In the 1930s, a carefree teen enjoys an unfenced life on the prairie with his coyote. But when drought and hard times hit, he must find the courage to stand up to his father and pursue his dream of being on the radio.

SYNOPSIS:

Myles Vincent is a fifteen-year-old with a fondness for knock-knock jokes. When we meet him, he and his friends are cutting grounding wire along a fence in green pastures in Missouri. The boys cheer when lightning strikes, and a quarter mile of fence posts explodes into flames.

But Myles dreams of being to be on the radio. This is the era of radio serials like Orphan Annie and Buck Rogers. He can imitate any of them. In his pocket, he carries a folded-up ad for a radio school. But no one takes him seriously. Including himself.

His life takes a left turn when his parents sell everything and move to a dusty farm in eastern Colorado. No school, no electricity, no radio. Myles’s sister complains there are skyscrapers in New York, but now they don’t even have a toilet. But Myles goes along. He’s the good kid, a people pleaser. The one his father can depend on. They even share knock-knock jokes.

But Myles is not a farm boy. He can’t plow or shoot straight. And the vast Western landscape is lonely for a boy who needs people around.

Life improves when Myles rescues an injured coyote pup he names Ro. They hunt rabbits and rattlesnakes together. An older boy teaches him how to cut the head off a live rattlesnake. The body of the snake flails even when the head is gone. That serves as entertainment.

And when a nearby town sets up a small radio station, Myles gets a job doing the weather. Life starts looking good.

Then, wheat market crashes and drought hits. Myles fears his father’s dream of taming the land is doomed by the coyote winds, winds that steal the soil. His father tells him they just need to hang on until good times return. That’s how things work in America.

Myles feels trapped. He watches the rail riders hopping the trains to Chicago and New York. He meets a girl hustling her way to Hollywood as a dancer. He’s offered a radio job in Denver, a real start to his career, but he turns it down. He can’t find the words to challenge his father.

Myles tries to drive Ro away, back to the wild, back to what he should have been. But Ro won’t leave. The only home he knows is with Myles.

Finally, Myles makes a terrible mistake. In trying to show off by cutting the head off a rattlesnake, he slips. Ro kills the snake but is bitten. As Ro dies a painful death, Myles finally stands up to his father. He tells him Ro is dying, the prairie is dying, and they killed them. They can’t win against the snakes, the dust, and the coyote winds. But all his father sees is rain on the horizon.

Myles’s rage at his father and himself erupts, and he shoots his father’s beloved tractor. Over and over again he shoots. Metal and sparks fly, causing a fire that burns everything down. His father's dream and Myles's nightmare, are over.

Angry, ashamed, but not broken, Myles decides to ride the rails to find his own life and his own dreams. In the epilogue, Myles is starting his career on the radio.

Coyote Winds was inspired by my father’s memoir of growing up on the prairie during the Dust Bowl. Although there was plenty of blowing dust in his stories, he also spoke of freedom, ingenuity, and hope. And the unshakeable belief in the American Dream, that prosperity will come to anyone with grit and a strong back. Is it a gift, a curse, or both?.