Synopsis

Pendulum is the tale of a family at a crossroads. In this novel, Charles Ellis and his wife, Sally, manage their old family ranch in the semi-arid region of western Nevada.

After Charles experiences a health scare, his brother, Sam, returns from living back east to help his aging brother, only to find that their smoothly run system is a fragile one and going through an age-induced change.

Since Charles’ and Sally’s two grown children, Dan and Robin, lead urban lives, they have little interest in taking over the ranch. This leaves the Ellis’ in a quandry about the future of their ranch, as they are confronted by developers who want to acquire their land and develop it with roads, businesses, and housing, and in the process, destroy the ranch, the surrounding wilderness, and possibly their lives in the process.

The ranch and the surrounding desert landscape are formidable players in this novel. Unbeknownst to the Ellis family, their roots are so woven throughout the land that they could no more be pulled from it and live than an aged tree could if yanked up by its roots.

The title, Pendulum, refers to the old grandmother clock ferried over in a covered wagon by the family’s forebears; throughout the novel, the pendulum’s oscillating arc offers a metaphor for the new and the renewal of life.

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Research and Purpose:

The novel Pendulum takes place on a ranch in Western Nevada. I interviewed a few ranchers in the area to get information concerning crop production, water needs, land use restrictions, and pressures from those wanting to buy up their lands and develop them into housing and businesses. This novel does not concentrate on ranching issues in particular but is primarily aimed at character study and family dynamics.

Audience:

Pendulum is geared for the general audience of mostly adult readers who may relate to the issues of advancing age and the problems that the family, including the son and daughter, face outside forces.

Writing’s early stages:

I began this novel as a writing exercise, and I had no intention of developing it into a large format.  Begun simply with the protagonist driving westward to visit his brother, wife, and their grown children on the family ranch in Nevada, it quickly expanded, almost on its own, into a saga of character study. With some humor, insight, a bit of adventure; and included is a bad guy developer to help make things interesting.

Writers history:

Writing is an avocation, the writer’s primary vocation was as owner of a plumbing firm in California (now retired). This is his first novel. Previous writings were primarily in the form of articles published in local papers, a few short stories not yet published, and an ongoing nearly completed non-fiction work,  “The Power Of Sentiment,” which will hopefully see the light of day in the near future.

About the Author

Kent Lauder graduated from Oregon State University with a BS in engineering and business before taking over the family’s plumbing firm in Burlingame, California. He is now retired. Pendulum is his first novel.

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