#CHRISTMAS TIDINGS - Meg Mims

Christmas Tidings

Merry Christmas from the Western Fictioneers! Have you been following the Wolf Creek series? It's an exciting string of books by Ford Fargo, who is a "conglomerate" of WF members writing varied protagonists who populate the fictional 1871 Kansas town of Wolf Creek - "a wild, wide open town where no one asks about your past, because almost everyone has a secret." So soon after the "War of Rebellion", many residents have moved west and now scrape out a living in the prairie-tough town... but not everyone survives the dusty streets, back alleys and sometimes dangerous saloons.

Book 1: Bloody Trail, starts off with a literal bang - when a a small army of former Confederate guerrillas rob the bank, leaving many innocents dead after their hasty departure. Sheriff G.W. Satterlee and his posse must overtake the outlaws before they reach Indian Territory—but the chase is complicated by the secret pasts of several members… The series continued the adventures from Book 2: Kiowa Vengeance, Book 3: Murder in Dogleg City and all the way through Book 8: Night of the Assassins. You can bet the latter has some sinister action! It's such a great series, and best to read them in order - except for the Christmas anthologies. Those will give a reader a taste of just how interesting these characters are, and what kinds of trouble they face.

Some of the authors participating in the Wolf Creek series include Troy D. Smith, Bill Crider, Phil Dunlap, Jory Sherman, James J. Griffin, L. J. Martin, Cheryl Pierson, Charlie Steel, Robert J. Randisi, James Reasoner, Clay More, Chuck Tyrell, L. J. Washburn, Big Jim Williams, Matthew Pizzolato, Jacquie Rogers, and many others. 

I introduced a new character in last year's Christmas anthology - Book 9: A Wolf Creek Christmas. Phoebe Wright, who is always right, is a widow who arrives in town to make sure her niece, Lucy, is safe. No letters have arrived from either Lucy or Phoebe's sister Ann Haselton, the town's teacher.

Unfortunately Phoebe soon learns that Ann died months ago during the guerrilla bank raid while protecting a child - and that Lucy has vanished. Phoebe knows her niece had very little money, so the search is on... She soon runs into other problems including the greedy saloon owner Ira Breedlove - whose place breeds only the love of money, and who doesn't appreciate Phoebe's righteous and judgmental attitude.

Phoebe definitely has her hands full in "A Savior Is Born" (written by Meg Mims).

But Book 9 also includes many other interesting stories featuring Roman Hatchett, a world-weary trapper (written by Jory Sherman), Gib Norwood, a dairy farmer (by Jacquie Rogers), Indian scout Charley Blackfeather and deputy marshal Quint Croy (by Troy D. Smith), and livery owner Ben Tolliver (by James J. Griffin) -- everyone seems to get a holiday surprise. The anthologies, as stated before, give readers new to the series a taste of great characters.

And the fun doesn't end there. Another Christmas anthology is Book 10: O Deadly Night, which explores more holiday happenings. Hutch Higgins needs a doctor (written by Big Jim Williams), new arrival Kelly O’Brian finds an unholy welcome (by Charlie Steel); town doctor Logan Munro just wants to celebrate Hogmanay (by Clay More), Billy Below and his favorite soiled dove team up for the holiday (by Chuck Tyrell), while Derrick McCain's sister slowly recovers from trauma (by Cheryl Pierson), and Marshal Sam Gardner stays busy (by Troy D. Smith) during the not-so-peaceful post-Christmas season in Wolf Creek.

While the series has slowed down a bit, with two books out since last year, it still continues the adventures of the town's embattled law officers dealing with a devilish rancher in Book 11: Stand Proud and Book 12: The Dead of Winter. And more books should be coming in 2015, according to Troy D. Smith, the series' editor - a tough job, given the interweaving of so many characters and so many viewpoints in a complex plot and setting. It's masterful, to say the least.

Once again, Merry Christmas, happy reading of the wild and woolly west, and a prosperous New Year in 2015 from the Western Fictioneers!

Mystery author Meg Mims lives in Southeastern Michigan with her husband and a 'Make My Day' Malti-poo dog. Meg loves writing novels, short novellas and short stories, both contemporary and historical. Her Spur and Laramie Award winning books - Double Crossing and Double or Nothing - are now among the Prairie Rose Publications book list. Meg is also one-half of the D.E. Ireland team writing the Eliza Doolittle & Henry Higgins Mystery series for St. Martin's Minotaur. Wouldn't It Be Deadly, Book 1, is out now! Book 2, Move Your Blooming Corpse, will be out in 2015. You can find Meg (and D.E. Ireland) on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. If you're in the mood for short, sweet Christmas novellas with rescue dogs and cats, check out the following:

Click here to get to Amazon!

Review Roundup: Christmas and Candle-making

Wolf Creek: O Deadly Night (Volume 10)
By Ford Fargo
Western Fictioneers, November 2013
$9.99 paperback, ISBN 1493727133
$2.99 Kindle, ASIN B00GFF6SYG
$2.99 other e-formats, ISBN 978-1493727131
188 pages

Wolf Creek series editor Troy D. Smith has a gift for intriguing, often pun-laden, titles. That gift is displayed right up front in Wolf Creek’s tenth overall volume and second Christmas anthology, O Deadly Night.

Like the first collection of holiday-themed short stories (A Wolf Creek Christmas), O Deadly Night visits some of the Kansas cattle town’s familiar denizens and introduces a few newcomers.

At the rate newcomers were spilling from the woodwork in the previous Christmas anthology, it seemed Wolf Creek might explode before 1871 ended. Thankfully, the pace of immigration seems to have slowed by O Deadly Night. Only two new characters are introduced: farmer Hutch Higgins (written by Big Jim Williams) and Irish drifter Kelly O’Brian (Charlie Steel). O’Brian, formerly a track-layer for the railroad, may become a rancher in partnership with his long-lost brother and an easterner…if the three of them survive a white-slavery ring operating way too close to Wolf Creek for comfort. Steel’s “Irish Christmas at Wolf Creek” introduces the sort of never-say-die character Wolf Creek needs with the body count rising as it has been lately.

In Williams’ “Sarah’s Christmas Miracle,” Wolf Creek gets another man trying to live down a shameful past in anonymity. By the time Higgins gets his Christmas wish—a miracle cure for his dying daughter—readers will be privy to the farmer’s darkest secrets, but the citizens of Kansas have no idea the kind of trouble Higgins’ mere presence could attract.

While Cheryl Pierson’s contribution, “A Home for Christmas,” doesn’t exactly introduce new characters, the stars of the story have played only minor roles previously. When Kathleen Hyder decides to leave her abusive, minister husband, she little suspects a chance encounter with a childhood friend, Cherokee Lighthorse officer Carson Ridge, will lead to an affair of the heart. Readers who have followed the series from the beginning probably will delight in seeing judgmental, mean-spirited Rev. Dill Hyder get his comeuppance, and Kathleen and Carson fairly sizzle together.

Chuck Tyrell’s “The Angel Tree” is the most touching of the six stories. Soiled dove Brandy, who previously appeared only long enough to deal with series regular Billy Below’s embarrassing gunshot wound, befriends a group of starving urchins. Outcast because their mothers work as whores in the low-rent cribs, the kids are convinced an angel will deliver them from infamy on Christmas. Tyrell wrings sniffles and smiles from readers with this heartwarming tale.

“The Spirit of Hogmanay,” by Clay More, drops readers into the middle of Dr. Logan Munro’s busy holiday and a minor mystery involving some expensive scotch. As usual, More entertains and educates, providing fascinating—often surprising—medical details laced with Scottish wit and no little charm. Hogmanay, the Scottish New Year’s observance, is a melancholy period, but More spices Munro’s experience with hope for the future.

Smith’s “O Deadly Night,” which lends its title to the entire volume, is the darkest of the tales. As 1871 draws to a close, Marshal Sam Gardner is called upon to put a literal end to a local troublemaker. The deed must be done, and Gardner faces that knowledge with typical stoicism. Afterward, reaction from the townsfolk has him doubting himself and mankind in general. Usually a wiseacre to the core, the marshal reflects on the year in an uncharacteristically morose exchange over a drink with Munro.

O Deadly Night is an entertaining end-of-the-year read—but more than that, it displays the depth and breadth of life in Wolf Creek in a new way. Taken together, the two Wolf Creek Christmas anthologies hint that 1872 may be one heckuva year in Kansas.


“The Art of Dipping Candles”
By Judy Alter
Self-published, February 2011
$0.99 Kindle, ASIN B004M18Q1I
$0.00 other e-formats, ISBN 9781458181565
6 pages

A Comanche raid on a North Texas farm leaves lasting scars on a mother and her preteen daughter in Judy Alter’s ultra-short, powerful “The Art of Dipping Candles.” Told from the young girl’s point of view, the story resonates with fear, a mother’s all-consuming love for her children, and a daughter’s aching loss.

Alter has said she based the story on a real incident that took place in the 1880s, but the emotional punch is universal and timeless.

Read this one. It will haunt you.


Kathleen Rice Adams is a Texan, a voracious reader, a professional journalist, and an author. She received a review copy of Wolf Creek: O Deadly Night from the publisher. Her opinions are her own and are neither endorsed nor necessarily supported by Western Fictioneers or individual members of the organization. Links in the review are for convenience only; they do not produce affiliate revenue.

Sunday Short Story

My Take on
Short Stories
by Jacquie Rogers

Normally, the guest for Short Story Saturday tells us all about his favorite. I’m taking a different angle, since I came at short stories from a rather odd route. You see, I despised short stories when I was younger, mostly because of the dreadful reading assignments in junior high and high school, and I didn’t read another one until I actually wrote one in 2006.

Even then, I didn’t appreciate value of shorter fiction, although I quickly gained an understanding of the form — they’re not the same style of writing as novels. Some writers do better in short form, some are better at novels, and only a few are good at both. Now I greatly appreciate the talent of an author who can tell a compelling story in under 10,000 words, complete with characterization, conflict, and a satisfying ending.

With that in mind, I’m going to tell you where to get some terrific short stories. The first is a one-man anthology by Troy D. Smith, The Blackwells: Volume 1 (I haven’t read Volume 2, but it’s available). The Blackwells are brothers from Tennessee who set out for California in 1849. Naturally, they end up going their separate ways, each stumbling into exciting and sometimes scary adventures. Every single one of the stories in Volume 1 is excellent. We start off in true Western style with Max, who’s in the US Cavalry, fighting for his life against Indians, and the last story, The Wendigo, has a good dose of thriller because... well, there’s a wendigo. This volume shows the incredible range of Smith’s talents, much like a five-octave singer who’s just as at home singing opera as rap.

Another writer who is just as entertaining in short form as in novels is Robert J. Randisi. His story in Six-guns and Slay Bells: A Creepy Cowboy Christmas is Sheriff Santa and the Ghost of Two Gun Jim, a true delight to read and definitely a different take on Santa. I enjoyed all the stories in this Christmas anthology.

And about those Christmas anthologies—I love those best of all! And one of the authors in Six-guns, Cheryl Pierson, also has a story in Wishing for a Cowboy called Outlaw’s Kiss. Lemme tell you, that was some kiss! Debut author Kathleen Rice Adams shows her talent with a heartwarming story, Peaches.  This anthology features another author who’s just as accomplished at short and long fiction — Livia J. Washburn, who wrote Charlie’s Pie.  Loved the emotion and it has an exciting shoot-out, too, just in time for Christmas.

Which brings us back to Troy D. Smith, and his two Christmas stories, A Kiowa Christmas Gift in A Wolf Creek Christmas  and O Deadly Night in the anthology of the same name.  The first features Troy’s Wolf Creek character, Charley Blackfeather as he helps keep the peace between the Kiowa and the cavalry. The second features his other Wolf Creek character, Sam Gardner. 

I can’t tell you which character I like best because they’re so different. Gardner is a lawman in the spirit of Wyatt Earp and gains more depth as the series continues — a very complex character. But then so is Charley Blackfeather, a Seminole/black scout who has endured war his entire life, is nearly indestructible, but is also very spiritual.

So there you have it, five anthologies with nary a so-so story in the lot. Christmas is a season when I love to get my fiction fix, but it’s also insanely busy. Sounds like short stories are just the thing!  And you know what?  At this time of year, I'll generally pick up a shorter work instead of a novel.  I'm more surprised at that than anyone.  But don't get me wrong — I've always loved to read novels, and always will.  It's just an added bonus to enjoy these short stories, too.

Jacquie Rogers

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♥ Hearts of Owyhee ♥ series, ♦♣ Sleight of Heart ♠♥

'Twas the Fight Before Christmas (Wolf Creek, Book 9: A Wolf Creek Christmas)

A Gift for Rhoda (Wishing for a Cowboy)