He wore a hat the color of day-old puke, with rags to match. “Found you.” Carson leveled the rifle at Melinda’s forehead. Death, otherwise known as Elliot Red-Eye Carson, raised his rifle, the sun a smudged glow behind him like someone had burned the sky with the end of a rolled cigarette. And Tombstone is no place to get your picture taken if you want to keep your skin.ĭeath rode in on a horse made of wood and bones, its joints screeching with every pound of its hooves against the sand. If you happen to visit the local brothel, be sure and treat the ladies right or you’ll pay dearly. Then again, even going to outhouses can be deadly. Staying on ranches ain’t much safer, especially at one girl’s birthday party. Just be careful which place you head for, because the folks in one town are about to die. If you don’t catch the train, maybe the devil can give you a lift back to town. If your horse gets eaten by a monster, you might be able to get a ride on the midnight train, as long as you don’t mind sitting with ghosts. As you ride our trails you’ll want to keep one eye on the path ahead and one over your shoulder cause there’s a bushwhacking monster creeping up behind you. Saddle up for a wild ride through the weird, weird west. Blackwell, Kristal Stittle and many others. Weird West stories in this collection include tales by David Boop, C.W. “Death’s Horse” features the plight of gunslinging, monster-hunting Melinda Putman, first introduced in “Dusty Arrival,” cover story for Andromeda Spaceways Magazine in 2018. The Weird West is one of my favorite subgenres for a variety of reasons (you can read why in an article I wrote for Aurealis Magazine, more details here). Campbell, with a cover illustration by M. Six Guns Straight From Hell 3: Horror & Dark Fantasy From the Weird Weird West is now available and debuts my zombie story, “Death’s Horse.” The collection is edited by David B. And if you’d like a sneak peek at the adventures of Melinda and Lance in the meantime, standalone stories are available at Amazon Vella (The first parts are free). If this sounds like your cup of tea, keep an eye out for updates over the coming months! Pre-orders will start in the fall. Aside from creating a fun, escapist horror adventure, my goal for this speculative world is to reframe some of the typical depictions of the Old West and build a world where women and diverse characters take center stage. Melinda and Lance are two characters I have featured in several published short stories and I am ecstatic that they will star in their own book soon. Melinda and Lance must battle a menagerie of monsters and hunt a notorious outlaw to save their friends and stop hell on Earth. But when they accidentally release a demon that steals souls, they find themselves caught in a supernatural war.

Stoic sharpshooter Melinda and her easygoing partner Lance are pros at fighting everything from cannibalistic gremlins to psychic bugs. Original pitch: When monsters roam the Old West, there is one gunslinging couple who can tilt the odds in favor of humanity.

Best weird west books