"End of the Line" - The next great American novel?

[Anonymous]

(From the TRAINS Newswire 10/05/05)

Banned in Fort Worth: Former BNSF exec tries writing about trains

FORT WORTH, Texas - When BNSF Railway executive Kem Parton got the proofs of his novel, “End of the Line,” he sent copies of the railroad action tale to various executives at BNSF’s Fort Worth headquarters hoping for a favorable cover blurb. Instead, says a story in the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, Parton, a former U.S. Navy war planner turned railroader, got a pink slip.

The railroad told Parton last June that his career, which began as a trainmaster in Chicago in 1993 and continued as a labor-relations specialist since 1996, was over unless he scrapped his novel.

"They said it made the railroad and the industry look bad and that everybody would think that it was about them," Parton says of the reaction to the book. "I could either work for BNSF or publi***he book, but not do both."

“End of the Line” is a railroad thriller ("admittedly a limited genre," Parton says), featuring multiple train disasters and explosions, bloody injuries, and greedy railroad managers. The hero and heroine triumph over the bad guy, a fired engineer, but not before many deaths and crashes.

Parton scoffs at the notion that “End of the Line” is a how-to book for terrorists. While his knowledge of railroad mechanics gives the book the kind of insider credibility that Tom Clancy brings to his military books, Parton said he deliberately implanted small technical errors in the narrative so as to foil would-be copycats.

As for the similarities to the real BNSF, Parton says his fictitious Transcon Railroad isn't based on BNSF, and neither are any of its fictional executives.

"I started the book in 1996, when none of the current leadership [including Chief Executive Matt Rose] was in their present jobs," Parton says.

The rookie author laughs at the possibility of a similarity, noting that BNSF is not a coast-to-coast transcontinental carrier like Transcon. That fact, plus the close working relationship between a railroad division superintendent and a labor official, "makes it obviously fiction."

But it's easy to see why railroad executives wouldn't put “End of the Line” on their personal favorite list: Transcon executives are 21st-century versions of the 19th-century robber barons. Bribery, insider trading and corporate downsizing — one exec's nickname is "The Axeman" — put Transcon's management safely in the villain category.

The fictitious Transcon is based in Dallas, about 35 miles from BNSF's real-life headquarters in north Fort Worth. Like BNSF, Transcon has a campus headquarters complete with a network operations center, whose description would pass for BNSF's similar central control facility at its headquarters.

BNSF isn't talking about Parton. "We simply are not going to discuss the matter," spokesman Richard Russack said.

Parton has been unemployed since being fired in late June. Thanks to a working spouse, a small Navy pension, and some investments, he has kept his house in nearby Keller, Texas. But “End of the Line” needs to be a big seller to return Parton, his wife, and two children to the ranks of the financially secure.

Cardoza Publishing, a small New York house that has specialized in books about gambling and card games during its 25 years of existence, is publishing the book.

Parton and a Los Angeles literary manager are trying to put together a pre-packaged movie production that would include screenwriting, cast, and financing that can be taken to a studio for a movie deal.

[Anonymous]

I remember the movie End of the Line. Actually it was filmed here in Arkansas and some of the extras were railroad people (you can thank Mary S. for that tho.)

[Anonymous]

Rather than coming up with the same warmed-over pablum, why doesn't someone write something concerning the dramatic tension of say a railroad employee struggling with the greater good of the demands of railroading and the importance of family life.

[ValleyX]

"End of the Line". One miserable movie. And nothing to do with this book.

This fellow must really believe in his book to give up his job over it. Somehow, I'll be surprised if it makes him rich, don't see a book about railroads becoming a big best seller. Wonder what technical details he changed to fool wannabes?

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

The author, like any writer, thinks that he's got really great stuff there. Like a lot of political novels and other works, the characters are probably pretty thin disguises of actual people and the disclaimer of coincidence is quite routine. It should be noted that the one publisher who actually picked up this novel appears to be more oriented to the modern version of pulp fiction.

The fact that the author was fired by BNSF is not surprising. He is part of management and even first-level supervisors are expected to be company men, it goes with the territory.

[upchuck]

DOES BIGFOOT MAKE A CAMEO APPEARANCE?

[espeefoamer]

I don't see this book selling well among railfans as it makes the railroad out to be the bad guy.

[chad thomas]

WTF was he thinking. He could have waited till after he left his position with BNSF to publish. What did he expect?

[Anonymous]

Sounds like the author reached "The End of the Line" himself...

LC

[chad thomas]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Limitedclear

Sounds like the author reached "The End of the Line" himself...

LC

Oh the irony [(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D] too funny

[Anonymous]

So many derogatory opinions, and no one has even read the thing yet! I at least will wait until I read it to decide if it is a worthwhile literary endeavor or fodder de jure for the Bill Moyer types

[jeaton]

QUOTE: Originally posted by futuremodal

So many derogatory opinions, and no one has even read the thing yet! I at least will wait until I read it to decide if it is a worthwhile literary endeavor or fodder de jure for the Bill Moyer types

I can't tell you how impatient I am for your review. Perhaps you can get an advanced copy of the book.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jeaton

QUOTE: Originally posted by futuremodal

So many derogatory opinions, and no one has even read the thing yet! I at least will wait until I read it to decide if it is a worthwhile literary endeavor or fodder de jure for the Bill Moyer types

I can't tell you how impatient I am for your review. Perhaps you can get an advanced copy of the book.

For you, I'll make a special request. After I peruse the advanced copy, I might just start in on a screenplay, and then we'll have the next great train movie.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by futuremodal

QUOTE: Originally posted by jeaton

QUOTE: Originally posted by futuremodal

So many derogatory opinions, and no one has even read the thing yet! I at least will wait until I read it to decide if it is a worthwhile literary endeavor or fodder de jure for the Bill Moyer types

I can't tell you how impatient I am for your review. Perhaps you can get an advanced copy of the book.

For you, I'll make a special request. After I peruse the advanced copy, I might just start in on a screenplay, and then we'll have the next great train movie.

If its as good as your posts, it will be in theaters for, oh about 30 seconds...

FOFLMAO...

You MUST be kidding...LOL....

LC

[Murphy Siding]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Limitedclear

QUOTE: Originally posted by futuremodal

QUOTE: Originally posted by jeaton

QUOTE: Originally posted by futuremodal

So many derogatory opinions, and no one has even read the thing yet! I at least will wait until I read it to decide if it is a worthwhile literary endeavor or fodder de jure for the Bill Moyer types

I can't tell you how impatient I am for your review. Perhaps you can get an advanced copy of the book.

For you, I'll make a special request. After I peruse the advanced copy, I might just start in on a screenplay, and then we'll have the next great train movie.

If its as good as your posts, it will be in theaters for, oh about 30 seconds...

FOFLMAO...

You MUST be kidding...LOL....

LC

I'm envisioning one of those dinner theater, interactive shows. Locally, they do something like Frank(?) and Tina's wedding, where the crowd gets involved in the story. I'm not the theater type, but if there's dinner and beer involved......[;)]

[Anonymous]

Needs a new title, but I wish it well. Theory of "no such thing as bad publicity," after all.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Murphy Siding

QUOTE: Originally posted by Limitedclear

QUOTE: Originally posted by futuremodal

QUOTE: Originally posted by jeaton

QUOTE: Originally posted by futuremodal

So many derogatory opinions, and no one has even read the thing yet! I at least will wait until I read it to decide if it is a worthwhile literary endeavor or fodder de jure for the Bill Moyer types

I can't tell you how impatient I am for your review. Perhaps you can get an advanced copy of the book.

For you, I'll make a special request. After I peruse the advanced copy, I might just start in on a screenplay, and then we'll have the next great train movie.

If its as good as your posts, it will be in theaters for, oh about 30 seconds...

FOFLMAO...

You MUST be kidding...LOL....

LC

I'm envisioning one of those dinner theater, interactive shows. Locally, they do something like Frank(?) and Tina's wedding, where the crowd gets involved in the story. I'm not the theater type, but if there's dinner and beer involved......[;)]

Good idea. That's a practical way to test out a screenplay and refine it as necessary.

I was thinking of using a little artistic license for such a screenplay.

(The characters mentioned in the following absract are purely fictional, and are not intended to represent actual individuals)

I would develop a character (oh let's see, let's call him/her "Elcee")[}:)] who likes to hide behind the cloak of anonymity whilst shooting orphans[sigh] in the back sniper-style[xx(]. He/she does this all from a secret[X-)] location under a tanker full of urea that somehow got sidetracked in a long abandoned railyard overlooking an orphanage. He/she is assisted in the devious plot to shake down local farmers[C):-)] and coal consumers[:O] (the orphanicide is just a diversion to keep the local "keystone cops"-esque STB agents[%-)] off track) by a local vagrant we'll call, hmmm let's see, how about "Ilky"[D)] who eagerly does the bidding of his evil overseer. The case is finally broken when the ghost[angel] of Casey Jones leads the surviving orphans to the two ne'erdowells, who are subsequently "ballasted"[B)] to oblivion by the gang of enraged orphans[:(!]. The movie ends with a big party[tup][dinner][{(-_-)}] as grain gets shipped out and coal gets shipped in by new rail service providers[alien][alien][alien], while the ghost of Casey Jones[8D] chugs off into the sunset.....

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by upchuck

DOES BIGFOOT MAKE A CAMEO APPEARANCE?

LOLLZERZ LYK YA HE MAKS A CAMEO APPRNCE N HES LIKE WOH BIG SCARY LOLOLOL```!!!!~!~!!!!111ONE!!!!!ELVN!!!!111! [;)]

[Murphy Siding]

futuremodal: have you been hittin' the sauce this evening?[:-,]

[Anonymous]

Maybe he hit "use or lose" status with his smilies? [shrug]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Murphy Siding

futuremodal: have you been hittin' the sauce this evening?[:-,]

Forgot to take his lithium again...

LC

[Train Guy 3]

na

QUOTE: Originally posted by Murphy Siding

futuremodal: have you been hittin' the sauce this evening?[:-,]

I think futuremodal hit the sauce before noon today.[:p]

[Anonymous]

Creative sarcasm is not for the weak minded.

[Anonymous]

The only problem I have with the novel (based on the newswire description) is that the bad guy is a fired engineer. If anything, it would be a fired engineer who would become the hero by outing the corrupt management. The bad guy role would be more aptly portrayed in the form of a management mole ostensibly employed as an engineer.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by futuremodal

Creative sarcasm is not for the weak minded.

So what's your excuse???

FOFLMAO...

LC

[chad thomas]

[Anonymous]

The Numb3rs tv show episode awhile back had a presumed deceased train engineer as the bad guy.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Limitedclear

QUOTE: Originally posted by futuremodal

Creative sarcasm is not for the weak minded.

So what's your excuse???

FOFLMAO...

LC

Tough day in Gym Class, Poindexter?

[Anonymous]

Enough!

Well, first of all the article is incorrect in that the bad guy is not a fired engineer. One poster said that instead of the same old pablum we ought to tell the story of living conditions for the average railraod workers...well, it does, and that's one of the reasons I've been getting support from the train service employees unions (both UTU, BLE whom I spoke to rousing applause at their conventions, and both unions have given cover quotes for the book).

The reason I wrote the book is that there have been about 5 railroad novels in the last 30 years, all written by non-railroaders, all of them awful in my opinion (For my money the last good railroad flick was Emporor of the North). This book is different.

As to why I was fired. Just about everyone on the railroad I worked at knew I was writing this book. I had vetted it through very senior people over several drafts, any one of them in a position to raise the red flag if there was a problem. I was so assured there wasn't a problem, I was advised it wouldn't be improper to take it to the CEO for a cover quote. I did just that. It was subsequently passed around to a handful of very senior executives who decided after 5 years, when the book was weeks from going to the printers, (and no time for appeasing changes) that they had a problem with it. So I'm told, basically, that they love my work, but if I publi***he book I can't continue to work at the railroad. The choice I had was to buy the rights back from my publisher and kill the book or I would lose my job.

And what did they object to? Some pretty innocuous stuff. They didn't like cubicles being described as "dehumanizing pods" and junior railroad staff called "corporate butt boys." I kept telling them it was fiction, they kept telling me it was about them. They said "we don't screw our customers, work our train service employees to the point of fatigue, and aren't quick to blame the train crews whenever something goes wrong." I said" if you aren't like that, why do you think the book is about you?" Never really got an answer to that unless you count being fired.

For plot purposes, I had to make the railroad in the book ( which is obviously not any existing railroad as it runs coast to coast) bad enough that someone would want revenge.

Thing is, if I'd killed the book and bought off my publisher, what would have stopped the railroad from firing me 2 months later for no particular reason? Then I'd have no job, no book, and be out a considerable amount of money for buying off the publisher. What choice did I really have? It had already been whispered back to me that my friends were being told to distance themselves from me, and their was some general avoidance of other officers. I found out later, according to my union contacts, that my railroad had actually sought the advice of other railroads as to what they should do with me.

Aside from the above, what I was being asked to do just didn't seem right. For the record, I was making good money (I was a Director in labor relations), and I knew at the time it was a horrible financial decision to defy management. But, like I said, it just didn't seem right. Once in a while you have to stand on principle, though doing it to often will bankrupt you.

I've had many railroaders and quite a few journalists who've read the book essentially vouch that, as a thriller, it as as good as any on the market, railroad or no. The product is good enough, but somewhere along the line a first time author has to catch some kind of a break for it to take off. I knew at the time that no one is going to buy a book because it cost some railroader his job (well, a few of the union guys maybe), and that it had to sell on quality. The quality is there is you stop prejudging based on the pablum of the past.

Incidently, I've been trying to get a hold of the editor of Trains to send him a galley copy of the book, but I haven't been able to reach you. If you happen to see this and are interested, my email is [e-mail]

K. L. Parton

[Murphy Siding]

Thank You. That was interesting.