deep into the shady dealings of some of the ranching families in Twelve Sleep County. Box’s commitment to research and getting the details right, plus his vivid descriptions of the Western scenery are an added bonus.

Like Joe Pickett, Box still lives in Wyoming, on a ranch in the south-central part of the state. But he also has family ties to Iowa, where he will be later this month to discuss “The Crossroads” in an event hosted by Swamp Fox Bookstore in Marion.

One of his three daughters is an attorney based out of Des Moines, “so we visit the state a lot,” Box said.

This trip, however, will be his first time in Marion since he was in the area during a pheasant hunting trip while still in college.

“I’m looking forward to coming to Cedar Rapids,” he said.

While his Feb. 28 event at Giving Tree Theater in Marion officially is sold out, fans still will be able to buy signed copies of his books at Swamp Fox Bookstore. Plus, there’s always the possibility of more visits in the future, given that Box is currently halfway through writing the next Joe Pickett book.

“Because the books happen in real time ... there’s an obvious end date out there somewhere,” Box said. “But I’m not ready to pull the plug on it yet.”

Comments: melissa.ballardauen@thegazette.com.