I am so excited to announce this I don’t even know what to say!
It is an amazing feeling to have a story published in an anthology alongside some of my personal author heroes.
Pre-order now for release on July 4, 2017.
“Tales of the Weird Wild West. Top authors take on the classic western, with a weird twist. Includes new stories by Larry Correia and Jim Butcher!
Come visit the Old West, the land where gang initiations, ride-by shootings and territory disputes got their start. But these tales aren’t the ones your grandpappy spun around a campfire, unless he spoke of soul-sucking ghosts, steam-powered demons and wayward aliens.
Here then are seventeen stories that breathe new life in the Old West. Among them: Larry Correia explores the roots of his best-selling Monster Hunter International series in “Bubba Shackleford’s Professional Monster Killers.” Jim Butcher reveals the origin of one of the Dresden Files’ most popular characters in “Fistful of Warlock.” And Kevin J. Anderson’s Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I., finds himself in a showdown in “High Midnight.” Plus stories from Alan Dean Foster, Sarah A. Hoyt, Jody Lynn Nye, Michael A. Stackpole, and many more.
This is a new Old West and you’ll be lucky to get outta town alive!”
Goodness! Did you see those big names? I am so excited. But there are more! Not everyone can get their name on the cover of course, so here is what I was given as the (almost final) index of stories:
Forward by David Boop
Bubba Shackleford’s Professional Monster Killers by Larry Correia
Trouble in an Hourglass by Jody Lynn Nye
The Buffalo Hunters by Sam Knight (Me!)
The Sixth World by Robert E. Vardeman
Easy Money by Phil Foglio
The Wicked Wild by Nicole Kurtz
Chance Corrigan and the Lord of the Underworld by Michael A. Stackpole
The Greatest Guns in the Galaxy by Bryan Thomas Schmidt & Ken Scholes
Dance of Bones by Maurice Broaddus
Dry Gulch Dragon by Sarah A. Hoyt
The Treefold Problem by Alan Dean Foster
Fountains of Blood by David Lee Summers
High Midnight by Kevin J. Anderson
Coyote by Naomi Brett Rourke
The Key by Peter J. Wacks
Fistful of Warlocks by Jim Butcher
Wow! Just Wow!
I am humbled to be included!
My story in the anthology is called The Buffalo Hunters. The idea started with a combination of ideas.
One was an article from Harper’s Weekly—December 14, 1867.
Nearly every railroad train which leaves or arrives at Fort Hays on the Kansas Pacific Railroad has its race with these herds of buffalo; and a most interesting and exciting scene is the result. The train is “slowed” to a rate of speed about equal to that of the herd; the passengers get out fire-arms which are provided for the defense of the train against the Indians, and open from the windows and platforms of the cars a fire that resembles a brisk skirmish. Frequently a young bull will turn at bay for a moment. His exhibition of courage is generally his death-warrant, for the whole fire of the train is turned upon him, either killing him or some member of the herd in his immediate vicinity.
When the “hunt” is over the buffaloes which have been killed are secured, and the choice parts placed in the baggage-car, which is at once crowded by passengers, each of whom feels convinced and is ready to assert that his was the shot that brought down the game. Ladies who are passengers on the trains frequently enjoy the sport, and invariably claim all the game as the result of their prowess with the rifle. This solution of the case is, of course, accepted by all gentlemen, and a more excited party of Dianas it would be impossible to imagine.
You can see that, along with an engraving, here.
You can read more about buffalo hunting in that era here.
The other idea was from a Native American legend of the “stiff-legged bear”, a deadly creature purported to be the size of an elephant. The creature is generally considered to be passed down memories of a mastodon, but I didn’t feel that was a very good explanation, so I put my own twist on the story.
I can’t wait for this to come out in July, and when it does, I hope to hear what you thought of it!