AUTHOR FAVOURITES: HAWTHORNE: TALES OF A WEIRDER WEST by HEATH LOWRANCE

Heath Lowrance  writes across genres from western/horror hybrids to hard-boiled noir fiction.

He can’t pick a favourite of his own work but tells me his short story collection HAWTHORNE: TALES OF A WEIRDER WEST is ‘the best example of how I currently write.’

Hawthorne is a mysterious gunfighter with a cross-shaped scar on his forehead, driven by an all-consuming rage to seek out and destroy evil wherever he finds it. Without mercy.

He travels the Old West battling monsters and demons, encountering black magic, a coyote that’s more nearly a werewolf, an abandoned army fort infected by evil, a train passenger with a large, invisible rat for a companion, dead Native Americans whose mutilated bodies are covered with spiders webs…

Monsters sometimes featured in Native American superstitions. Comanche superstition, for example, included the massive Cannibal Owl, which descended in the dark to devour men. Comanches believed the giant mammoth bones that dotted the plains were the remains of this horrific creature. There were also nenuhpee, manlike leprechaun-ish things no more than a foot high; they shot arrows that always killed.

A Comanche man in 1892

I have to confess I’m not well-versed in western/horror movies.

One of Heath’s stories, ‘The Spider Tribe,’ reminded me of a 1963 TV series episode - ‘The Zanti Misfits’ from ‘The Outer Limits’ – where homicidal spiders from another planet overrun a western ghost town appropriately named Morgue.

Another western/horror hybrid I came across was BLACK NOON from 1971 where a traveling minister (played by ROY THINNES) finds a remote Old West community menaced by a cult of devil worshippers. 

Roy Thinnes and Yvette Mimieux in ‘BLACK NOON’

The last time I looked 86% of HAWTHORNE’s Amazon reviews are 5 star!

REVIEWS:

‘The Spider Tribe… a great deal of fun… will certainly give you the creeps if you're an arachnophobe.’

‘A great collection… a fine addition to the weird western genre.’

‘You’re in for a treat... Lowrance braids his stories together out of bits and pieces of western myth—the lone avenger, coyote legends—and ties them off with a modern, blood-soaked sensibility… enjoy being scared to death.’

https://www.amazon.com/Hawthorne-Tales-Weirder-Heath-Lowrance-ebook/dp/B00FZ0Z9GK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1490731412&sr=1-1-fkmr0

My review of THE SHOT RANG OUT by SCOTT HARRIS AND 51 FRIENDS

Acclaimed novelist SCOTT HARRIS set himself and 51 other authors the challenge of coming up with a 500 word short story with the same 18 word prompt:

‘The shot rang out. I heard her scream at the same time the bottle crashed to the floor.’

The result is the anthology THE SHOT RANG OUT. I’m one of these authors but I’m not reviewing my contribution.

One thing this anthology illustrates is the variety within the Western genre, something that has kept it alive for decades. And how many of these authors skilfully sidestep or eschew clichés to produce playful, original and surprising work. Certainly there’s a lot of saloons and gambling, including a lady gambler who bets a bottle of Napoleon brandy.

But there’s myth-makers too – Wild West shows, travelling players, dime novel writers alongside real western characters like Mark Twain, Calamity Jane and Doc Holliday.

We go from the humorous to the charming to the dark. From the action-packed – ‘Easy Work’ by RICK BREEDEN – to JOHN WHALEN’S ‘The Mescalero Incident’ with its sci-fi and horror elements. We have Mormons, lady outlaws and mail-order brides. Stories seen from the viewpoint of women, children and – in the case of LINDA HERMES’ ‘Hoot’n’Holler’ - two mules. 

VIC ANDERSON writes of the modern west. We get great opening lines – STEPHEN BURCKHARDT's ‘The heat was weighing on me like death on a corpse’ - and mean punchlines.  But CHERYL PIERSON bravely dispenses with a punch line and shows a short story can still hit the mark without one.  ERIC HARPER definitely has the best title. PATRICK MULDOON gives us a poem. Whilst some tales are ‘miniatures’ intensely focussed on one small incident, others like MICHAEL RITT’S ‘The Siren Song of Texas’ effectively pack a novel’s worth into 500 words.

If I was to list all the stories I liked this would be the world’s longest review. It’s difficult to pick favourites from among so many goodies, but three have particularly registered so far:

‘The Long Ride’ by TYLER BOONE flirts with the otherworldly. An outlaw on the run finds himself drinking – literally – in the ‘last chance saloon.’

‘One Last Job’ by RICHARD PROSCH. A lawman burying the pain of loss in alcohol decides to resolve the issue one way, but events steer him to another.

And ‘What Beats Three of a Kind’ by PAUL THOMAS which makes absolutely every word count.

Overall a collection of diverse thinkers having fun, and deceptively quick tales that reveal new layers each time you visit. Recommended.  

Other reviewers of THE SHOT RANG OUT:

‘One of the most unique and enjoyable books I have read in a very long time.’

‘The concept immediately suggests that these 52 stories will be repetitious. Yet nothing could be further from the truth… Short on words, long on pleasure.’

‘There are several stories I would love to see expanded into a full novel.’

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C2GFV2B/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1523345636&sr=1-1&keywords=the+shot+rang+out+scott+harris

and

 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07C2GFV2B/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1523345888&sr=1-1-fkmr1&keywords=the+shot+ring+out+scott+harris

AUTHOR FAVOURITES: THE WILDEST WEST by DOUG HOCKING

When I asked Arizona-based western writer Doug Hocking which was his favourite of his books, he came up with 3 books he couldn’t decide between. Some people just can’t make up their minds! So, given Doug has 3 joint first favourites, check out this one - THE WILDEST WEST, an anthology of stories about the Southwest in the 1850s & 1860s Doug says he’s really proud of. Notorious gun man Clay Allison features, alongside Kit Carson, Cochise and others.

SHOWDOWN AT ECHO AMPHITHEATRE is an historical fiction concerning an event in Kit Carson's life. 

In CAN WE STILL COLLECT THE BOUNTY gunfighter Clay Allison is embarrassed. 

In ESCAPE FROM MESILLA seven men escape from advancing Confederate forces at Mesilla in a stolen stagecoach only to encounter Cochise (who also features in my novel THE PEACEMAKER – sorry about the plug!)

What do you do when the government won't permit any law enforcement? Find out in THE MARSHAL OF ARIZONA.

Wind Wagon Thomas sails all the way to New Mexico in PIRATES OF THE LLANO ESTACADO.

A soldier who fought in the bloody battle of Cieneguilla in New Mexico writes home in LETTER FROM FORT BURGWIN. Cieneguilla, where the U.S. Cavalry fought the Jicarilla Apaches in 1854, is largely forgotten but is one of the costliest Indian-white skirmishes in Southwest history.

In THE POWER OF FOX AND SNAKE an Apache poses as a Spanish Grandee and becomes a riverboat gambler.

In THE LADY WAS A GUNFIGHTER a girl raised by Indians is taught to be a lady by a gambling courtesan.

PENITENT CHILD is a Christmas story involving a conflict with Penitentes, a mysterious religious cult of the Southwest.

Find THE WILDEST WEST here:

https://www.amazon.com/Wildest-West-Anthology-Stories-Southwest-ebook/dp/B01MCSZKE8/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8