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Orphan Elixir
James Gallowbraid has been imprisoned longer than the Civil War has lasted and when finally released, he makes his way to a small village on a journey that seems rife with odd characters, pregnant women and men also named James. Born to a prostitute and possessed of a penchant for burning buildings, Gallowbraid seems unlikely to be the kind of man to confront the foreboding evil that he and the entire villages senses is lurking in the nearby woods. But when a pregnant woman vanishes from the hamlet and a gold-hunting expedition has James reuniting with a trusted old friend from his past, both men find themselves unwillingly facing a terror in the redwood depths of the forest that is more horrific than they ever imagined.
97 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 2, 2014
1 person is currently reading
9 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Hirsch
47 books125 followersJoseph Hirsch’s work has appeared in many publications, including “3 AM Magazine,” “Film International,” and “Retreats from Oblivion: A Journal of NoirCon.” Several of his novels and novellas have also been published. He previously served four years in the U.S. Army, in which his travels took him to locales as disparate as El Paso, Texas, Darmstadt, Germany, and Bagdad, Iraq. He lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, is online @ www.joeyhirsch.com, and has dreams of one day finding a box filled with money.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 30, 2014
This novella is written 1st person singular narrative through the eyes of the protagonist, James Gallowbraid. The story opens with Gallowbraid’s release from a California prison where he served seven years for stagecoach robberies. Set shortly after the Civil War, 32-year-old Gallowbraid recounts his past to the reader as he settles into a sparsely populated Mission community that isn’t all that it seems.
Hirsch’s research is excellent, and his voice consistent and appropriate for the period. The protagonist is a well-developed, humorous character. Hirsch’s descriptive narrative is admirable, and the prose is almost poetic. Based on the genre, the impressive vocabulary may distract from the plot in places. For example, “It was as certain as the spread of ague.” The word fever would have moved the story along at a brisker rate. Overall, the pacing and structure is good, which is commendable when dealing with a limited length. I would have liked the main conflict to enter earlier. More history regarding the strange antagonist would have set up the turning point to flow into the climax, but the stylist decision is understandable - the narrating character didn’t know the backstory.
If you are a fan of Westerns with a psychological twist, Orphan Elixir is a novel I would recommend.
Hirsch’s research is excellent, and his voice consistent and appropriate for the period. The protagonist is a well-developed, humorous character. Hirsch’s descriptive narrative is admirable, and the prose is almost poetic. Based on the genre, the impressive vocabulary may distract from the plot in places. For example, “It was as certain as the spread of ague.” The word fever would have moved the story along at a brisker rate. Overall, the pacing and structure is good, which is commendable when dealing with a limited length. I would have liked the main conflict to enter earlier. More history regarding the strange antagonist would have set up the turning point to flow into the climax, but the stylist decision is understandable - the narrating character didn’t know the backstory.
If you are a fan of Westerns with a psychological twist, Orphan Elixir is a novel I would recommend.
November 5, 2014
I enjoyed this book and the setting, although some of the book was a little violent in epilogue. This book is set mainly among the giant Redwoods of California immediately after the end of the American Civil War. You get a glimpse of bootlegging, the gold-rush, stage-coach robbing, prison and the likes. The characters and the period when this took place was very interesting. In fact, I got so lost in reading that could not put it down. This author has an amazing talent for using words to vividly bring life to the characters and scenes within the pages of this novella. There were times when I could almost imagine being in the middle of the turmoil. Hirsch's writing makes you feel like you are an unseen observer in all of the action. This is an extraordinary rendition, and not a bit of dull epilogue to hold you down. In fact, you will be racing on to the next scene and on with the surreal life this author creates in this tale as told in "Orphin Elixir". I was given this book for my honest review and, I highly recommended this book to anyone that likes this genre. Just get hold of the Kids, this story is for grown-ups.
September 25, 2017
I've made this point before, but it bears repeating, so I'll say it again: you can't really separate the conditions under which something was created from how you feel about the final product. The ends may justify the means , but it's hard to feel good about a book whose creation made you miserable, and it's equally hard to fault a work whose writing gave you reason to live.
This is a review, not an autobiography, but it's hard to talk about "Orphan Elixir" without mentioning the state of my life at the time I wrote it. So here goes:
When I was a young man, I wanted to be a professional writer. I even managed to get a couple of stories accepted here and there, but I didn't make much money and I gave up on writing for awhile. I spent some time in the Army, went to Iraq, and then returned stateside. I started writing again during my last year of service, in garrison at Fort Bliss, Texas. It was there that I started selling stories, and entertaining the far-fetched idea that I might make it as a professional writer when I got out of the Army.
I did my last year of service and did get out of the army, but instead of trying to make it as a pro writer, I had a complete mental breakdown and spent some time in multiple VA hospitals for PTSD. I told myself that I would never write again, and would probably commit suicide after taking up space on the earth for a couple more years of doing nothing more than eating and watching television. My greatest ambition was that my modest output of short stories might eventually be rediscovered languishing in the dark corners of the internet, and who knows, one might even make its way to some anthology long after my self-inflicted death.
For some reason, though, I got my will to live back and I decided to start writing again. I wrote a strange horror-western novella about an ex-convict-cum-explosives expert who sets forth on foot through the piney woods of Northern California, and discovers a small mission town where rumors of hidden gold and the legend of a cannibal hiding in the hills each vie for the imagination of the gossiping townsfolk.
I wrote the thing in a week, and then searched for a Western-themed outlet to publish it. The first publisher I sent it to was called "The Western Online." They accepted the novella, and agreed to feature it in six serialized installments over the course of six months. They could only pay a nominal fee ($5 per installment), which came out to $30 for 30,000 words (or 1 dollar per thousand words).
The money didn't matter, though, or at least the specific figure was of no consequence. I felt like I had come back from the dead just by managing to write and sell a story. And on the first day of each month for the next six months after "Orphan Elixir" was accepted, I felt my confidence rising, my desire to live growing.
"Orphan Elixir" is in many ways nothing more than a slight, entertaining, and implausibly bloody little adventure story. But it is also in some ways my greatest reminder that, regardless of the myriad nightmares I've endured, my dream also eventually came true and that I was more resilient than I thought I was, and that maybe the universe might even be a little less cruel than the last few years had led me to believe.
This is a review, not an autobiography, but it's hard to talk about "Orphan Elixir" without mentioning the state of my life at the time I wrote it. So here goes:
When I was a young man, I wanted to be a professional writer. I even managed to get a couple of stories accepted here and there, but I didn't make much money and I gave up on writing for awhile. I spent some time in the Army, went to Iraq, and then returned stateside. I started writing again during my last year of service, in garrison at Fort Bliss, Texas. It was there that I started selling stories, and entertaining the far-fetched idea that I might make it as a professional writer when I got out of the Army.
I did my last year of service and did get out of the army, but instead of trying to make it as a pro writer, I had a complete mental breakdown and spent some time in multiple VA hospitals for PTSD. I told myself that I would never write again, and would probably commit suicide after taking up space on the earth for a couple more years of doing nothing more than eating and watching television. My greatest ambition was that my modest output of short stories might eventually be rediscovered languishing in the dark corners of the internet, and who knows, one might even make its way to some anthology long after my self-inflicted death.
For some reason, though, I got my will to live back and I decided to start writing again. I wrote a strange horror-western novella about an ex-convict-cum-explosives expert who sets forth on foot through the piney woods of Northern California, and discovers a small mission town where rumors of hidden gold and the legend of a cannibal hiding in the hills each vie for the imagination of the gossiping townsfolk.
I wrote the thing in a week, and then searched for a Western-themed outlet to publish it. The first publisher I sent it to was called "The Western Online." They accepted the novella, and agreed to feature it in six serialized installments over the course of six months. They could only pay a nominal fee ($5 per installment), which came out to $30 for 30,000 words (or 1 dollar per thousand words).
The money didn't matter, though, or at least the specific figure was of no consequence. I felt like I had come back from the dead just by managing to write and sell a story. And on the first day of each month for the next six months after "Orphan Elixir" was accepted, I felt my confidence rising, my desire to live growing.
"Orphan Elixir" is in many ways nothing more than a slight, entertaining, and implausibly bloody little adventure story. But it is also in some ways my greatest reminder that, regardless of the myriad nightmares I've endured, my dream also eventually came true and that I was more resilient than I thought I was, and that maybe the universe might even be a little less cruel than the last few years had led me to believe.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews