The road between heaven and hell

If you're interested, and you haven't found it yet, I've begun posting a novel I wrote 20 years ago on a site called, The Road Between Heaven and Hell.

It's the story of the Old Leatherman. Actually it's a parallel story about the Old Leatherman, and a boy who grows up during the time when the Leatherman roamed.

The novel was sort of an exorcism for me. I wrote it to rid myself of all the questions and theories I carried around about this 19th century wanderer.

I was inspired to dig it out because of the publication of Dan DeLuca's new book of research on the Old Leatherman for the Wesleyan University Press. It's called The Old Leatherman too. If you read Dan's book, you'll know that my novel is a complete work of fiction.

In re-reading it, I'm a bit surprised at how violent the first couple of chapters are. I think it calms down a bit, but I know my re-drawing of life on the road in the late 1800's is not without many hardships, and a modicum of bloodshed.

I'll be posting a new chapter each week, for the next couple of months. It's never been submitted or edited, so your comments are welcome. I hope you enjoy it, and thanks to the several dozen people who have already read the first chapter. There's a new chapter today.