Free this week: "The Blackwell Claim"

My western ebook short story "The Blackwell Claim" is available for free until March 10 at THIS SITE (under the price you will see a "free" code.)

"The Blackwell Claim" is one of a series of short stories I've written about the Blackwell family (some of whose members also show up in my full-length novels from time to time.) The series is my attempt to look at a broad range of Old West settings and events through the experiences of a single family, in a short story format which allows the reader to get immediately into the action. I plan many more stories in this series, and look forward to revisiting the Blackwell brothers often.

Here are the Blackwell stories so far:

The Blackwell Claim

Blackwell's Stand

The Divided Prey

Blackwell's Run

The Windigo

You can find more info about the Blackwell stories in general HERE.

Surf over to Smashwords and try the first story out for free! Their ebooks are accessible by most ebook platforms, including the Kindle and Nook.

Good Rebel Soil: The Champ Ferguson Story

My novel about notorious Confederate guerrilla Champ Ferguson, first published a decade ago, is being released in a new edition by Western Trail Blazer.

Ferguson led a group of independent partisans based in Sparta, TN (my hometown.) They occasionally operated with the Confederate Army, but more often acted on their own in a bitter war with similar Union guerrillas also based in the region, and any civilians who got in the way. Champ was idolized by pro-Confederate Tennesseans and demonized by pro-Union ones (for good reason.) Many legends grew up around him, and there is evidence that Forrest Carter combined Ferguson with Quantrill riders such as Bloody Bill Anderson to serve as the template for The Outlaw Josey Wales. He was tried and hanged by a military tribunal in Nashville at the end of the Civil War. His last request was for his body to be returned to Sparta and buried "in good Rebel soil."

Here is the description from the back cover of the novel: "To some he was a brutal thug, a heartless murderer – a monster. To others he was a protector, a beloved martyr to the Confederate cause – a hero. To a few he was a family man, a good old boy caught up in passions beyond his control – a man.He was all these things, and more. He was an American tragedy. He was Champ Ferguson."

I am honored to have received this ringing endorsement from my friend, renowned Western author (and previous president of Western Fictioneers) Frank Roderus: "Troy Smith is a superb writer. The life of Champ Ferguson is a powerful story. Put the two together and you have a wonderful read. I highly recommend Good Rebel Soil."

The book is now available for most ebook platforms from smashwords.com at this location and should be up at amazon soon, in paperback as well as ebook.

Of Dental Drills and Starship Hobos

Two of my short stories have just been released as ebook shorts: "And Naked We Leave" and "Now Spit." Both were written in the mid-90s. My mother has informed me that "And Naked We Leave," about the last hobo, is her favorite of my stories she has read (and that's gotta count for somethin'.) "Now Spit"... probably wouldn't be one of my mother's favorites, she is on the squeamish side....

And Naked We Leave

Lew Roycko is a successful lunar real estate developer. On a business trip to earth, he realizes that something has been missing from his life. His interest is piqued by a mysterious old man -whose stories just may change his future.

Now Spit

Jerry Carp's day takes a turn for the worse when he awakens to find himself bound and gagged. But that is not as disturbing as the sobs and screams... and the whine of the drill....

Western Short Story Collections

The short story is my favorite prose medium to read and to write. There's something about getting right to the point, and making a hard punch quickly, that is satisfying... and from a writer's point of view, the short story is a special art. It's like a prose haiku, or like a visual artist getting the maximum effect with the fewest strokes of the pen or brush. Less really is more.

For a long time it looked like the form was withering away. For the first several decades of the twentieth century, serious writers made their money in the short story to finance the work of writing their novels, rather than vice versa. By the 1990s, though, short story markets were drying up. Where were we as readers going to turn to find the new Louis L'Amour or Dorothy Johnson? Fortunately, the internet age -and the rapidly growing market for e-book shorts -has started filling the void.

My short story collection The Stealing Moon is out of print. In the coming year, the stories from it and several new tales will be repackaged as two separate collections from Western Trail Blazer: Cherokee Winter and Red Trail. I currently have several shorts available for 99 cents.

It has come to my attention just today that two of my friends have Western short story collections available for the kindle... for FREE, at least on Jan. 27 and 28. I imagine they'll go back up to their regular price after that. I highly recommend you seek them out. I am also going to mention a couple of collections that can be bought for under a dollar, and a couple of my own individual e-book shorts. Go out and grab you some short fiction!

FREE through Jan. 28:

SHADOWS OF YESTERYEAR by Jory Sherman

WALTZING WITH TUMBLEWEEDS by Dusty Richards



99 CENT SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS:

THE WANTED MAN by Matthew Pizzolato

THE ADVENTURES OF CASH LARAMIE AND GIDEON MILES, VOL. I by Edward Grainger

THE ADVENTURES OF CASH LARAMIE AND GIDEON MILES, VOL. II by Edward Grainger


INDIVIDUAL SHORT STORIES BY TROY D. SMITH:

THE DIVIDED PREY

BLACKWELL'S RUN

THE WINDIGO



HERE ARE SOME ANTHOLOGIES (a collection has stories that are all by the same author; an anthology has works by several authors)

THE TRADITIONAL WEST 

THE CHRISTMAS CAMPFIRE COMPANION 

LONE STAR LAW 


PAPERBACK CLASSICS:

MOVING ON by Jane Candia Coleman 

INDIAN COUNTRY by Dorothy Johnson 

THE HANGING TREE by Dorothy Johnson 
 

Ladies Love Outlaws

To quote that great troubadour Waylon Jennings:

"Ladies love outlaws
 Like babies love stray dogs.
 Ladies touch babies like a banker touches gold;
Outlaws touch ladies somewhere deep down in their souls."

It was somewhat of a surprise to me when I started to realize just how many readers of traditional westerns were women. I got a lot of comments from female fans when I started publishing westerns, and when I took an informal survey of my students when I taught high school in Illinois, I discovered that more girls liked westerns that boys (they often cited the western as something they can do with their dads, and they associated the genre with their fathers.) There are a lot of good western writers who are women, too, I bet a lot more than you'd think.

I think at least part of it is the romance of the Old West -romance in the 19th century sense, as well as the more modern "love" sense. Ladies really do like a cowboy; I've rarely met a woman over 30 who didn't swoon at the sound of Sam Elliot's voice.

I've been making a conscious effort to make inroads into that audience, even though my books are rarely what we guys would call "mushy" (except in the gory sense.) I've been invited to be the guest blogger on January 28 at the website "Petticoats & Pistols: Romancing the West." I'll be on hand throughout the day to answer readers' questions, and there will be a drawing for an autographed copy of my western novel Caleb's Price (which does have a romantic element to it.)

Feel free to drop by, all day Saturday Jan. 28. It's at http://petticoatsandpistols.com/

Review for Bound for the Promise-Land

I just became aware of this great review for my novel Bound for the Promise-Land, at the blog of author Kae Cheatham.... check it out. click here

Manhattan Public Library's article about Classic Westerns

The reference staff at the Manhattan Public library, at their website "Little Apple Bookworm", just did an article about the Western genre. I was quite honored to have my novel Bound for the Promise-Land included in their list of recommended western novels, right there with several of my friends and with people -Elmore Leonard, Charles Portis, and Jack Shaefer -who are icons in the field. Never thought I'd see my name in such august company (and here it is only January.)

It's a nice article, check it out! http://bit.ly/z2ulAC

And if you want to check out the book in question, in paper or ebook: http://amzn.to/xaIIfw    http://amzn.to/wdSACK