Western Shorts and Housekeeping
Which is way different than house keeping in western shorts.
(As Groucho would say, “How he got into my western shorts, I’ll never know.”)
Western shorts first.
With several solid works under its banner, The Western Online is a well-organized web zine kept refreshingly up to date. The newest offering, “A Cold Morning in Cooper’s Fall” by Daniel W. Davis is a straight-ahead gun fight story and one of my favorites from the site with its memorable line: “A woman gets a man killed, you’d think she’d have the courtesy to smile at him one last time.”
Another favorite is Gary Addis’ well informed character study,“Standing Up.” This one isn’t so much the story of a gun fight as it is the suspenseful events leading to it. Addis gets points in my book for including a historic personage of some weight, always nice to see when handled with skill.
Evan Lewis first brought Kenneth Mark Hoover‘s eerie town of Haxan, New Mexico, to my attention late last year, and the trio of tales here are well worth your while. You might want to leave a light on when you read ‘em. Here, I liked the short and more traditional, “Three Wise Men,” but there’s more Hoover to come…
Frontier Tales is a web zine also being kept up nicely, and, since it’s new to me, I jumped in at random and sampled a story from the February issue. The Medicine Show by Larry Payne hits all the hight points. February also saw the first chapter in a serialized effort by Kenneth Newton called “Apache Gold.” I’ve only read part one, but the March 2010 issue is up and part two is available. Additionally, Hoover is here with an entry from the dark streets of Haxan. If you enjoy “White Hawk” as much as me, you might want to check out Hoover’s web site and an additional Haxan tale “High Moon” at Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
John Nesbitt has two exceptionally good reads that are exclusive to the Web. The first is a neat story with an engaging hero called “Rose of Durango.” Reading Nesbitt is always a powerful lesson in versilimilitude and sense of location, and this short piece is no exception. Formerly part of the now defunct Amazon Shorts program, it’s 49 cents for the download.
Nesbitt has also been exploring crime fiction and the first of a two-part novella is online with conclusion coming next month. “Dead For the Last Time” is available at Mysterical-E free of charge and I’m really looking forward to the follow-up.
The background to both pieces can be found at the author’s blog.
Good western shorts are not limited to the web. While the February 2010 EQMM has done us all a great service with Evan Lewis’ imaginative tale of “Skylar Hobbs and the Rabbit Man” (with characters Evan has featured in at least two Flash fiction pieces on his blog), old west fans should take note, that same issue features a tightly crafted western from Bill Pronzini called “Burglarproof,” a puzzle mystery with one of the most satisfying solutions I’ve read in a while.
Fans of TV’s obsessive-compulsive detective MONK and Lee Goldberg’s remarkable novels based on the show can also get behind EQMM. Just prior to the release of Goldberg’s new book MR. MONK IN TROUBLE, the November 2009 issue featured a stand-alone mystery excerpt from that book starring Artemis Monk, an equally meticulous sleuth living in 1840 and an ancestor of the modern day character. Heartily recommended.
Now for the housekeeping.
I’ve been knocking a few barnacles off the ol’ Bridge, and will continue to do so in the next week or two. I plan to also offer a more frequent series of posts, so let’s hope the two projects don’t collide, burst into flame and make the biggest train wreck this side of the W3 Consortium.
For the curious among you, I backed up the database, moved to a different server, got WordPress installed, and will be changing the themes presently.
So, no more brown layout. Probably.
For the moment, the blogroll update isn’t functioning as I explore a couple different plug-ins.
I also eliminated the Twitter feed from the page, and, as it served its purpose of educating me to the ways of the tweet, I plan to shut it down. Our business has a feed, and we maintain feeds for others.
If I don’t cut back somewhere, I may drown in the social media pool.
And there are plenty of bodies already floating there, believe me.
Meanwhile, thanks to everyone who’s continued to read and comment during the past few months of sporadic and lightweight posts.
on March 3, 2010 at 3:09 pm
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It’s nice to know the western has so many avenues. So many thrilling links here.
on March 3, 2010 at 5:04 pm
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Been thinking about you.
on March 3, 2010 at 9:31 pm
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Appreciate the Skyler Hobbs plug, Rich. And I agree about that Pronzini story. Very cool.
on March 4, 2010 at 9:15 am
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Thank you for your kind words about The Western Online and your nice reviews of our stories.
on March 4, 2010 at 9:50 am
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Thanks for the heads up. I have a terrible habit that I’m trying to break, and that is I love to read short stories but I like to read them in a collection. I need to do more spontaneous reading of individual stories. These sound like some good uns.
on March 4, 2010 at 10:05 am
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David and Charles, some of these I’ve known about for a while and some I just found thanks to Dave Lewis. Like you, Charles, I almost always go for the anthology –like having a can of salted peanuts right in your lap as contrasted with hunting & pecking. Usually I print out stories as I find them and at some point collect them and move to the sofa with a big stack o’ paper. Given the choice, I’ll print out a story rather than read it on screen.
Patti –thanks! You too.
Evan, in 2010 I need to read more Pronzini. He has never let me down.
Matthew, thanks to you sir, for the fine work you do.
on March 4, 2010 at 10:21 am
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Yep Western Online is pretty much essential
on March 4, 2010 at 12:06 pm
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Thank you, very much, for the shout out regarding my stories. I am really thrilled you liked them. Thanks, again!
Kenneth Mark Hoover
on March 4, 2010 at 1:14 pm
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Gary –now that I’ve found it, I’m hooked.
Kenneth, you’re welcome. I’m looking forward to your full length Haxan novel.