New Story
I've self-published a novel that floated around New York for most of a year, with no takers. It's called Easy Street, and is available in trade paper and electronic versions.
Easy Street is a western that harkens back to a classical theme, but one now virtually forgotten. A youth is sent west by his father to make a man of him. In this case, the youth is a rich-man's son, Jay Warren, newly graduated from Harvard in 1876. His father, Tecumseh Warren, is a self-made shipping magnate who doesn't want his privileged son to spend a life in idleness. So Jay discovers that his graduation gift is a ticket to Cheyenne, in Wyoming Territory, and enough cash to sustain him while he finds employment.
Jay, filled with a sense of entitlement, is appalled, but heads west thinking it will all swiftly end. But his father means it: the young man is on his own, and must start making his own way. Jay is soon looking for a way to make a swift killing, a way to Easy Street, and that's how he gets into deeper and deeper trouble. He gets into the wrong crowd, and soon is in grave danger, a life-threatening crisis. Will he become a worthwhile person, or will he ruin himself in the West?
There is scarcely a weapon shot in this novel, although there is the threat of gunshot and the threat of the noose. There is no lack of drama. Jay gets into big trouble and then even worse trouble. But part of my purpose in writing this story is to show that gunfights and bloodbaths are not necessary in a western novel, and in fact can be rather dull and sterile compared to the many other ways to spin a novel of the American West. New York publishers, wedded to their current diet of high body counts and constant violence, didn't buy this one. Maybe that is their loss, or the public's loss.
Easy Street is a western that harkens back to a classical theme, but one now virtually forgotten. A youth is sent west by his father to make a man of him. In this case, the youth is a rich-man's son, Jay Warren, newly graduated from Harvard in 1876. His father, Tecumseh Warren, is a self-made shipping magnate who doesn't want his privileged son to spend a life in idleness. So Jay discovers that his graduation gift is a ticket to Cheyenne, in Wyoming Territory, and enough cash to sustain him while he finds employment.
Jay, filled with a sense of entitlement, is appalled, but heads west thinking it will all swiftly end. But his father means it: the young man is on his own, and must start making his own way. Jay is soon looking for a way to make a swift killing, a way to Easy Street, and that's how he gets into deeper and deeper trouble. He gets into the wrong crowd, and soon is in grave danger, a life-threatening crisis. Will he become a worthwhile person, or will he ruin himself in the West?
There is scarcely a weapon shot in this novel, although there is the threat of gunshot and the threat of the noose. There is no lack of drama. Jay gets into big trouble and then even worse trouble. But part of my purpose in writing this story is to show that gunfights and bloodbaths are not necessary in a western novel, and in fact can be rather dull and sterile compared to the many other ways to spin a novel of the American West. New York publishers, wedded to their current diet of high body counts and constant violence, didn't buy this one. Maybe that is their loss, or the public's loss.
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