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    The Forever Long Road of Olan Walker
    The Forever Long Road of Olan Walker
    The Forever Long Road of Olan Walker
    Ebook37 pages27 minutes

    The Forever Long Road of Olan Walker

    By Steve Vernon

    ()

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    About this ebook

    It was Easter Monday, 1952. It was a day like any other. The slat truck rolled into camp with half a dozen new convicts. I counted a couple of vagrants, one drunk, one assaulter and one assaultee.

    All of that and Olan Walker.

    Olan Walker was the first man out of the slat truck and the way he was built he could have slid through one of the slats. That man was nothing but lank. He was as lean as a dog in Lent. He was as lean as hunger poured thinner than a spoon full of prison soup. He looked like he ate nothing but wind and shadow all his life. If there was a king and queen of skinny; a duke of raw bone, an earl of gaunt and a prince of scrawny - well Olan Walker was the lord high ruler of them all.

    It didn't take too long before we all found out what Olan Walker REALLY was.

    Olan Walker was a conjure man.

    A haunting story that reads a little like a cross between Shawshank Redemption, Cool Hand Luke and Mickey Rourke in Angel Heart - fans of haunting Southern gothic horror stories will want to give this one a read.

    WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT STEVE VERNON

    "If Harlan Ellison, Richard Matheson and Robert Bloch had a three-way sex romp in a hot tub, and then a team of scientists came in and filtered out the water and mixed the leftover DNA into a test tube, the resulting genetic experiment would most likely grow up into Steve Vernon." - Bookgasm

    "Steve Vernon is something of an anomaly in the world of horror literature. He's one of the freshest new voices in the genre although his career has spanned twenty years. Writing with a rare swagger and confidence, Steve Vernon can lead his readers through an entire gamut of emotions from outright fear and repulsion to pity and laughter." - Cemetery Dance

    "Armed with a bizarre sense of humor, a huge amount of originality, a flair for taking risks and a strong grasp of characterization - Steve's got the chops for sure." - Dark Discoveries

    "Steve Vernon was born to write. He's the real deal and we're lucky to have him." - Richard Chizmar

    My Mom thinks I'm pretty cool, too.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSteve Vernon
    Release dateJul 15, 2018
    ISBN9781386997221
    The Forever Long Road of Olan Walker
    Author

    Steve Vernon

    Everybody always wants a peek at the man behind the curtain. They all want to see just exactly what makes an author tick.Which ticks me off just a little bit - but what good is a lifetime if you can't ride out the peeve and ill-feeling and grin through it all. Hi! I am Steve Vernon and I'd love to scare you. Along the way I'll try to entertain you and I guarantee a giggle as well.If you want to picture me just think of that old dude at the campfire spinning out ghost stories and weird adventures and the grand epic saga of how Thud the Second stepped out of his cave with nothing more than a rock in his fist and slew the mighty saber-toothed tiger.If I listed all of the books I've written I'd most likely bore you - and I am allergic to boring so I will not bore you any further. Go and read some of my books. I promise I sound a whole lot better in print than in real life. Heck, I'll even brush my teeth and comb my hair if you think that will help any.For more up-to-date info please follow my blog at:http://stevevernonstoryteller.wordpress.com/And follow me at Twitter:@StephenVernonyours in storytelling,Steve Vernon

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      Book preview

      The Forever Long Road of Olan Walker - Steve Vernon

      The

      Forever Long Road

      Of

      Olan Walker

      by

      Steve Vernon

      Stark Raven Press

      2018

      Table of Contents

      Title Page

      The Forever Long Road of Olan Walker

      The Forever Long Road of Olan Walker

      About the Author

      Sign up for Steve Vernon's Mailing List

      Further Reading: Rueful Regret

      Also By Steve Vernon

      This story is one I am very proud of in that originally appeared in Richard Chizmar’s anthology collection Shivers V (2009). I have long been a fan of chain-gang movies – and one of my favorites of the genre is COOL HAND LUKE. So naturally, I wanted to write something that sang to that tune and I think it pretty good job of it – so I’m going to let this tale tell itself.

      The Forever Long Road of Olan Walker

      Iam the teller, and I am telling you it was the craziest thing anyone seen. An army of reporters, politicians, and police, trying to figure what emptied an Alabama work farm of sixty-eight convicts. What left a dozen bosses and twice as many gun bulls cindered down to charcoaled bone.

      I am the only one who survived.

      Sort of.

      I ain’t even here. You can’t see me, and you sure as hell don’t want to hear me.

      I’m just telling, a forever long way from you.

      So stand there in the Alabama sun, scratching your heads and your asses while pretending to know what you’re looking at, because this is how the whole story all unwound.

      It was Easter Monday, 1952. It was a day like any other. The slat truck rolled into camp with half a dozen new convicts. I counted a couple of vagrants, one drunk, one assaulter and one assaultee.

      All of that and Olan Walker.

      Olan Walker was first out of the slat truck and he could have slid through one of the slats. That man was nothing but lank. He was as lean as a dog in Lent. He was as lean as hunger poured thinner than a spoon full of prison soup. He looked like he ate nothing but wind and shadow all his life. If there was a king and queen of skinny;

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