FOREWORD
DAVID BOOP
Many things that bring us joy in our lives came about by happy accidents. Coca-Cola, for example, started out as a headache medicine and, instead, became our remedy for sleepiness, the “solution” for cleaning pennies, and go-to for children who want to burp loudly, thus annoying their parents and grossing out their younger siblings. Thank you, Coke!
I never set out to write or edit weird westerns. I came by it quite by accident. I wanted to write mysteries. Specifically, amateur sleuth mysteries. I hoped to be the next Dick Francis, my favorite at the time. Even though I was a voracious reader of science fiction and fantasy, I considered them beyond my reach. How could I ever compete with Alan Dean Foster or Jack L. Chalker? And westerns? I hadn’t even considered them…yet.
In an attempt to break in as a mystery writer, this being ’bout 2003, I regularly searched for mystery publications and contests. The Tony Hillerman Mystery Short Story Contest required a western-themed mystery. On the surface, this seemed easy. Westerns are just a blend of tropes, right? White Hat. Outlaw. Murder. How hard could it be?
There have been many examples of that type of western writing out there, but good westerns, the type that stick with you, are far from cliché. Movies like Unforgiven, Tombstone, 3:10 to Yuma, and Silverado. Fiction such as The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Ox-Bow Incident (both turned into great movies), or the short story collection Bad Dirt by Annie Proulx (author of Brokeback Mountain). These are all examples of westerns that defied formula.
And yet, I have never done anything the easy way. Thinking I could set myself apart from other contestants, I dreamed up a story about an outlaw who wakes up dead and, as a ghost, has to solve his own murder. I bet no one had ever thought of that: a ghost solving his own murder! (He says naively.)
William Ragsdale, once a lawman, lives in the desert outside the Arizona town he once terrorized. Unmolested for many years, he’s murdered by someone holding a grudge. As he passes through the town, looking for clues, the “Rag Doll Kid” must face his own sins as he looks for final redemption.
Print. Send. Wait.
Whether it was that the supernatural aspect was too much, or that there were waaay better-written stories submitted, “The Murder of the Rag Doll Kid,” did not achieve any recognition. As disappointment washed over me, I wondered if I would ever break into the industry I longed to be a part of? The answer was…
Sort of.
The story was rescued by a small indie spec-fic magazine called Tales of the Talisman shortly after losing in the contest.
Let me digress for a moment.
I get it. As a reader, you only have so much time in a day/week/month/year for reading, and you want to make sure every story you set aside time for is gold. Maybe you stick with only the well-known magazines, like Asimov’s or Analog, but, in doing so, you miss an opportunity to discover the next big name. There are many famous authors who got their first sale in a micropress ’zine. There are whole magazines dedicated strictly to the genre you love. Like cross-genre detectives? Try Occult Detective Quarterly. If slipstream fantasy and horror is your thing, Three-Lobed Burning Eye is for you. Want more weird westerns? Try Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
All you have to do is look and you will find.
Tales of the Talisman (originally Hadrosaur Tales) was the passion project of writer/editor David Lee Summers (whose story, “Fountains of Blood,” you might have read in Straight Outta Tombstone). It ran for twenty years and published short stories by the likes of Neal Asher, Beth Cato, and Marsheila Rockwell.
I happened to be at a convention with Mr. Summers, and I bemoaned my loss in the Hillerman contest. Curious, Dave asked for the plot of the Rag Doll Kid. After I explained, he said, “Well, that sounds like the type of thing I publish. I love weird westerns. Let me look at it.”
“Weird westerns?” I asked, “What’s that?”
“Any western crossed with another genre. By adding a ghost, you wrote a paranormal western, or…weird western.”
He definitely knew more about it than I did, so I sent the story to him. He liked it enough to publish it. He gave me my first check as a semi-pro author. This was a huge deal! With that sale, I learned I could submit and sell my work—something I wasn’t sure of before that. And this all happened with a genre I hadn’t known I was writing in. Happy accidents, right?
It should have occurred to me though. I’d grown up with The Wild Wild West reruns and TV movies, and loved shows like The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. I read Jonah Hex comics and watched The Valley of Gwangi and other cross-genre western serials on Saturday afternoons. My geek cred was there, but I hadn’t considered these types of westerns anything but westerns.
[Baen has allowed me to include an updated version of “The Murder of the Rag Doll Kid” in this volume, for your potential enjoyment.]
A funny thing happened right after my first weird western hit the stands. I got an email from another editor asking if I would write him a weird western story for his indie press.
David B. Riley is editor of Science Fiction Trails Magazine, a long running cross-genre publication that has gone through many incarnations over the years. At one point, it had become Steampunk Trails, then Story Emporium, and finally back to SFT. “Grismel Guffyfeld’s Quickdrawatorium” involved an alien presence setting up a virtual reality game to see who was the fastest gun in the galaxy. I continued to write more tall tales set in Drowned Horse, Arizona, and these would form the basis of my Drowned Horse Chronicle, of which twenty-some stories have been published to date. I’ve come to know the genre intimately as I’ve read the other stories I share anthologies with. My experience is partially why Baen trusted me to present you with three volumes of fantastic westerns. (Thank you, Toni!)
So, why tell you all of this? You were, most likely, drawn by the names on the cover and hoped to immerse yourself in their vision of an alternate world infused with dinosaur gunfighters and alien-altered werewolves. Maybe you longed for zombies, and ghosts of the past, and demons attacking Dodge City? Certainly, my origin story was not what you signed up for. But I do have a point (thanks for waiting).
If you are a writer like me—and many of you are—somebody will be the first to believe in your words. David Lee Summers not only published my first weird western story, but also my first science fiction story. David B. Riley has published more of my weird western and steampunk stories than anyone else, and I will continue to send him those stories as long as he is willing to look at them. They both believed in me, even when my craft wasn’t smooth and my endings weak.
And I’ve tried to honor their belief by paying it forward myself.
I’ve always looked for new voices, authors hitting their heads on the semi-pro ceiling for a long time, and then giving them a chance to prove they’re worth reading, too. You’ll find them in all three volumes of the Straight Outta series.
They deserve the same chance to be read that the Davids gave me.
Sadly, Tales of the Talisman and the Tony Hillerman Mystery Short Story Contest are no more. Summers continues to publish novels, many of them weird westerns, through Hadrosaur Press, and Anne Hillerman continues on with her father’s traditions over at WordHarvest Press. Fortunately, though, Science Fiction Trails lives on! Another Drowned Horse Chronicle appeared in their pages recently, as of this writing. I recommend you give them a read, and, if you fancy yourself a weird western writer accidently or on purpose, it’s a good magazine to get started with. Riley will do right by y’all.
Let me end with this dedication.
To David B. Riley and David Lee Summers.
I owe you both so much for leading me through the world of weird westerns. You’ve had patience with me, as I’ve struggled to get the story right. You’ve supported me as an author and as a person. We’ve laughed together and grieved together. Your faith in me is why there are these three volumes of weird western tales. You are great writers, editors, mentors, and friends.
I dedicate this anthology to you.
Thank You!
DB 02/16/19