Tate’s Hell

His revenge cost him his life.

If you head south from Tallahassee on 98 you might end up right in the Gulf of Mexico if you don’t follow the road west as it turns down the Florida Panhandle. One of the very first places you may encounter is Tate’s Hell State Forest. It’s a vast wilderness of swamp and mosquitoes and only a fool or a possessed man would ever go inside. But why the name?

It’s all about Cebe Tate and his mission to reclaim what was stolen from him… A demon panther who had destroyed his farm, and his life.

This story has no great moral compass. No, this story has no great heroic outcome. This is one of the most natural, and ill-fated stories as I’ll ever write in my whole career.

Cebe Tate ain’t anything like a hero by today’s story-telling standards. He’s a down-trodden farmer who has the world go wrong at every turn.

But full his story has never been told… Until now.

For fans of  Jack London’s Call of the Wild and White Fang, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, and Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild

From the story:

Crack! The swamp rang out. Samson and Jasher were on their feet immediately. Samson, pointing towards the noise gave sharp alert barks. Jasher spun in circles, raising a general alarm. Cebe clamored to his feet as quickly as he could manage, being stiff from his night’s sleep. His eyes were bleary, full of gloppy sand and he flung his arms around, looking for shotty. Fingers grabbed it up, brought it to hand, back straightened, stock to shoulder, swinging round, hammer back, aimed at… Nothing.
He looked around slowly, left to right, then back again. Samson was still barking. “Quiet boys.” He almost whispered. Samson quit barking but stood pointing in the direction of the noise that had woke him. He watched for a moment and could make out the small ripple in the water where the noise had come from. He waited then it came again. One of the smaller logs in the water suddenly crashed down on top of the water. Crack, went the sound. Tarnation. Nothing but the gators in mating. He watched as it raised its tail again and vibrated it violently, then from the other side, he saw the jaws raise and a low Raaaaaaaaa come from the creature. He couldn’t see the female anywhere but the male sure saw her. Nothing to worry about as long as he didn’t come near the female. If he did that, the male would attack. And he wasn’t about to be attacked by no gator.

We regret that we are unable to ship this title outside the United States.