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Rod's email: rodmcfain@gmail.com

Welcome to Rod McFain's Author Page The Official and probably only website of Rod McFain

SHE’S GOT IT centers on "the price of fame," showcasing both its allure and the destructive risks it entails. It charts the tumultuous life of Clara Bow, a quintessential figure of Hollywood's Silent Films, from her impoverished beginnings to her rise as an iconic actress and decline into personal turmoil. (Read sample on Novel Excerpts page)

About Rod

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Clara Bow, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Myrna Loy, Hedy Lamarr, William Powell, Louise Brooks, Joan Blondell, Wild Bill Hickok, and Tȟašúŋke Witkó (Crazy Horse) make up Rod McFain’s circle of closest friends. Because of their influence, Rod writes historical fiction. His favorite eras are the Old West, the Roaring Twenties, and the Great Depression.

An only child, Rod was born in southern Illinois and grew up in the St. Louis area. His grandparents raised cattle and farmed, giving him a fantastic opportunity to ride horses and be a cowboy. The summer after fifth grade, his parents took him on vacation to Estes Park, Colorado, and Rod knew he belonged in the mountains.

Rod married his Ali MacGraw look-alike wife, Linda, and moved to Rochester, Minnesota (on January 8th, smart). Tired of eight degrees being warmer than eighteen degrees, they relocated to Boise, Idaho, close to Mountains.

In 2021, Rod had a manuscript accepted by White Bird Publications. Hard Goodbyes was published in November of that year. In the next eighteen months, White Bird published two more of his novels, Crossing the Crazy Woman, and Pursuit. Rod’s fourth novel, The Magnificent Maggie, was released in May 2024, followed by She’s Got It in June 2025. A Lettered Life, his sixth novel, is due for release in late April or early May 2026.

Rod is a member of the Historical Writers of America and Western Writers of America. He and Linda have one son and an unofficially adopted Brazilian daughter. They now live in a beautiful mountain valley in Idaho with three fine horses and a Jack Russell terrier.

You can find Rod around the internet on Facebook and Instagram.

Coming in May... A Lettered Life

Excerpt from A Lettered Life

Lillian’s two-room abode was lit by one coal oil lamp. Cloaked in the dim illumination of the small lantern, every shadow held its breath. Lillian knocked about her little shack, dropping the café keys on her cherry table, the only thing her parents gave her to furnish her new dwelling, before bouncing across the creaking floorboards. She bounced because the creaking amused her.

On the other side of the room, she pauses next to the dome-topped coffer steamer trunk, passed down to her from her grandfather. The battered, floral-patterned cloth-covered chest, which she used for storing her valuables, has an arched top with wood slats, iron-trimmed corners, and band hardware. Its broad hinges whispered of remembrances sealed tight. The key, sizable for a trunk of its size, was tarnished with age and heavy in her hand.

With a turn of the lock, the lid resists for a moment before giving way. Inside, in its felt lining, bundles of delicate envelopes and curling photographs lie swaddled in yellowed silk. Each letter’s script is blurred by time, and the faces in the images flicker between happiness and loss. Lillian lingers, tracing the edges of a sepia portrait. The chest’s contents are more than keepsakes; they are an oath, a promise. She closes her eyes, letting memory rush in: the distant laughter from summers now beginning to fade, the echo of a voice she cannot quite recall, the gentle touch of hands now gone.