Rope and Wire Western Short Stories (vol. 1)

Telling stories to his four children was treasured, but somewhat limited due to Jim's busy work schedule. However, when his grandchildren appeared, time was taken to shape their minds with colorful tales almost daily. There was no end to the hundreds of stories told in bedrooms, playrooms, cars, or outside sitting on the grass.

Often times, neighbor kids joined them with wide eyes and big ears. Jim has accepted the challenge from his children to record some of his stories for the generations of tomorrow. His writings will promote the need to live a good life with high morals as his vocal tales have always conveyed. His hope is to create the same excitement through script as through his vocal words. Jim resides in Syracuse, Indiana, with his wife, Wilma. BILL is the author of more than fifty published novels and numerous short stories.

He has also published short stories in the western and horror genres in eZines such as Frontier Tales and the Lovecraft eZine. Born and raised outside of Washington, D. In a farming community in west Tennessee, John Neely Davis was known as one of the premier riders of unruly stick horses. Between the ages of three and seven, he was thrown only once and that by an exceptionally rank sassafras. His father, a part-time Oklahoman, told tales of towns with exotic names: So, his love of the west was nurtured. His interest in the west continued and was intensified by the years of living in Amarillo and working in the Southwest.

He has authored two novels with Appalachian themes and contributed to various anthologies. More than half century ago, he was banished from The University of Tennessee for disinterest, impulsiveness, and poor spelling. Winner of the Peacemaker and Spur awards, Patrick Dearen is the author of twenty-one books.

A native of Sterling City, Texas, he earned a bachelor of journalism from The University of Texas in and received several awards as a reporter for two West Texas daily newspapers. Dearen wears two hats. His other novels include Perseverance. A ragtime pianist and backpacking enthusiast, Dearen makes his home in Midland, Texas, with his wife Mary and their son Wesley. Wayne lives in the once-notorious old cowtown of Ogallala, on the hinge of Nebraska's panhandle.

A widower, retired from a managerial position in the magnetics industry, Dundee now devotes full time to his writing. To date, he has had over twenty novels and more than three dozen short stories published. Most of his early work featured his PI protagonist, Joe Hannibal. Titles in the Hannibal series have been translated into several languages and nominated for an Edgar, an Anthony, and six Shamus Awards. Dundee is also the founder and original editor of Hardboiled Magazine.

In recent years Dundee has branched into the Western genre and has gained a growing following there. He is the recipient of three Peacemaker Awards from Western Fictioneers: Dundee is planning more Westerns as well as further novels and stories featuring Joe Hannibal, and hopes to also find time to explore other genres. You can learn more about Big Wayne and his writing at: Ken quickly discovered his love for acting when he starred as a cowboy in a Dairy Queen commercial when he was raising registered Beefmaster cattle and Quarter Horses at his ranch in East Texas.

Ken now lives near Gainesville, TX, where he continues to write novels. Ken wrote a screenplay back in the '80s, The Tumbleweed Wagon. His father was born in and saw the last of the Old West.

His grandfather was Blackfoot born in a tepee on the reservation in Montana. He was a hunter and horseman who brought a great deal of Old West influence into the Fisher family. From them Dave heard the stories of the West that was. A life-long Westerner Dave inherited that pioneer blood and followed in the footsteps of his ancestors.

Originally from Oregon, he worked cattle and rode saddle broncs. His adventures have taken him across the wilds of Alaska as a horsepacker and hunting guide, through the Rocky Mountains of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado where he wrangled, guided and packed for a variety of outfitters. Dave weaves this experience through his writing, drawing readers into his stories by their realism and his personal knowledge of the West, its people, and character. Award-winning, multi-published author Tracy Garrett has always loved to disappear into the pages of a book.

An accomplished musician, Tracy merged her need for creativity, love of history, and passion for reading when she began writing western historical romance. First published in , Tracy joined Prairie Rose Publications in its inaugural anthology in She is a regular blogger on Petticoats and Pistols. Tracy resides in Missouri with her husband and their fuzzy kid, Wrigley. Find out more about Tracy at: I come from an extended family of creative souls. Artists, designers, woodworkers and yes, even a couple of writers.

So it was no surprise to me that I had inherited some of these creative genes. It happened about 9 or 10 years ago. Having grown up in the 's when westerns were at the height of popularity in all forms of media, I was absorbed into the culture like many other kids my age. Over the years I've watched the popularity of the genre slip to a low point as it gave way to more current and popular topics such as vampires and werewolves. I felt the need to do something to help the western genre get back to center stage, so I started a western website called Rope and Wire.

I use the site to help promote western authors and the West in general through western short stories and other articles. In the beginning, the site had very little content and I knew if it was to survive I needed to step up and add some of my own work. Problem was, I didn't have any of my own work. Up until this time I hadn't written much more than a grocery list. So I did my homework and figured out the basics of how to write a short story. With each story I wrote, it became easier.

So my writing career didn't really start until I was fifty. Since then, the Rope and wire website has produced five ebooks and hosted two writing contests. I have my first novel ready to be sent to publishers. This will be authored under my given name, Scott A. For the past 50 years I've lived on the west coast, in Oregon's Willamette Valley. A second western novel, Mabry's Challenge, also written under the name Ben Tyler and published by Five Star-Cengage is due out later in A non-fiction book, With Shirttails Flying, was published in Shirttails is a true Hoosiers-like story about a Kentucky high school championship basketball team of which he was a member.

Ben currently lives in Western Kentucky near Kentucky Lake. He worked as a high school teacher right out of college, and then moved on to the chemical manufacturing industry where he worked in the Human Resources field. He has a particular interest in the Texas Rangers, and has accumulated enough knowledge about the organization to be considered an amateur historian of the Rangers.

He has traveled throughout the western United States and Canada, both for vacation and research. Jim is also a lifelong horseman, and his love and knowledge of horses is reflected in his writings. Horses are always an integral part of Jim's Western novels and short stories. The horses in his stories are based on the horses he has owned, with their personalities, peculiarities, and quirks.

Jim began writing at the urging of author and fellow Western Fictioneer James Reasoner. With his interest in the Rangers, it was only natural Jim would write Texas Ranger novels.

Rod Knowles (Author of Rope and Wire Western Short Stories (Vol 4))

Jerry is a former sailor and lumber trader and an avid outdoorsman. He wrote his first western short story for Western Digest in then ventured into longer tales. Jerry Guin was born in Chicot County, Arkansas and lived for a time in Louisiana, Michigan and Idaho before settling into the mountainous community of Salyer, in extreme northern California with proofreader wife Ginny. I spent my early years in Santa Cruz, California, swimming, fishing, and wallowing in the splendor of redwoods, the Monterey Bay, and a loving family.

Then, my four years of high school were spent living on the Island of Guam. That was back in the early s Yes, Virginia, I am that old, but only in body, not spirit. My first job in radio was in I bought the Virginia City Legend newspaper in that old western mining community in , and retired from having a job in My beautiful wife Patty and I live on a small hobby farm about twenty miles north of Reno, Nevada, sharing space with a couple of fine horses, a flock of egg-producing chickens, and some breeding rabbits.

I need help cleaning those corrals. My background is somewhat diverse. I'm a retired Naval officer, former Human Resources Director and adjunct professor. I've been writing short stories for years had over 80 published including some in the Western genre. I wrote 3 Western novels: Hays lives in South Carolina in a little house full of books and photographs.

When not off in her own little world, she can usually be found outside with a camera in one hand, or supervising the Creative Writing categories of WikiAnswers. Bob Herzberg was born in Brooklyn, N. He's performed standup comedy, improv and murder-mystery dinner theater in both N. In the past six years, he has had six books published: One day, they hope to live out west.

Short Stories and Collaborations

A short story writer, and the author of thirty-four novels and one book of non fiction, Doug makes his home in Colorado Springs with his wife Kathy. When not writing or traveling to research his novels, Doug enjoys collecting and restoring old English sports cars.

You can find more about Douglas Hirt at www. Dale Jackson and his wife, Mary, reside on their ranch near Oakdale, California in the foothills of the Sierras where they have raised registered Angus cattle for the past years. He is ex-military, a retired wine industry executive and a full-time writer. Originally from Minnesota, he was raised in the Big Sky country of Montana before relocating to California where the water troughs rarely freeze and there isn't much use for a snow shovel.

Linell Jeppsen is a writer of science fiction and fantasy. Her vampire novel, Detour to Dusk, has received over four and five star reviews. Story Time was also nominated as the best new read of by the PRG! Her dark fantasy novel, Onio a story about a half-human Sasquatch who falls in love with a human girl , was released in December and won 3rd place as the best fantasy romance of by the PRG reviewers guild!

Onio also sports over 4 and 5 star reviews! She is in a collaborative effort with the Welsh author, J. Bryden Lloyd in, The Guardians- a science fiction, serialized thriller with over 30 reviews here and in the UK! The Guardians just won 2nd place as the best serialized science fiction novel of by the PRG! For more information about Linell Jeppsen and her novels, visit http: He lives in Los Angeles. Carla is the author of more than 35 novels and umpteen short stories, as well as a few non-fiction works.

Carla began her writing career — have to call it something — with a series of short stories about the post Civil War frontier army. She also has three Whitney Awards from LDStorymakers for her historical fiction novels, all of which are set in the West. Carla lives in Idaho Falls, Idaho, with her husband Martin, a retired director of academic theatre.

Their five children are located here and there around the country. She has a cool website at www. He was previously responsible for building and running the Derivatives business at First Union since its inception in January Berkeley for ten years, and then moved to Wall Street for ten years, structuring, trading, and marketing various fixed income and derivative products, largely for Bankers Trust and Lehman Brothers.

While at Berkeley, he spent two years on leave in Washington, D. Treasury, and the Council of Economic Advisers. Steve has a B. He is currently on the Boards of Directors of Ametek, Inc. He and his wife Gale reside in Charleston, S. He has worked as a community newspaper reporter, a columnist, and a freelance literary publicist. For over fifteen years he has worked with several acclaimed authors, such as Pulitzer Prize Finalist S. John Legg has had more than 50 Westerns published, including a number of series novels, and one book of Western nonfiction.

He has also done a number of articles on Western history for national magazines.

John has been a newspaper copy editor for more than 30 years. Born and raised in New Jersey, John spent almost 30 years in Arizona and is now living temporarily in Florida. Retiring in , he served the next 29 years as a Financial Advisor with Merrill Lynch and began his first novel during his last years there.

His two published Western short stories were finalists in They have two married daughters, five grandchildren, and one great grandson. He has been a movie theater manager, a tour guide at Sun Studio, a singer in a punk band, and a regular donor of blood for money. He lives in a quiet neighborhood near Detroit. I live in Boise, Idaho with my husband, four children and numerous pets. As a family we spend a lot of time outdoors and take advantage of all the great recreational amenities that are very easily accessible here in Southwest Idaho. I have a poem on Cowboypoetry.

I am very excited to be a part of this group and hope to learn a lot about others who share this passion for the west.

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Being the all around assistant, typist, researcher, and fact checker to one of the most popular western authors of all time, JA Johnstone learned from the master, Uncle William W. William began tutoring JA at an early age. After-school hours were often spent retyping manuscripts or researching his massive American Western History library as well as the more modern wars and conflicts. Bill taught me all he could about the art of storytelling and creating believable characters. Johnstone you can be. Bestselling author Kat Martin is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara where she majored in Anthropology and also studied History.

Currently residing with her Western-author husband, L. More than sixteen million copies of her books are in print and she has been published in twenty foreign countries. This will be the 12th novel in a row to be included on that prestigious list. Kat is currently at work on her next Romantic Suspense. Martin is the author of 26 western, western romance, mystery, and thriller novels from Bantam, Pinnacle, Avon, and Wolfpack Publishing, in addition to several non-fiction books. He lives in Montana with his wife, Kat, who has over 55 romantic suspense and historical romance novels internationally published in a dozen languages and more than two dozen countries.

His photography has appeared on magazine covers and in periodicals. Marthayn Pelegrimas has been writing professionally for more than twenty years. Four of her stories have been chosen for Ed Gorman and Martin H. She is also the author of over published poems. Her freelance articles and interviews have appeared in Omaha Magazine, Penthouse, St. Louis Magazine and Hot Talk. She is currently at work on a stand alone Paranormal thriller.

A misplaced westerner, Shayna Matthews was raised in rural Pennsylvania. A Revolutionary War era Reenactor since she was three, American history runs through her blood. She is a veteran weaver and even met her husband at an 18th Century gun show. Living history has only fueled her desire to chase her childhood dream - to write western fiction. She says the American West is the embodiment of human spirit; she strives to reflect that spirit in her stories.

Shayna currently resides in Maryland with her husband Dave, their son, Zane, and two mischievous Welsh Corgis. In , she learned to weave straps and sashes for traditional dress and firearm usage. Her work can be found in numerous museums, television documentaries and the occasional historical movie. Active in 19th Century Old West Era encampments. Weaving fictional tales with words is a daily pastime for Shayna.

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Currently, she is working on researching and writing a series of epic western novels set in s Texas. Mayo has written more than twenty-five books and dozens of short stories. He also collaborated with his wife, photographer Jennifer Smith-Mayo, on a series of popular hardcover books. The Mayos run Gritty Press www.

Born and raised in Arizona, and recently returned after a year absence in Pittsburgh, Kristy writes Old West romances to capture the landscapes that were such a big part of her childhood. Kristy holds two engineering degrees but storytelling has always been her favorite hobby.

She travels frequently with her husband and channels her love of adventure by reviewing books for Women's Adventure magazine. She lives in the Arizona desert north of Phoenix, where she and her husband frequently remove rescue rattlesnakes from their property. Her four teenaged children are in varying stages of flying the nest, so her two chocolate labs—Ranger and Lily—are the recipients of her maternal instincts these days. Born on a mountain top in Tennessee. Ok, then; Daniel Boone was a man. Born and raised in Kansas, John JD McCall's first ever ambition was to be a stand-up comedian, a goal strongly discouraged by the many teachers who were forced to put up with his antics in class.

He did manage to finally shelve that aspiration and earned a B. Having just had his second novel, South of Rising Sun, released by Western Trail Blazer, he wonders what he is doing here among such prolific and talented writers on Western Fictioneers but hopes to gain from them some invaluable knowledge on how to craft an even better third effort, as well as a few tips on how to promote his work. He resides in the city of his birth, Ottawa, Kansas, with his wife and three children, along with three Labrador-mix dogs who do everything caninely possible to see that he has no spare time to write.

Gary McCarthy is the author of fifteen published American historical and thirty-four westerns novels. The author is well suited to writing about the American West; he grew up with horses and received a B. Before becoming a full time novelist, McCarthy was employed as an economist. He is very interested in Native American cultures, especially the Navajo, Hualapai and Hopi and historical preservation of southwestern western archaeological sites.

McCarthy had been president of two Rotary Clubs and served on many community boards. Gary McCarthy has over four million books in print and resides in Arizona with his wife, Jane. He enjoys hiking and horseback riding in the Grand Canyon Rim Country when he is not traveling the Southwest in search of new stories upon which to base his next novel.

Follow the Author

Doris McCraw began her creative career as a musician, actor and playwrite in Illinois. After moving to Colorado she continued to pursue all three. In Doris began writing poetry, non-fiction and under the name Angela Raines added fiction to her endeavors. She has presented three times and submitted papers for inclusion in their yearly symposium publications. As Angela Raines, Doris has written for Prairie Rose Publications with stories in their anthologies along with stand alone novellas.

Jill hails from Liverpool in England and is delighted to be included among the illustrious members of WF. She has two traditional Westerns published with Robert Hale in London, under the pen-name of Amos Carr both of which have recently gone to Large Print, world-wide. She has just signed the contract for her third Black horse, which should be out in the Spring. As a child, she used to go horse riding at every opportunity, kept it up until her twenties, and has recently returned to it. McKee worked and lived in Wyoming for over thirty years. He and his wife Kathy now make their home along the Colorado Front Range.

His short fiction has appeared in more than twenty commercial and literary publications around the country. He is also a recipient of the Wyoming Art Council's Literary Fellowship Award, as well as a three-time first-place winner of Wyoming Writers, Incorporated's adult fiction contest, and a two-time first-place winner of the National Writers Association's short fiction contest.

His third novel, Out of the Darkness, came out in June of She was a four-year-old whose parents had moved her there in hopes of curing her asthma. Inspired by seeing her grandfather stretched out on a sofa reading Zane Grey novels some of which were passed down to her , she owned a complete ZG set herself by age eighteen. Not surprisingly, he yearned to be a western hero. But people laughed whenever he put on a cowboy hat and he came to realize that his goal would have to be achieved vicariously.

He writes westerns under the name, James Clay. Jim's idea of a fun evening is to discuss western writers from the nineteenth century dime novel era to the present. Perhaps for that reason, he doesn't get invited to many social occasions, which allows him plenty of time for writing. A literary agent, James spends much of his working day grumbling about writers who consider their high school careers to be a source for The Great American Novel. Rod Miller is author of four novels, two works of nonfiction, two books of poetry, and several anthologized poems and short stories.

He is the recipient of two Western Writers of America Spur Awards, for poetry and short fiction, winner of the Westerners International Award for poetry, and finalist for Western Fictioneers Peacemaker awards for a novel and a short story. He is also author of several essays on the art and craft of writing poetry, which appear on CowboyPoetry. Other work includes Forewords and Introductions to books and magazine articles. Rod grew up in a cowboy family in Utah working with horses and cattle, and rode bareback broncs in the rodeo arena for several years, including for the Utah State University Rodeo Team.

Meg Mims is an award-winning author and artist. He is also a singer-songwriter of acoustic folk music, and an experienced mountain climber--having summitted almost all of Colorado's thousand foot peaks. He currently resides in Minnesota. I studied Medicine at Dundee University and practiced as a family doctor in the city of Wakefield in England for thirty years. I am now part time in private practice. I am currently writing a series to help people understand and deal with various conditions.

These are on strokes, depression, heart disease, dementia and diabetes. In addition, I write non-fiction books on subjects ranging from dice and dice games, to the Arthurian legends, to books on science, magic and golf. In I won a Fish Prize for my short fiction and writing as Keith Souter started a series of historical mysteries set around Sandal Castle, the ruined medieval castle that I live within arrowshot of.

My website is http: Writing as Ross Morton, Nik has 4 western novels published: Their daughter, son-in-law and grandson live nearby. Nik is Editor in Chief of Solstice Publishing and also reads submissions to their Solstice Westerns imprint — westernsubmissions. His articles, reviews, fiction, and poetry have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies.

He has had about thirty books published, including short story collections and novels as well as textbooks for his courses. John has won many awards for his work, including two awards from Wyoming Writers for encouragement of other writers and service to the organization, two Wyoming Arts Council literary fellowships one for fiction, one for non- fiction , a Western Writers of America Spur finalist award, and three Spur awards. I write or have written novels, stage plays, short stories, screenplays under my own name and as James Reno, Peter Gentry, Christina Savage, and Shana Carrol.

I have been at this job for about 35 years. I've come this far, reckon I'll keep at it. I wish you well. He has written a number of successful non-fiction titles as well, including a book on genre writing How to Write Action Adventure Novels. His book Invisible Empire: Since then he has been a steady writer for the series with almost 90 entries to his credit, which triples the amount written by creator Don Pendleton.

His skills and knowledge of the series have allowed him to be picked by the publishers to write the milestone novels such as , , and By day Micheal O'Flaherty works as a librarian: He has had two westerns published: He lives in Mallow, Co. I come by my love of westerns naturally. My parents loved the genre in books, television, and old radio which, for me, consisted of cassette copies of shows like The Lone Ranger.

My paternal grandfather loved western novels and devoured them. He amassed quite a collection, all of which went into storage after he died. A few years ago, my father and I divided up the novels. He took the Louis L'amour and I took the box that contained everything else.

From this treasure chest, I got to see many of the covers whose images I still remembered from childhood and the names of all the authors. Edson, William Colt MacDonald. It was a particular character, MacDonald's railroad detective Gregory Quist, that was the inspiration for my own western detective, Calvin Carter.

When I create Calvin Carter yarns, I have only one thing in mind: Write something my grandfather would have liked. By day, I'm a technical writer in my native Houston. My wife is a jewelry artist and my son is in sixth grade. I contribute a column to a group blog, Do Some Damage, devoted primarily to mysteries. Marcus Pelegrimas has worked in several different genres of fiction including western, mystery, horror and fantasy. He has ghostwritten entries in a popular western series.

Pendleton has been a professional writer for thirty years and has written in a variety of genres: Together, they wrote the crime novel, Roulette, the Search for the Sunrise Killer, and several nonfiction books. She's published three novels in her Catherine Winter Private Investigator Series, along with several standalone suspense thrillers. She's writing a second Samuel Garrison Western. She published the Western under L.

Pendleton as she did her P. She has published a number of nonfiction books dealing with life after death, and spirit communication. It was Don and Linda's first collaboration. To Dance With Angels, and their second book, Whispers From the Soul, that reinforced their interest in the paranormal, and inspired her to write additional books on the subject. Linda's interest in the old West, goes back to her early days watching Saturday Western movies and TV shows with her father in the s.

Her father was an avid reader of paperback Westerns, and growing up in California gave her the opportunity to visit the desert, ghost towns, gold rush country, and her favorite vacation spot, the California Sierra Nevada mountains. She had foreign publication in Japan, and will soon have a number of her books, including her Samuel Garrison Western, published in German translation. She has a daughter and son, four grandchildren, two great-granddaughters, and another on the way.

She resides in Northern California with her Ragdoll cat, Max. He is a devotee and student of frontier history and fiction, a lover of Western art. But if you are regular folks like me, you may like what I do. I became a devotee and student of frontier history and fiction at an early age. My novels are campfire tales, thoroughly researched and true to the conditions and character of the country and its inhabitants as they existed then. I do not believe that a painting must be surrealistic, weird or depressing to be art. Nor do I make apologies that my work is recognizable for what it was intended to represent.

I hope this makes you feel good. Cheryl was born in Duncan, Oklahoma, and grew up in Seminole, Oklahoma. She graduated from the University of Oklahoma, and holds a B. She has taught numerous writing classes and workshops over the past years and also works on an individual basis with many of her students, and other authors, locally and nationwide. Although Cheryl has sold articles to local newspapers as well as these many short stories, her first love remains romance novel writing. This book is available through Prairie Rose Publications. Cheryl lives with her husband in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where she has been for the past 25 years.

She has two grown children, ages 21 and Matthew Pizzolato has been interested in Westerns all of his life. He writes primarily Westerns but has been known to dabble in historical fiction and sci-fi. His short stories have been published online and in print.

He can be contacted via his personal website: After reading several of the short stories, I thought: I can do this. I went home, knocked out two short stories and mailed them off. And promptly forgot about them. A few weeks later, the Editor, Scott McMillan called to say he wanted the two stories I had submitted and asked if I had more. It was a very early morning call on a very cold day in Wisconsin. I thought I was hallucinating. I hung up and called him back, and was very pleasantly surprised that it had not been a dream. The rest just happened.

His work has also appeared at Optimist International and online at Boys' Life, as well as many non-fiction print publications. His first novel was released in Toronto in and was a finalist for the Dartmouth Book Award. Since that time he has published ten more novels, two collections of short stories, and several nonfiction titles. Murray lives and writes in southwestern Alberta and is currently published by Barbour, Baker, Harper One, Zondervan, and Harvest House as well as several other publishing firms — he works with publishers in Canada, America, the UK, and Holland.

His releases for include the novels: His diverse writing spans many genres including: Most of his work is available in ebook format for Kindle, Kobo, and Nook as well as in paperback. Would you like to tell us about a lower price? This ePulp contains the following traditional western short stories.

The Town Drunk - A story of deep remorse. Witness to a Death - Old timer, Jason McCord, tells the story of a day in his youth, when he was witness to not one, but two killings, from a vantage point never to be forgotten. Too Close For Comfort - Being in the wrong place at the wrong time can get a man killed, or close to it. The Lone Stranger - Some people will go to amazing lengths to get rid of a nuisance in their life. El Diablo - Revenge can consume a man. Tom Packer was on a mission to send the outlaw called El Diablo to hell for killing the love of his life.

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