Scarecrow Gods

Winner of the Bram Stoker Award! Scarecrow Gods is the tale of Maxom Phinxs, a black man tortured and disfigured in Vietnam. Maxom, called the Maggot Man by the Tennessee locals, is feared and reviled because of his appearance. Even so, he takes under his wing a troubled young boy named Danny who's fighting incest rumors to repair a shattered family, wondering every day if his sister will return to clear it all up. In southern Arizona, John the New Baptist has created a new religion promising salvation. Most people believe in his strange ways. They don't understand he is establishing a herd for his personal use. Only Simon, a faithless Alexian Brother, and a homeless man named Billy Bones who speaks in palindromes, anagrams and metaphor realize the evil and engage the Scarecrow Gods—a circle of immense saguaro dressed in Salvation Army clothes who speak wisdom in the wind from pursed coke bottle lips. Maxom, Simon, Danny and Billy, all fight and converge upon the center of evil as each journeys through the world of imagination, the Land of Inside-Out and across America, striving to defeat demons both personal and real to ultimately discover their deserved salvations.

About the Author

Weston Ochse (pronounced 'Oaks) (1965 - Present) lives in Southern Arizona with his wife, and fellow author, Yvonne Navarro, and Great Danes, Pester Ghost Palm Eater, Mad Dog Ghoulie Sonar Brain and Goblin Monster Dog. For entertainment he races tarantula wasps, wrestles rattlesnakes, and bakes in the noonday sun. His work has won the Bram Stoker Award for First Novel and been nominated for a Pushcart Prize for short fiction. His work has also appeared in anthologies, magazines and professional writing guides. He thinks it's damn cool that he's had stories in comic books. Weston holds Bachelor's Degrees in American Literature and Chinese Studies from Excelsior College. He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from National University. Weston is a retired U.S. Army intelligence officer and current intelligence officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency. He has been to more than fifty countries and speaks Chinese with questionable authority. Weston is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, a purple belt in Ryu Kempo Jujitsu and a green belt in the Hawaiian martial art of Kuai Lua.

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