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Writ in Blood
Courage. Honor. Loyalty. All fine things, but they’ve led John Ringo to kill a man. He was raised right and he knows he’s not a murderer, but otherwise he’s a mystery even to himself. Doc Holliday claims to have some insights, but Doc is too devoted to Wyatt Earp to spare much attention for the man who’s already lost his soul. Which leaves Johnny Ringo prey to the distractions of a demon. Imaginary or not, if this creature abandons him, too, then surely his sanity is forfeit – and what will his life be worth then?
This Queer Weird West novel follows these three along the complex trails that lead into and out of Tombstone, Arizona in 1881.
This Queer Weird West novel follows these three along the complex trails that lead into and out of Tombstone, Arizona in 1881.
328 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 26, 2021
1 person is currently reading
46 people want to read
About the author
Julie Bozza
34 books307 followersOrdinary people are extraordinary. We can all aspire to decency, generosity, respect, honesty – and the power of love (all kinds of love!) can help us grow into our best selves.
I write stories about ‘ordinary’ people finding their answers in themselves and each other. I write about friends and lovers, and the families we create for ourselves. I explore the depth and the meaning, the fun and the possibilities, in ‘everyday’ experiences and relationships. I believe that embodying these things is how we can live our lives more fully.
Creative works help us each find our own clarity and our own joy. Readers bring their hearts and souls to reading, just as authors bring their hearts and souls to writing – and together we make a whole.
Julie Bozza. Quirky. Queer. Sincere.
I write stories about ‘ordinary’ people finding their answers in themselves and each other. I write about friends and lovers, and the families we create for ourselves. I explore the depth and the meaning, the fun and the possibilities, in ‘everyday’ experiences and relationships. I believe that embodying these things is how we can live our lives more fully.
Creative works help us each find our own clarity and our own joy. Readers bring their hearts and souls to reading, just as authors bring their hearts and souls to writing – and together we make a whole.
Julie Bozza. Quirky. Queer. Sincere.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 1, 2021
Described by the author as a Weird West historical novel, this book is in fact a queer retelling of the classic story of Wyatt Earp in Tombstone, with added fantastical elements to make it both queer and weird :)
The book follows 3 narratives by Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and Johnny Ringo as their paths crossed, leading them into Tombstone and the ultimate gun fight at OK Corral. Events stay somewhat faithful to historical accounts of the story, except for the sexuality of Doc Holliday (bi) and Johnny Ringo (gay). Doc's POV stands central to this story, linking Wyatt Earp's in a hopeless bromance, and Johnny Ringo's with sexual encounters. Johnny Ringo's character is where the author takes the most liberty, creating a beautiful beast with a tortured soul. His obsession with the Devil may be reason, or the catalyst, as the book suggests, leading to the explosive events at Tombstone.
I'm not a fan of the classic Wyatt Earp's tale, but I'm intrigued by this queer remaking. Julie Bozza's writing displays an apparent maturity over her previous book that I read (Butterfly Hunter) - sure-handed, eloquent, and at times poetic. Her Wild West is vividly depicted, its people meticulously drawn, obviously out of extensive research. This book is no doubt Julie Bozza's labor of love, and it's waiting for your discovery.
Warning: This is not M/M romance, but rather queer historical fiction. It does not contain an M/M romance, and does not have a happy ending.
The book follows 3 narratives by Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and Johnny Ringo as their paths crossed, leading them into Tombstone and the ultimate gun fight at OK Corral. Events stay somewhat faithful to historical accounts of the story, except for the sexuality of Doc Holliday (bi) and Johnny Ringo (gay). Doc's POV stands central to this story, linking Wyatt Earp's in a hopeless bromance, and Johnny Ringo's with sexual encounters. Johnny Ringo's character is where the author takes the most liberty, creating a beautiful beast with a tortured soul. His obsession with the Devil may be reason, or the catalyst, as the book suggests, leading to the explosive events at Tombstone.
I'm not a fan of the classic Wyatt Earp's tale, but I'm intrigued by this queer remaking. Julie Bozza's writing displays an apparent maturity over her previous book that I read (Butterfly Hunter) - sure-handed, eloquent, and at times poetic. Her Wild West is vividly depicted, its people meticulously drawn, obviously out of extensive research. This book is no doubt Julie Bozza's labor of love, and it's waiting for your discovery.
Warning: This is not M/M romance, but rather queer historical fiction. It does not contain an M/M romance, and does not have a happy ending.
November 18, 2021
I confess that, while I have no particular affinity for westerns, I love books by Julie Bozza. Whatever theme she’s tackling, I know there’ll be nuance and depth, explorations of queerness and friendship, examinations of complex people with difficult personalities who may be hard to like, let alone love – and yet I know before the end I will love at least some of them. Often, she’ll include a smidge of the paranormal.
Writ in Blood contains all of these things, in its thorough, inventive and rivetting take on the events that led up to the infamous 30-second shoot-out at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona on October 26, 1881, and its murderous aftermath.
The lead-up to the gunfight is pretty Byzantine. Lawmen weren’t always particularly law-abiding and gamblers like Doc Holliday weren’t necessarily gunslingers, even if they weren’t especially law-abiding either. Allegiances get slippery and keeping track of all the people named Billy is a task unto itself. Then there are all the killings and revenge killings and the vendettas seeking payback for the revenge killings, and so on, almost ad infinitum.
Bozza takes these tangled skeins of personalities, allegiances and events and carefully selects the threads to weave a gripping story about honour, love, revenge and hope in those dangerous times. She also weaves in some colourful new threads of her own making.
Wyatt, Doc and Ringo are the triple focus of Writ in Blood, which begins with John Ringo under arrest for his first killing. His story proceeds to weaves in and out of the Earp/Holliday story, as his fluid allegiences reflect his tactiturnity and loneliness, and his mind becomes as grey, tattered and ephemeral as the soul he has lost somewhere in the western wilds, unwanted even by hell. (We know this because Ringo offered it to the ethereally beautiful son of the devil in trade for a one night stand. The sex happened, but his threadbare soul doesn’t seem to have been claimed. Ringo has several sexual encounters with this golden demon, and it’s deliberately unclear whether these are real or products of Ringo’s muddled psyche.)
Ringo is a deeply disturbed soul, who has done bad things but does not feel like he’s a bad man. While his darkness carries curious elements of light and honour, Wyatt Earp is effectively his opposite: a man of honour who in time gives in to dark deeds when the law fails him.
And between the two of them sits Doc Holliday, another contradiction: a deliciously devil-may-care gambler and gunslinger with a sense of honour – given only months to live in his early days as a dentist, and now living high and wide and handsome in expectation of imminent death by TB.
Doc Holliday, cheerfully bisexual, conducts a torrid affair with Ringo for a time – all sex, no love – before finally falling in with the Earps, where he falls in unrequited yet steadfast love with Wyatt. For his part, Wyatt clearly values his friendship with a man who skirts the edge of the law, finding comfort in Doc’s company, particularly in the worst of times.
With this emotional backdrop, which explores motivating forces for Ringo, Holliday and the Earps, Writ in Blood charts a course from Ringo’s arrest in 1877, through all the winding paths towards the 1881 gunfight and what followed, to Ringo’s violent, lonely death and, finally, to a last reunion between Doc and Wyatt in 1885.
It’s chronologically linear, but the character journeys are deep and often contradictory. Bozza gently unfolds their changing relationships, fears, ambitions and confrontations, maintaining clarity while providing satisfying complexity and depth. While the men of legend take centre stage, the women – the wives of the Earp men and Doc Holliday’s common-law wife, sex worker Kate Elder – have more presence and agency than they get in most retellings.
Through these three men, and all the acts of love and violence they commit, Bozza gives us a vibrant and compelling view into the brutality and romance of the tumultuous and untamed American west. It’s another complex work of art by Julie Bozza, writ in dust, blood, grief and love – made more wonderful by the actual art by Mags Kulbicka within its pages.
Writ in Blood contains all of these things, in its thorough, inventive and rivetting take on the events that led up to the infamous 30-second shoot-out at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona on October 26, 1881, and its murderous aftermath.
The lead-up to the gunfight is pretty Byzantine. Lawmen weren’t always particularly law-abiding and gamblers like Doc Holliday weren’t necessarily gunslingers, even if they weren’t especially law-abiding either. Allegiances get slippery and keeping track of all the people named Billy is a task unto itself. Then there are all the killings and revenge killings and the vendettas seeking payback for the revenge killings, and so on, almost ad infinitum.
Bozza takes these tangled skeins of personalities, allegiances and events and carefully selects the threads to weave a gripping story about honour, love, revenge and hope in those dangerous times. She also weaves in some colourful new threads of her own making.
Wyatt, Doc and Ringo are the triple focus of Writ in Blood, which begins with John Ringo under arrest for his first killing. His story proceeds to weaves in and out of the Earp/Holliday story, as his fluid allegiences reflect his tactiturnity and loneliness, and his mind becomes as grey, tattered and ephemeral as the soul he has lost somewhere in the western wilds, unwanted even by hell. (We know this because Ringo offered it to the ethereally beautiful son of the devil in trade for a one night stand. The sex happened, but his threadbare soul doesn’t seem to have been claimed. Ringo has several sexual encounters with this golden demon, and it’s deliberately unclear whether these are real or products of Ringo’s muddled psyche.)
Ringo is a deeply disturbed soul, who has done bad things but does not feel like he’s a bad man. While his darkness carries curious elements of light and honour, Wyatt Earp is effectively his opposite: a man of honour who in time gives in to dark deeds when the law fails him.
And between the two of them sits Doc Holliday, another contradiction: a deliciously devil-may-care gambler and gunslinger with a sense of honour – given only months to live in his early days as a dentist, and now living high and wide and handsome in expectation of imminent death by TB.
Doc Holliday, cheerfully bisexual, conducts a torrid affair with Ringo for a time – all sex, no love – before finally falling in with the Earps, where he falls in unrequited yet steadfast love with Wyatt. For his part, Wyatt clearly values his friendship with a man who skirts the edge of the law, finding comfort in Doc’s company, particularly in the worst of times.
With this emotional backdrop, which explores motivating forces for Ringo, Holliday and the Earps, Writ in Blood charts a course from Ringo’s arrest in 1877, through all the winding paths towards the 1881 gunfight and what followed, to Ringo’s violent, lonely death and, finally, to a last reunion between Doc and Wyatt in 1885.
It’s chronologically linear, but the character journeys are deep and often contradictory. Bozza gently unfolds their changing relationships, fears, ambitions and confrontations, maintaining clarity while providing satisfying complexity and depth. While the men of legend take centre stage, the women – the wives of the Earp men and Doc Holliday’s common-law wife, sex worker Kate Elder – have more presence and agency than they get in most retellings.
Through these three men, and all the acts of love and violence they commit, Bozza gives us a vibrant and compelling view into the brutality and romance of the tumultuous and untamed American west. It’s another complex work of art by Julie Bozza, writ in dust, blood, grief and love – made more wonderful by the actual art by Mags Kulbicka within its pages.
Want to read
October 29, 2021Looking forward to this one.
And for writers or fans of this subgenre, the author is planning an anthology...
https://juliebozza.com/submissions/?f...
And for writers or fans of this subgenre, the author is planning an anthology...
https://juliebozza.com/submissions/?f...
October 26, 2021
“Writ in Blood” is a great classic wild west tale with a twist. Julie Bozza will get up close and personal with some of the men who lived, fought and tried to tame Tombstone.
The historical western novel brings to life, Wyatt Earp, his brothers Virgil and Morgan, Doc Holliday, Johnny Ringo and other famous figures of the west.
It will show Wyatt Earp in a different light as his life seems unsettled. He’s a law man and had also tried other jobs but made his fortune with mining silver, along with his brothers. The brothers followed Wyatt, along with their common-law wives to Tombstone. Wyatt carried a heavy responsibility when it came to the people in his life. As they try to build the town of Tombstone the Earp’s found themselves up against the Cowboys.
Doc Holliday and Kate Elder both met Wyatt Earp and a friendship was formed, especially between Doc and Wyatt. Kate Elder made her own way and built her own reputation. Being a very independent woman she often left Doc on his own. But Doc had his own reputation that he built. His connection with Wyatt, was loyal and he seemed to have a secret love of Wyatt. He would follow Wyatt anywhere, anytime, no matter the danger.
Most of all I was really taken with Johnny Ringo. He was a man who never found civilization to be in his favor. He had the reputation as a fierce gunslinger. But he was actually a sad soul. He lived his life alone, in the wide open spaces, where he was content to sleep under the stars. He often was found drowning in a whiskey bottle. He found work at specific ranches during cattle season and sometimes ran with bad company in the way of the Cowboys. He met Doc Holliday and a strange affair of sympathy/hate began between them. But Doc saw something different in Ringo, as he loved to read and eventually wrote poetry. At times he would go into Tombstone and look for Doc but often Doc was occupied. Ringo often felt he no longer had a soul through a strange occurrence that he had and yearned for it to continue. He eventually meets Lucian, who he believes to be the one. Ringo’s friendless life becomes further complicated and he has to face the disappointment of abandonment and betrayal.
Loving the old west stories, I was not disappointed with Julie Bozza’s interpretation and twists that she brought to the classic western. Historical fact and fiction meet once again to create and epic tale of the old west.
This was an impressive and fascinating novel of the old west with vivid descriptions of the territory and the struggle to build new towns. The in-depth look into the brave men who lived and died trying to uphold the laws, bring justice to the territory and rid towns of the criminals who defied them, really peaked my interest. It’s a novel of: corruption, betrayal, loyalty, gambling, grief, revenge, love and strange events.
The Illustrations by Magdalena Kulbicka were a wonderful surprise that added to this novel. At the closing of the novel, there are several extensive segments: “Historical Notes”, “List of Names”, “List of Books” that hold historical facts of people, places and events. With “Writ in Blood” Julie Bozza makes the 1993 movie “Tombstone” worth watching again!
This was a magnificent tale from Julie Bozza that I highly recommend and it was a pleasure to read!
The historical western novel brings to life, Wyatt Earp, his brothers Virgil and Morgan, Doc Holliday, Johnny Ringo and other famous figures of the west.
It will show Wyatt Earp in a different light as his life seems unsettled. He’s a law man and had also tried other jobs but made his fortune with mining silver, along with his brothers. The brothers followed Wyatt, along with their common-law wives to Tombstone. Wyatt carried a heavy responsibility when it came to the people in his life. As they try to build the town of Tombstone the Earp’s found themselves up against the Cowboys.
Doc Holliday and Kate Elder both met Wyatt Earp and a friendship was formed, especially between Doc and Wyatt. Kate Elder made her own way and built her own reputation. Being a very independent woman she often left Doc on his own. But Doc had his own reputation that he built. His connection with Wyatt, was loyal and he seemed to have a secret love of Wyatt. He would follow Wyatt anywhere, anytime, no matter the danger.
Most of all I was really taken with Johnny Ringo. He was a man who never found civilization to be in his favor. He had the reputation as a fierce gunslinger. But he was actually a sad soul. He lived his life alone, in the wide open spaces, where he was content to sleep under the stars. He often was found drowning in a whiskey bottle. He found work at specific ranches during cattle season and sometimes ran with bad company in the way of the Cowboys. He met Doc Holliday and a strange affair of sympathy/hate began between them. But Doc saw something different in Ringo, as he loved to read and eventually wrote poetry. At times he would go into Tombstone and look for Doc but often Doc was occupied. Ringo often felt he no longer had a soul through a strange occurrence that he had and yearned for it to continue. He eventually meets Lucian, who he believes to be the one. Ringo’s friendless life becomes further complicated and he has to face the disappointment of abandonment and betrayal.
Loving the old west stories, I was not disappointed with Julie Bozza’s interpretation and twists that she brought to the classic western. Historical fact and fiction meet once again to create and epic tale of the old west.
This was an impressive and fascinating novel of the old west with vivid descriptions of the territory and the struggle to build new towns. The in-depth look into the brave men who lived and died trying to uphold the laws, bring justice to the territory and rid towns of the criminals who defied them, really peaked my interest. It’s a novel of: corruption, betrayal, loyalty, gambling, grief, revenge, love and strange events.
The Illustrations by Magdalena Kulbicka were a wonderful surprise that added to this novel. At the closing of the novel, there are several extensive segments: “Historical Notes”, “List of Names”, “List of Books” that hold historical facts of people, places and events. With “Writ in Blood” Julie Bozza makes the 1993 movie “Tombstone” worth watching again!
This was a magnificent tale from Julie Bozza that I highly recommend and it was a pleasure to read!
October 29, 2021
I hardly know where to begin reviewing this book, but I guess I'll start at the ending, which made me cry, because it's beautiful, fitting, and just gloriously bittersweet. The strength of this book for me was the depth of the character development and how real, complex, and achingly relatable the people it depicts are within its pages. This story does an amazing job of making historical figures feel like real people (I know, I know, they were, but usually, the legend elides the humanity, and here, that's not the case). I already know I'll be rereading this book, probably more than once, and that's honestly the most sincere compliment I can give.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
May 30, 2022
I had no idea what to expect when k read this book, but it wasn't at all what I'd hoped.
No, Writ In Blood, hit above so many expectations for a 'new to me' author.
The complexities of the characters and the ease of relating as a reader, simply rocked me to the core.
Definitely recommend!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
No, Writ In Blood, hit above so many expectations for a 'new to me' author.
The complexities of the characters and the ease of relating as a reader, simply rocked me to the core.
Definitely recommend!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
January 24, 2022
Described by the author as a ‘Queer Weird West novel’, Writ in Blood is a retelling of the story of the men of Tombstone legend: the Earp brothers, Doc Holliday, the Clantons, Johnny Ringo. But what a retelling!
The historic events drive the timeline and the action of the novel, with few deviations from fact in this regard. But those events serve as the incitement for a deep dive into the complexities of character, into the subtle layers of love and its expression, into personal meanings of courage and honour, and even into what the mind can conjure when trauma and memory need an outlet.
Johnny Ringo is a man who is sure he has lost his soul. Abused sexually as a boy, he has turned his anger and shame both inward and outward; his sexual partners are not always willing either. When a beautiful, winged figure, Lucifer’s son, presents himself to Johnny as a willing partner, he welcomes the visitation. Is it real? He doesn’t know. He doesn’t really care, either.
Johnny is seeking redemption and love, and his metaphysical search frames the experiences of the rest of the major characters, although theirs are caught up in the material world. None are without experiences in their early years that have shaped their philosophies, even if they cannot articulate this. None are wholly good, or wholly bad; Bozza creates multidimensional characters from the stock names of Western USA legend. These are men troubled by the choices they have made, worried for their families, concerned that their actions as lawmen are making things worse in Tombstone, not better. Complex, thinking men.
Doc Holliday, slowly dying of tuberculosis, intent on living what life he has left without boundaries, guides the reader through the deepening complexities of both plot and character arcs. As his loyalties change and deepen, we see the effect of choice and consequence on the characters.
Writ in Blood will not be a book for everyone. Sexually explicit, speculative about the sexuality of legendary characters, not always grounded in corporeal reality, it has the feel of Greek myth, an examination of how the eight Greek definitions of love* shape the actions and the souls of men. I loved it, and recommend it highly.
* Agape: universal love; Eros: sexual love; Philia: friendship; Philauta: self-love; Storge: enduring love; Pragma: enduring love; Ludus: playful love; Mania: obsessive love.
Originally Reviewed for Discovering Diamonds
The historic events drive the timeline and the action of the novel, with few deviations from fact in this regard. But those events serve as the incitement for a deep dive into the complexities of character, into the subtle layers of love and its expression, into personal meanings of courage and honour, and even into what the mind can conjure when trauma and memory need an outlet.
Johnny Ringo is a man who is sure he has lost his soul. Abused sexually as a boy, he has turned his anger and shame both inward and outward; his sexual partners are not always willing either. When a beautiful, winged figure, Lucifer’s son, presents himself to Johnny as a willing partner, he welcomes the visitation. Is it real? He doesn’t know. He doesn’t really care, either.
Johnny is seeking redemption and love, and his metaphysical search frames the experiences of the rest of the major characters, although theirs are caught up in the material world. None are without experiences in their early years that have shaped their philosophies, even if they cannot articulate this. None are wholly good, or wholly bad; Bozza creates multidimensional characters from the stock names of Western USA legend. These are men troubled by the choices they have made, worried for their families, concerned that their actions as lawmen are making things worse in Tombstone, not better. Complex, thinking men.
Doc Holliday, slowly dying of tuberculosis, intent on living what life he has left without boundaries, guides the reader through the deepening complexities of both plot and character arcs. As his loyalties change and deepen, we see the effect of choice and consequence on the characters.
Writ in Blood will not be a book for everyone. Sexually explicit, speculative about the sexuality of legendary characters, not always grounded in corporeal reality, it has the feel of Greek myth, an examination of how the eight Greek definitions of love* shape the actions and the souls of men. I loved it, and recommend it highly.
* Agape: universal love; Eros: sexual love; Philia: friendship; Philauta: self-love; Storge: enduring love; Pragma: enduring love; Ludus: playful love; Mania: obsessive love.
Originally Reviewed for Discovering Diamonds
October 27, 2021
Thank you for the ARC read, I voluntarily give this book an honest review. Oh I just find this an amazing read of the Old West with a twist of the unknown. A place and time that great friendships are born, love that sees no shame! Yes, this does bring out the tissue moments. Before Tombstone, John Ringo had the slimmer of chance to save his soul, but he chose pleasure that night with a demon. Was it all a dream..an illusion? Doc is meeting Wyatt for the first time. John has made a deals, intrigued made that takes some surprises, if not down right slow slip into insanity. Doc is fighting the slow death by being the adventurous scoundrel he can be..which is indeed hilarious and erotica. Tombstone is where the Earps crew finds a new enemy! Law becomes the unlawful, in a town full of corruption. Debts are due..bets are made, when trouble brews for Wyatt and Doc a message is past off as a warning!
November 2, 2021
this was a wonderfully done western novel, the characters were what I wanted and I enjoyed the story itself. This was a fun read and I wanted more as it was so good.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
November 24, 2021
The inner lives and complex loves of iconic legends of the 'Wild West' are revealed with a fine touch in this 'Queer Weird West' retelling of the events before and after the gunfight at the OK Corral. Highly recommend!
July 11, 2022
This alt-historical queer speculative western didn't grab my attention as much as expected. I didn't warm to any of the characters and had to fast forward a few passages. 2.5 stars rounded up to 3.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews