What is the Lure of the Traveling Man?

One of my latest novels, well actually, a novella since it is not an actual full-length novel, is my first attempt into a western story that doesn’t have to do with history or actual Wild West events. In this fictional story, the plot revolves around the desert travels of a lost man named Bronson.

“Come one, come all, the good Lord has sent me here to rescue you.” A man leaves his home quickly over an unfortunate incident but where he goes, he never fully understands. Where he ended up, though, he finally realized. The stories of two men seemingly lost in time is similar, but traveling in different meanings to what they thought was life ends up in similar consequences. Bronson leaves home abruptly and needs to get away. He hikes down a path to escape when a storm comes up suddenly. Maybe not suddenly, but by the time he tries to escape the terror, it was too late. He becomes lost. He ends up in a mine and attempts to get out. The terror of being in a mine and ending up in what turns out to be a ghost town once terrorized by a man named Davis. Pleading for help in the seemingly abandoned town, he comes across a mysterious character. When the terror increases around him as he is introduced to the man, the man’s identity is later revealed when their ultimate doom ensues. Possibly the two men can coexist amongst the darkness or maybe they’re deemed to be enemies to one another in the fight to survive where greed conquers one man and the other, his loving family.

The reason I wrote this book is I love traveling to ghost towns and learning the history of the old west. Being able to write about a fictional ghost town was fun and brought my imagination racing. Placing myself as the character of Bronson, I could see myself walking down this well-preserved ghost town. Even though a true ghost town today has little remnants or ruins, if any, but being fictional I was able to describe a full town. I wish there were ghost towns as you see on the television or even one that I wrote about in this work but, unfortunately, over time much of these abandoned towns have fallen down either due to weather, vandalism, or the lack of care. There is a catch, though, as to why the town in my novella is how it seems since, well, it has to do with a twist in the ending of the book. I don’t want to give more information away to the actual plot than the synopsis in the previous paragraph. Please check it out if you haven’t done so already! Available now on Amazon and Barnes and Noble!

https://www.amazon.com/Lure-Traveling-Man-Benjamin-Mollenhour/dp/0982643640/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=mollenhour&qid=1608861605&sr=8-6

Washington Roadside Attractions: Buddy Holly's Tour Bus

Exactly 62 years ago to the day that I’m writing this and posting this blog, an event known as “The Day the Music Died” occurred. On February 3rd, 1959, an airplane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, killed young musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper (JP Richardson), alongside pilot, Roger Peterson. Holly (age 22), Valens (age 17), and the Big Bopper (age 28) were all on a “Winter Dance Party” tour throughout the Midwest. Also on the tour were Dion and the Belmonts. During tours, it was typical for artists to travel by tour bus but being winter and enduring the cold conditions of the Midwest, the musicians were tired of getting sick and coming down with the cold and flu. The tour busses in those days did not have the great amenities of today’s busses and often the long trips between towns could get cold and be miserable – especially when the bus broke down which happened on February 1^st, 1959. Already sick, Richardson got a seat on the plane, switching with Waylon Jennings (a member of Buddy Holly’s band). Ritchie Valens won a coin toss with Tommy Allsup (also a member of Holly’s band) and got a seat on the plane. After a concert in Clear Lake, Iowa, the four men boarded the plane while the remaining band members and musicians traveled on bus to their next destination in Moorhead, Minnesota. Due to poor, windy and winter conditions in the dark, the pilot lost control and the airplane crashed, killing all four on board immediately.  

In Issaquah, Washington, sits Buddy Holly’s tour bus. It is unknown how many tour busses he actually had, but sitting in the back of a parking lot, forgotten and unnoticed by the typical passerby, sits his tour bus he used, including in 1958 and 1959. The paint fading and rust creeping throughout, if only the bus could speak, it would tell many great stories of travel but also, regret. It’s a sad sight seeing the bus on a chilly day, knowing that not only did great up and coming musicians pass away, but also such a historic bus sitting, suffering itself through elements of nature and time when such an item should be preserved in a right way.

Contract Signing – Another Chapter in the Life of an Author

There are many aspects to being a writer. Some authors do it for the money, some do it for the fun, and others like me use it as a creative outlet as well as stress relief. If anyone says they don’t do it for the money, that doesn’t mean the money wouldn’t be nice. I haven’t sold a lot so hence, I’m not rich but it’s not about the sales but instead, the satisfaction. It would be nice to have more sales and watch my books climb the ranking and get bigger royalty checks – easier said than done.

One satisfying aspect of completing a book is getting it published. There are numerous ways an author can take to get their book into the hands of a reader. The most popular in today’s age and society is self-publishing. Many companies such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble offer print on demand. If a book is sold on their website, the company will print off a copy and mail it to the buyer. Print on demand helps an author as well as publisher since gone are the days of having to store hundreds or thousands of books for when, or even if, one sells. Many authors self-publish because it’s cheap and easy. One problem with self-publishing is the market is flooded with a lot of bad books. Not that the author put out a bad product intentionally for the most part, it’s just many of the books are horribly edited (if edited at all) as well as have bad presentation and overall look, story, etc. Most self-published books would not have been published by a publisher so the author did what they had to. Another way to get a book published is using a vanity press which is the worst an author can do in my and many other author’s opinions. A vanity press is simply the author paying a company to publish their book. I’ve never done this and never will. The problem with this scenario is once the book is out, the company already got their money so the less likely they’ll need to sell any copies – they were already paid. A traditional publisher gets paid when a book sells so they want to sell books just as much as the author. Traditional publishing (even hybrid publishing) is the hardest to accomplish but the most satisfying. I say the most satisfying because finding a traditional publisher is tedious and hard to do since so many authors get numerous rejections before finding or being lucky enough to find a publisher. Famous authors have no problem finding a publisher since they’ve proved their books can sell. Numerous authors use agents to find the best publisher for their work but then again, finding an agent is just as hard, if not harder, than finding a traditional publisher.

I’ve just signed my third contract to work with a publisher for one of my novels. Like I’ve written in the previous paragraph, I haven’t always been able to find a traditional/hybrid publisher for a book so I have had to self-publish but with one work specifically, I self-published to have free reign over the decisions of the book. Working with a publisher, they take control of your book for two, even three years. So, signing the contract yesterday for my latest novel was very exciting and makes me excited that a manuscript I wrote is good enough in someone’s eyes to take the time, effort and money to publish. Now, after signing my book into almost existence, keep on the lookout for Soul Hunters – The Collector’s of Fear.