Dead Man’s Fugue: Western set in space
BY MICHAEL JOHNSON
Editor
While there were cattle to be worked and hay to be cut on the Neumiller farm outside of Washburn, the youngest son, Casey, was imagining what life would be like flying through space. While his hands may have been at work helping maintain the ranch, his mind was on a universe that was light years away.
This state of performing actions while conscious, yet not remembering what you’ve just done, is something some people call “fugue”.
It just so happens that term stems into Casey’s recent paperback novel, Dead Man’s Fugue. It’s a science-fiction thriller focused on Rake Weston, a man who was killed, yet returns to life in a new body. He doesn’t know why he was killed or why he’s the Expanse’s most-wanted man, but he has to find out.
The Expanse is a universe Casey created full of out-of-this-world people and situations. It’s a world that Casey dreamed up while in college majoring in English and computer science.
His first opportunity to write about life in this universe came after quitting his full-time job with MDU Resources. He knew if he wanted to pursue his career in writing, he had to devote full time work to writing.
