There Is a Generation

In 1950s West Texas, best friends Tim and Hect, two mischief-makers in their middle teens, are enjoying the high life. Coddled in the type of lifestyles that allows them to play war with .22 caliber semiautomatic rifles, they suddenly find their world turned upside down when their game turns into a ghastly murder, or so they believe. The way this unintended calamity comes about is described below.

For a final lark of a prank-filled day in a forgotten auto junkyard, Hect has the idea to set ablaze an old shack that once probably served as an office. Tim readily agrees, though he thinks his friend's target is a wasp nest in a mesquite bush. They fill a bottle with fuel from a wrecked truck and hurl the Molotov cocktail at the shanty, which erupts into a fireball. Stunned that his friend chose to set fire to the empty office instead of the wasp nest, Tim gapes in horror as a blazing figure appears in the hut's window. The human torch and a stunned Tim gaze at one another, searing the memory into the boy's mind. Interrupted by the sound of sirens coming from town, and believing their prank will land them in prison, if not on Huntsville’s Death Row, Tim and Hect think their only choice lies in becoming fugitives from the law.

Armed only with dogged determination and a forehead-slapping sense of naivety, the two boys flee out into the harsh Texas desert.

Because of the spoiled lifestyles the two have lived so far, they couldn't be less prepared to face hunger, thirst, life on the road, homelessness and a hidden world of poverty and slums, plus the mean streets of Juarez, Mexico.

As the two friends stumble across the desert, through border towns, and into a country where they can't speak the language and don't know the customs, they will have to navigate con artists, wise guys, slum lords, and ex-convicts if they ever hope to survive the Wild West.

Comments about the book from the publisher and proofreaders include:

"This was a rollicking good tale with plenty of tension but also much humor."

“A biting satire on societal excess and privilege that makes fun of the 1950s and the kids of ‘The Greatest Generation,’ the humor-filled adventure novel, THERE IS A GENERATION, expertly reflects the wildness of boyhood, the idiocy of entitlement, and the fleeting nature of boyhood in a way that will entice audiences of all ages.”

“From beginning to end, the fiction novel is a fun romp through lots of adventure and comedic situations with a surprise ending that few, if any, will see coming.”