Montana Writer
I knew I wanted to be a writer when I was 13. I started to write about the outdoors, for a variety of magazines, but I also wrote about a lot of other things. Still, something was missing. In the back of my mind, I had always wanted to write in a way that allowed me to express myself as a story teller…
Red is the Fastest Color (2024)
When an ailing Monna Van Hollen telephones her brother, Jamison, and pleads with him to move west to help her with the upkeep on her small farm in a remote Montana valley, neither Monna, her husband Ben, or Jamison can foresee the heart-rending decisions that will change the course of their lives.
Leaves on Frozen Ground (2019)
When economic and personal bonds are torn apart, what survives? In his profoundly moving debut novel, Dave Carty’s story of a small family’s struggles to endure personal tragedy explores the very limit of family union…and love.
Book Reviews
“From start to finish, Carty’s vivid descriptions, careful character development, and dexterous use of metaphor make this book a pleasure to read. Insightful throughout, at times profound, Leaves on Frozen Ground is the work of a fine writer and keen observer of the human condition.”
-Mike England, Outside Bozeman
“In Leaves on Frozen Ground, Dave Carty creates a fictional world that resonates with passion, sadness, and unexpected loss. His depictions of nature, family, and small-town life don’t just ring true, but are rendered in flawless prose and with a mastery of scenic construction that leave the reader tearfully in awe. I can’t wait to read Carty’s next novel. He’s a budding master of the form.”
-Toby Thompson, author of Riding the Rough Strings and Metroliner
Who is Dave Carty?
Dave Carty attended Colorado State University and the University of Colorado, where he majored in Journalism. During his twenties he worked at a variety of jobs too numerous to list in their entirety: waiter, bartender, carpenter, salesman, ski instructor, real estate agent, and day laborer. But ultimately he returned to writing and by age 30 was making a living as a full-time professional writer.
For the next three decades, Carty published over 1000 articles in a host of national publications while simultaneously writing novels on the side. Leaves On Frozen Ground is the upshot of that apprenticeship, and his first published work of literary fiction.
Carty writes from his home in southwestern Montana, where he lives with three English Pointer birddogs and indulges his non-literary passions: dancing, bird hunting, woodworking and all things outdoors.