Welcome to Knolland, a frontier town and metaphor for America, striving for a community of justice and opportunity during the final stages of the war against the Apache. The Gundersons and Lower Than
Angels are the first installments in The Knolland Parables, an original interpretation of this most classic American mainstay.
“Timothy Herrick is a groundbreaking author, new to the Western field, with new ideas, new concepts and an integral part of the Western today,” said Nick Wale, Chief Publicist, Dusty Saddle Publishing
“It’s a genuine thrill and honor to be signed by Dusty Saddle,” said Timothy Herrick. “They are on the cutting edge of the Western genre.”
For Herrick, the publisher saved nearly two years of work that included creating the world of Knolland and writing Lower Than Angels, The Knolland Parables Book II. It all began with The Gundersons – now
The Knolland Parables Book I – a prize-winning novella published in 2022 by Pale Horse Publishers, the prize being an open-ended contract to publish westerns.
“That’s when I conceived of Knolland as a series – characters both minor and major populating a Western setting where vivid examples of the human condition flourish,” said Timothy Herrick. “Deputy Mike
Kendrick in The Gundersons is Sheriff in Lower Than Angels and the main character in Book II, but there are multiple story arcs so the town is as almost as much a character as the townsfolk and those passing
through. The publisher informed me series sells, so that’s the world I conceived of that’s gnarly and imagistic but where many struggle to hold on to ideals, to further those ideals against the harsh indifference of nature and the greed of companies and individuals profiting from Manifest Destiny. Lower Than Angels may be a sequel to The Gundersons, but I didn’t begin writing the first draft until I
had the outlines and rough draft for multiple parables.”
But when the final draft of Lower Than Angels was ready to be submitted, suddenly disaster loomed. The publisher had closed shop two days before Herrick called to inform him the new manuscript was ready. “I was forced into a crash course on the rough and tumble new world of fiction publishing, but I believed in the work and loved the genre. Luckily, Dusty Saddle expressed interest in the series. If it weren’t for Dusty
Saddle, Knolland would be a ghost town.”
It all worked out for the best. Dusty Saddle Publishing acquired The Knolland Parables in 2023 and reissued The Gundersons as The Gundersons, The Knolland Parables Book I in May and publishing
Lower Than Angels The Knolland Parables Book II the week of June 24. “I revised the first one, just a few details, making the series more cohesive. The cover designs are fantastic, the team at Dusty Saddle understood the concept. They found that vintage sweet spot where pulp fiction meets the avant-garde.”
Why parables? “The West is as morally complex as the American soul and Parables are counter-intuitive lessons whose meanings are multilayered. Tales of yarns sounded too hokey; I like the foreboding tone of Parables, which also enhances the mythological tones of the genre. Westerns are American mythology.”
DSP, the leading publisher in the Western genre, produces Y’all Listen, a weekly podcast featuring Western author interviews and discussions on everything Westerns, and the YouTube channel, Stagecoach Podcast.
Timothy Herrick, a Jersey City-based writer, poet, journalist, and publicist, BA Richard Stockton University, MFA New School University. His website is Timhrklit.com
The Gundersons, The Knolland Parables Book I and Lower Than Angels, The Knolland Parables Book II, are available on Amazon and other publishing platforms, Word Book Store in Jersey City, and other area bookstores.
Review Copies & Interviews upon request
