Cormac McCarthy made a massive transformation in his writing when he moved to El Paso. At one level, McCarthy was peaking as a writer while he worked on Blood Meridian. However, on another level, McCarthy sought a different path with his writing career, pushing toward Hollywood with his The Gardener's Son (1976) and Cities of the Plain (1978) screenplays. The lack of success in both endeavors (Blood Meridian sold 1,800 copies in seven years)  drove McCarthy to combine both approaches by writing less layered works that were more accessible.