Hell on the Prairie (26 page)

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Authors: Ford Fargo

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“
Good, that’s settled. Now get into
bed. Been a long day, and we both need our shut-eye.”

Ben lay next to Danny, gazing at the boy for
quite some time after Danny had fallen asleep.

A son,
he
thought.
This changes everything. Got to
make sure my boy’s got a future in Wolf Creek. That means makin’
sure it’s a safe place for him to grow up. Guess I’ll be strappin’
on my guns again. And first chance I get I’m gonna tell Sheriff
Satterlee I’ll take that deputy’s job.

Of course, there was the small matter of Tsu
Chiao’s three dead “nephews.” Ben pushed that thought out of his
mind. Right now, his only concern was Danny. He fell asleep with
his arm wrapped protectively around his son.

THE END

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

JAMES J.GRIFFIN

I've had a great interest
in the West and particularly Texas Rangers from when I was a kid,
so it was natural when I started writing the Rangers would be the
subject of my novels. Over the years I've accumulated enough
knowledge about the Rangers to be considered an amateur historian
of the organization. I also amassed a large collection of Texas
Ranger artifacts, which are now in the permanent collections of the
Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco. Currently, I am in
the midst of writing a ten issue series of short stories for High
Noon Press. These are ebooks, titled A Ranger Named Rowdy, A Texas
Ranger Tim Bannon story. The first four are already available, with
six more to follow.
My other great passion in life is horses, especially Paints. I've
owned horses most of my life, and currently own an American Paint
Horse named Yankee. He is a Pet Partners certified therapy animal,
and we make visits to local hospitals and nursing homes. In
addition, Yank and I are members of the Connecticut Horse Council
Volunteer Horse Patrol. We act as auxiliary park rangers,
patrolling state parks and forests.
I'm a native New Englander, and as much as I love the West I love
New England, particularly my adopted home state of New Hampshire,
even more. Currently, I divide my time between Branford,
Connecticut and Keene, New Hampshire.
To learn more about my books, and see some of Yankee's tricks,
check out my website at
www.jamesjgriffin.net
.

JERRY GUIN

I’m happy as heck to be included in
this anthology. “Asa Pepper’s Place,” was a challenge that I could
not resist. Since writing the first chapter of
Wolf Creek 3: Murder in Dogleg City
last year,
I’ve had some other new publications:

In April, “Justified” –a short story in
eBook form –was published by High Noon Press.

On June 15, La Frontera
released
Dead or Alive,
an
anthology which includes my story “Who Shot Billy Dean.” Coming
soon: “Charlie’s Money,” a novella in eBook from High Noon Press;
my novel
Drover’s Bounty
, a
Black Horse Western from Robert Hale, has a release date of August
30th. All are available at Amazon under Jerry Guin or J.L.
Guin.

CLAY MORE

Clay More is actually my western pen
name. My real name is Keith Souter and I live in England within
arrow-shot of the ruins of a medieval castle, the scene of two of
my historical novels. I am a part time doctor, medical journalist
and novelist, writing in four different genres - crime, historical,
YA and westerns. I also enjoy the challenge of short fiction for
which I have won a couple of prizes, including a 2006 Fish Award
for my story
The Villain’s
Tale
.

My medical background finds its way
into a lot of my writing, as can be seen in most of my western
novels. My character in Wolf Creek is Doctor Logan Munro, the town
doctor, who is gradually revealing more about himself with each
book he appears in. Another of my characters is Doctor Marcus
Quigley, dentist, gambler and bounty hunter who is appearing as a
monthly eBook short story, published by High Noon Press. I am a
member of various writers’ organisations, including Western
Fictioneers and Western Writers of America. If you care to find out
more about me, visit my website:
http://www.keithsouter.co.uk

JACQUIE ROGERS

I’m a country girl at heart, raised on a
dairy farm in Idaho — a great place to grow up. My friend and
I rode our horses all over the Owyhee Mountains and managed to get
ourselves in just about every sort of pickle. We fought
outlaws all over Graveyard Point and won every time. Now I
live in the suburbs of Seattle with my husband who is also my
cheerleader (sans pompoms) and proofreader. I write in
several genres including fantasy romance, and YA fantasy, but
mostly western historical romance. The fourth book in my
award-winning Hearts of Owyhee series will be released later this
year. The first three titles are Much Ado About Marshals,
Much Ado About Madams, and Much Ado About Mavericks. Judge
Not is the first installment of The Muleskinner series of short
stories, and as well as my debut foray into wild world of
traditional westerns, which are my first love.

I love to hear from
readers! Please visit my website,
http://www.JacquieRogers.com
or join the fun at Facebook,
http://www.facebook.com/JacquieRogersAuthor
.
I also wrangle the popular western blog, Romancing The
West,
http://romancingthewest.blogspot.com
,
and the Western Historical Romance Book Club on Facebook,
http://www.facebook.com/groups/WHRbookclub
.

CHERYL PIERSON

A native Oklahoman, I live in Oklahoma
City and write historical westerns and western romance. My Wolf
Creek character, Derrick McCain, who is featured in “It Takes a
Man,” is also included in
WC Book 1:
Bloody Trail,
and
WC Book 5:
Showdown at Demon’s Drop.
Look for more about Derrick
and his half-brother, Carson Ridge, in the exciting WC Christmas
anthology coming this fall, and thanks for dropping in on the
citizens of Wolf Creek!

My short story, “The Keepers of
Camelot,” included in the Western Fictioneers’ Christmas
anthology
Six Guns and Slay Bells: A
Creepy Cowboy Christmas
, was nominated for the 2013
Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award in the short story category. I
also have a new release,
Kane’s
Chance
, that will appeal to all ages. It’s a
coming-of-age story of a young boy in the old west, a novel you
won’t want to miss.

Right now, my website is under construction,
but you can click here for a listing of all my work:

TROY D. SMITH

I am from the Upper Cumberland region
of Tennessee. My work has appeared in many anthologies, and in
journals such as
Louis L'Amour Western
Magazine, Civil War Times,
and
Wild West.
In addition, I’ve written novels in
several genres—from mysteries like
Cross
Road Blues
to the Civil War epic
Good Rebel Soil
. My other Civil War epic,
Bound for the Promise-Land,
won a
Spur Award in 2001 and I was a finalist on two other occasions.
I’ve been a finalist for the Peacemaker Award three times, winning
once for best short story, and am currently serving as president of
Western Fictioneers. I received my Ph.D. from the University of
Illinois, and teach American Indian history at Tennessee Tech. My
motto is: “I don’t write about things that happen to people, I
write about people that things happen to.” My website is
www.troyduanesmith.com
, and my blog is
http://tnwordsmith.blogspot.com
.

CHUCK TYRELL

I’ve read westerns all my life. The
first one I remember was Smokey, by Will James. I read everything I
could find, living far away from the west in Japan. In 1979, I
wrote a western novel for a Louis L’Amour write-alike contest.
Didn’t win. Decided I could not write fiction. The typewritten
manuscript occupied a bottom desk drawer until 2000. I dusted it
off and edited it as I input it into a computer file. Sent it off
to a publisher, Robert Hale Ltd., in London. They bought it
providing I’d cut it down to 40,000 words. The novel is now known
as
Vulture Gold
, the first of
the Havelock novels.

Besides awards in advertising and
article writing, a short story won the 2010 Oaxaca International
Literature Competition and my novel
The
Snake Den
won the 2011 Global eBook Award for western
fiction. Other than that, I just write westerns and fantasy. My
home is in Japan, where I live with one wife and one dog and one
father-in-law, visited quite often by daughters and grandkids. I
write most of my fiction by longhand, usually at Starbucks. Other
writing I do on the laptop. My website is
www.chucktyrell.com
and my
blog is
www.chucktyrell-outlawjournal.blogspot.com
I have a number of short stories lying around in various
anthologies.