Sauceda

by Steven Long

W.A. Patchcock came west shortly after fighting in the Texas Revolution. He carved Sauceda Ranch from the limestone, granite, and cactus of the Big Bend country. There, along the banks of the Rio Grande, he raised a son, Sam T., and a bastard, Juan Onate, to continue what was one of Texas’ greatest fortunes. Across the border, another man journeyed to the Big Bend of Mexico to build an empire of his own and escape the humiliating life as showman P.T. Barnum’s “World’s Tallest Man.” An Italian immigrant, a well read intellectual, Mephisto Giganti, left the carnival but retained Barnum’s billing calling himself “Il Giganti,” or The Giant. Building his own empire in Mexico’s Sierra del Carmen, he fanned the flames of Mexican resentment over the loss of the fertile land called Tejas by the Mexicans. Together, Giganti and his Mexican lemmings would reclaim this sweeping land and call it Aztlan in honor of the ancient Aztec Empire. Sam T. Patchcock, his lover Margot LaFleur, and a cast of colorful characters battle a renegade half Comanche, Depredador, a wifwolf (a rare female werewolf) named Lupa, and the unforgiving elements of West Texas itself. In this first book of The Sauceda Trilogy, Steven Long majestically spins the tale of three generations of the immensely wealthy Patchcock family in a narrative certain to leave his readers crying for more.

277 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2013