Lone Star Book Blog Tour: The Big Empty by Loren C. Steffy (Review and Giveaway)

THE BIG EMPTY

by
LOREN C. STEFFY
Genre: Western / Rural Fiction / Small Town
Date of Publication: May 25, 2021
Number of Pages: 304 pages 
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When Trace Malloy and Blaine Witherspoon collide on a desolate West Texas highway, their fender bender sets the tone for escalating clashes that will determine the future of the town of Conquistador.
Malloy, a ranch manager and lifelong cowboy, knows that his occupation—and his community—are dying. He wants new- millennium opportunities for his son, even though he himself failed to summon the courage to leave familiar touchstones behind.
Witherspoon, an ambitious, Lexus-driving techie, offers a solution. He moves to Conquistador to build and run a state-of-the-art semiconductor plant that will bring prestige and high-paying technology jobs to revive the town—and advance his own career.
What neither man anticipates is the power the “Big Empty” will wield over their plans. The flat, endless expanse of dusty plain is as much a character in the conflict as are the locals struggling to subsist in this timeworn backwater and the high-tech transplants hell-bent on conquering it. While Malloy grapples with the flaws of his ancestors and his growing ambivalence toward the chip plant, Witherspoon falls prey to construction snafus, corporate backstabbing, and financial fraud. As they each confront personal fears, they find themselves united in the search for their own version of purpose in a uniquely untamable Texas landscape.
PRAISE FOR THE BIG EMPTY:
“The Big Empty” captures a moment when Big Tech seemingly promised everything. By turns funny and painful, Steffy’s story builds like an accelerating freight train, reaching a fast-paced climax.”
The Epoch Times
“Like the titular land itself, Steffy’s novel is uncompromising in spotlighting the strains that the drive toward material achievement puts on the individual in the face of nature’s whims.”
Southern Review of Books
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Stoney Creek Publishing Group (Currently 25% off)

“You can’t live out here and not believe in a higher power. It’s by the Lord’s grace you survive, and by His will you don’t.”

The Big Empty by Loren C. Steffy is a literary mash up of the old and the new; the past and the present, all with a glimpse into the murky future of the small North Texas town called Conquistador and the main cattle ranch struggling to keep the entire area populated and profitable.

In 1999 and at the tipping point of expected change, Blaine Witherspoon, who is newly arrived from Silicon Valley to set up an electronic chip plant near Conquistador, and Trace Malloy, who is the manager at the local ranch and living out his generational cowboy legacy on his own dwindling spread, will either attract or repulse, depending on your views. These two meet in chapter one under less than ideal circumstances, setting a combative tone going forward. Their points of view are both presented, and presumptions, both accurate and misplaced, about each other and those on either side are tossed down in defiance. High tech versus old school battle it out for the precarious foothold in the scraggy Texas landscape, both intent on scratching out some level of progression and success and both shifting their focus to the disadvantages rather than the benefits of the opposite side.

As the characters interact, reluctant acceptance and maybe even admiration emerge. Maybe. Change often destroys before it builds up, and every person in Conquistador is all too aware of what’s at stake when that change barrels in from Silicon Valley, both the good and the bad.

In his debut novel, The Big Empty, Loren C. Steffy paints North Texas and the people with accomplished prose that will seep into your thoughts and bloom spectacularly across your imagination. The land is harsh, and the inhabitants across the generations have had to adapt to survive, but survival is more than amassing food, water, and shelter. Community, family, and honest work fill people with purpose, and The Big Empty shows that folks, even with all their diversity, opinions, and backgrounds, are more alike than they want to first believe.

The pacing of The Big Empty is as rambling and interesting as a horseback ride across Texas, with plenty of drama, flared tempers, stubborn attitudes, reluctant acceptance, and relentless Texas heat to keep the story compelling. The antagonist in this story ranges from the severe landscape and weather to the abundant judgments and assumptions. The people in Conquistador and the newcomers setting up the new high-tech plant clash and merge simultaneously, and the author portrays this amalgamation with literary panache.

The Big Empty is more than cowboys and ranch life across the vast North Texas landscape and more than big tech moving in and disrupting everything in its path. The Big Empty represents what so many fear and want at the same time: change. Change is inevitable, but this story shows that people can mingle ideas, behaviors, and ways to form a concerted front. Or not. Sometimes the land refuses to budge or maybe eases up just enough to keep people trying and hoping. Sometimes betrayal sneaks in and upsets everything. Sometimes disaster has the final say. Then again, sometimes change is simply about finding new ways to do old things or using old ways to do new things. One thing is for certain. You can’t confront change by punching it in the nose, no matter how insulting it is, and you can’t uproot the old ways completely by remaining prejudiced and ignorant. Just ask Malloy and Witherspoon.

“The past, though, has a way of pulling you back, even when you’re determined to fight against it.”

Enter the giveaway below on or before November 25, 2021, for a chance to win some fabulous prizes.


I received a free copy of this book from Lone Star Book Blog Tours in exchange for my honest review.


Loren C. Steffy is the author of five nonfiction books. He is a writer at large for Texas Monthly, and his work has appeared in newspapers and magazines nationwide. He has previously worked for news organizations including Bloomberg and the Houston Chronicle, and he is a managing director for 30 Point Strategies, where he leads the 30 Point Press publishing imprint. His is a frequent guest on radio and television programs and is the co-host of the Rational Middle podcast. The Big Empty is his first novel. Steffy holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Texas A&M University. He lives in Wimberley, Texas, with his wife, three dogs and an ungrateful cat.
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FOR DIRECT LINKS TO EACH POST ON THIS TOUR, UPDATED DAILY, 
or visit the blogs directly:

11/15/21

Author Video

Chapter
Break Book Blog

11/15/21

Review

StoreyBook Reviews

11/15/21

BONUS Promo

LSBBT Blog

11/16/21

Review

The Book’s Delight

11/16/21

BONUS Promo

Hall Ways Blog

11/17/21

Excerpt

All the Ups and Downs

11/17/21

Guest Post

The
Page Unbound

11/18/21

Review

The Plain-Spoken Pen

11/19/21

Review

Jennie
Reads

11/19/21

Excerpt

Book Fidelity

11/20/21

Review

It’s Not All Gravy

11/21/21

Deleted Scene

Forgotten
Winds

11/22/21

Review

Rainy Days with Amanda

11/22/21

Guest Post

Missus Gonzo

11/23/21

Playlist

The Clueless Gent

11/24/21

Review

Bibliotica

11/24/21

Review

Reading
by Moonlight

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One Reply to “Lone Star Book Blog Tour: The Big Empty by Loren C. Steffy (Review and Giveaway)”

  1. You sure can write the book reviews — and I know it helps when a book is AMAZING, which it sounds like this one is. Can’t wait to get lost in The Big Empty. Thanks for sharing your thoughts & persuasion.