Gus Tullson – Chapter One

Hello everyone! Here’s the first draft chapter of my upcoming novel called Gus Tullson. You can read the first little bit here and listen to the whole thing right here, too.

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Thanks for listening and reading. I hope you enjoy meeting Gus.

Warmest wishes,

Lori

Chapter One – Gus

After all he’d been through Gus Tullson didn’t expect much from life. This was probably best as the years ahead didn’t have much better in store for him than the years behind. Not that there weren’t moments of joy for Gus Tullson. There were many. They came with the birth of his child, with the first snowfall each year, and with the death of his wife.

Yes, there were many times of happiness, several tastes of sweet pleasure in Gus’s life. These times didn’t outweigh, could never outweigh, the tragedies that befell him. It’s arguable whether Gus’s death was the greatest tragedy of his life. I suppose that as the reader, you’ll have to make that judgement for yourself. It’s what we all have to do regarding any circumstance, isn’t it?

Gus Tullson, being the youngest son of four, said goodbye to his friends and family and boarded that ship from Norway with so many other hopefuls, and arrived on the Canadian Prairies in the spring of 1914. Of course, he had no money of his own. That’s why he needed to leave Norway, needed to strike out on his own. There was nothing left at home for him and maybe, just maybe something to be discovered in this bright land, shining with equal parts wheat fields and optimism.

Work was easy to come by for a strong-backed twenty-one year old, and Gus worked hard building fences and repairing boardwalks. During his first summer in Canada, he painted the exterior of  the hotel in Hughenden and during the day for a few weeks following that job, he washed dishes in the kitchen there. He shoveled out the stalls in the livery barn, and stacked and loaded wood in the local lumberyards.

He didn’t say much and this seemed just fine with everyone Gus met. They filled the silence left by Gus themselves, if they were the sort, with conversation, jokes, gossip or complaints. If they weren’t the sort, they nodded grimly and moved on. These were the folks Gus preferred…

 

Listen to me read the draft of Chapter One: