rogerinblueongray

rogerinblueongray

Oct 21, 2019

DEADMAN’S HOLE A possible NANOWRIMO novel for 2019 Idea # 1


DEADMAN’S HOLE
A possible NANOWRIMO novel for 2019


 Alvin Haden and Quinten Taylor grew up on adjoining homesteads in Burnet Country west of Austin.  The two boys weathered droughts, drove cattle, and fought Comanches together. Their friendship even survived courting the same girl. The civil war changed everything.  Alvin left Texas to join the Union cause and Quinten became a decorated Confederate officer.  
The two warriors tried to reestablish their friendship after the war, but any hope ended when Alvin started working on the ranch of Judge Kendal, a Federal Judge, and Quinten joined a local group of “fire eaters.”
The Burnet Country Fire Eaters were a radical group of Confederates who continued to fight for slavery and Southern rights long after the war ended.  For the Fire Eaters, the list of Unionists living in the Hill Country west of Austin, Texas are the worst kind of traitors. Men who deserved Texas justice at the end of a rope.  In their acts of violence, the Fire Eaters were said to be worse than Indians. 
One night, Judge Kendal is dragged from his home and deep in the hills, near Marble Falls, the judge is tried and hung from an oak tree, after which his body is cut down and dropped directly into a cavernous sink hole.
Alvin learns about the Judges’ end in this unceremonious mass grave that is known by the Fire Eaters as the Deadman’s Hole. Bringing this secret group of killers to trial becomes Alvin’s mission; little knowing that Quentin is one of the leaders. When Alvin’s name is added to the target list of Union men, Quinten must decide whether their one-time friendship is stronger than his oath to the Southern cause and the quick justice dealt out at the Deadman’s Hole. 

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