TORRINGTON – The Goshen County Library presented an author talk at Eastern Wyoming College on Saturday as part of its 100-year anniversary. 

C.J. Box talked to fans of his books including the Joe Pickett series and Cassie Dewell/Cody Hoyt series. Box answered a variety of questions pertaining to his 20-plus years as an author.

President of the Goshen County Library Board Ellen Kreger introduced Box to the audience and listed some of his accomplishments including a New York Times bestselling author. 

Box, who is from Casper and lives in Saratoga, thanked his fans for coming and said this was the first event he has done since the beginning of the pandemic. 

“I didn’t even tell my publishers because they’re all in New York,” box said. “I didn’t even tell them I was doing an even because they would’ve tried to cancel it.” 

Before Box fielded questions from the audience, he gave an update on all of his projects since the last time he talked in Goshen County. 

Box’s Cassie Dewell series was adapted to a TV show called “Big Sky” in 2020 on ABC. The first half of the original season was based on the four books, but Box said the show had to branch away from the books as it is in its second season. 

Box said the TV show has been a major factor in increased sales of his books. 

“When Big Sky came out last year ‘The Highway,’ the book that it was based on, sold 30 times more books than it had in the previous month,” Box said. “A TV show is an hour-long commercial for the books.” 

Box’s most acclaimed series about Joe Pickett is also being adapted into a show on Spectrum with the first five episodes already out. The new show has much more source material to work with as Box has already written 21 books in the series with a new one set to be released in March of 2022. Box said they have stuck closely to the books, and he believes they will probably combine two books per season. 

The mystery thriller series, which started in 2001, follows a game warden in Wyoming who takes on a variety of foes from environmental terrorists to homicidal animal rights advocates according to Box’s website. 

The series prompted several questions from the audience including if Box had heard from game wardens on how the profession is portrayed and how scary it is in the books. Box said some people at the fish and game headquarters are not as fond of the books, but every game warden he has met likes them. 

Box also said game wardens are often sending him suggestions for story ideas, and he used one in “Nowhere to Run” about two 6-foot-5 brothers in the middle of the woods. 

“Those game wardens when they went into that camp with those two brothers, they both thought they would never come out,” Box said.  

One fan, who traveled 900 miles from Texas, asked Box if the character Wacey Hedeman was a nod to the famous bull rider Tuff Hedeman. Box said it was and most of the characters in the first four books from the Pickett series were a mashup of bull riders’ names from when he worked at the Cheyenne Frontier days. 

“I would get the PRC media handbook and I would pick one first name and one last name,” Box said.

Box also answered questions about why some logos in the TV show are not accurate such as the game and fish logo and the Wyoming license plate. Box said the entertainment industry has a “20% rule” which means anything which portrays a real entity must be 20% different to avoid liability issues as well as portraying it as an advertisement. 

While Joe Pickett has many strong qualities, his most notable characteristic is being a bad shot. One fan asked if Pickett was a bad shot because Box was in real life which he jokingly refuted the accusation by telling the audience he shot two geese with two shots at the two-shot event before the talk. 

“I didn’t want to make him a superman in the very first book,” Box said. “In my mind I wasn’t writing a series that lasted 21 books. I was writing A book about A guy.” 

Box also said the biggest reason why he is a bad shot is because he never thinks he will have to draw his gun again. 

Some audience members commended Box for how he portrayed Cassie Dewell in her series. Box said it is often challenging for male authors to write from a female’s perspective but his wife, three daughters, female agent and female editor all liked his portrayal of the protagonist. 

Box ended the Q&A portion of the event by talking about the importance of libraries. Box said libraries are more than just a place to get books as it is also a community center. 

After the talk, Box took time to sign books and take pictures with his fans. 

The next library event to celebrate 100 years will be a “Sip and Paint” on Jan. 22 at the Library. For information on the event, call the library at 532-3411 or check the library’s website or Facebook page.