Beyond the Utmost Bound

After twenty years pursuing other goals, Joseph Clinton found himself without a passion or direction. A year later while visiting his father in South Texas, they found him. It was a 100-degree day in a small bar with no air conditioning in an old country town the size of a bus stop. Four roosters, two dogs, and one truck patrolled the outside - the mayor, the bartender, a bull, a rattlesnake, a bobcat, a hawk, him, his dad, a photo of Willie Nelson and a jukebox full of Hank Williams melodies, the inside. Several hours and many beers later he had an idea. That night he sat his butt down and wrote the beginning of what he believed to be a short story. After three years, his butt finally arose out of the chair with his first novel.