Click Here: Holliday - Sunbury PressCheck out my new book Holliday, from Sunbury Press!
Holliday follows the infamous 1880s gambler, dentist, and gunslinger, Doc Holliday. From the outset, Doc has been diagnosed with tuberculosis and is told to head to dryer climates and imbibe to prolong his life. He has also heard of a spring located somewhere along the frontier that could cure him—what he believes to be the mythical Fountain of Youth.
The novel portrays Holliday as a rock star, a living legend, increasingly hounded by paparazzi, enamored by death, cards, booze, and women. Doc is a mixture of Clint Eastwood and Jim Morrison, and though he is able to help his friend, Wyatt Earp, exact revenge, his condition worsens, traveling from Arizona to Denver and everywhere in between.
Holliday
WRITTEN BY MATTHEW DI PAOLI
REVIEW BY BONNIE DEMOSS
In the 1880s, Doc Holliday has done it all—dentist, outlaw, gambler, and more. But now he’s called a “lunger,” a cruel term for someone with tuberculosis, and he has traveled west to seek out a drier climate. He’s also heard of a fountain of youth which will rid him of his disease, and thus he begins a life-or-death search for a miraculous cure that eventually takes him all over the West, with stops that often end in murder and mayhem.
Along for the ride is one of Doc’s loves, a prostitute, Kate. Wyatt Earp also makes frequent appearances. As the adventure continues, Doc flashes back to his past and nears the end of his life, all the while seeking out a miracle.
This is a very gritty and realistic portrayal of the life of Doc Holliday. The description of the seedy side of the West in the 1880s evokes vivid and lasting images that transport the reader to that time and place. Holliday’s personality comes alive, for example: “Doc revered impropriety in women, so long as they were not his women.” The author does not hold back on the description of Holliday’s life, illness, fame, and sometimes murderous ways, but still manages to show a bit of dignity in the man.
The bloody effects of tuberculosis and Doc’s deterioration are described in realistic detail. The rumored fountain of youth is always just out of his grasp, “a few towns over,” just as all legends are. The reader follows Doc’s journey throughout the West until his last stop, Glenwood Springs, Colorado, and his final futile attempt to find that miraculous fountain. This book is recommended to anyone who is interested in Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, or realistic fiction about the Old West.
Sunbury Press is set to reissue my first book Killstanbul soon—check back for more details!
Killstanbul is a quirky, off-genre pulp crime novel(la) set in the winters of Reykjavík, Prague, and Istanbul. Carolus, an Icelandic native, navigates a tangle of women, attackers, and ancient cities looking for the unfortunate mark he’s paid to kill.
Carolus is oversexed. And overpaid. And too familiar with wiping the blood of a fresh kill from his hands. He gets what he wants (and more than enough of it) and worries about the imprint his actions leave on his soul.
Carolus's blood runs deep with the weirdness of Icelandic lore. The twelve Yule Lads trained him since his childhood to be a skilled assassin, and he lives and kills by the rules they taught him.
Killstanbul's characters loop in and out of the plot in surprising ways. The lives of Mr. Delicious, the Turkish candy-maker; Bjorn, the deadbeat of Carolus’s sister; and Marta, owner of the Poseable Religious Emporium (a warehouse for religious figurines), crash into each other with disastrous consequences. The characters are caught up in the cynical wind of Carolus's life and the strong thrust of their own motives.
The book is a deliciously odd, entertaining, and satisfying first novel of an exciting young writer.
— TORI BALAZO
“In Killstanbul (El Balazo Media), Matthew Di Paoli’s entrancing first novel, we are introduced to a world so beautiful and hypnotic, that we forget we could be crushed at any moment by its history, its geography or its myth.”
–Andrew Mondry, Jerry Magazine