Buchmann featured as Liquid Lit’s August author of the month

Ritzville resident and local writer E. Hank Buchmann, known under his pen name as Buck Edwards, held a reading at the Washington State University Extension Office, Aug. 11.

He then attended the Liquid Lit Book Club as the featrured artist of the month at Memories Diner in the evening.

Buchmann read a chapter from his first novel “Dead Woman Creek,” which was the Liquid Lit Book Club’s selection for August.

Set in 1880, “Dead Woman Creek,” follows the aging U.S. Marshal Boone Crowe who left Buffalo, Wyoming, in search of his longtime friend who has disappeared.

During his adventure, Crowe is drawn into a struggle between the homestead family of Ernest Tundel and a cattle magnate, Douglas Starkweather.

Buchmann, who described himself as a “farm kid,” told the book club his interest in writing began in seventh-grade when he won a scary story contest. He studied journalism in high school and college before he was drafted for the Vietnam War.

During his time in Vietnam, he served as a military reporter for the 101st Airborne. His first story, about a medical evacuation pilot who was shot down three times, was picked up in national military news outlets.

After he returned from the Vietnam War, he continued to work as a freelance reporter and a source editor and would later help his father on the farm.

As a custodian for the Moses Lake School District, Buchmann became a guest lecturer for an English class, which fueled his desire to write and teach creative writing.

His first students were the cows in the fields he worked in, which he explained helped boost his confidence.

Buchmann has taught poetry in every school in the Moses Lake School District, including Big Bend Community College.

As for his novels, Buchmann explained he only intended to pen one western novel. The one novel has turned into six, with a seventh book on its way.

He noted Crowe has a fan following, particularly with his women readership.

“He’s got that tenderness, even when he’s going to hang someone,” Buchmann said.

Buchmann also read his books “Darling Liberty,” which he said took him 10 years to write and “Until the Names Grow Blurred,” a novel about a World War I sniper.

Buchmann, who won the 2016 Yakima Coffeehouse Poets contest, also read a selection of poetry. He described his poems as short novels.

“Everything is a story to me,” he said.