Clark Hays's Blog - Posts Tagged "romance"
Character Envy
Writing together, especially romances, can make for strange jealousies.
(Note: This is a guest post Kathleen and I wrote for the Where's My Muse book review site.)
In 1999, we came up with a radical plan to save our romance: write together. We had just reunited after an epic break up that required a several-year cooling off period. When a not-so-chance meeting rekindled the flames, we decided to channel some of the excess passion into a joint creative project to hopefully of avoiding total combustion.
The Cowboy and the Vampire: A Darkly Romantic Mystery (Midnight Ink, 2010) — and a newly entangled romance — was the result. This May, we finished our second book, Blood and Whiskey, and we learned something important: our characters lead far more romantic lives than we do.
Of course, they’re also dealing with murderous vampire hordes, cold-blooded killers straight out of the old west, biblical prophecies, undead race wars and the care and feeding of an overly-sensitive dog cow dog named Rex. But even with all of that, and even setting aside the fact they are from very different worlds — she needs human blood to live, he’s more of whiskey drinker — Tucker and Lizzie have a romance for the ages.
It may be petty but we’re kind of jealous.
And not just of the main characters Tucker and Lizzie. There’s also Elita, the fierce, sexy vampire warrior sworn to protect Lizzie, who has seduced her way through half the undead world and left a trail of drained human bodies — stone cold dead but with smiles on their faces — stretching back thousands of years. In Blood and Whiskey, she finds herself sandwiched happily between a handsome Russian vampire, Rurik and his supermodel human consort, Virote.
Us? Well, we found ourselves sandwiched between deadlines.
Early on, we figured that when romantic partners wrote together, it would involve far more reclining on satin sheets, sipping champagne and whispering sweet plotlines to one another. The truth is far less, well, romantic.
Here’s what a typical exchange between us sounds like (names changed to protect the not-so-innocent):
Chuck: Did you finish your chapter yet?
Cathy: Almost, did you finish yours?
Chuck: I need about two hundred more words and a better description of the thing.
Cathy: What thing?
Chuck: The thing. In the mountains. With Elita.
Cathy: Oh yeah. I forgot about that. Should we talk about the next chapters?
Etc., until bed time.
Compare that to a scene from Blood and Whiskey featuring Tucker and Lizzie:
“Do you ever, you know, take a look when I’m dead? Does it turn you on to have a naked corpse next to you?”
“Woman, don’t be gross.”
“I’d probably take a peek. I mean, I do anyway, at least when you are sleeping. What’s the difference? It’s perfectly natural.” She nipped at his neck playfully.
“It’s un-natural. That’s why they call you un-dead.”
“Is what I’m feeling now un-horny?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s the pregnancy hormones getting you all riled up.”
She unbuttoned her shirt and slipped his hand under, molding it around her breast and they both sighed. “You sure you haven’t felt me up when I’m cold and dead? I wouldn’t mind. And I wouldn’t know it if you, you know, did stuff to me.”
“No. I mean, yeah, I’m sure. I’d like to do stuff to you now though.”
“I like that idea.”
Is it any wonder we’re a little jealous?
Still, just in case it sounds like we’re complaining, we don’t write all the time. And the passion we channel into our characters has to come from somewhere.
(Note: This is a guest post Kathleen and I wrote for the Where's My Muse book review site.)
In 1999, we came up with a radical plan to save our romance: write together. We had just reunited after an epic break up that required a several-year cooling off period. When a not-so-chance meeting rekindled the flames, we decided to channel some of the excess passion into a joint creative project to hopefully of avoiding total combustion.
The Cowboy and the Vampire: A Darkly Romantic Mystery (Midnight Ink, 2010) — and a newly entangled romance — was the result. This May, we finished our second book, Blood and Whiskey, and we learned something important: our characters lead far more romantic lives than we do.
Of course, they’re also dealing with murderous vampire hordes, cold-blooded killers straight out of the old west, biblical prophecies, undead race wars and the care and feeding of an overly-sensitive dog cow dog named Rex. But even with all of that, and even setting aside the fact they are from very different worlds — she needs human blood to live, he’s more of whiskey drinker — Tucker and Lizzie have a romance for the ages.
It may be petty but we’re kind of jealous.
And not just of the main characters Tucker and Lizzie. There’s also Elita, the fierce, sexy vampire warrior sworn to protect Lizzie, who has seduced her way through half the undead world and left a trail of drained human bodies — stone cold dead but with smiles on their faces — stretching back thousands of years. In Blood and Whiskey, she finds herself sandwiched happily between a handsome Russian vampire, Rurik and his supermodel human consort, Virote.
Us? Well, we found ourselves sandwiched between deadlines.
Early on, we figured that when romantic partners wrote together, it would involve far more reclining on satin sheets, sipping champagne and whispering sweet plotlines to one another. The truth is far less, well, romantic.
Here’s what a typical exchange between us sounds like (names changed to protect the not-so-innocent):
Chuck: Did you finish your chapter yet?
Cathy: Almost, did you finish yours?
Chuck: I need about two hundred more words and a better description of the thing.
Cathy: What thing?
Chuck: The thing. In the mountains. With Elita.
Cathy: Oh yeah. I forgot about that. Should we talk about the next chapters?
Etc., until bed time.
Compare that to a scene from Blood and Whiskey featuring Tucker and Lizzie:
“Do you ever, you know, take a look when I’m dead? Does it turn you on to have a naked corpse next to you?”
“Woman, don’t be gross.”
“I’d probably take a peek. I mean, I do anyway, at least when you are sleeping. What’s the difference? It’s perfectly natural.” She nipped at his neck playfully.
“It’s un-natural. That’s why they call you un-dead.”
“Is what I’m feeling now un-horny?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s the pregnancy hormones getting you all riled up.”
She unbuttoned her shirt and slipped his hand under, molding it around her breast and they both sighed. “You sure you haven’t felt me up when I’m cold and dead? I wouldn’t mind. And I wouldn’t know it if you, you know, did stuff to me.”
“No. I mean, yeah, I’m sure. I’d like to do stuff to you now though.”
“I like that idea.”
Is it any wonder we’re a little jealous?
Still, just in case it sounds like we’re complaining, we don’t write all the time. And the passion we channel into our characters has to come from somewhere.
What if Vampires Wrote about Humans
by Kathleen McFall & Clark Hays
(Note: this is a post we wrote for our "splash" in the Orangeberry Summer Book Tour.)
Imagine if the undead featured on the pages of Blood and Whiskey were the ones writing about strange paranormal creatures of fantasy — humans — instead of the other way around.
Everybody loves a good fright story and there’s nothing more frightening than humans, forever skulking about in the sunlight with their wooden stakes and tan skin. In Blood and Whiskey, we tried to do something different and imaginative with our people, the non-dead, as they are known. Humans have existed in legends and folktales for thousands of years and each country seems to have similar stories about the sun-walkers. We stripped those stories down to the bare bones to re-think the traditional notion of humans as simple-minded monsters.
They are short lived, of course, existing in some cases for just 50 or 60 years. Evolution has left them physically defenseless, weak to the point of debilitation and vulnerable to injury and disease. Luckily, it also made their blood delicious and nutritious. We introduced a new concept — that the blood of evil humans was especially sustaining, but of course we all know blood is blood.
Our humans possess a cockroach-like tenacity to survive and have especially cunning little minds. They use those minds to fashion tools of destruction to attack the heroic vampires. The non-dead are also able to walk in full sunlight with no harm whatsoever, which makes them an even greater threat to the protagonists, who spend each day residing in The Meta. The humans in our book don’t even know The Meta exists.
We also introduced the concept of “love.” Our humans fall in love, a condition far removed from the ever-shifting relationships known to our kind, which are based on convenience and personal sexual satisfaction regardless of gender or familiarity. These humans have a monolithic belief that love is somehow shared between two beings, and of lasting import.
That’s the underlying comedic element of the book, almost absurdist. This love is somewhat infectious, passing between two humans and creating a shared derangement of the senses.
In our book, the evil human — from the mythical cowboy tribe — is a carrier of an especially virulent form of love. As improbable as it sounds, a vampire is infected by his love. We know that sounds almost disgusting, that a predator would feel any sort of connection to our prey, but the book is not supposed to be funny — it’s a tragedy; readers should be warned, this is not another “vampire triumphant” novel.
Learn more about the mythical, mystical world of humans in Blood and Whiskey
(Note: this is a post we wrote for our "splash" in the Orangeberry Summer Book Tour.)
Imagine if the undead featured on the pages of Blood and Whiskey were the ones writing about strange paranormal creatures of fantasy — humans — instead of the other way around.
Everybody loves a good fright story and there’s nothing more frightening than humans, forever skulking about in the sunlight with their wooden stakes and tan skin. In Blood and Whiskey, we tried to do something different and imaginative with our people, the non-dead, as they are known. Humans have existed in legends and folktales for thousands of years and each country seems to have similar stories about the sun-walkers. We stripped those stories down to the bare bones to re-think the traditional notion of humans as simple-minded monsters.
They are short lived, of course, existing in some cases for just 50 or 60 years. Evolution has left them physically defenseless, weak to the point of debilitation and vulnerable to injury and disease. Luckily, it also made their blood delicious and nutritious. We introduced a new concept — that the blood of evil humans was especially sustaining, but of course we all know blood is blood.
Our humans possess a cockroach-like tenacity to survive and have especially cunning little minds. They use those minds to fashion tools of destruction to attack the heroic vampires. The non-dead are also able to walk in full sunlight with no harm whatsoever, which makes them an even greater threat to the protagonists, who spend each day residing in The Meta. The humans in our book don’t even know The Meta exists.
We also introduced the concept of “love.” Our humans fall in love, a condition far removed from the ever-shifting relationships known to our kind, which are based on convenience and personal sexual satisfaction regardless of gender or familiarity. These humans have a monolithic belief that love is somehow shared between two beings, and of lasting import.
That’s the underlying comedic element of the book, almost absurdist. This love is somewhat infectious, passing between two humans and creating a shared derangement of the senses.
In our book, the evil human — from the mythical cowboy tribe — is a carrier of an especially virulent form of love. As improbable as it sounds, a vampire is infected by his love. We know that sounds almost disgusting, that a predator would feel any sort of connection to our prey, but the book is not supposed to be funny — it’s a tragedy; readers should be warned, this is not another “vampire triumphant” novel.
Learn more about the mythical, mystical world of humans in Blood and Whiskey
Welcome to LonePine, Wyoming, population 438
It’s like any other small, slowly dying town in the modern American west, only with vampires.
Note: This is a post Kathleen McFall and I wrote for the awesome Book Chick City blog. It's British, which makes us international celebrity wannabes.
Cut off from the rest of the world by miles of open range and rugged snow-capped mountains, LonePine is the quintessential American western town: the county fair and rodeo is still the biggest social event of the year, crusty old ranchers drive to town at sun-up for breakfast — waving at every pickup truck they pass because there are no strangers — and it’s not unusual to see a horse or two tethered outside the Watering Hole, the town’s favorite saloon. Not much has changed there in a hundred years … until then the undead ride into town.
The first vampire to visit LonePine (at least in THIS century: Red Winter) is Lizzie Vaughn, a beautiful, ambitious reporter from New York who falls hard for Tucker, a down-on-his-luck cowboy born and raised in LonePine. From opposite worlds to begin with, their relationship takes a turn for the paranormal when they learn Lizzie is a latent vampire.
Worse, a special power courses through her veins and the entire undead world wants to either control it, or eliminate her entirely. The ensuing clash of urban and rural cultures — between star-crossed lovers and between good and evil forces — is at the heart of The Cowboy and Vampire Thriller Series.
Fittingly, we came up with the concept for The Cowboy and the Vampire , the first book in the series, in 1999 at a rural western truckstop in the high desert town of Madras, Oregon. We were trying to rekindle our own relationship and the worlds-collide storyline (Kathleen is from Washington, D.C., and Clark was raised in Montana), along with the macabre and gothic elements, fit the moment and our personalities. And the decision to anchor the series in the modern American west tapped into our shared love of the region and the myths that sustain it.
People are fundamentally shaped by their environment, and that is especially evident for those hailing from the western U.S. Cowboy country covers thousands of square miles, from northern Montana down through southern Arizona, from eastern Oregon to western Nebraska, and everything in between. People who live in the west tend to value silence and space because their nearest neighbor may be ten miles away, their daytime view is uninterrupted by buildings all the way out to the craggy mountain peaks along the horizon and at night, most westerners can hear coyotes or wolves (if they are lucky) beneath clear, starry skies.
The west we love is a place where people can be alone with nature and their thoughts, which is why our books feature a distinctive element — a wide open spirituality that’s as big as the west and linked to vampires: the Meta. Along with the expected characteristics of the undead — insatiable blood lust, solar mortality — our vampires die every dawn, completely. That means they have a never-ending series of near death experiences as their souls, their consciousnesses, go racing of into the Meta. The Meta is an external shared consciousness, like a giant energy field, where humans and vampires alike exist before and after death. Experiencing the Meta, just like humans who “come back” after death, gives one a profound sense of calmness, certainty and belonging.
That uncluttered confidence is common in the west, which gets to the heart of the region as an ideal, tangling up history with the golden myths of movie screen cowboys and pulp fiction heroes. Those who settled the frontier were tough, resilient and independent, characteristics which earned them a permanent place in the national, and even international, psyche. Hollywood added a sheen that mostly canceled out any of the negatives associated with life in a hard time — the brutality and cruelty and greed; they were human, after all — until the historic cowboy became an icon and a symbol of all that’s good and right in the world. And the perfect foil for the time-tested symbols of evil, corruption and decadence — vampires.
Of course, nothing is ever exactly what it seems in LonePine — cowboys are not always heroes and vampires are not always villains. The only thing that’s certain is that romance is always hard. We hope you’ll take the time to visit LonePine and meet some of the cowboys, cowgirls, survivalists, ranchers, barmaids, vampires and overly sensitive cowdogs that make it a funny, sexy and scary destination.
Check out Blood and Whiskey to learn more about the Meta and the wide open, wild and undead West.
Note: This is a post Kathleen McFall and I wrote for the awesome Book Chick City blog. It's British, which makes us international celebrity wannabes.
Cut off from the rest of the world by miles of open range and rugged snow-capped mountains, LonePine is the quintessential American western town: the county fair and rodeo is still the biggest social event of the year, crusty old ranchers drive to town at sun-up for breakfast — waving at every pickup truck they pass because there are no strangers — and it’s not unusual to see a horse or two tethered outside the Watering Hole, the town’s favorite saloon. Not much has changed there in a hundred years … until then the undead ride into town.
The first vampire to visit LonePine (at least in THIS century: Red Winter) is Lizzie Vaughn, a beautiful, ambitious reporter from New York who falls hard for Tucker, a down-on-his-luck cowboy born and raised in LonePine. From opposite worlds to begin with, their relationship takes a turn for the paranormal when they learn Lizzie is a latent vampire.
Worse, a special power courses through her veins and the entire undead world wants to either control it, or eliminate her entirely. The ensuing clash of urban and rural cultures — between star-crossed lovers and between good and evil forces — is at the heart of The Cowboy and Vampire Thriller Series.
Fittingly, we came up with the concept for The Cowboy and the Vampire , the first book in the series, in 1999 at a rural western truckstop in the high desert town of Madras, Oregon. We were trying to rekindle our own relationship and the worlds-collide storyline (Kathleen is from Washington, D.C., and Clark was raised in Montana), along with the macabre and gothic elements, fit the moment and our personalities. And the decision to anchor the series in the modern American west tapped into our shared love of the region and the myths that sustain it.
People are fundamentally shaped by their environment, and that is especially evident for those hailing from the western U.S. Cowboy country covers thousands of square miles, from northern Montana down through southern Arizona, from eastern Oregon to western Nebraska, and everything in between. People who live in the west tend to value silence and space because their nearest neighbor may be ten miles away, their daytime view is uninterrupted by buildings all the way out to the craggy mountain peaks along the horizon and at night, most westerners can hear coyotes or wolves (if they are lucky) beneath clear, starry skies.
The west we love is a place where people can be alone with nature and their thoughts, which is why our books feature a distinctive element — a wide open spirituality that’s as big as the west and linked to vampires: the Meta. Along with the expected characteristics of the undead — insatiable blood lust, solar mortality — our vampires die every dawn, completely. That means they have a never-ending series of near death experiences as their souls, their consciousnesses, go racing of into the Meta. The Meta is an external shared consciousness, like a giant energy field, where humans and vampires alike exist before and after death. Experiencing the Meta, just like humans who “come back” after death, gives one a profound sense of calmness, certainty and belonging.
That uncluttered confidence is common in the west, which gets to the heart of the region as an ideal, tangling up history with the golden myths of movie screen cowboys and pulp fiction heroes. Those who settled the frontier were tough, resilient and independent, characteristics which earned them a permanent place in the national, and even international, psyche. Hollywood added a sheen that mostly canceled out any of the negatives associated with life in a hard time — the brutality and cruelty and greed; they were human, after all — until the historic cowboy became an icon and a symbol of all that’s good and right in the world. And the perfect foil for the time-tested symbols of evil, corruption and decadence — vampires.
Of course, nothing is ever exactly what it seems in LonePine — cowboys are not always heroes and vampires are not always villains. The only thing that’s certain is that romance is always hard. We hope you’ll take the time to visit LonePine and meet some of the cowboys, cowgirls, survivalists, ranchers, barmaids, vampires and overly sensitive cowdogs that make it a funny, sexy and scary destination.
Check out Blood and Whiskey to learn more about the Meta and the wide open, wild and undead West.
#50DaysofFiverr - Like the Star Wars Cantina for Marketing
The worst part about writing is anything that’s not writing (that means you, marketing)
At the end of a long day of work (writing internal communications masterpieces for a financial services company), all I really want to do is come home, pour a nice tumbler of whiskey and spend a few hours … writing about cowboys and vampires and death cults and metaphysical energy fields. I would too, if wasn’t for the need to market our books.
Sadly, at least for indie authors, marketing is almost as important as creativity and foundational writing skills. Without a marketing plan, you can’t connect with readers and even the best books may languish in obscurity.
That’s why many (most?) nights find us working on marketing plans and studying website trends and designing ads.
Kathleen and I really don’t like marketing, but if we ever hope to achieve our goal of having our creative works contributing to financial self-sufficiency, we have to do it. A lot. Which is why we’re constantly on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, and forever thinking about ways to make our limited marketing budget work harder for us.
Then we stumbled across Fiverr.
It’s a website that connects artists, graphic designers and creative types of all stripes with customers in need of logos, testimonials, writing help, graphics, illustrations and more. It’s like the Star Wars cantina, only for creative types, and yeah, we’re Luke in this scenario.
The trick is that the starting price for any service is just $5. You can add more sophisticated components that send the price up a bit, but not much. And they can be delivered crazy fast.
Being thrifty-minded authors (read: broke), Kathleen and I came up with a crazy idea: What if we pooled our limited marketing budget and spent it on fifty $5 products and shared them across our social media channels?
#50DaysofFiverr was born.
It's part marketing campaign, part experiment and all fun. We’re using the considerable talents of the Fiverr community to do the creative work for us – focused on cowboys, vampires and our books (and we've received some truly epic deliverables) – and then we’re going to share it out with the world and see what happens.
Come along for the ride.
I’ll share a few things on Goodreads (check out my photos for a fun caricature), but the best way to participate is by connecting with us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/cowboyandvampire), Twitter (@cowboyvamp) and Instagram (@cowboyvampire). And remember, it’s #50DaysofFiverr.
When it’s all done, 49 days from now, we’ll have some fun stories and hopefully a few lessons to share.
Oh yeah, and there’s a contest. Share your favorite pieces of work to be entered into a drawing for a $50 (of course) gift card.
At the end of a long day of work (writing internal communications masterpieces for a financial services company), all I really want to do is come home, pour a nice tumbler of whiskey and spend a few hours … writing about cowboys and vampires and death cults and metaphysical energy fields. I would too, if wasn’t for the need to market our books.
Sadly, at least for indie authors, marketing is almost as important as creativity and foundational writing skills. Without a marketing plan, you can’t connect with readers and even the best books may languish in obscurity.
That’s why many (most?) nights find us working on marketing plans and studying website trends and designing ads.
Kathleen and I really don’t like marketing, but if we ever hope to achieve our goal of having our creative works contributing to financial self-sufficiency, we have to do it. A lot. Which is why we’re constantly on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, and forever thinking about ways to make our limited marketing budget work harder for us.
Then we stumbled across Fiverr.
It’s a website that connects artists, graphic designers and creative types of all stripes with customers in need of logos, testimonials, writing help, graphics, illustrations and more. It’s like the Star Wars cantina, only for creative types, and yeah, we’re Luke in this scenario.
The trick is that the starting price for any service is just $5. You can add more sophisticated components that send the price up a bit, but not much. And they can be delivered crazy fast.
Being thrifty-minded authors (read: broke), Kathleen and I came up with a crazy idea: What if we pooled our limited marketing budget and spent it on fifty $5 products and shared them across our social media channels?
#50DaysofFiverr was born.
It's part marketing campaign, part experiment and all fun. We’re using the considerable talents of the Fiverr community to do the creative work for us – focused on cowboys, vampires and our books (and we've received some truly epic deliverables) – and then we’re going to share it out with the world and see what happens.
Come along for the ride.
I’ll share a few things on Goodreads (check out my photos for a fun caricature), but the best way to participate is by connecting with us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/cowboyandvampire), Twitter (@cowboyvamp) and Instagram (@cowboyvampire). And remember, it’s #50DaysofFiverr.
When it’s all done, 49 days from now, we’ll have some fun stories and hopefully a few lessons to share.
Oh yeah, and there’s a contest. Share your favorite pieces of work to be entered into a drawing for a $50 (of course) gift card.
Bonnie and Clyde: Poverty, Second Chances and True Love
Our new book, Bonnie and Clyde: Dam Nation, explores deeper themes in a fun, thrilling, sexy read
Today is Clyde Barrow’s birthday.
He was born on March 24, 1909, in Telico, Texas, the fifth of seven children in an impoverished farm family. In 1930, Clyde met Bonnie Parker, a nineteen-year-old waitress with much bigger dreams than the slums of West Dallas could deliver. Two years later, the notorious lovers and their gang embarked on a multi-state crime spree that ended in a hail of bullets in a police ambush in Sailes, Louisiana, on May 23, 1934.
Today is also the formal release date of the new book Kathleen McFall and I wrote together, Bonnie and Clyde: Dam Nation (Pumpjack Press). It’s the second book in the series (book one, Bonnie and Clyde: Resurrection Road came out May 2017) that imagines what might have happened if the two outlaws were spared from their gruesome end and given (or, more accurately, forced) to work for the government to protect the greater good.
So why pick two notorious criminals and murderers (even though many believe Bonnie never pulled a trigger herself) to anchor the series? For three reasons:
We see the past as prologue
The economic conditions that shaped Bonnie and Clyde — utter poverty and hopelessness and staggering wealth inequality — are back in style. Bonnie and Clyde were products of the incredible privation leading up to the Great Depression and the years of hardships that followed. We picked them because their response to the soup lines and unemployment — a doomed life on the run taking whatever they wanted — struck a chord with their contemporaries, elevating them to folk hero status (at least until body count started to climb).
To be clear, we don’t consider poverty an excuse for crime or violence, but we do think it is a predictor and an enabler, and there are lessons to be learned. The economic landscape of today is eerily familiar, with wealth inequality at even higher levels than during the age of the robber barons, a pervasive sense of hopelessness, and anger and violence on the rise. In our books, Bonnie and Clyde put their unique skills to use protecting the only institution able to stand up to the corrupting power of concentrated wealth — the federal government.
We believe in second chances
Nothing moves us as more than stories about redemption and atonement. It’s a truth that resonates through most major religions, literary fiction (Jean Valjean springs to mind) and movies (from The Shawshank Redemption to Groundhog Day). We see ourselves reflected in the imperfect — those who have failed yet try again anyway, far more readily than we see ourselves in those who haven’t made mistakes.
And we are more deeply inspired and filled with greater hope knowing if the flawed and inconsistent, the damaged and forgotten can turn things around, then so can we. The saintly and the perfect aren’t tested in the same way — the fallen have so much farther to go to overcome their own faults to contribute to a greater good. And no one fell farther, faster than Bonnie and Clyde. In our books, we give them a chance to do good and make amends, and they make the most of it (even if grudgingly at first).
We know love is transformative
This is the sixth book Kathleen and I have written together (counting the four books in the Cowboy and the Vampire Collection; check out book one The Cowboy and the Vampire: A Very Unusual Romance), and our writing journey began with and is grounded in the transformative power of love. It’s what brought us together, almost drove us apart and keeps us focused — almost obsessively — on writing. And it’s a theme we return to in all of our books. It’s no surprise we were drawn to Bonnie and Clyde who, once they found each other, held on with more than a little desperation even as they set the world on fire around them.
Of course, there’s a big difference between exploring the alchemy of love through fiction and using that dark energy to fuel a crime spree. In our books, Bonnie and Clyde get the chance to live beyond their salacious and doomed relationship, growing even closer as the world around them shrinks.
Bonnie and Clyde, even 84 years later, have lessons to teach us. That poverty, if not addressed through policy intervention, can lead to violence. That people deserve second chances (it’s not widely known that Clyde’s life of crime began with a rental car issue, and police harassment likely ended a “straight” job after his first stint in a brutal prison). And that love, focused in positive directions, can change lives for the better.
Except for writers. And then, expect years of dysfunctional and antisocial behavior.
Check out Bonnie and Clyde: Dam Nation, and learn more about our books, and writing together, on our website: Pumpjack Press.
Today is Clyde Barrow’s birthday.
He was born on March 24, 1909, in Telico, Texas, the fifth of seven children in an impoverished farm family. In 1930, Clyde met Bonnie Parker, a nineteen-year-old waitress with much bigger dreams than the slums of West Dallas could deliver. Two years later, the notorious lovers and their gang embarked on a multi-state crime spree that ended in a hail of bullets in a police ambush in Sailes, Louisiana, on May 23, 1934.
Today is also the formal release date of the new book Kathleen McFall and I wrote together, Bonnie and Clyde: Dam Nation (Pumpjack Press). It’s the second book in the series (book one, Bonnie and Clyde: Resurrection Road came out May 2017) that imagines what might have happened if the two outlaws were spared from their gruesome end and given (or, more accurately, forced) to work for the government to protect the greater good.
So why pick two notorious criminals and murderers (even though many believe Bonnie never pulled a trigger herself) to anchor the series? For three reasons:
We see the past as prologue
The economic conditions that shaped Bonnie and Clyde — utter poverty and hopelessness and staggering wealth inequality — are back in style. Bonnie and Clyde were products of the incredible privation leading up to the Great Depression and the years of hardships that followed. We picked them because their response to the soup lines and unemployment — a doomed life on the run taking whatever they wanted — struck a chord with their contemporaries, elevating them to folk hero status (at least until body count started to climb).
To be clear, we don’t consider poverty an excuse for crime or violence, but we do think it is a predictor and an enabler, and there are lessons to be learned. The economic landscape of today is eerily familiar, with wealth inequality at even higher levels than during the age of the robber barons, a pervasive sense of hopelessness, and anger and violence on the rise. In our books, Bonnie and Clyde put their unique skills to use protecting the only institution able to stand up to the corrupting power of concentrated wealth — the federal government.
We believe in second chances
Nothing moves us as more than stories about redemption and atonement. It’s a truth that resonates through most major religions, literary fiction (Jean Valjean springs to mind) and movies (from The Shawshank Redemption to Groundhog Day). We see ourselves reflected in the imperfect — those who have failed yet try again anyway, far more readily than we see ourselves in those who haven’t made mistakes.
And we are more deeply inspired and filled with greater hope knowing if the flawed and inconsistent, the damaged and forgotten can turn things around, then so can we. The saintly and the perfect aren’t tested in the same way — the fallen have so much farther to go to overcome their own faults to contribute to a greater good. And no one fell farther, faster than Bonnie and Clyde. In our books, we give them a chance to do good and make amends, and they make the most of it (even if grudgingly at first).
We know love is transformative
This is the sixth book Kathleen and I have written together (counting the four books in the Cowboy and the Vampire Collection; check out book one The Cowboy and the Vampire: A Very Unusual Romance), and our writing journey began with and is grounded in the transformative power of love. It’s what brought us together, almost drove us apart and keeps us focused — almost obsessively — on writing. And it’s a theme we return to in all of our books. It’s no surprise we were drawn to Bonnie and Clyde who, once they found each other, held on with more than a little desperation even as they set the world on fire around them.
Of course, there’s a big difference between exploring the alchemy of love through fiction and using that dark energy to fuel a crime spree. In our books, Bonnie and Clyde get the chance to live beyond their salacious and doomed relationship, growing even closer as the world around them shrinks.
Bonnie and Clyde, even 84 years later, have lessons to teach us. That poverty, if not addressed through policy intervention, can lead to violence. That people deserve second chances (it’s not widely known that Clyde’s life of crime began with a rental car issue, and police harassment likely ended a “straight” job after his first stint in a brutal prison). And that love, focused in positive directions, can change lives for the better.
Except for writers. And then, expect years of dysfunctional and antisocial behavior.
Check out Bonnie and Clyde: Dam Nation, and learn more about our books, and writing together, on our website: Pumpjack Press.
“Sizzling Behind-the-Scenes and Under-the-Covers Action Highlighting 1930s Turmoil”
This great review of our newest book, Bonnie and Clyde: Dam Nation, came out in the East Oregonian on the anniversary of Clyde’s birthday (March 24, 1909)
BOOK REVIEW: Depression-era alternate history highlights union clash
East Oregonian
Published on March 24, 2018
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are on the case again, with a new mission to save FDR’s most audacious project yet: Hoover Dam. “Bonnie and Clyde: Dam Nation” is the second in a series by Portland authors Clark Hays and Kathleen McFall imagining an alternate history for the most notorious robbery duo of the 20th century.
Yanked out of a comfortable “retirement” by their handler in 1935, the couple faces their most serious nemesis — gainful employment — while juggling Italian anarchists, Mafia bosses and union-busting goons in a race to determine who wants the project to fail. But a lapse in judgment threatens to derail their undercover scheme.
On the story’s parallel track in 1984, Bonnie teams up with journalist Royce Jenkins to discover who was really shot during the ambush that supposedly killed the famous bank-robbing couple, though danger lurks around every corner. Someone doesn’t want the real story to be told, and will go to great lengths to keep them quiet.
Released on the 109th birthday of Clyde Barrow and set against a backdrop of the Great Depression and the working man’s clash with big business and greedy banks over their fair share of the pie, “Dam Nation” highlights the real-life turmoil of the 1930s as only Hays and McFall can — shadowy intrigue, plenty of suspects and enough behind-the-scenes and under-the-covers action to keep the narrative sizzling along to the final page.
“Bonnie and Clyde: Dam Nation,” by Clark Hays and Kathleen McFall. © 2018, Pumpjack Press.
BOOK REVIEW: Depression-era alternate history highlights union clash
East Oregonian
Published on March 24, 2018
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are on the case again, with a new mission to save FDR’s most audacious project yet: Hoover Dam. “Bonnie and Clyde: Dam Nation” is the second in a series by Portland authors Clark Hays and Kathleen McFall imagining an alternate history for the most notorious robbery duo of the 20th century.
Yanked out of a comfortable “retirement” by their handler in 1935, the couple faces their most serious nemesis — gainful employment — while juggling Italian anarchists, Mafia bosses and union-busting goons in a race to determine who wants the project to fail. But a lapse in judgment threatens to derail their undercover scheme.
On the story’s parallel track in 1984, Bonnie teams up with journalist Royce Jenkins to discover who was really shot during the ambush that supposedly killed the famous bank-robbing couple, though danger lurks around every corner. Someone doesn’t want the real story to be told, and will go to great lengths to keep them quiet.
Released on the 109th birthday of Clyde Barrow and set against a backdrop of the Great Depression and the working man’s clash with big business and greedy banks over their fair share of the pie, “Dam Nation” highlights the real-life turmoil of the 1930s as only Hays and McFall can — shadowy intrigue, plenty of suspects and enough behind-the-scenes and under-the-covers action to keep the narrative sizzling along to the final page.
“Bonnie and Clyde: Dam Nation,” by Clark Hays and Kathleen McFall. © 2018, Pumpjack Press.
Story Tellers Corner: From ‘Dam Nation’ to salvation; Authors’ twist on Bonnie, Clyde story brings them to BC
This article about our new book, Bonnie and Clyde: Dam Nation and what it’s like to write together, appeared in the Boulder City Review. The cool part about that is Boulder City is where much of book two takes place.
By Hali Bernstein Saylor
Boulder City Review
March 21, 2018
History tells us that Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow died May 23, 1934, when a posse ambushed them in Bienville Parish, Louisiana, and shot 167 bullets into their car. But what if it wasn’t really the two famous outlaws in that car? What if instead two young people who resembled the murderers and bank robbers were actually killed?
That’s the premise of a new series of books by Clark Hays and Kathleen McFall.
“Bonnie and Clyde: Dam Nation,” the second book in their Bonnie and Clyde series, debuts Saturday, March 24, which is the 110th anniversary of Clyde Barrow’s birth.
The story is set in 1935, and the two outlaws have been recruited by the federal government to foil a plan to sabotage construction of the Hoover Dam.
Hays said he and McFall have always been drawn to the story of antiheroes and examining that, taking a closer look at the story of redemption.
“We were intrigued by Bonnie and Clyde. They are such an important part of the American story,” he said.
McFall said that while they don’t condone the actions of the two, they began looking at the origins of how they became bank robbers and criminals, how poverty was forcing people to take action.
“It’s not quite a Robin Hood myth,” she said. “They became folk heroes in a way. There were so many people in the Depression … so many that had that fantasy to take control of their destiny.”
Immense project
Hays said he and McFall, who live in Portland, Oregon, had visited Hoover Dam and Boulder City and liked the character of the area.
“We were blown away by the sheer scope of it, the project that brought the dam to life. We knew we wanted to incorporate that into our writing,” he said.
Once they began the Bonnie and Clyde series, they realized the story of Hoover Dam’s construction would be a good fit.
The two spent at least a year doing research and immersing themselves in the history of the area to get a sense of what it was like to work on the dam.
“There is such a rich history in the area, and it has been captured so well by photographers and through oral history,” Hays said.
Their first book in the series, “Bonnie and Clyde: Resurrection Road,” has the origins of how the criminals began working for the government and sets them on a path to save President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
“There were plans to assassinate the president; everything is based in reality,” McFall said.
“It’s symbolic for saving the New Deal policies, pulling America out of the Great Depression,” Hays said. “In book two, set in Hoover Dam, … it tells how government infrastructure projects put people back to work. It changed the whole area.”
The two are at work on a third book in the series, which jumps ahead 10 years and takes Bonnie and Clyde to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state, where the Manhattan Project was taking place.
Experienced writers
Before starting their first series, “The Cowboy and the Vampire Collection Boxed Set: Contains Books 1 - 4 plus Bonus Prequel Book” both had experience as writers. Hays was a communications officer for a financial firm and McFall was the director of communications for a medical research company as well as a former energy and science journalist.
McFall, who has a degree in geology, said her experience writing about geology and energy gave her the history and terminology she needed to give their story about the dam more credence and greater avenues to explore.
“Both positions at the heart of them had elements of writing, where we earned our chops, that required us to write on deadline. And we became really proficient churners out of copy,” McFall said. “We applied what we learned in the trenches and applied it to fiction.”
The duo began writing fiction as a way to save their relationship, Hays said.
“When we first became involved romantically, we had a fiery breakup after a short run at romance. … Fate brought us back together, so we decided to focus that dysfunctional energy in a more focused way and started a creative project. That was the first book in our cowboys and vampire collection,” he said.
“Some people think this was a test for marriage. If we could survive this, we could survive anything,” McFall added.
Ironically, Hays grew up with a special connection to and interest in Bonnie and Clyde. His father, who worked in the oil industry, was a “consummate storyteller.” When they purchased an old cattle ranch from the 1930s in White Hall, Montana, they discovered an old rusted car full of bullet holes.
“He convinced me it was Bonnie and Clyde’s death car. I believed that for quite some time,” Hays said.
Time in the public library proved the tale to be false, he said, while instilling a love of libraries.
McFall said they hope to arrange for a special event with the Boulder City Library to introduce people to their book. In the meantime, “Bonnie and Clyde: Dam Nation” is available at most online bookstores and in libraries.
Hali Bernstein Saylor is editor of the Boulder City Review. She can be reached at hsaylor@bouldercityreview.com or at 702-586-9523. Follow @HalisComment on Twitter.
Here’s a link to the original article.
And here are the links to:
Bonnie and Clyde: Resurrection Road
Bonnie and Clyde: Dam Nation
The four-book Cowboy and Vampire Collection
our Pumpjack Press website
By Hali Bernstein Saylor
Boulder City Review
March 21, 2018
History tells us that Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow died May 23, 1934, when a posse ambushed them in Bienville Parish, Louisiana, and shot 167 bullets into their car. But what if it wasn’t really the two famous outlaws in that car? What if instead two young people who resembled the murderers and bank robbers were actually killed?
That’s the premise of a new series of books by Clark Hays and Kathleen McFall.
“Bonnie and Clyde: Dam Nation,” the second book in their Bonnie and Clyde series, debuts Saturday, March 24, which is the 110th anniversary of Clyde Barrow’s birth.
The story is set in 1935, and the two outlaws have been recruited by the federal government to foil a plan to sabotage construction of the Hoover Dam.
Hays said he and McFall have always been drawn to the story of antiheroes and examining that, taking a closer look at the story of redemption.
“We were intrigued by Bonnie and Clyde. They are such an important part of the American story,” he said.
McFall said that while they don’t condone the actions of the two, they began looking at the origins of how they became bank robbers and criminals, how poverty was forcing people to take action.
“It’s not quite a Robin Hood myth,” she said. “They became folk heroes in a way. There were so many people in the Depression … so many that had that fantasy to take control of their destiny.”
Immense project
Hays said he and McFall, who live in Portland, Oregon, had visited Hoover Dam and Boulder City and liked the character of the area.
“We were blown away by the sheer scope of it, the project that brought the dam to life. We knew we wanted to incorporate that into our writing,” he said.
Once they began the Bonnie and Clyde series, they realized the story of Hoover Dam’s construction would be a good fit.
The two spent at least a year doing research and immersing themselves in the history of the area to get a sense of what it was like to work on the dam.
“There is such a rich history in the area, and it has been captured so well by photographers and through oral history,” Hays said.
Their first book in the series, “Bonnie and Clyde: Resurrection Road,” has the origins of how the criminals began working for the government and sets them on a path to save President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
“There were plans to assassinate the president; everything is based in reality,” McFall said.
“It’s symbolic for saving the New Deal policies, pulling America out of the Great Depression,” Hays said. “In book two, set in Hoover Dam, … it tells how government infrastructure projects put people back to work. It changed the whole area.”
The two are at work on a third book in the series, which jumps ahead 10 years and takes Bonnie and Clyde to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state, where the Manhattan Project was taking place.
Experienced writers
Before starting their first series, “The Cowboy and the Vampire Collection Boxed Set: Contains Books 1 - 4 plus Bonus Prequel Book” both had experience as writers. Hays was a communications officer for a financial firm and McFall was the director of communications for a medical research company as well as a former energy and science journalist.
McFall, who has a degree in geology, said her experience writing about geology and energy gave her the history and terminology she needed to give their story about the dam more credence and greater avenues to explore.
“Both positions at the heart of them had elements of writing, where we earned our chops, that required us to write on deadline. And we became really proficient churners out of copy,” McFall said. “We applied what we learned in the trenches and applied it to fiction.”
The duo began writing fiction as a way to save their relationship, Hays said.
“When we first became involved romantically, we had a fiery breakup after a short run at romance. … Fate brought us back together, so we decided to focus that dysfunctional energy in a more focused way and started a creative project. That was the first book in our cowboys and vampire collection,” he said.
“Some people think this was a test for marriage. If we could survive this, we could survive anything,” McFall added.
Ironically, Hays grew up with a special connection to and interest in Bonnie and Clyde. His father, who worked in the oil industry, was a “consummate storyteller.” When they purchased an old cattle ranch from the 1930s in White Hall, Montana, they discovered an old rusted car full of bullet holes.
“He convinced me it was Bonnie and Clyde’s death car. I believed that for quite some time,” Hays said.
Time in the public library proved the tale to be false, he said, while instilling a love of libraries.
McFall said they hope to arrange for a special event with the Boulder City Library to introduce people to their book. In the meantime, “Bonnie and Clyde: Dam Nation” is available at most online bookstores and in libraries.
Hali Bernstein Saylor is editor of the Boulder City Review. She can be reached at hsaylor@bouldercityreview.com or at 702-586-9523. Follow @HalisComment on Twitter.
Here’s a link to the original article.
And here are the links to:
Bonnie and Clyde: Resurrection Road
Bonnie and Clyde: Dam Nation
The four-book Cowboy and Vampire Collection
our Pumpjack Press website
Article: ‘Dam Nation’ blends history and fantasy in story of Bonnie and Clyde
Here’s a great article about the second book in our Bonnie and Clyde series that ran recently in the Arizona Daily Sun — much of the story, which takes place in 1935, is set at the Hoover Dam site, smack dab between Arizona and Nevada.
By MacKenzie Chase
Arizona Daily Sun
March 22, 2018
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow rose to infamy during America’s Great Depression in the 1930s through robbery sprees and the bodies left behind by them and the Barrow gang. Luck seemed to be on their side as they escaped many tight situations during their two years of crime, but an ambush in Louisiana on May 23, 1934, eventually led to their demise when police fired more than 130 rounds at the deadly couple in a stolen Ford V-8.
But what if Bonnie and Clyde didn’t really die that day?
Husband and wife team Clark Hays and Kathleen McFall imagine a different story for the outlaws, one that gives them a chance to redeem themselves in their upcoming book Dam Nation, the second in a series.
“We wondered what it would be like for these criminals to truly atone for their crimes and sins,” Hays explains. “They came together in this weird way at this very interesting time in American history, and the only thing they had was this love for each other.”
“They kind of bucked the system at the time when the economy had failed for the average person and embodied the fantasy people had of wanting to escape the system,” McFall adds.
In Dam Nation, Bonnie and Clyde have narrowly escaped capture and are put to work by the government to figure out who is sabotaging construction of the Boulder (Hoover) Dam and why. They also have to avoid being found out by Texas Ranger Hank Black who suspects the two may somehow still be alive.
In a post-gunfire confrontation, Sal, the government operative who’s been giving orders to Bonnie and Clyde, tells him, “If they were still alive, I would tell you that everyone has a purpose in life, and perhaps they are fulfilling theirs. And if they were still alive, I would tell you that you don't use good dogs to guard the junkyard, you use the meanest goddamn dogs you can get a collar around.”
Under their given pseudonyms of Brenda and Clarence Prentiss, Bonnie and Clyde put on their collars and enter the workforce as a secretary and water truck driver respectively, making a living through real work for once, even if they do get the urge to run a heist one day on their way to Las Vegas.
Dam Nation covers two mysteries as it jumps back and forth between Bonnie and Clyde’s lives as hard-working patriots at the construction site in 1934 and then 50 years later as a journalist works to uncover who was actually shot in the car with help from a 74-year-old Bonnie.
“The Bonnie and Clyde part is the fun and exciting part, but the relationship between the journalist and the older Bonnie becomes a poignant layer in the story,” says McFall, a former journalist herself.
Throughout the 300-plus pages, the story takes readers along as Bonnie and Clyde maneuver quick getaways from anarchists, the mob and sheer cliffs. There’s a good sprinkling of dam puns—with such the perfect set-up it might have been disappointing if there weren’t any—and quick, witty banter between the two lovers to move the action along. The present-day scenes paint a picture of a thriving newsroom, when the industry was respected and papers had the resources to assign ongoing investigative projects to reporters. It’s also interesting to consider how an aging outlaw might settle down in society without losing their edge.
The book combines fantasy with history, exploring important topics during the Depression such as workers’ unions, poverty and the country’s growing infrastructure. It takes place shortly after President Franklin Roosevelt implements the New Deal to help people secure jobs and improve the failing economy.
In their research on the Hoover Dam, Hays and McFall found building inconsistencies in the construction which ended up taking a decade of rebuilding to fix. They decided to work that into their book with the premise that the actions behind the scenes weren’t as straightforward as a rushed job. This takes the shape of cut brakes, cable cars failing and missing bundles of dynamite in an unknown group’s plan to sabotage construction.
Dam Nation also explores the theme of fame and what it does to an individual.
“We were famous once too, and it didn’t amount to a hill of beans,” Clyde tells Bonnie at the beginning of the book when she gets excited about the possibility of seeing famous movie stars at the work site.
Some speculate it was the outlaws’ growing fame which helped bring them down in real life. As they committed more and more crimes and their photos were posted in newspapers across the country, more people were able to recognize them which made it difficult for the couple to stay in one spot for too long.
At first, Parker, Barrow and their gang were seen by many as sort of Robin Hood vigilantes who stole from the rich. However, their image turned sour following the murder of a newly-engaged rookie officer in Texas, and the public began collectively calling for their capture, dead or alive.
While Parker had dreams of being a Hollywood actress and Barrow a musician, they knew there was no going back following their notoriety as criminals. Parker wrote poetry during her brief stint in prison and on the road with Barrow to reflect on various societal issues as well as their own lives, which assumed no illusions of grandeur.
In one poem, sometimes called “The Trail’s End” or “The End of the Line,” she likens themselves to Jessie James and reflects on the circumstances which led to their life of crime before predicting their inevitable end in the final stanza:
Some day they'll go down together
And they'll bury them side by side.
To few it'll be grief,
To the law a relief,
But it's death for Bonnie and Clyde.
This sentiment is reflected in the book following a sabotage of a transport bus’s brakes which leads to a crash that puts several union workers in the hospital. As Bonnie and Clyde head over to assess the situation, Bonnie worries they might run into the Texas ranger, who recently appeared at the work site, but Clyde, gesturing to his gun, says he can solve the problem permanently if need be.
The passage reads: “[Bonnie] wondered if there were really no second chances in life, that they were simply put on this earth to kill or be killed, and that fate could never be outrun.”
That could very well serve as another big theme of the book. The Bonnie in 1984 seems just as set in her cautious ways as she hides in plain sight, attending a weekly poetry club at a church while carrying a small handgun in her purse, ready to be on the run again at the drop of a hat. She’s lived an exciting life and is content now to see justice and closure for the family of the unfortunate couple who was killed in her and Clyde’s place.
Dam Nation, book two in the Bonnie and Clyde series, will be available Saturday, March 24, through Pumpjack Press at Barnes & Noble, Amazon and select indie bookstores. Visit www.pumpjackpress.comfor more information.
Here’s a link to the original article.
Learn more about all our books:
Bonnie and Clyde: Resurrection Road
Bonnie and Clyde: Dam Nation
The Cowboy and the Vampire: A Very Unusual Romance
The Cowboy and the Vampire: Blood and Whiskey
The Cowboy and the Vampire: Rough Trails and Shallow Graves
The Cowboy and the Vampire: The Last Sunset
And check out our website at https://www.pumpjackpress.com
By MacKenzie Chase
Arizona Daily Sun
March 22, 2018
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow rose to infamy during America’s Great Depression in the 1930s through robbery sprees and the bodies left behind by them and the Barrow gang. Luck seemed to be on their side as they escaped many tight situations during their two years of crime, but an ambush in Louisiana on May 23, 1934, eventually led to their demise when police fired more than 130 rounds at the deadly couple in a stolen Ford V-8.
But what if Bonnie and Clyde didn’t really die that day?
Husband and wife team Clark Hays and Kathleen McFall imagine a different story for the outlaws, one that gives them a chance to redeem themselves in their upcoming book Dam Nation, the second in a series.
“We wondered what it would be like for these criminals to truly atone for their crimes and sins,” Hays explains. “They came together in this weird way at this very interesting time in American history, and the only thing they had was this love for each other.”
“They kind of bucked the system at the time when the economy had failed for the average person and embodied the fantasy people had of wanting to escape the system,” McFall adds.
In Dam Nation, Bonnie and Clyde have narrowly escaped capture and are put to work by the government to figure out who is sabotaging construction of the Boulder (Hoover) Dam and why. They also have to avoid being found out by Texas Ranger Hank Black who suspects the two may somehow still be alive.
In a post-gunfire confrontation, Sal, the government operative who’s been giving orders to Bonnie and Clyde, tells him, “If they were still alive, I would tell you that everyone has a purpose in life, and perhaps they are fulfilling theirs. And if they were still alive, I would tell you that you don't use good dogs to guard the junkyard, you use the meanest goddamn dogs you can get a collar around.”
Under their given pseudonyms of Brenda and Clarence Prentiss, Bonnie and Clyde put on their collars and enter the workforce as a secretary and water truck driver respectively, making a living through real work for once, even if they do get the urge to run a heist one day on their way to Las Vegas.
Dam Nation covers two mysteries as it jumps back and forth between Bonnie and Clyde’s lives as hard-working patriots at the construction site in 1934 and then 50 years later as a journalist works to uncover who was actually shot in the car with help from a 74-year-old Bonnie.
“The Bonnie and Clyde part is the fun and exciting part, but the relationship between the journalist and the older Bonnie becomes a poignant layer in the story,” says McFall, a former journalist herself.
Throughout the 300-plus pages, the story takes readers along as Bonnie and Clyde maneuver quick getaways from anarchists, the mob and sheer cliffs. There’s a good sprinkling of dam puns—with such the perfect set-up it might have been disappointing if there weren’t any—and quick, witty banter between the two lovers to move the action along. The present-day scenes paint a picture of a thriving newsroom, when the industry was respected and papers had the resources to assign ongoing investigative projects to reporters. It’s also interesting to consider how an aging outlaw might settle down in society without losing their edge.
The book combines fantasy with history, exploring important topics during the Depression such as workers’ unions, poverty and the country’s growing infrastructure. It takes place shortly after President Franklin Roosevelt implements the New Deal to help people secure jobs and improve the failing economy.
In their research on the Hoover Dam, Hays and McFall found building inconsistencies in the construction which ended up taking a decade of rebuilding to fix. They decided to work that into their book with the premise that the actions behind the scenes weren’t as straightforward as a rushed job. This takes the shape of cut brakes, cable cars failing and missing bundles of dynamite in an unknown group’s plan to sabotage construction.
Dam Nation also explores the theme of fame and what it does to an individual.
“We were famous once too, and it didn’t amount to a hill of beans,” Clyde tells Bonnie at the beginning of the book when she gets excited about the possibility of seeing famous movie stars at the work site.
Some speculate it was the outlaws’ growing fame which helped bring them down in real life. As they committed more and more crimes and their photos were posted in newspapers across the country, more people were able to recognize them which made it difficult for the couple to stay in one spot for too long.
At first, Parker, Barrow and their gang were seen by many as sort of Robin Hood vigilantes who stole from the rich. However, their image turned sour following the murder of a newly-engaged rookie officer in Texas, and the public began collectively calling for their capture, dead or alive.
While Parker had dreams of being a Hollywood actress and Barrow a musician, they knew there was no going back following their notoriety as criminals. Parker wrote poetry during her brief stint in prison and on the road with Barrow to reflect on various societal issues as well as their own lives, which assumed no illusions of grandeur.
In one poem, sometimes called “The Trail’s End” or “The End of the Line,” she likens themselves to Jessie James and reflects on the circumstances which led to their life of crime before predicting their inevitable end in the final stanza:
Some day they'll go down together
And they'll bury them side by side.
To few it'll be grief,
To the law a relief,
But it's death for Bonnie and Clyde.
This sentiment is reflected in the book following a sabotage of a transport bus’s brakes which leads to a crash that puts several union workers in the hospital. As Bonnie and Clyde head over to assess the situation, Bonnie worries they might run into the Texas ranger, who recently appeared at the work site, but Clyde, gesturing to his gun, says he can solve the problem permanently if need be.
The passage reads: “[Bonnie] wondered if there were really no second chances in life, that they were simply put on this earth to kill or be killed, and that fate could never be outrun.”
That could very well serve as another big theme of the book. The Bonnie in 1984 seems just as set in her cautious ways as she hides in plain sight, attending a weekly poetry club at a church while carrying a small handgun in her purse, ready to be on the run again at the drop of a hat. She’s lived an exciting life and is content now to see justice and closure for the family of the unfortunate couple who was killed in her and Clyde’s place.
Dam Nation, book two in the Bonnie and Clyde series, will be available Saturday, March 24, through Pumpjack Press at Barnes & Noble, Amazon and select indie bookstores. Visit www.pumpjackpress.comfor more information.
Here’s a link to the original article.
Learn more about all our books:
Bonnie and Clyde: Resurrection Road
Bonnie and Clyde: Dam Nation
The Cowboy and the Vampire: A Very Unusual Romance
The Cowboy and the Vampire: Blood and Whiskey
The Cowboy and the Vampire: Rough Trails and Shallow Graves
The Cowboy and the Vampire: The Last Sunset
And check out our website at https://www.pumpjackpress.com
When Bad People Do Good Things
by Clark Hays & Kathleen McFall
Note: this is an article we wrote for our friends over on the Girl Who Reads blog.
As we get set to publish the second book in a “what-if” series recasting the lives of Bonnie and Clyde, we reflect on the factors that draw readers to tales of atonement.
Bonnie and Clyde, the anti-heroes of our speculative historical fiction series, embody a long creative and cultural tradition of elevating criminals and outlaws to folk hero status. As we set out to write this series, we talked at length about this tradition, trying to grasp — to the extent possible — why so many of us love bad guys who break good?
We batted this back and forth and scoured bad-guy (and gal) literature, movies and graphic novels. Our goal was to create a fictional world that mirrors the impetus underlying this fascination with reformed (and unreformed) criminals. We also wanted to be careful that the series would not, even indirectly, celebrate criminality.
We learned, or more accurately, were quickly reminded that getting your arms around the complexities of human nature is no easy task. But still, we finally settled on three issues to explore in our series — three reasons that helped us understand why scofflaws and delinquents consistently captivate and resonate.
Outlaws give voice to the frustrations of the common man and woman.
What do Robin Hood, Jesse James, Ned Kelly (the armor-wearing Australian bushranger) and the like have in common? They were shaped by poverty, economic disenfranchisement or oppressive social systems and — right or wrong (mostly wrong) — they lashed out against a system they felt contributed to their fringe status. In so doing, outlaws (until they go too far) are rowdily cheered on by regular folks, especially during tough times like the Great Depression. There’s something timeless and appealing about those who have the courage to give voice to their rage and dissatisfaction, even though it’s often aimed in horrible directions.
Criminals have tangible and unique skills that can serve the greater good.
Criminals and villains have certain skills — including freedom from pesky ethical calculations — that, if focused in the right way, can provide expedient solutions to complex problems. For example, the world increasingly relies on reformed hackers to help safeguard our networked computer systems. Convicted burglars are tasked with building better alarm systems. And during WWII, the U.S. Navy negotiated with famed mobster Meyer Lansky to commute the sentence of even more famous “Lucky Luciano,” considered the father of organized crime in the U.S., in exchange for information about potential Nazi activities in eastern seaports. Polite society doesn’t always like to admit it, but complex problems often require novel — and sometimes morally dubious or illegal — solutions. This truth can be mined for colorful characters and plots.
The road to redemption is more scenic for those who have fallen the farthest.
One of the most powerful reasons the world seems to love bad guys is because their stories are ready-made for redemption. For the moral and upright, life can be an endless and boring series of good choices. For the fallen and depraved, the journey toward atonement is a constant struggle, and that makes it interesting. That’s why the entertainment landscape is often populated with flawed characters and villains who are given a chance to redeem themselves. Suicide Squad is one recent example. At its core, this type of storytelling encourages individuals to reflect on their own journey toward atonement, if not at a criminal scale. If a hardened criminal can make it to the other side, maybe we all have a shot at redemption, right?
Back in their day, Bonnie and Clyde captured the public imagination, a fascination that continues today, for the first of the three reasons outlined above. They were both products of the poverty crippling the nation in the 1930s and they lashed out against it. They went too far, of course, and innocent people died, but one of the reasons their myth and mystique live on is precisely because they acted on their rage. People then, and now, saw in them an expression of their own pent-up anger at economic injustice.
As a sidebar, there was another element — sex — that helped make Bonnie and Clyde famous. It was clear they were not only brass-knuckling the economic and legal systems failing so many during the Great Depression, they were also challenging traditional sexual roles of the day. Unmarried, they were in love and clearly having sex on a regular basis. It was both titillating and revolutionary.
From the standpoint of the second factor — useful criminal skills — the notorious duo had buckets of that, and this was the starting point for our story. Indeed, it is their criminal skills that make them valuable to the government — bank robberies and violence and daring escapes. In our books, their handler, “Suicide Sal” (her codename is based on one of Bonnie’s poems), who in the 1930s is fighting well-funded corporate interests intent on derailing the New Deal policies aimed at helping the working class, explains it like this: “You don’t use good dogs to guard the junkyard, you use the meanest goddamn dogs you can get a collar around.”
And then we wove in the third element — a chance for atonement — for which the real-life story of Bonnie and Clyde provided a tragic jumping off point. Their story is ripe for an atonement tale because of their violent end. In 1934, the outlaw lovers were gunned down without a trial, without a chance to separate fact from fantasy regarding their crimes, and without a chance to explain or atone. In our books, the two live beyond the ambush and are not only forced to help the federal government defend the working class, they must also confront their past and begin to make amends for the death and destruction they left in their wake. Atonement, and their unyielding love, are at the heart of the books.
There’s a fourth reason some outlaws find themselves transformed into folk heroes: timing. Said criminals’ stories resonate because they continue to shine a light on contemporary challenges. The timing now is compelling for the return of Bonnie and Clyde because — with the wealth and income inequality gap greater today than it was just prior to the Great Depression — there is a growing frustration from the lower and middle classes at a system that allows so many to struggle paycheck-to-paycheck so a few at the top can prosper. And who better than a pair of unrepentant criminal lovers to take on that issue as they careen down a road to redemption?
Learn more about the Bonnie and Clyde books by Clark Hays and Kathleen McFall, published by Pumpjack Press (Portland, OR): http://www.pumpjackpress.com
Check out the books here:
Bonnie and Clyde: Resurrection Road (May 2017)
Bonnie and Clyde: Dam Nation (March 2018)
Check out their other books:
The Cowboy and the Vampire: A Very Unusual Romance
The Cowboy and the Vampire: Blood and Whiskey
The Cowboy and the Vampire: Rough Trails and Shallow Graves
The Cowboy and the Vampire: The Last Sunset
Connect with the authors:
Twitter @cowboyvamp
Instagram @cowboyvampire
Facebook www.facebook.com/cowboyandvampire
Praise for the Series
“As the rich get richer and the middle class becomes more desperate in present-day America, Resurrection Road is a timely reminder that sometimes the solution to a problem comes from the least likely source. Sex, danger and intrigue, coupled with just the right dose of cheeky humor.” East Oregonian Newspaper
“Hays and McFall make their Depression-era tale timely with reflections on wealthy fat cats and a rigged economic system that still ring true. More than that, the story is an exciting ride, with tight corners, narrow escapes, and real romantic heat between Bonnie and Clyde. Outlaws become patriots in this imaginative, suspenseful what-if story.” Kirkus Reviews
Note: this is an article we wrote for our friends over on the Girl Who Reads blog.
As we get set to publish the second book in a “what-if” series recasting the lives of Bonnie and Clyde, we reflect on the factors that draw readers to tales of atonement.
Bonnie and Clyde, the anti-heroes of our speculative historical fiction series, embody a long creative and cultural tradition of elevating criminals and outlaws to folk hero status. As we set out to write this series, we talked at length about this tradition, trying to grasp — to the extent possible — why so many of us love bad guys who break good?
We batted this back and forth and scoured bad-guy (and gal) literature, movies and graphic novels. Our goal was to create a fictional world that mirrors the impetus underlying this fascination with reformed (and unreformed) criminals. We also wanted to be careful that the series would not, even indirectly, celebrate criminality.
We learned, or more accurately, were quickly reminded that getting your arms around the complexities of human nature is no easy task. But still, we finally settled on three issues to explore in our series — three reasons that helped us understand why scofflaws and delinquents consistently captivate and resonate.
Outlaws give voice to the frustrations of the common man and woman.
What do Robin Hood, Jesse James, Ned Kelly (the armor-wearing Australian bushranger) and the like have in common? They were shaped by poverty, economic disenfranchisement or oppressive social systems and — right or wrong (mostly wrong) — they lashed out against a system they felt contributed to their fringe status. In so doing, outlaws (until they go too far) are rowdily cheered on by regular folks, especially during tough times like the Great Depression. There’s something timeless and appealing about those who have the courage to give voice to their rage and dissatisfaction, even though it’s often aimed in horrible directions.
Criminals have tangible and unique skills that can serve the greater good.
Criminals and villains have certain skills — including freedom from pesky ethical calculations — that, if focused in the right way, can provide expedient solutions to complex problems. For example, the world increasingly relies on reformed hackers to help safeguard our networked computer systems. Convicted burglars are tasked with building better alarm systems. And during WWII, the U.S. Navy negotiated with famed mobster Meyer Lansky to commute the sentence of even more famous “Lucky Luciano,” considered the father of organized crime in the U.S., in exchange for information about potential Nazi activities in eastern seaports. Polite society doesn’t always like to admit it, but complex problems often require novel — and sometimes morally dubious or illegal — solutions. This truth can be mined for colorful characters and plots.
The road to redemption is more scenic for those who have fallen the farthest.
One of the most powerful reasons the world seems to love bad guys is because their stories are ready-made for redemption. For the moral and upright, life can be an endless and boring series of good choices. For the fallen and depraved, the journey toward atonement is a constant struggle, and that makes it interesting. That’s why the entertainment landscape is often populated with flawed characters and villains who are given a chance to redeem themselves. Suicide Squad is one recent example. At its core, this type of storytelling encourages individuals to reflect on their own journey toward atonement, if not at a criminal scale. If a hardened criminal can make it to the other side, maybe we all have a shot at redemption, right?
Back in their day, Bonnie and Clyde captured the public imagination, a fascination that continues today, for the first of the three reasons outlined above. They were both products of the poverty crippling the nation in the 1930s and they lashed out against it. They went too far, of course, and innocent people died, but one of the reasons their myth and mystique live on is precisely because they acted on their rage. People then, and now, saw in them an expression of their own pent-up anger at economic injustice.
As a sidebar, there was another element — sex — that helped make Bonnie and Clyde famous. It was clear they were not only brass-knuckling the economic and legal systems failing so many during the Great Depression, they were also challenging traditional sexual roles of the day. Unmarried, they were in love and clearly having sex on a regular basis. It was both titillating and revolutionary.
From the standpoint of the second factor — useful criminal skills — the notorious duo had buckets of that, and this was the starting point for our story. Indeed, it is their criminal skills that make them valuable to the government — bank robberies and violence and daring escapes. In our books, their handler, “Suicide Sal” (her codename is based on one of Bonnie’s poems), who in the 1930s is fighting well-funded corporate interests intent on derailing the New Deal policies aimed at helping the working class, explains it like this: “You don’t use good dogs to guard the junkyard, you use the meanest goddamn dogs you can get a collar around.”
And then we wove in the third element — a chance for atonement — for which the real-life story of Bonnie and Clyde provided a tragic jumping off point. Their story is ripe for an atonement tale because of their violent end. In 1934, the outlaw lovers were gunned down without a trial, without a chance to separate fact from fantasy regarding their crimes, and without a chance to explain or atone. In our books, the two live beyond the ambush and are not only forced to help the federal government defend the working class, they must also confront their past and begin to make amends for the death and destruction they left in their wake. Atonement, and their unyielding love, are at the heart of the books.
There’s a fourth reason some outlaws find themselves transformed into folk heroes: timing. Said criminals’ stories resonate because they continue to shine a light on contemporary challenges. The timing now is compelling for the return of Bonnie and Clyde because — with the wealth and income inequality gap greater today than it was just prior to the Great Depression — there is a growing frustration from the lower and middle classes at a system that allows so many to struggle paycheck-to-paycheck so a few at the top can prosper. And who better than a pair of unrepentant criminal lovers to take on that issue as they careen down a road to redemption?
Learn more about the Bonnie and Clyde books by Clark Hays and Kathleen McFall, published by Pumpjack Press (Portland, OR): http://www.pumpjackpress.com
Check out the books here:
Bonnie and Clyde: Resurrection Road (May 2017)
Bonnie and Clyde: Dam Nation (March 2018)
Check out their other books:
The Cowboy and the Vampire: A Very Unusual Romance
The Cowboy and the Vampire: Blood and Whiskey
The Cowboy and the Vampire: Rough Trails and Shallow Graves
The Cowboy and the Vampire: The Last Sunset
Connect with the authors:
Twitter @cowboyvamp
Instagram @cowboyvampire
Facebook www.facebook.com/cowboyandvampire
Praise for the Series
“As the rich get richer and the middle class becomes more desperate in present-day America, Resurrection Road is a timely reminder that sometimes the solution to a problem comes from the least likely source. Sex, danger and intrigue, coupled with just the right dose of cheeky humor.” East Oregonian Newspaper
“Hays and McFall make their Depression-era tale timely with reflections on wealthy fat cats and a rigged economic system that still ring true. More than that, the story is an exciting ride, with tight corners, narrow escapes, and real romantic heat between Bonnie and Clyde. Outlaws become patriots in this imaginative, suspenseful what-if story.” Kirkus Reviews
Bonnie and Clyde: Love and Poverty
When passion is the only bright thing in an otherwise dark world
“People are rendered ferocious by misery.”
Mary Wollstonecraft — a writer, philosopher and fierce advocate of women’s rights (and mother of Mary Shelley, author ofFrankenstein) — wrote these words more than 200 years ago, but they certainly ring true when considering the social and economic conditions that gave rise to the legend of Bonnie and Clyde.
Both were born into absolute poverty with no way to get out. Clyde’s family was so poor, when they moved to the slums of West Dallas looking for work they lived under their wagon for months. Like many young men at the time, Clyde wanted more than he could afford, and certainly more than spotty employment of the Depression era could finance.
Clyde’s first brush with the law came from failing to return a rental car on time; after that, it was stolen turkeys. Once he drew the attention of law enforcement, it wasn’t long before he entered a brutal prison system that used prisoners for profit — free agricultural labor — and ignored horrific conditions inside (Clyde was a victim of sexual assault). He was so desperate to get out, he chopped off two of his toes.
Bonnie had it better, but not by much. Options were limited for poor young women, especially in those days — a quick marriage and a hard lifetime of taking care of a large family was her best hope. She tried that, marrying a philandering criminal at 16. It didn’t last long. She always harbored dreams of a better life as a Hollywood starlet, but the slums of West Dallas didn’t offer many opportunities to get noticed.
Then she met Clyde, and he noticed her.
We all know how it turned out after that — from desperation to crime, from crime to violence, and from violence to a gruesome death in a bloody ambush in which more than 100 rounds were shot at them, their bodies brutalized almost beyond recognition.
Poverty does not, of course, excuse a life of crime, but it’s certainly an enabler, and that’s the crucible in which Bonnie and Clyde were forged. They likely would have been reviled by their contemporaries and forgotten by history if not for one other element that transformed the anger and despair, the rage and hopelessness, into something else, something that transcended their crimes and cemented them into the popular imagination: true love.
Collectively, Americans — and even those outside of this country — largely remain fascinated by Bonnie and Clyde because, in spite of thieving and murdering, the violence and destruction, they found each other and held on until the bitter, violent end. Misery may render people ferocious, but hopelessness sometimes renders them inseparable. Bonnie and Clyde became the ultimate doomed lovers, finding the kind of love that eclipses all rational thought, all problems, all concerns with right or wrong. Their burned so brightly, it momentarily outshined the misery they tried to leave behind and the misery they inflicted on others.
The real catastrophe of Bonnie and Clyde, aside from the lives damaged and lost, is that they found in each other a love that likely could have sustained them on any path they chose. If things had turned out just a little differently, if Wall Street hadn’t plunged the country into the Great Depression, if the prison system had protected a teenaged Clyde from assault, of they’d tried their hand at different jobs, we might never have known their story.
But of course, their powerful love wasn’t enough to prevent things from spiraling out of control.
In our speculative history series about Bonnie and Clyde, we give them a second chance and an opportunity to atone. Their love becomes a lodestar, guiding them into a new life.
In the first book, Bonnie and Clyde: Resurrection Road, that new life begins when a mysterious government agent, Suicide Sal, plucks them out of the deadly ambush in Sailes, Louisiana at the last second and forces them to become federal agents, using their unique “skills” to save FDR from an assassin.
In the second book, Bonnie and Clyde: Dam Nation, which publishes March 24, Bonnie and Clyde must stop saboteurs from destroying Boulder (Hoover) Dam. In Book 2, the notorious duo take firm steps on a path to redemption, beginning to see the pain their actions inflicted on so many innocent people.
Both “what-if” novels are fast-paced thrillers with sharp dialogue and plenty of steamy romance. The books also tackle, as an undercurrent, the poverty and systemic injustice that fueled the rise of Bonnie and Clyde, along with examining the plight of the working class in that era. These issues, such as the gaping wealth/income inequality and the influence of corporate power, are increasingly relevant to today’s economic landscape, making this retelling of their story alarmingly relevant.
But at heart, it was love thrust them into the realm of legend, and this takes center stage in the series. Now that Bonnie and Clyde have a (fictional) second chance, and an opportunity for redemption, their love is the only certain thing in a world of shadowy allegiances, the constant threat of violence and the possibility of atonement.
Note: this article was first published by our friends over on Wise Words.
Praise for the Bonnie and Clyde Series
“As the rich get richer and the middle class becomes more desperate in present-day America, Resurrection Road is a timely reminder that sometimes the solution to a problem comes from the least likely source. Sex, danger and intrigue, coupled with just the right dose of cheeky humor.” East Oregonian Newspaper
“Hays and McFall make their Depression-era tale timely with reflections on wealthy fat cats and a rigged economic system that still ring true. More than that, the story is an exciting ride, with tight corners, narrow escapes, and real romantic heat between Bonnie and Clyde. Outlaws become patriots in this imaginative, suspenseful what-if story.” Kirkus Reviews
Check out our other books:
The Cowboy and the Vampire: A Very Unusual Romance
The Cowboy and the Vampire: Blood and Whiskey
The Cowboy and the Vampire: Rough Trails and Shallow Graves
The Cowboy and the Vampire: The Last Sunset
Just West of Hell: An accounting of curious incidents occurring in LonePine, Wyoming Territory, in the years spanning 1881 to 1890 when the notable Early Hardiman was sheriff
Connect with us:
Twitter @cowboyvamp
Instagram @cowboyvampire
Facebook www.facebook.com/cowboyandvampire
“People are rendered ferocious by misery.”
Mary Wollstonecraft — a writer, philosopher and fierce advocate of women’s rights (and mother of Mary Shelley, author ofFrankenstein) — wrote these words more than 200 years ago, but they certainly ring true when considering the social and economic conditions that gave rise to the legend of Bonnie and Clyde.
Both were born into absolute poverty with no way to get out. Clyde’s family was so poor, when they moved to the slums of West Dallas looking for work they lived under their wagon for months. Like many young men at the time, Clyde wanted more than he could afford, and certainly more than spotty employment of the Depression era could finance.
Clyde’s first brush with the law came from failing to return a rental car on time; after that, it was stolen turkeys. Once he drew the attention of law enforcement, it wasn’t long before he entered a brutal prison system that used prisoners for profit — free agricultural labor — and ignored horrific conditions inside (Clyde was a victim of sexual assault). He was so desperate to get out, he chopped off two of his toes.
Bonnie had it better, but not by much. Options were limited for poor young women, especially in those days — a quick marriage and a hard lifetime of taking care of a large family was her best hope. She tried that, marrying a philandering criminal at 16. It didn’t last long. She always harbored dreams of a better life as a Hollywood starlet, but the slums of West Dallas didn’t offer many opportunities to get noticed.
Then she met Clyde, and he noticed her.
We all know how it turned out after that — from desperation to crime, from crime to violence, and from violence to a gruesome death in a bloody ambush in which more than 100 rounds were shot at them, their bodies brutalized almost beyond recognition.
Poverty does not, of course, excuse a life of crime, but it’s certainly an enabler, and that’s the crucible in which Bonnie and Clyde were forged. They likely would have been reviled by their contemporaries and forgotten by history if not for one other element that transformed the anger and despair, the rage and hopelessness, into something else, something that transcended their crimes and cemented them into the popular imagination: true love.
Collectively, Americans — and even those outside of this country — largely remain fascinated by Bonnie and Clyde because, in spite of thieving and murdering, the violence and destruction, they found each other and held on until the bitter, violent end. Misery may render people ferocious, but hopelessness sometimes renders them inseparable. Bonnie and Clyde became the ultimate doomed lovers, finding the kind of love that eclipses all rational thought, all problems, all concerns with right or wrong. Their burned so brightly, it momentarily outshined the misery they tried to leave behind and the misery they inflicted on others.
The real catastrophe of Bonnie and Clyde, aside from the lives damaged and lost, is that they found in each other a love that likely could have sustained them on any path they chose. If things had turned out just a little differently, if Wall Street hadn’t plunged the country into the Great Depression, if the prison system had protected a teenaged Clyde from assault, of they’d tried their hand at different jobs, we might never have known their story.
But of course, their powerful love wasn’t enough to prevent things from spiraling out of control.
In our speculative history series about Bonnie and Clyde, we give them a second chance and an opportunity to atone. Their love becomes a lodestar, guiding them into a new life.
In the first book, Bonnie and Clyde: Resurrection Road, that new life begins when a mysterious government agent, Suicide Sal, plucks them out of the deadly ambush in Sailes, Louisiana at the last second and forces them to become federal agents, using their unique “skills” to save FDR from an assassin.
In the second book, Bonnie and Clyde: Dam Nation, which publishes March 24, Bonnie and Clyde must stop saboteurs from destroying Boulder (Hoover) Dam. In Book 2, the notorious duo take firm steps on a path to redemption, beginning to see the pain their actions inflicted on so many innocent people.
Both “what-if” novels are fast-paced thrillers with sharp dialogue and plenty of steamy romance. The books also tackle, as an undercurrent, the poverty and systemic injustice that fueled the rise of Bonnie and Clyde, along with examining the plight of the working class in that era. These issues, such as the gaping wealth/income inequality and the influence of corporate power, are increasingly relevant to today’s economic landscape, making this retelling of their story alarmingly relevant.
But at heart, it was love thrust them into the realm of legend, and this takes center stage in the series. Now that Bonnie and Clyde have a (fictional) second chance, and an opportunity for redemption, their love is the only certain thing in a world of shadowy allegiances, the constant threat of violence and the possibility of atonement.
Note: this article was first published by our friends over on Wise Words.
Praise for the Bonnie and Clyde Series
“As the rich get richer and the middle class becomes more desperate in present-day America, Resurrection Road is a timely reminder that sometimes the solution to a problem comes from the least likely source. Sex, danger and intrigue, coupled with just the right dose of cheeky humor.” East Oregonian Newspaper
“Hays and McFall make their Depression-era tale timely with reflections on wealthy fat cats and a rigged economic system that still ring true. More than that, the story is an exciting ride, with tight corners, narrow escapes, and real romantic heat between Bonnie and Clyde. Outlaws become patriots in this imaginative, suspenseful what-if story.” Kirkus Reviews
Check out our other books:
The Cowboy and the Vampire: A Very Unusual Romance
The Cowboy and the Vampire: Blood and Whiskey
The Cowboy and the Vampire: Rough Trails and Shallow Graves
The Cowboy and the Vampire: The Last Sunset
Just West of Hell: An accounting of curious incidents occurring in LonePine, Wyoming Territory, in the years spanning 1881 to 1890 when the notable Early Hardiman was sheriff
Connect with us:
Twitter @cowboyvamp
Instagram @cowboyvampire
Facebook www.facebook.com/cowboyandvampire
