Dust and shadow

Book one

Setting:

Fictional, small western town (Sagebrush) in the Arizona desert ("new territory"), Victorian, wild west.

Themes:

Death, deceit, decay, life, love, friendship, trust,

new beginnings, transformation

Story Notes:

-Forgotten Lands - the Shift - climate change in Victorian America

-Book of Eli meets Jane Got A Gun

-Old west meets Victorian adventure - land of the lost, post-apoc

-Gray characters, nothing is as it seems

My life/experiences:

-Growing up with horses/western life

-My love for history - a mesh of the old west and Victorian indulgence and intrigue

-Looking deeper into my characters - real motivations, twists and turns; nothing is ever what it seems

Character: Josephine "Jo" Mason

Occupation: Farmer, healer, mechanically inclined tinkerer

Age: 19

-Lost her mother; killed by the marshal, age 8

-Lives with her sister, Scarlet, and her father

-Is a recluse

-Hates the marshal and stays hidden

-Hardworking, headstrong, compassionate

-Discovers many secrets she must expose to save the town

Character: Clayton Cunningham

Occupation: Drunken rake

Age: 21

-Royalty in Sagebrush, son of the marshal

-Doesn't want to follow in his father's footsteps

-Spends most of his time in the brothel

-Is forced to marry a woman who hates him

-Oblivious to who his father really is and what transpires in the shadows of the town

“ T his world isn’t what it used to be, Jo. The price we pay to survive is high, and this is our price. Some might argue it could be worse.”

For my dad.

Thank you for making me your little cowgirl.

I haven’t written a series yet without a girl and her love for horses.