Town Father cover reveal and sneak peek

Click image for a free pdf of Chapter 1

In advance of the paperback’s release, I thought you might like a little look-see at Max Scratchmann’s remarkable cover for Town Father, Or, Where Graceful Girls Abound, along with a bit of teaser text.

Be sure to tell all your friends. Don’t forget, word of mouth is literature’s best lubricant.

—–

A Town of Nothing But Fallen Women?

                          Utopia or Ill-fated Experiment?

                                                         Scandal in the Foothills!

Three hundred independent-minded women in 1880s California have embarked on an impossible journey: to establish a town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada composed exclusively of women. The only way for the singular town of Hestia to succeed, though, is for a second generation of residents to come along, and the women imagine there must be, somewhere in the country, a benign and willing gentleman who can help them. In short, a Town Father.

Set against the rough-and-ready backdrop of Gold Country, Town Father chronicles the occidental adventure of Hestia’s choice, Henry O’Farrell, as he comes to believe in the women’s feminist dream, living their trials and tragedies at their side. Rosella Kimball (architect), Lucien Thorpe (poet, philosopher), Maisie Grace (markswoman), Tilly Swan (builder), and the object of his private affections, Avis Honeycutt (executive) — along with 295 other utopian trailblazers — may not be his wives, but they become his loves. Hestia, named for the Greek goddess of hearth and home, is where he was always meant to be.

The only question is whether society at large will let them all live in peace…