The Filly

by
Mark R. Probst

ISBN: 978-0-9797773-0-1

Pages: 220

Retail Price: $14.00

Recommended Age: 16 and up

Synopsis

Escaping into the fantasy of his books when he’s not working in the general store, Ethan Keller has lived a sheltered life in his mother’s boarding house. One day, an enigmatic cowboy passing through the small Texas town takes an immediate liking to the shy seventeen-year-old. Ethan is intrigued by the attention, and the cowboy eventually charms him into signing on to a 900-mile cattle drive. Ethan soon finds that his feelings for this cowboy run deeper than just friendship. He never knew that this kind of love even existed; and now for the two of them to make a life together in the untamed west, they must face nearly insurmountable odds if they are to survive.

Mark R. Probst has been a life-long fan of the Hollywood western. In his first novel, a contemporary take on his favorite genre, he decided to pay homage to the films he so fondly remembered.

Though gay cowboys certainly played a small part in the Old West, history has conveniently misplaced their existence. This novel tells what could have been one of those forgotten stories.

Reviews

Believe it or not, Mark Probst's charming debut novel about a couple of gay cowboys who fall in love on a cross country cattle drive has a lot more in common with your dad's favorite Western novel than Brokeback Mountain.

And that's a good thing.

The world of the young shop clerk Ethan Keller and ranch hand Travis Cain is a vivid Technicolor creation that harkens back to the Western films of Hollywood's Golden Age. I've never been a fan of Westerns - in literature or films - but was pleasantly surprised at how quickly Probst's breezy style and likeable characters drew me in. The writing itself is sturdy, masculine and free of flourishes, making it perfectly suited to the genre. And while he tends to paint in broad strokes, the settings he describes - the general store, the boisterous saloon, a spinster schoolmarm's genteel parlor, the Rocky Mountain vistas - are all so iconic, it's impossible not to picture them perfectly in your mind.

The downright wholesome love story between the two main characters develops slowly with just enough tension to keep the reader turning pages in sweet anticipation of the inevitable. A refreshing change in this day and age when it seems most modern romances involve the couple falling into bed first, and love later. Both protagonists are well developed and complicated, particularly the adorable Ethan, an upright, bookish young man who struggles to understand his desire for Travis at a time when homosexuality was never spoken of. But it's with some of the secondary characters that Probst really shines. Miss Peet, the lonely school teacher who shares her love of books with Ethan and hopes to share her life with Travis, and Willie, Ethan's ne'er-do-well older brother, both take surprising, uncharacteristic, turns late in the story that prove them to be multi-dimensional real-to-life human beings.

The book is broken into three major sections - the first dealing with Ethan's life at home and the second chronicling the treacherous 900 mile cattle drive. I must admit I got the most pleasure from these. In part three, the story takes on a darker tone and the author injects a bit of Twenty First Century proselytizing that the book might've been better served without. Nonetheless let me just say, without giving away the ending, overall the story left me pleased and satisfied. And definitely eager for more from this budding talent.

If you're looking for a feel good gay romance, I highly recommend The Filly.

Blake Fraina, author of King of Cats: A Life in Five Novellas

"... Mark Probst has given us wonderful characters in Travis and Ethan and he develops them with a sublime flair ..."

Amos Lassen, Literary Pride