When the Civil War ended, Gil Hooley journeyed out West, figuring that if there was any market left for his hand-crafted tents, it would be on the wide open frontier. But when his wagon breaks down in the middle of nowhere, a community begins to grow around him, one tent at a time, until Gil finds himself the unlikely leader-and defender-of his own town. Clay Reynolds tells the tale of a man who discovers that even if a place wasn’t your destination, it might still be your destiny.
Category: Books
Book-length work by Clay Reynolds
Of Snakes & Sex & Playing in the Rain
These fourteen personal essays by one of Texas’ most prolific authors are in turn humorous, literary, informative, nostalgic and all-around enjoyable to read.
Monuments: A Novel
As the locals gear up to stop the railroad, long-held secrets about both the town and the protagonist’s family come to light, and he is caught up in the conflict to save his home town, and his family’s legacy.
Sandhill County Lines: Stories
Author Clay Reynolds sees these stories as reflective fragments, “the kind one notices when driving through North Central Texas—old buildings and houses, each concealing a story.”
Vox Populi: A Novel of the Common Man
A nameless and sometimes hapless narrator moves through a series of casual encounters, mostly in the Southwest, with total strangers, average people going about day-to-day, often mundane activities, but taking time to reveal to him, unprompted, their life experiences.
The Hero of a Hundred Fights
The Wild West came alive under the pen of Edward Zane Carroll Judson, who wrote many of America’s best-loved “dime novels ”under the pseudonym Ned Buntline.
Threading the Needle
In a chilling mixture of the nostalgic and the supernatural, Clay Reynolds adds to his Sandhill Chronicles this tale of Faustian bargains, drag racing, old-time rock and roll, and a sister’s love for a brother who dies tragically young.
The Vigil
The Vigil, a novel by Clay Reynolds: Fleeing Atlanta a bad marriage, Imogene McBride heads west with her precocious, beautiful teenage daughter, Cora, when their car breaks down in a tiny North Texas town. While her mother sits out its repair, Cora wanders off to buy ice cream—and disappears without a trace.
Franklin’s Crossing
Set in the vast grasslands of Texas just after the Civil War, Franklin’s Crossing follows former slave and seasoned scout Moses Franklin as he leads a wagon train through Comanche territory to Sante Fe.
Ars Poetica
A satire on modern life as seen through the eyes of a poetic (and extremely insightful) curmudgeon.