Due to a combination of forces (my wife taking the kids to a family reunion in Missouri and Oklahoma, and my getting some faculty development money) I was able plan a research trip to get my next big fiction project going.
The novel is going to be called They Very Cowboy, and it's about two guys who are obsessed with different aspects of the American West. A Japanese guy named Kenji is hooked on cowboy culture, and a German named Reinhardt is immersed in Native American culture. They adventure on their own through the West until they meet at Four Corners and continue their journeys together.
Basically my plan is this: scout locations and do a little method acting, see what will happen. I'm going to head east to Green River, cut down through Moab and head over into Colorado, then through the east side of the Navajo reservation, hop on sections of Route 66, then pop over the mountains to Boulder City, head through Vegas, and climb home. I will be on the look out for strange things.
It's going to be hot, man, 120º in and around Nevada.
I'll be posting photographs over on my Flickr account and I'll be writing dispatches here as things come up.