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a FREE short story!
To the readers of The JourneyMan’s Journal: Thank you for being on this ride with me. I do not take you for granted, I promise. In fact, every day, I thank God for the things precious to me and you are among them.
The Ghost Town
Every song has a story, and every ghost town has a heartbeat. If you put your ear to the ground, you can hear it.
In the late 1990s, I worked for a year or so as a fabric salesman for the Larry Dennis Company in Fort Worth. Specifically, we supplied auto, boat, and aircraft upholstery fabrics and leather. We serviced other industries, as well.
One of my two territories was west Texas, which is vast in size but more spare in population. All across the windblown plains you will find cotton and peanut farms, a few working oil wells, miles of wind turbines, and a smattering of people and dogs.
You also find towns. Some feature downtowns with mostly boarded-up buildings. Places where commerce and community once took place now hide themselves behind plywood and rusted, broken, and faded signs. Others still sport life but it is lowkey and slow-moving.
I always felt in my bones that phrase “the high lonesome” whenever I stopped in those outposts to peddle my wares to moms and pops and hangers-on upholstery shops.
Many of these burgs abandoned by the masses were once boomtowns. Oil boom towns. Money was being made hand over fist. Millionaires were made by the hundreds and a few billionaires, to boot.
Dead or Gone to Dallas taps into that time and vibe with a gripping story of fortune won and lost, love lost and found, and loss that isn’t for losers.
Dead, Dallas, and the Songbook
As a token of my appreciation for this community, I’m releasing my newest short story, Dead or Gone to Dallas, to you for free before it goes to the wide market.
It’s the newest installment in The All-American Songbook. It’s made of Texas grit, dipped in oil money, and tossed in a Southern Gothic gravy.
You have until March 5th to grab your free copy before the link comes down. Thank you for reading, and as always, keep your boots on the ground, your chin in the air, and a good story in your hand. Click below and download your free book. Read it. Let me know what you think. You can put it in the comments here or email or text me or write it on a brick wall.
