The Novel

The Novel I am working on is primarily a Western genre novel, and I have thrown in elements of Fantasy and Spirituality. The main character is a Native American whose family is slain for their land by whites and then adopted by white church folk until age 15. Then he is thrown into a boom town started by a wealthy, yet reasonable businessman with a heart of gold. The young Native boy starts work as an assistant to the town Blacksmith, but quickly develops a relationship with the businessman and his daughter.

As you might have figured out by now, he falls in love with the daughter. They grow a little older together and then plan on a wedding. The only thing is that there is still plenty of racial prejudice so the local judge refuses to marry the young couple.

One of the fun components of telling a story set in the Western genre is describing the terrain and really getting caught up in the lore of the genre itself. In my approach however, I wanted to tell a story of this young man's journey of his own discovery. He eventually turns to a more vengeful quest when all that he holds dear is taken away from him. One of the themes that excite me when I either watch Westerns or read them is the revenge story. In a novel it works to carry the audience with the protagonist's revenge quest. We as an audience can feel for the hero and journey with him as he discovers new things about how to accomplish his ultimate goal.

The other twist I put into my story is the fact that the hero is a healer, or a Native Shaman. This puts a wrench into anyone's revenge plans when they stand for something that might ultimately lead to tilting the world off its course in a Spiritual sense. The Shaman character is supposed to be a person of wisdom and harmony, but the young man shapes his own destiny and decides to use his extraordinary skills and abilities as a Shaman to exact the revenge he so greatly desires.