Running Around the Pecos: A Ghostly Folktale about New Mexico - Paperback

by Monica L. Thompson (Author)

Welcome to the magical world of Running Around the Pecos. New Mexico is called the Land of Enchantment for a reason. The landscape is peopled with extreme characters and struggles. Come and watch the local locos as they struggle against the harsh environment and their own demons. Stay a spell and drink a glass of iced tea with an old rancher named Swannie and his perpetually grieving wife, Mabel. Spend a windy Spring night with Crazy Mexican Darryl and Brad, the Yankee from back East. Go for a blinding run in the heat with Mo across the countryside with her trusty attack goat, Jonathon. Beware the danger of the running dog packs and the clank of your own skeletons. Please, take Sherriff Wheeler's advice. It might save your life. Be sure to drink plenty of water and do not get caught afoot in the harsh desert that surrounds the story in Running Around the Pecos. "People are made from the land. They always have been. Mud is shaped and baked by the sun. God breathes and the muddy figure walks and soon demands a friend. People return to the land too. The further from the land that most people get - the crazier they seem to get." Running Around the Pecos Several themes surface from the interactions between the characters and the landscape. These themes include addiction and recovery, faith and healing, mental illness and spirituality, reality and delusion. The most important theme explores the concept of living life versus merely being alive and the frozen consequences that arise naturally from going "tharn" or being too scared to move. Part ghost story, part Western, and part magical fable, Running Around the Pecos is a book authentically highlighting the local personalities of New Mexico. A frightening but ultimately good higher power can be seen passing through the characters on the pages. Swannie and Mabel own a little bit of worthless windy property with an old barn. Swannie and Mabel have survived the death of their son and many years on the Pecos. Mabel prays and Swannie drinks. The barn is transformed into the Dry Harbor, where the friends meet and seek spiritual help for their various ailments. Mo is a teenage girl with a lot of problems. She's frightened to the point of barely being able to be around people. She has a habit of Running Around the Pecos in her jogging trot. Mo deals with physiological pain by running mile after mile each and every day. Her trusty guardian is a goat named Jonathon. Ever since a near drowning experience, Mo has seen spirits. Her "funny knowing things" causes her fear and confusion. Crazy Mexican Darryl is not Hispanic, but Native American instead. His culture has been eroded away by the boys' home and the Army. Darryl experiences schizophrenic breakdowns every Spring. His friends care for him and help him to face his fears. Brad is a Yankee from Ohio who brings the horror of alcoholism to his parents' doorstep in their golden years. Unable to face recovery, Brad chooses not to. His tragic end echoes around the Pecos. Jonathon, the magic talking goat, roams freely through the story. Jonathon is friends with the feral running dog pack and the humans in the fable. Jonathon becomes an aggressive goat when he feels his friends are threatened. Be warned - he bites. The world of Running Around the Pecos is seen through the altered eyes of all the characters. The reiteration of themes is not quite circular but certainly not linear. Time and space are bent and altered in Running Around the Pecos. Swannie can't see too well with cloudy, dementia filled eyes. Darryl is off fighting with his demons by the river. Brad is drunk in the horse stall. Mabel is painting and currently unavailable. Mo is only half present to begin with. The trusty goat Jonathon is a moral compass through the badlands. The ladies from The South Main Church of Christ and Sherriff Wheeler offer an alternative view. A pack of feral running dogs skitters around the action and establishes a barrier for this ghostly fable.

Author Biography

Monica L. Thompson was born in 1977 and raised in Roswell, NM. She was educated at the University of New Mexico. She received a B.A.F.A. with a minor in English in 1998 and later received a M.P.A. from UNM's Anderson School of Management. Monica L. Thompson is a New Mexican artist with many years of photography, painting and writing to her credit. Monica L. Thompson lives in beautiful Albuquerque, NM with her family. Thompson's first novel Running Around the Pecos was published in 2016.