Strong characters in fiction really capture my memory.  One of the best is, The Judge.  Probably Cormac McCarthy’s most memorable that appears in Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West.

The following is a description of what he looked like.  “An enormous man dressed in an oilcloth slicker had entered the tent and removed his hat.  He was as bald as a stone and had no trace of beard and he had no brows to his eyes nor lashes to them.  He was close to seven feet in height and he stood smoking a cigar…”― Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West

He rode with a group of scalp hunters.  Their profession marked them as unsavory beings.  The Judge was their interpreter of life and marked as semi divine, although demonic.  His spoken words always brought the group to silence.  “War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him.  The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner.” ― Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West

My name is Wally Runnels and I write Border Pulp.

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