Author John Erickson on Homeschooling and Hank the Cowdog

An author and a cowboy from Texas, John R. Erickson is best known for introducing families and children to Hank the Cowdog, a smelly, smart-aleck dog that views himself as the “Head of Ranch Security.” Before The Case of the Troublesome Lady hits shelves and homes in September 2017 as the 70th book in the beloved series, Alpha Omega Publications briefly spoke with the award-winning author about his annual appearance at the THSC Woodlands Homeschool Convention, the inspiration behind his books, his life as an author, and what’s to come in his and Hank the Cowdog’s future.

Q: What inspired you to write the Hank the Cowdog books? Did you ever have a dog named Hank?
A: It was not inspiration. I’d been writing for 15 years, trying to be a novelist writing historical novels and sending them to New York publishers. I didn’t have much success with that. I was working as a cowboy at the time, and I started writing out of my experiences. A lot of my story was funny, and I stopped writing depressing novels. One of those stories was about two dogs I’d known when I was cowboying, Hank and Grover. There was no epiphany. I never knew Hank would become a star and I’d end up working for him, but when I started reading it out loud to audiences in my part of Texas, they told me I needed to write more of them. I hired the artist, borrowed the money from the bank, and then they were pretty easy to sell. We sold out the first printing of 1500 in a few months, so we ordered another 1500. The first one came out in the spring of ’83 and the second came out in the fall of ’83.

It was not originally written for children. It was written for an adult agriculture audience. I think what happened is that the adults took their books home and read them to their children, and their children took them to school, so I would go to elementary schools and Christian schools. I enjoyed spending time with teachers and the librarians, so we kind of turned that into a specialty.

Q: What advice do you have for kids who want to grow up to become authors?
A: Well, I wrote a book on that subject and I wrote it mostly for homeschoolers. It’s called Story Craft, and it’s my experience with ink. It has advice from questions that I’ve gotten over the years. The short advice is write about what you know and love. If you’re serious about writing, write in a disciplined manner. I start about 5:30 in the morning and end around 10 a.m. I’ve been doing that for 40 years, ever since I got married.

Q: What values/moral messages would you like kids to take away from reading your books?
A: Well, I don’t try to preach in these books. I definitely think that values are passed on in literature, and I’m very much aware of that and don’t want our kids reading and watching things that are trash and empty of values. But I also just want to give my readers the opportunity to have a big laugh. It’s amazing to me how much depressing literature and movies there are, and I think a lot of kids who think they don’t like to read just think it’s a joyless experience. I didn’t enjoy reading, I was always a slow reader and still am. I primarily write these stories for myself, and I love getting letters from kids with dyslexia and other learning disabilities saying they learned to read with the Hank books.

Q: What has been the best part of becoming an author and making a career out of writing the Hank series?
A: When you have a good writing day, it’s very satisfying. It’s the equivalent of having a good parent day or other things that bring satisfaction. Not all days are like that for me. I lock myself in the office and sit there for four and a half hours. When it’s clicking and I’m writing a Hank book, I love it. I laugh out loud and kind of dread coming to the last chapter.

Q: Are there more Hank the Cowdog stories yet to come?
A: I have the next six written, and I started a new one two days ago. I keep a book sitting for three years and go back and read it 10 or 20 times. It’s kind of an aging process.

Q: What is your and Hank’s plans for the future? I found a rumor of a Hank the Cowdog movie coming out but that was a few years ago. Are the plans for that still in the works?
A: We’ve been chasing that rabbit for 30 years. In 1985, CBS did a 30-minute Hank episode and shortly after that I went out and spent three days with Disney, and I’ve just found it difficult or impossible to work with the big entertainment companies. I really don’t trust them with the material I’ve worked so hard to protect for my core audience. So we have not found a big studio that we trust enough to give them creative control. So what we’re trying to do is maintain creative control and find a way of working within the system with people we trust. We’re talking to people right now who are completely capable, so we hope to have something going within the next three or four years.

Q: What brings you to the homeschool convention in The Woodlands each year?
A: Kris [my wife] started homeschooling our kids in the 90s. So, I started going to the convention in The Woodlands, probably 12 or 13 years ago, and they keep inviting me back. It’s become kind of a fixture, and we really like that community of people. We do a program every Friday night called Hank’s Family Concert. We do songs from the audio books. It’s good family entertainment. Then, I read a passage from the newest book, and it usually lasts about an hour and 15 minutes or an hour and a half. We get three generations of people in there, and it’s always a good time.