American West: Twenty New Stories from the Western Writers of America

ISBN: 0274901331

Author: Estleman, Loren D.

Condition: New

About the Author Loren D. Estleman is the author of more than eighty novels, including the Amos Walker, Page Murdock, and Peter Macklin series. The winner of four Shamus Awards, five Spur Awards, and three Western Heritage Awards, he lives in Central Michigan with his wife, author Deborah Morgan. Product Description Once, there was a world where the heroes were defined by their white clothing and the bad guys always wore black. The town sheriff always gunned down the wild gunslinger while the lady in distress cowered. The Indian was to be feared, not understood, and the white man always saved the day. This was the traditional Western.But times change, as did the Western. The evolving Western is told from the point of view of blacks, Native Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Jews, Gentiles, Mormons, Catholics, women, and men. It is about America; it is about life. Whether a story's central element is a hangman or a midwife, a piano or a cowboy who hates tomatoes, you may be certain of one thing, if the tale reflects an expanding continent, it reflects the American West. Review Takes the genre to new frontiers. -The Boston HeraldThis is not simply an excellent collection about the West, each story is a haunting and powerful chapter in the creation of a nation. -Michael and Kathleen O'Neal Gear, USA Today bestselling authors of the Anasazi seriesIf I had to give a friend one book containing the best that today's Western fiction has to offer, it would be American West. -Mike Blakely, former president of the Western Writers of America and the Spur Award-winning author of Summer of PearlsA welcome addition to any Western collection. -Booklist From the Back Cover "Takes the genre to new frontiers."-The Boston Herald"This is not simply an excellent collection about the West, each story is a haunting and powerful chapter in the creation of a nation."-Michael and Kathleen O'Neal Gear, USA Today bestselling authors of the Anasazi seriesOnce, there was a world where the heroes were defined by their white clothing and the bad guys always wore black. The town sheriff always gunned down the wild gunslinger while the lady in distress cowered. The Indian was to be feared, not understood, and the white man always saved the day. This was the traditional Western.But times change, as did the Western. The evolving Western is told from the point of view of blacks, Native Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Jews, Gentiles, Mormons, Catholics, women, and men. It is about America; it is about life. Whether a story's central element is a hangman or a midwife, a piano or a cowboy who hates tomatoes, you may be certain of one thing, if the tale reflects an expanding continent, it reflects the American West."If I had to give a friend one book containing the best that today's Western fiction has to offer, it would be American West."-Mike Blakely, former president of the Western Writers of America and the Spur Award-winning author of Summer of Pearls"A welcome addition to any Western collection."--Booklist Excerpt. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. American WestTwenty New Stories from theWestern Writers of AmericaLoren D. EstlemanThe sun glazed the snow until it shone like a carpet of smashed diamonds, blinding to the sight. Cal Reese squinted his eyes to block out the glare as he followed the tracks that had broken the crust, leaving shards of cracked plates that looked like blanched slate tablets strewn helter-skelter along the ridge by some monstrous schoolboy scurrying home after the last bell had rung.Half blinded by the sheer cruelty of the light, Cal looked up at the pine-studded rimrock that towered above him like some ancient city cobwebbed in white dust, and the sight gave him some relief from the blinding dazzle that made his eyes feel as if they had been rubbed with sandpaper.He could smell the bear, smell its rank, carrion-wallowed hide, thick as its winter coat in his nostrils, and the sc