Western Roundup: SWNN 18 by Cap'n Bob Napier, A Fistful of Legends, More!

THE STORY WITH NO NAME
OWLHOOT editor (and celebrated mystery writer) Robert S. Napier brings a touch of old-time religion to Part 18 of the round-robin Story With No Name this week on The Cap'n's Blog. Parts 1-16 of this thrilling saga have been assembled on The Culbin Trail, and Part 17 appears on Open Range. Watch for next week's installment, penned by Richard Prosch, on Meridian Bridge.

A FISTFUL OF LEGENDS
Express Western's follow-up anthology to Where Legends Ride takes another step forward with the announcement it will be available for online purchase on January 31. For more info see The Culbin Trail and Writealot. Still more details, including the cover art, will be released Dec. 12.

ONLINE FICTION
Another fine tale in the Haxan series by Kenneth Mark Hoover has popped up on The Western Online. And Frontier Tales Magazine has new stories by Kathi Sprayberry and Elmer Fralick, Jr. Check them out!

WESTERN MOVIE HISTORY
Laurie Powers' fascinating "Movies in the Santa Clara Valley" series is at 11 chapters and counting on Laurie's Wild West.

SHERLOCK HOLMES MEETS CALAMITY JANE?
Howard Hopkins fills us in on his upcoming crossover story on Dark Bits.

BOOK REVIEWS
Duane Spurlock turns in a fine review of David Robbin's "Ralph Compton" novel For the Brand over at Spur & Lock.  And in the past week alone, Steve M has posted reviews of books by James Reasoner, David Thompson, Billy Hall and Bill Williams at Western Fiction Review.

ARE YOU AN OWLHOOT?
As mentioned a couple weeks back, the Old West APA (amateur press association) OWLHOOT is open to new members. Now preparing for its 30th issue, OWLHOOT is a quarterly publication featuring wide-ranging discussions of all things West: Books, movies, TV, pulps, history, OTR, comics, music and more. And it's done the old fashioned way - in print. Each member prints their own pages (a minimum of four for every other mailing) and mails them to Cap'n Bob Napier, who assembles the issue and mails it back. The current roster includes: Fred Blosser, Bill Crider, Paul Dellinger, Frank Denton, Dale Goble, Jim Griffin, A.P. McQuiddy, Richard Moore, Bob Napier, James Reasoner, Thom Walls and me, and with #30 we're pleased to welcome Laurie Powers and Richard Prosch.  Interested? Comment here or shoot me an email.

What's Up in the Wild Wild West

THE STORY WITH NO NAME
Ray Foster (aka Jack Giles) has posted Part 16 of this round-robin western on Broken Trails. Nice job, Ray! The previous installment and links to the whole shebang can be found here.

A FISTFUL OF LEGENDS
Express Westerns' follow-up to the fine anthology Where Legends Ride is now at the printer and a publication date will be set very soon. A Fistful of Legends will feature 20 outstanding new tales of the West, plus one by me. Watch for the big announcement from editor Nik Morton.

SHORT WESTERNS ON THE WEB
Short-Barrel Fiction, the online western mag fired up early this year by Gnubill, has a cool new story by Charles D. Phillips. Matthew Pizzolato's The Western Online came along in September and already has five stories up, the latest by Kenneth Mark Hoover.  Now there's Duke Pinnell's new Frontier Tales Magazine, with fiction by Dusty Richards and Ellen Gray Massey. And a recent issue of David Cranmer's Beat to a Pulp featured cowboy star Buck Jones and his pal Bela Lugosi in a tale penned by James Reasoner.

PEOPLE ARE TALKING
Richard Prosch ran a two-part interview with Wild Bill Crider on Meridian Bridge, the first part focusing on Bill's classic novel Ryan Rides Back. Gary Dobbs (aka Black Horse author Jack Martin) was interviewed here by Avril Field-Taylor. Gary himself interviewed Black Horse writer Ed Ferguson (Lee Walker) on The Tainted Archive. And Steve M has an interview with super-prolific Australian western writer Keith Herrington on Western Fiction Review.

BEST IN THE WEST
For a daily dose of what's best in the West, now, then or in between, do not fail to visit Laurie Powers at Laurie's Wild West.

RIDE WITH THE OWLHOOTS
The Old West APA (amateur press association) OWLHOOT is open to new members. Founded in 2003 by Cap'n Bob Napier, OWLHOOT is a quarterly publication featuring wide-ranging discussions of all things West: Books, movies, TV, pulps, history, OTR, comics, music and more. And it's done the old fashioned way - in print. Each member prepares four or more pages of material, prints copies and mails them to Cap'n Bob, who assembles the issue and mails it back. The current roster includes: Fred Blosser, Bill Crider, Paul Dellinger, Frank Denton, Dale Goble, Jim Griffin, A.P. McQuiddy, Richard Moore, Bob Napier, James Reasoner, Duane Spurlock and Thom Walls (all gents to ride the river with), and me. If you're interested in joining this wild and woolly crew, shoot me an email and we'll talk details.