Showing results by narrator "Eric Thomas" in All Categories

In 1864, the frontier cavalry had been withdrawn to fight in the War Between the States, and the able-bodied men had enlisted to join the cause, leaving the families in the Brazos River valley very much on their own...and nearly defenseless. The Comanches and the Kiowas decided this was the perfect time to rid their land forever of the invaders who had threatened their very existence.

Julia's daddy was the judge in town. He used to be fair, but recently it seemed that had changed. What cost to regular folks would there be?

It’s the 48th year of the Kurian Order. The alien, vampiric Kur and their avatars, the Reapers, control most of the Earth - their new feeding ground. Humanity is scattered and survives only at their new master’s whims. But the Resistance is attempting to reclaim Earth. David Valentine, member of the elite Cat spy force, is in enemy uniform aboard the aging gunboat Thunderbolt. Whispers have reached him of the discovery of a long-lost weapon in the Caribbean - the first glimmer of hope for humanity to finally defeat the Reapers.

The fall of the baronies has led Earth deeper into the darkest days of a bitter struggle as old as the planet itself — a war for righteous destiny. As a force of elite rebels dares to break humanity free from the iron chains of alien rule, they face an ever-changing matrix of cunning and retribution. Area 51 remains a mysterious enclave of eerie synergy and unleashed power — a nightmare poised to take the world to hell. A madman has marshaled an army of incorporeal, alien evil, a virus with intelligence now scything through human hosts like locusts.

Jane Candia Coleman is a natural storyteller whose characters come from the lands between the southwestern valleys of Arizona and the Gila Mountains of New Mexico. The night Billy the Kid died is hauntingly depicted in "Corrido for Billy". "Lady Flo" is a memoir, based on historical fact, of the black wife of an Irish nobleman. "Moving On" depicts a young girl abandoned by her family who finds her way with an itinerant Jewish peddler. And "Are You Coming Back, Phin Montana?" is the winner of the 1995 Spur Award for Best Western Short Fiction.

Caleb Doorn is better known by his Blackfoot name, Many Coups. Doorn is scouting for the US Army in the Mexican campaign when a small wagon train passes on its way to California. Their trek will take them into Indian country, and to protect the train from attack, the wagon master has foolishly taken a young Blackfoot woman hostage.

The news is bad. The stage driver's wife who is expecting a child has taken a serious fall and now needs her husband. Dave Judd will take his place driving the stagecoach filled with passengers who want to get through before the bitter cold that is lifting becomes a blizzard.

Matt North's secret plan to force an entire range to reverse its decision to raise sheep.

Bill Ash, an escaped convict returns to find his father murdered.

Original story published in Lariat story magazine - July 1947.

Shaw's forte was her ability to create interesting casts of characters through whom and between whom she was able to develop a suspenseful and unpredictable interplay. This story is a good example of her character driven Western fiction.

Two young men in the gold fields of California spend a last evening together as one of them, very sick, confronts his own imminent death. The tenderness between them may seem idealized, but you understand by listening to this story how premature death from accident and disease haunted the lives of far more westerners than death by violence.

Brother Shotgun is about an old buffalo hunter whose return to the plains after the Civil War keeps being delayed by the needs of a young woman who has taken in a number of orphans.

Wayne D. Overholser, winner of three Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America, weaves a magic spell in this story with his consistent skill in presenting vibrant characters and his uncommon sensitivity to the depths of human personality.

Honest presentation is only one characteristic of Frazee’s well-crafted tales. He tells a convincing, satisfying, and unusual story even when employing stock Western situations. A major strength is his understanding of the nuances of character, of how people are motivated, of the good and bad within each person, and of the conflicts between man and his environment. Drawing upon his years in the mountains of Colorado, he can vividly and realistically depict a variety of Western settings and do so in such a way that the settings assume a character of their own.

A classic tale that features all the beloved subjects and icons - stagecoaches, gold rush towns, and whiskey bars - that represent the romance and excitement of America's frontier.

Matt Hurst seeks justice when a sheriff's posse kills his father and brothers.

A quick-draw tale from the wild west. T. T. Flynn has long been popular with listeners as a master of the Western story.

Haseloff's characters embody the fundamental values - honor, duty, courage, and family - that prevailed on the American frontier and were instilled in the young Haseloff by her own "heroes", her mother and her grandmother. Her stories, in a sense, dramatize how these values endure when challenged by the adversities and cruelties of frontier existence.

A short story gem in a Western setting...the search of a man for beauty, and how and where he found it.