Pocahontas native Randal Seyler, who also is a former editor for the Washington County Enterprise-Leader, has published the first of his Western adventure novels and has signed a five-book deal with DS Publishing, a leading publisher of Western fiction.
Seyler, a graduate of Pocahontas High School and a longtime journalist, authored "Jehovah Moon; Texas Ranger: Stagecoach Shootout." The book, which was published in October by DS Productions, is the first in a series featuring Moon, a young Texas Ranger, and his adventures while rescuing the daughter of the Illinois governor from kidnappers, battling Mexican bandits and outwitting suspicious Pinkerton agents.
The second volume in the Stagecoach Shootout saga is expected to be available in November. The first book is now available on Amazon.com.
Future novels will see Moon grow into a full-fledged, experienced Texas Ranger.
"I've always wanted to write fiction – Westerns, mysteries, movie tie-ins – since junior high school," Seyler said. "Reading those paperbacks got me through high school and I've been a lifelong reader."
Seyler remembers his first attempt to write fiction.
"My first 'short story' was written in the second grade during a class at Alma Spikes Elementary School," he said. "I'd seen the film 'Hud,' based on a Larry McMurtry novel, and so I wrote a story about Hud getting in a fight, and Hud was the hero. If you're familiar with the film or the novel, you'll know how weird that is," he added with a laugh. "But in the second grade, it's hard to imagine Paul Newman is not the good guy."
Seyler joined the U.S. Navy after graduating high school and served as a hospital corpsman. After being honorably discharged, he earned a bachelor's degree in journalism at Arkansas State University. He has been a journalist since 1986, working as a business reporter and columnist for the Northwest Arkansas Times and then as copy editor for the Springdale Morning News from 2005 to 2012.
He was also the city editor of the Roswell, N.M., Daily Record and a former bureau chief for the Silver City, N.M., Sun-News. He has also worked in newspapers in Arkansas at Osceola, Berryville, Washington County, Dumas, El Dorado and Jonesboro.
"I chose journalism [as a career] because it was a way to write for a living and get a guaranteed paycheck versus freelancing or trying to sell fiction," Seyler said. "But writing fiction was always there on my bucket list."
In college, Seyler was cofounder of the literary magazine Aggie Road at Arkansas State University which was both a controversial and popular publication.
In 1989, he and his wife, musician and poet Shannon, founded a small literary magazine, Brownbag Press, which published stories and poems under the banner of Hyacinth House Publishing.
Besides writing thousands of newspaper articles, Seyler's short stories and poems have been featured in numerous small magazines over the years.
In 1991, Seyler was chosen to participate in a poetry seminar at West Virginia University with Nobel Prize winner and, at the time, Poet Laureate of the United States Joseph Brodsky.
From 2017 to 2020 Seyler was the managing editor of the Jonesboro Sun. For the past year, he has been the editor of the Courier in Russellville.
When he's not working or writing, Seyler plays Tai Chi and Shaolin kung fu. He often teaches Tai Chi at local senior centers and enjoys traveling with his wife.