By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
One of the authors who helped write American Sniper is coming to St. Joseph to show off one of his newer works.
Jim DeFelice released West Like Lightning: The Brief Legendary Ride of the Pony Express in 2018, and will be bringing it to St. Joseph on Friday and Saturday.
As part of his research DeFelice traveled the Pony Express route and heard from people along the way.
"And I would just say hey I'm here, explain what I was doing, and I'd have the run of the place," DeFelice tells KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr. "And these people were so fantastic and I absolutely could not have done this book without their help."
DeFelice says he was looking for a new idea based in civil war times to write about that was thrilling, but was also not the civil war.
"And the Pony Express came up and a lightbulb went off in my head because listen let's face it, horses, you can't go wrong," DeFelice says.
DeFelice says there were many legends around the Pony Express, some of them great.
"Whether they're true or not is another story, we can get into that at another point, but it's just so much fun that whole story," DeFelice explains. "And at its heart it's a story about man versus nature and you know, that's one of the things Americans are about."
DeFelice says that other events around the time around the civil war are so clouded by that moment in history.
"And doing this book gave me an opportunity to, well first of all to learn more about those things, I mean I have to be a little selfish here, as a writer the one thing I want to do when I'm writing a book is learn," DeFelice says. "And fortunately, the book gives me that opportunity to do that."
DeFelice will speak at the Pony Express Museum on Friday at noon as part of a celebration for the 100th anniversary of KFEQ radio. You can find more information about the event and buy tickets HERE.
He will also speak at the Rolling Hills Library on Friday at 6:30 pm, and then will be back at the museum on Saturday at 10 am for a book signing.