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

Vote for RIDING TO SUNDOWN in the P & E Poll

My Western novel Riding to Sundown is one of the books being considered for the Preditors and Editors online poll. If you liked said book, I'd sure appreciate you zipping over and voting for it: vote here 

Voting is only open till Jan. 10. Several of my friends are up for other categories, listed below. Much obliged!

Best Ebook Publisher for 2011 - Western Trail Blazer

http://www.critters.org/predpoll/ebookpublisher.shtml

Anthologies - 2011 Christmas Collection from Victory Tales Press

http://www.critters.org/predpoll/antho.shtml

Short Stories Romance - Homecoming by Cheryl Pierson
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/shortstoryr.shtml

Short Stories Sci-Fi - Storm Riders by Karen Michelle Nutt
http://critters.org/predpoll/shortstorysf.shtml

Short Stories All Other - Sharpshooter by Kit Prate from WTB

http://www.critters.org/predpoll/shortstory.shtml

Novels Sci-Fi - Lucca: Warriors for the Light by Karen Michelle Nutt
http://critters.org/predpoll/novelsf.shtml

Novels All Other - Riding to Sundown by Troy D. Smith
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/novel.shtml

Novels Mystery -  A Familiar Evil by Anne Patrick
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/novelmys.shtml

Novels Thriller - To Kill My Love by Lee Baldwin
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/novelthrill.shtml

Author of 2011 - Amanda Ashley
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/author.shtml

Novels Romance - Jessie's Girl by Amanda Ashley
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/novelr.shtml

Cover Art of 2011 - Conceived in Darkness by Laura Shinn
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/bookart.shtml

Civil War Vampires -and not the sparkly kind!

THE BLOOD OF PATRIOTS

My horror short story "The Blood of Patriots" is now available as an ebook: Link to Amazon listing
 Description and brief excerpt below:


A SHORT TALE OF TERROR by award-winning author Troy D. Smith

Colonel Jeffords has more to worry about than the Confederate Army. He has chosen to employ an infamous Union guerrilla band led by the mysterious Captain Vincent Caine -a band so bloodthirsty that the enemy may not be enough to satiate them. Vincent Caine has a secret, you see -a terrible, terrible secret. And a terrible hunger...

EXCERPT:

There was something about Vincent Caine. Something which –from the first moment I saw him outside Fredricksburg –told me that the Englishman was no ordinary fighting man. I could not place it at the time, the odd feeling which crept into my gut on each occasion I saw him. There was a coldness in Caine’s features, you see, which slithered at you in the pale moonlight like a serpent.

Of course, Caine was not an ordinary fighting man –he was an irregular, or scout. A guerilla. That breed of man is often cruel and independent –even arrogant, not used to submitting to military discipline.

And Caine was one of the more infamous Union guerillas. He and his band struck fear into Rebels, and anyone else who crossed them.

Looking at him for the second time, just before Chancellorsville, I could understand why. A buzz of irrational fear pricked at the base of my skull when the man reported in to me, and the sensation heightened when Caine smiled.

“Good morning, Colonel Jeffords,” he said. I had never quite been able to trace his accent –having traveled Britain in my youth, I prided myself on placing regional inflections.

I rubbed my bleary eyes and brought my tin coffee cup to my mouth with both hands.

“Morning!” I said contemptuously as I sat the cup back down. “It hardly qualifies. Two hours till sunrise, I call that night. I definitely didn’t sleep long enough for it to qualify as a new day.”

Caine’s grin grew colder, somehow. “Just one more sacrifice we make to the god of war,” he said. “Many of our actions in his service look better outside the rude gaze of the sun, I think.”

Read the whole thing!