The Forlorn Trailer
Behind the Curtain
Inspiration: A Graveyard and The Internet?!?
One day, I went to an old pioneer cemetery. It rests on a hill outside of my town. I loved the unique names on the lichen-covered graves and found a book about the cemetery, a biography of those buried there. I found their stories fascinating and got inspired by the Old West.
At the same time, I did not want to write a derivative cowboy shoot-em-up. I wanted to explore philosophical ideas. Namely, I wanted to explore the idea of a techno-theocratic native society that had somehow discovered and utilized a form of internet. Obviously.
That is why this book takes longer to write than many others. I am exploring how such technology would shape their religious and political views. Meanwhile, I am also trying to maintain the humanity of my characters so that it does not devolve into a bunch of plot or theme-based nonsense.
Authorial Intent and Vague Settings
Some folks may notice that I don’t put precise dates in my books. I don’t mention historical areas and only ever allude to ‘anchors’ of a particular place. The people, places, and times are all vaguely familiar, but not recognizable as belonging to any particular setting.
I do this because I want my readers to read how they want to. If a reader thinks the book is historical fiction, it can be. If they want it to be sci-fi fantasy, so be it. If they want it to strictly be a western, it can be that too.
Books should not be read one way.
Fusing Fantasy and Western
Ignoring the obvious fact that aside from Stephen King’s ‘Dark Tower’ series, the genre is not commercially productive, Fantasy Westerns are difficult to get right. On one hand, most fantasy readers are used to particular settings—mostly medieval or ancient. The West is anachronistic to fantasy because it is the opening page of modernity. It is not yet familiar enough to contain elements of urban fantasy, nor does it have kings, dynasties, or familiar tropes fantasy writers rely on. Yet, that is why it is perfect.
Pioneers saw the West as an untamed place to express their freedom. It may as well have been infinite. Not too dissimilar to the digital spaces we now colonize. Meanwhile, the natives saw the West as holy and sacred. Precisely how I imagine most humans would have viewed the internet, had it been invented in a more scientifically-naive time.
I actually find, once we take our biases about the Old West out, once we stop viewing it through the lens of Clint Eastwood and begin to remember it as its first inhabitants would have—it becomes far more magical than any elven forest or medieval empire.
Major Revisions
Two days before the release of the first novel, I received some feedback that I took to heart. Thus began a day where I called in sick (a-chew) and feverishly edited my manuscript. The edits were simple: don’t kill Porfirio Pacheco. Yessir, Porf died. But just as side characters can steal a story, sometimes they also grow and become imperative to the story. That was the case with Porfirio.
“I’ve got three drafts, one for each of ya,” - Doc Holliday, probably.
As with Innkeeper, the initial draft of Forlorn would be unrecognizable from the final product. However, Forlorn required a fundamental rewrite not once, but twice. Every time I would near completion of the novel, I would feel that the story got away from me. This was due to side characters taking over the narrative and is something that authors often need to watch for. They burglarize the pacing, the themes, everything. On my third revision, I finally understood what needed to happen:
I killed off those pesky side-characters.
When Can we Expect Book 2?
Fifteen chapters have been written as of October, 2024. However, I took the summer off from this novel to get a better idea of its issues. In that time, I got the idea to rewrite my very first novel and to write a Ghibli-esque cozy fantasy. Both of these novels are going to take precedence over the sequel and for good reason: another major revision is in order.
I will not elaborate too much on what needs to be reworked, but I will give a hint. While writing The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien had to revise Bilbo’s manner of receiving the ring from Gollum. This was because of a fundamental re-imagining of Gollum’s character after The Hobbit.
I must do the same thing with a character in The Forlorn Trail. I must alter a single sentence in the book to fundamentally change the direction of a character. Have any guesses what the sentence is?
If you want a vintage copy of the first book of the series, one that may one day fetch a pretty penny (hopefully multiple),