Looking for ways to promote Footprints in the Dew I’ve learned many things one of which is that many writers put excerpts from their projects on their websites. So far I am acting as my own agent and I have decided to follow suit. For the next few weeks I will be posting sections of the book that will give readers a feeling for some of the settings and events I have written about. In this excerpt taken from a chapter entitled On the Run the year is 1990 and Chub has skipped bond on cultivation charges in Kansas and has been gone less than a month:
Ennis is situated in Madison Valley, the southwestern corner of Montana, which is surrounded by three ranges of the Rocky Mountains: the Madison Range, Gravelly Range and the Tobacco Root mountains. People are drawn to the area from all over the world for the beautiful scenery and the outstanding hunting and trout fishing. Ennis is the biggest community in this part of Montana and on the opening day of hunting season the town puts on an all day feed for the four to five thousand hunters who flock to the town to hunt for elk, mountain goat and deer. Trout fishing and hunting are the two mainstays of the local economy and the townspeople give their guests the red carpet treatment. This new resident with his love of the outdoors would fit right in but he’d have to be careful.
The town has had its fair share of outlaws seeking a hideout including drug dealers and money launderers as well as the father and son who kidnapped Olympic athlete Kari Swenson and murdered one of her rescuers. In 1985 the local sheriff Johnny France became a legend when he tracked the two down alone and captured them in the mountains. He later wrote a book about his adventure that became a movie. Johnny France was still living in Ennis when Chub moved there. His adventures had made him a local celebrity but he had no way of knowing that one of Kansas’ ten most wanted fugitives would soon be the next bad man taking refuge in the woods of Ennis.