I'd be happy to read a finished novel in exchange for the same. Or, if you'd prefer a shorter task, perhaps we could exchange the first three chapters. PM/email me if this sounds interesting. Email: rayw (at) stdtime (dot) com.
My novel, If Only For a Season, is set in the 1890's Colorado Gold Rush. Here is a short blurb...
Based on a true story, Jeremiah Clark turns from $2 a week sharecropper to Victorian millionaire practically overnight. But his wealth and position are disrupted by Molly Maguire-style violence in a contest for control of the booming gold camp.
In 1895, Clark flees the poverty-stricken South for the gold fields of Cripple Creek, landing in camp with a grubstake of $128. Will it last six months, time enough to get established? Not likely. But with determination and a series of lucky gold strikes, he rises from plowhand to Gold Coin Club member. He is among powerful friends at the top of high-society. But success is short-lived, when union bosses engage in political insurrection and violence, touching off a labor war involving the Colorado militia and citizen mobs. Men are beaten and killed, malefactors detained and deported, and the chaos edges Clark’s operation close to financial instability. In an attempt to control the violence, he and other mine owners engage the political backing of the state of Colorado, including the state militia. But the ugly results of anarchy and military despotism bring the once-rich region into deep depression. Within eighteen months of his millionaire status, Clark can no longer maintain profitable production levels and descends into insolvency. Three steamer trunks hold his last remaining possessions, and he takes the only work available, a slag worker in the mine he built with his own hands. It was true greatness, if only for a season.
--ray
My novel, If Only For a Season, is set in the 1890's Colorado Gold Rush. Here is a short blurb...
Based on a true story, Jeremiah Clark turns from $2 a week sharecropper to Victorian millionaire practically overnight. But his wealth and position are disrupted by Molly Maguire-style violence in a contest for control of the booming gold camp.
In 1895, Clark flees the poverty-stricken South for the gold fields of Cripple Creek, landing in camp with a grubstake of $128. Will it last six months, time enough to get established? Not likely. But with determination and a series of lucky gold strikes, he rises from plowhand to Gold Coin Club member. He is among powerful friends at the top of high-society. But success is short-lived, when union bosses engage in political insurrection and violence, touching off a labor war involving the Colorado militia and citizen mobs. Men are beaten and killed, malefactors detained and deported, and the chaos edges Clark’s operation close to financial instability. In an attempt to control the violence, he and other mine owners engage the political backing of the state of Colorado, including the state militia. But the ugly results of anarchy and military despotism bring the once-rich region into deep depression. Within eighteen months of his millionaire status, Clark can no longer maintain profitable production levels and descends into insolvency. Three steamer trunks hold his last remaining possessions, and he takes the only work available, a slag worker in the mine he built with his own hands. It was true greatness, if only for a season.
--ray