I’ve talked a bit about the Wolf Creek series before here. It’s one of my most favorite projects I’ve ever worked on, anywhere, anytime.The series is the brainchild of Troy Smith, a good friend of mine and an excellent writer and “idea man”. His thought was to create a bible to be used by the participants of the series to work from for the fictional post Civil War town of Wolf Creek, Kansas. Any member of the Western Fictioneer professional writing organization could contribute when their character was called for in the plot structure.
Now this is quite a daunting task when you think of having at least 23 (and climbing!) people who wanted to contribute, having to come up with plots that would involve at least 6 characters in each book–some of them the same as a common thread– and keep all the books fresh and interesting. But Troy managed to do it.
The latest book, Wolf Creek Book 6: Hell on the Prairie, differs. It’s an anthology of short stories by some of the contributors about their characters. Here’s the blurb for it:Welcome to Wolf Creek.
Here you will find many of your favorite authors, working together as Ford Fargo to weave a complex and textured series of Old West adventures like no one has ever seen. Each author writes from the perspective of his or her own unique character, blended together into a single novel.
In this volume -an anthology of stand-alone short stories: … Marshal Sam Gardner confronts a notorious gunfighter who hates lawmen; Deputy Quint Croy learns the secrets of Asa Pepper’s place; Billy Below learns to be a cowboy; Doc Logan contends with a specter from his past; Derrick McCain faces family secrets; Ben Tolliver gets the shock of his life; and strangers get caught up in the Danby Raid…
I loved this idea because each participant is able to write a short story featuring their character(s) and show a depth to their character they might not be able to convey in a collaborative effort such as the other books before this have been. My story is called IT TAKES A MAN, and of course, Derrick McCain, my foremost character, is at the center of this one. When Derrick and his mother are ominously summoned to the Cherokee settlement of Briartown, Derrick is determined to set things straight with the man he’s learned is his real father. But once he arrives, he’s distracted by the beautiful cousin, Leah Martin, of his best friend’s wife. Leah is hiding a secret—one that could be the death of her. Once Derrick discovers it, will he walk away? Or will he save her…and possibly himself? IT TAKES A MAN to do what his heart tells him.
Just last week, all three of the Wolf Creek books I contributed to (Bloody Trail–Book 1, Showdown at Demon’s Drop–Book 5, and Hell on the Prairie–Book 6) were on the Kindle top 100 bestselling western list! Wolf Creek Book 1–Bloody Trail, is on sale right now for only .99 to get you started on the Wolf Creek series. The others are available for only $2.99.I will be gifting one lucky commenter with a Kindle version of Wolf Creek Book 6: Hell on the Prairie today! Just leave a comment and be sure to check back after 9:00 to see if you won! Meanwhile, if you just can’t wait, go to my author page at Amazon to see these and all my other works here:
Or go here for all the Wolf Creek books, 1-6, that have been published so far. Scroll down on this page to find all of the Wolf Creek books. Look for book 7 sometime in September!
NEWSFLASH! I wanted to add that two of my publishers are having CHRISTMAS IN JULY events with lots of freebies and near-freebie reads. Click on the links below to go to the ONCE UPON A WORD blog where there is a list of free reads, and the 2nd link will take you to the WESTERN FICTIONEERS blog where there are a ton of .99 reads, both short stories AND full length books. Be sure to double check the price before you click to buy at Amazon, to be sure they have them all listed as they should be. You can’t go wrong with CHRISTMAS IN JULY!
