the Old West and a photo of Cody, WY

So much of my story is based on the Myth of the Old West, the western frontier, and I try to reinvent that myth. I don't try to destroy it, I use the pieces I view as truthful, and try to retell it in a humanistic way. I focus on the characters and the way in which they interact, and yeah, the West was known for it's mix of culture, and today, we're still living in that mix and dealing with our own misgivings and mistakes, like the physical and cultural genocide of American Indians at the hand of our government. On one hand we love the western frontier for its ruggedness, freedom, and personal responsibility, and that is still hugely a part of the American West, but on the other hand, gone unchecked, we've destroyed our pristine environment through mining, logging, and personal development of property. The West in essence is the irony of our nation, of our entire world-view, and at the center of that world-view is our national parks, and our first one, Yellowstone, is at the center of it all. What happens in Yellowstone, happens to us all. We reintroduce wolves there, fifteen years later, Montana has it's first wolf hunt. We pollute the air bother the wildlife by running snow-machines through the Park, we essentially say there is nothing sacred about this land, and if there's nothing sacred here, then there's nothing sacred anywhere --it all should be used in any form. The goal in my novel, is to embody those contradictions in the characters, setting, and plot. I wanted it as an underlying element for the reader to discover. It makes the story real, and at the same time, it gave me a place to sort out my own opinions on the matter. There of course, is not wrong or right in the end, because all decisions involve sacrifice. We must be happy with a compromise, one we can live with, not against.

From Drop Box

a waiting game

So, I've been waiting for a reply, and I'm still waiting, but hey, I know that's the process. In the interim I've been reading and collecting ideas for another novel. I haven't even had a bite on this manuscript, but it's a labor of love, and I just like stories and crafting them. The next one's based in eastern Montana, small town, and a real on this time, I'm just not sure which. Glasgow would be easy because I lived there, but some of the events of my story are real, even though fictinoalized, and happened right there, so I'm torn, but that doesn't matter so much yet. I'm really looking at the characters. I'm trying to hone them into realities, and then let them play out their roles through a basic plot structure and see how the story turns out. Any way, every where I look, I'm collecting ideas: news papers, events at work, people in line at Costco, or just stuff I read on the internet. I'm also researching stories for inspiration, like Shakespeare or Ovid. I try to shy away from contemporaries because I want to write my own thing, not like anyone, but if it happens my forethought, oh well. So the story goes...