Tramps and Vagabonds Blurb
Apr. 7th, 2022 01:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI have a draft of a blurb for Tramps and Vagabonds! It is, perhaps, a little too long/detailed? I may be overcorrecting, because some of my older blurbs are definitely shorter and perhaps vaguer than a blurb should be... I blame my experience writing fanfic summaries.
Please let me know what you think! Is anything unclear? Should anything be cut and/or added?
***
“We’re in this together, share and share alike, you said, and you got to let me share the bad too.”
Bold, streetwise James has been riding the rails and living by his wits in the midst of the Great Depression ever since he ran away from his uncle’s house two years ago. When he pauses to catch his breath with a stint at the Civilian Conservation Corps, he meets Timothy, who has never spent a day on the road but sure would like to give it a try.
James figures sweet angel-faced Timothy will last maybe a few days. They’ll jump a train or two, see some of the country, maybe fool around a little. It’s part of the freedom of the road that no one minds much about two boys canoodling. Then Timothy will get tired of slumming it, and head on home.
But Timothy sticks it out. He’s just as much fun as James hoped and then some, and tougher than he looks, too. Soon James and Timothy rely on each other for everything, sharing whatever food and money they can scrounge, and leaning on each other in their troubles, too.
As weeks turn into months and the weather grows cold, James starts to worry. Winter is the dangerous season, and Timothy could easily die if he doesn’t go home. Only Timothy refuses to leave James - and James doesn’t want to lose him. He never realized till now just how stuck he’s gotten on Timothy.
But James can’t stand that he’s keeping Timothy in danger. Can James and Timothy find a place where they can be safe - and stay together?
Content notes for days. Police brutality, general fisticuffs, rampant petty thievery, transactional sex, sexual menace, period-typical attitudes especially toward homosexuality (by which I mean not only homophobia but “Which parties in this sexual interaction are actually considered queer?”), references to child abuse, references to sexual assault. One of my beta-readers said she read half the book peeking through her fingers because it was so emotionally intense. Make of that what you will.
Please let me know what you think! Is anything unclear? Should anything be cut and/or added?
***
“We’re in this together, share and share alike, you said, and you got to let me share the bad too.”
Bold, streetwise James has been riding the rails and living by his wits in the midst of the Great Depression ever since he ran away from his uncle’s house two years ago. When he pauses to catch his breath with a stint at the Civilian Conservation Corps, he meets Timothy, who has never spent a day on the road but sure would like to give it a try.
James figures sweet angel-faced Timothy will last maybe a few days. They’ll jump a train or two, see some of the country, maybe fool around a little. It’s part of the freedom of the road that no one minds much about two boys canoodling. Then Timothy will get tired of slumming it, and head on home.
But Timothy sticks it out. He’s just as much fun as James hoped and then some, and tougher than he looks, too. Soon James and Timothy rely on each other for everything, sharing whatever food and money they can scrounge, and leaning on each other in their troubles, too.
As weeks turn into months and the weather grows cold, James starts to worry. Winter is the dangerous season, and Timothy could easily die if he doesn’t go home. Only Timothy refuses to leave James - and James doesn’t want to lose him. He never realized till now just how stuck he’s gotten on Timothy.
But James can’t stand that he’s keeping Timothy in danger. Can James and Timothy find a place where they can be safe - and stay together?
Content notes for days. Police brutality, general fisticuffs, rampant petty thievery, transactional sex, sexual menace, period-typical attitudes especially toward homosexuality (by which I mean not only homophobia but “Which parties in this sexual interaction are actually considered queer?”), references to child abuse, references to sexual assault. One of my beta-readers said she read half the book peeking through her fingers because it was so emotionally intense. Make of that what you will.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-07 06:33 pm (UTC)I just realized every time I read the title, it gets the folk song "Tramps and Hawkers" stuck in my head, which is more of a feature than a bug because I have very fond memories of being sung that song at a party something like twenty years ago: and if the weather please me fair, I'm happy every day.
Nothing in this blurb is unclear; it feels as though it could be condensed slightly.
“Which parties in this sexual interaction are actually considered queer?”
Ha! Mazel tov! If twenty-first-century labels break down, then you did it right.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-07 09:48 pm (UTC)There is a scene where James explains Sexuality Labels in Hobo Culture to Timothy and I still expect some readers still will not get it. Such is life!
no subject
Date: 2022-04-07 10:05 pm (UTC)Nice!
I actually considered Tramps and Hawkers as a title, but no one hawks anything in the entire book and people uninitiated to the folksong would probably have gone "Huh?"
It might have initiated some of them to it, you never know.
There is a scene where James explains Sexuality Labels in Hobo Culture to Timothy and I still expect some readers still will not get it. Such is life!
Well, I look forward to that.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-07 10:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-04-08 03:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-04-08 04:29 am (UTC)It was sung by a woodcarver named Fenwick who had been part of the same commune as one of my college professors and one of our mutual friends who I used to perform with; the friend was playing the concertina. I didn't learn his name until after the party was over, when he sounded like a character out of a novel by Elizabeth Hand. I meant to ask him to carve me a green man, but it was early in 2006 and my life fell apart and I never did. I hope he's still alive.