I’m giving away two kindle copies of my novel , The Fever.
I think one has already gone so one left. Go for it. Follow me on Twitter.
Tag: Texas
Finding Treasure
GOLD!
It is such a simple word but the worlds that revolve around it are complex.
For example, here we are in the week between Christmas and New Years. It seems like a dead zone between the two holidays, like some kind of time vortex or something. I think that is probably because I usually take the entire week off … in fact, a lot of people do. This notion of taking this week off was a convenient concept when I was working out the plot elements in The Fever because the character Sam Milton was just a regular guy who needed a long block of time-off from work for his latest adventure. For that reason, the climatic scenes of the novel take place right about now.
You see, Sam isn’t a gold miner, he is a part-time treasure hunter and in his ten year search to uncover the meaning of Slim Longo’s cryptic last words he has failed at every turn.
When he finally thinks he has solved one of the clues revealed by the dying man, he knows he will need several days to renew his search. For him, that means using the week between Christmas and New Years. But this past week’s winter storm in west Texas has emphasized one of Sam’s biggest concerns, especially with winter hikes: the unpredictable Texas weather.
He always said he wouldn’t go out in the winter because it was a bad plan. Ah, but at this juncture, when he is on the brink of solving one of the clues, he decides he must go out as soon as possible, despite the season. Why? Well … because he is caught in the grips of Gold Fever, and for Sam that trumps common sense. Sure, he says he’ll abort the trip if the weather changes, but will he?
It isn’t even about any actual gold at this point. It is about the thought of gold. The potential for a nugget or a few specs of color in a pan is all he can think about and the details get lost in the dream and when that happens … well, isn’t that why we keep reading … to find out, right?
How would you feed YOUR Fever?
There will be many cold winter nights ahead, warm up and read The Fever and find out how Sam got to this point in time and what happens next.
http://thomasfenske.weebly.com
Many thanks to the Freddy Dodge Gold Recovery Facebook page for graciously granting me permission to use a photo of some awesome gold nuggets along with a few flecks of “color” … that’s the real thing, folks … “the stuff that dreams are made of …”
Crazy Christmas Memories
I’m sure we all have them. Crazy Christmas Memories, I mean.
My craziest goes back to Christmas 1970. I’m always reminded of this by the movie Christmas Vacation. I was a freshman at a college about an hour north of Houston. Some Houston friends offered to come up and get me, but they had an ulterior motive. They wanted a Christmas tree. Now the area around Huntsville TX, where my school was located, is littered with all manner of evergreens, so it seemed like a fairly doable idea. We pulled off the interstate and drove down a side road and found a suitable sapling, like one about nine feet tall. Unlike the movie, my erstwhile friends did indeed bring an ax, or to be more accurate — a hatchet. Working in the dark, and hacking away furiously before a car came, we all took turns and managed the down the tree, a scrub cedar. It was at least somewhat Christmas tree shaped.
Ah, but what everybody forgot was … rope. We were in a red VW beetle and we had nothing we could use to secure the tree. The solution? Everybody sacrificed their belts. Somehow we got the tree tied to the top of the VW but I think we lost a foot off the tree by dragging the top along the highway. It really did look like the car in the movie, except we didn’t have the roots. It was completely draped over the car, with the tree-stump clearly visible from the windshield.
We did okay for about 30 minutes but eventually we had a minor problem caused by the wind shear and the weight of the tree and the drag caused by the … well, caused by us dragging part of the tree behind us. The problem? Well, all the belts snapped and we lost the tree on the highway. It was rush hour, with tons of traffic, and our tree was rolling along in the lane behind us. We screeched to a halt and pulled over and ran back and somehow dragged the tree off the road without getting ourselves killed.
By some miracle, we managed to get enough strands of our broken belts wrapped around a few branches and we were able to again secure the tree. We continued on our way, but now we were less concerned with maintaining full highway speed. A couple of us kept a firm grip on a branch on each side of the car as well.
Decorations were sparse that year, but we had a tree! Actually, I’m surprised we didn’t end up arrested or dead. Both options were a distinct possibility. What were we thinking? I think that answer is best represented this way: NOT!
What is “The Fever” ?
THE FEVER is a novel about Sam. He is just a ‘regular guy’ who happens to be obsessed with a lost gold mine.
In short, he’s got Gold Fever.
As one reviewer put it: “How Far Would YOU go to feed your Fever?”
Don’t take my word for it, read the reviews on Amazon … then buy it and see for yourself.
Oh, and it makes a great gift.
Give someone “The Fever” for Christmas!
The Cover Photo
I was very fortunate to meet the photographer of the cover photo (mumble mumble) years ago when she was about four years old.
Jessica Lutz (jessicalutz.com) is an awesome photographer/writer/artist who lives in west Texas.
Go check out her work!
The Fever?
In a Nutshell
This excerpt sets the stage:
“Now listen…this is the real deal. Way out in west Texas…out between Van Horn and the Carlsbad Caverns…there’s some mountains. There’s…,” Slim hesitated, coughed, then looked around and pulled Sam’s ear close to his mouth as he rasped, “ … gold.”
Time seemed to stand still as the word emerged out of an invisible cloud of stale, wine-laden bad breath.
Slim held Sam’s arm a little tighter, as he continued in a wheezing whisper.
“There’s a gold mine out there. I ain’t never seen it, but my grandpa knew about it…he looked for it for years. My daddy looked for it too. Hell, I looked for it…for years. We all knew it was there. None of us ever found it but, I tell you, it’s out there somewhere. My kid, she’s got no use for me, so I ain’t never told her the details, but you’ve been good to me when nobody else woulda helped an old broken down drunk, so I’m telling you.”
The old man, spent from the exertion, relaxed his grip on the younger man’s arm and Sam cradled Slim’s head and leaned down close to whisper, “It’s all right, man. Just take it easy.”
Slim coughed and any remaining color seemed to be fading from his lips and face. “I don’t have no time, so listen.” His voice was barely a whisper. “My grandpa knew a guy named Ben Sublett. Look him up, he’s a regular legend. They was drinkin’ buddies. One time they was drinkin’, just the two of them, and old Ben told my grandpa all about the mine. Ben always told people it was in the Guadalupes but that’s just what he told people to throw them off…it wasn’t there. Nope. He told my grandpa it was south of there. Remember that. South! He told grandpa ‘ya gotta follow the devil and look for the table, then turn around and you’ll see the why of it.’ That’s what he told grandpa. Remember it. I know it don’t make no sense, but it ain’t supposed to until you get there. You just have to keep searching until it does make sense. A fortune, that’s what I’m giving you, a fortune.” Slim coughed for half a minute, exhausted from his exertion. Then he looked Sam right in the eyes and said, “Don’t forget what I told you. You find it and it’s yours.”
Find the gold!
Gold!
Trying out a new blog to help publicize myself as a writer as well as talk about my debut novel, THE FEVER.
What The Fever is not: a health bulletin or a medical treatise; a ‘how to” book on gold mining.
What it is: a novel; a story about trying to find gold; a study in obsession; an entertaining read.
Audience: everybody. Actually, I ve been surprised that women seem to like it so much. Don’t get me wrong, men like it too. It does have a little ‘language’ in it so it isn’t a kid’s book.
What’s it about? Sam Milton has a chance meeting with a dying man who he tries to help. The man rewards Sam’s compassion by sharing a secret, hidden in a cryptic riddle.
The secret? The suposed location of a long-lost gold mine, of course.
Ah, but in fact, the true location had forever eluded the old man, who had never cracked the riddle. But he told Sam he knew it was out there, he could feel it.
“Find it and it’s yours,” he rasped with his last dying breath.
The novel begins with a frustrated Sam showing no success but unable to quit. Why? He has ‘the fever’ … gold fever. But, maybe, just maybe, things are beginning to take a hopeful turn.
More Info? http://thomasfenske.weebly.com.
Scratching the Surface 