Hot Moon — Richard Curtis Hauschild

Hum Fraser is on the road in a borrowed car with borrowed cash. He has left tiny Bauxite, Nevada behind after getting some very bad news from his doctor. But now it seems his bucket list journey is taking him on an adventure that he could never have imagined. He has left his Hot Moon Ranch in the care of housekeeper, Rosewater Jones; although she eventually follows Hum when Kansas City crime boss, Julius Rathman comes looking for the money Hum has taken from a hiding place. Rathman is also pursued by a couple members of his own mob, who have their own ideas about collecting the missing cash. Cyril Gowan and Steely 'The Nose' Silas chase Hum, Julius, and Rosewater all the way to Mexico following a trail of bizarre ceiling paintings by the mysterious Paiute artist, Victor Samuel: painter, shaman, and philosopher to the lost and lonely.

Set in the barren landscapes of the 1930's American West, Hot Moon is soft watercolor of a tale: at once a gangster chase and a sweet bedtime story for the romantic reader. Sometimes when a man goes looking for a peaceful last chapter to his life, he also begins to write a very new story and ending. And so, as Hum Fraser gets closer to rejoining his deceased wife in the clouds, he meets Luna Portales on a lonely island beach in the Sea of Cortez. The rest is equal parts magic...and chemistry.

Richard Curtis Hauschild is a novelist and screenwriter who spent nineteen years in the film and music business in Los Angeles, California where, among other creative pursuits, he was a lyric writer for guitar great and friend, Jim Krueger. His previous works, The Ledge and Jersey Flats have become local classics in his adopted state of Wisconsin; most specifically, The Holylands between Lake Winnebago and Lake Michigan. He now resides in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.