Craig Johnson fills the room, his voice is hearty and he has the ability to talk endlessly. Johnson is the author of 29 books about Sheriff Walt Longmire of fictional Absaroka County, Wyoming.
He’s currently on a book tour in support of his recently published Have Courage, Longmire Stories. The wife and I traveled from Kansas City to Omaha to get a copy of the book and hear Johnson talk about writing and Walt Longmire.
The Longmire books have a very loyal audience, as I saw at the event. There were questions about where the ideas for certain characters came from, how the first book (The Cold Dish) turned into a series, where story ideas originated, how he selected the voice to narrate the books on audio, and so forth. Naturally, many of the questions were about the TV series, and the one everyone seems to ask is, will there be another series or a film?
The answer to the last question is maybe. The rights to the show are held by Warner Bros. who produced the series that ran first on AMC and then Netflix. Warner Bros. has turned down offers from both to sell the rights. Warner Bros. has changed hands several times recently, so properties like Longmire have value.
Johnson is a very polite, affable and funny man. Greeting each person warmly at the signing table, he engages in conversation and makes you feel like you’re an old friend.
He shook my hand and he posed for a photo. I asked him about the difference in the level of humor in the books versus the television series. Walt is a more serious and careful character in the series, very different from the tone of the books. Johnson answered that there was humor in the series, but it was trimmed by A&E to make it fit in the allotted runtime. Once the series moved to Netflix, Johnson said lighter moments were emphasized by the producers since series episodes had no time restrictions. I saw his point, but I will tell you, the books are more humorous and the characters even quirkier than they seem on the small screen.
At some book signing events, actor A Martinez, who portrayed Jacob Nighthorse in 30 episodes of the TV series, who wrote the forward in the new book, appears with Johnson and reads it to the audience. He was not at this event, but Johnson said he’s a great storyteller.
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