The town of Nowhere popped up out of the high desert in post-war New Mexico and marred the face of imperfection forever.
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Introduction
Nowhere, New Mexico A trip to Nowhere. The town of Nowhere popped up out of the high desert in post-war New Mexico and marred the face of imperfection forever. That was it. That was the hook. The line that was supposed to snare you into reading the book. First lines are critical in novel writing,…
Chapter 1
Abe Mendoza The Legend of Nowhere. When Ken Halberson arrived in Albuquerque it was just after 5:00 p.m. local time and the weather was cold. An icy wind cut through from the desert valley to the west, swirling against the Sandia mountains up against which the tiny Albuquerque Municipal Airport was built. New Mexico had…
Chapter 2
Leon McClain and Carol Cole A Day Trip. Leon McClain was a pleasant looking fellow in his early forties, solidly built, with hair graying at the temples and a habit of cracking his knuckles now and again when he was trying to emphasize a point. He was the manager of the Vacation Motor Inn. Despite…
Chapter 3
John Lee Danner The Brick House. Later that night I met John Lee Danner and heard the weirdest theory of Nowhere yet. John Lee was a fabulous conversationalist, a bit effeminate, or maybe artsy, casually funny, and possibly insane. Despite the warm day, it was cooler after sunset, and I wore a sport coat and…
Chapter 4
Steve Durant The Difficulty of Automobile Travel in 1954, and a New Theory. After almost a week of hanging around at the Vacation Motor Inn, writing and transcribing the extensive notes that became the chapters you have already read, Ken decided that he needed an automobile. He’d spent most of the week in his room…
Chapter 5
Mr. Copeland The Bistro District and Downtown. I pulled under the covered entryway at the Vacation Motor Inn to surprise Leon and Carol and they came running out of the office squealing and applauding like I was a fifteen-year-old who’d just passed his driver’s test. Clapping me on the back, shaking my hand, and saying…
Chapter 6
Verne Powell Nights Out. I’m sitting here writing the Nowhere story in a town that is not my home, in a borrowed apartment surrounded by thousands of pages of Halberson’s notes that he wrote in a rented room, far away from his home, surrounded by the same, exact pages. Both of us are immersed in…
Chapter 7
Carlo Rocca Nights Out. Continued. It’s time for the Thanksgiving potluck, so the wife and I excuse ourselves, pay our bill at CJs, and then we’re out and walking. My mind is on that idea, “maybe you’re the villain,” and I wonder if Ken Halberson has the self-awareness to consider that sort of thing. We…
Chapter 8
General Ray Maxwell Pinnacle. It’s rare, but sometimes reality dwarfs imagination. On the bad side, D-Day was a thousand times worse than Ken ever dreamed while lying on a cot at night in England. On the good side, the night of the Spring Celebratory Ball is better than Ken ever imagined an evening could be:…
Chapter 9
Edward Kramer Thompson America’s Pastime. The weeks passed like the sweetest honey dripping from the comb. To change the metaphor, each day for Ken was his own private gold mine, a thick vein of the purest, most precious golden joy, bountifully new with each sunrise. He did not know if this that he felt was…
Chapter 10
Lew Bonaventure Fool’s Gold. “There’s no use anyone telling you that you’re making a mistake,” John Lee said, “because you’ve got yourself locked into a fool’s loop. Anything I tell you feeds your suspicion, and anything I don’t tell you feeds your suspicion. But it has nothing to do with Lew Bonaventure. Your particular mania…
Chapter 11
Ken Halberson All Things Bright and Shiny. “Without the gold, no one would be here. We wouldn’t, and you wouldn’t either.” That was it. That was the hook. The line that was supposed to snare them into reading the whole article. First lines are critical in writing, the experts and editors say. Well, I had…
Chapter 12
Dick Hager Fort Knocks. Everything Kate said was true. There was gold, and even now as you read this you cannot conceive of how much gold there was. However much you are imagining, there was more than that. Stacked on steel pallets because of the tremendous weight, bricks of gold piled two feet high with…
Chapter 13
Lonnie Mendes The Secret Section. I’d studied everything in Ken Halberson’s suitcase, and the story seemed to be at an end. Days, weeks, months of my life inhabiting someone else’s mind and life and experiences. I felt I knew Ken as well as I’d known anyone in my life. I’d traced every lead I could…
Using Kickstarter as a Book Launch Tool
I’ll be writing more about this when my Kickstarter for my mid-century modern novel Nowhere, New Mexico finishes later in January. So far it has been a great success. I’m taking notes of what things I did and the advice I got along the way from author friends and others who have used Kickstarter successfully…
All the Stuff (for now)
First, I’m on GETTR. It’s like a Twitter alternative. You never know. I might get banned somewhere and you’ll want to find me. Give me a follow if you join over there and I’ll follow you back… I’m there @michaelbunker We’re Getting Close to a New Stretch Goal – and here is an idea… This…
Welcome to Nowhere: Wherein Things Get Interestinger
…a mysterious jazz, swing, and big band flavored novel of the middle century… Nowhere, New Mexico is a mid-century modern literary novel from USA Today Bestselling author Michael Bunker. If you like historic novels like 1929 by Frederick Turner, Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead, and A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, or if you just love Michael Bunker’s previous genre-busting literary,…
Continue Reading Welcome to Nowhere: Wherein Things Get Interestinger
