Writing Bandita Bonita was a complete labor of love. That can be said by any author about their work, but in writing Bandita this goes a step further. I had one objective, and that was to help further enhance the reality of what has slowly but surely been materializing as the truth of who Billy the Kid genuinely was: that he was not the cruel, villainous sociopath that history and fantastic legend has generally portrayed him.
And so, this wasn't about using Billy's life as a means for me to have material to write a good story, but rather a means for me to be able to use my own writing in order to tell the amazing story of his life. I wanted to find a way to bring Billy's story to the masses much in the same way that Twilight, Harry Potter, and The Hunger Games had achieved through mainstream interest. But despite the success of those novels (and films), Billy had something over them all: he lived and breathed, and his tale is a true one--at least as true as documented history and witness accounts have testified to, and it continues to flourish all these many years later. This is proof that Billy wasn't merely any ordinary theif or outlaw. He wasn't the coward the naysayers who know nothing of him have declared and like to speculate about, but a charismatic, charming revolutionary whose legacy has endured throughout the decades and continues to fascinate.
Through my pen, Billy wrote his own story as far as Bandita is concerned, but he needed the right catalyst to bridge the gap between who the masses believed him to be after all these years and the modern audiences understanding of him, and that's where the advent of Lucy came in. But then I fell in love with her fiery strength and was fortunate to then be able to use her to bring about the many issues concerning women and their plight during the 19th century: their struggles and lean prospects which still resonate today in the 21st century.
She gave me a platform in which to reach the women of today who should be able to find themselves relating to Lucy despite the backdrop of a 19th century frontier motiff. In the same vein, women ought to be able to put aside the ormamental 19th century setting and focus primarily on not only the love story between my female protagonist, Lucy Howard, and the great love of her life, the illustrious William H. Bonney, AKA, Billy the Kid, but the struggles, trials and tribulations that resonate in modern times.
Despite the readers' fair ability to put out of their minds the historical environment and focus on the story, it must be said that this is in fact a special story in the sense that it does include America's history of the west which pinpoints the events of the small but very volatile, very important Lincoln County Cattle King War in addition to recounting Billy's true life experiences even as it involves the intense love affair between Lucy and the absolutely blazing object of her desire, Billy the Kid. This serves as a universal aspect of the story that everyone can relate to regardless of the historical period, making it a palatable tale to a vast demographic. It is a story that was written with incredible emotion and the profound thought that allows it to shine through in the words. It is also important to impart that the story was written with consideration and great respect to those who had lived this tale over 130 years ago.
