just one week left for The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny with my Bass Reeves-Calamity Jane team-up story!

For twenty years now, I’ve been wanting to write a kind of magical realism-type story about Calamity Jane. Basically explaining both her drinking and her many tall tales about her life that she told with the fact that she saw visions of possible futures.

For about seven years now, I’ve been wanting to write a Western involving Bass Reeves, as he’s a fantastic, underappreciated historical figure (though he’s been getting more attention lately, thankfully).

When Jonathan Maberry invited me to contribute to The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny: Tales of the Weird West, I jumped at the chance to do a team-up between my two favorite Western legends.

The anthology is currently funding on Kickstarter, with only a week left, and $7000 to go to hit its goal. Please, consider supporting this wonderful anthology, so my Calamity Jane-Bass Reeves team-up can see the light of day.

Here’s a preview of my story, which is called “The Legend of Long-Ears,” and which includes another figure from Western history and legend, Sheriff Seth Bullock.

“And what’d this Olson fella do to earn himself so great a reward that it brought you all the way up to Deadwood?”

“Kill his wife and children.”

“A horrible crime, but not one that usually has so much of a bounty attached to it.”

Reeves allowed himself a tiny smirk. “It does when the wife’s the daughter of a county sheriff, the niece of a state judge, and the granddaughter of a congressman.”

“I see.” Bullock nodded and folded his hands together on his desk. “I’ve not heard of any such man coming into Deadwood, but this town has as pliable a relationship with the law as your territory down south. It tends to draw in malefactors of all kinds.”

Getting to his feet, Reeves said, “It’s my job to draw one of them out, sir.”

Also rising, Bullock put out a hand.

Reeves looked at it with suspicion, as white men rarely offered to shake the hand of a man with skin as dark as his. But after a moment, he returned the handshake.

“Good luck, Deputy Marshal.”

“Thank you, Sheriff Bullock.”

Reeves and Bullock exited the sheriff’s office. The marshal’s big white horse was tethered to a nearby pole set up for the purpose, and Reeves walked over to the mount and patted him on the side of the head.

“Y’r gonna die f’m th’stinky wolf,” said a voice from behind him.

Whirling around, he saw a young woman who was wearing a battered overcoat and a brimmed hat askew on her head. She was clutching a whiskey bottle for dear life. “Excuse me, ma’am?” he prompted.

Bullock shook his head and chuckled. “The famous Deputy Marshal Reeves, may I introduce you to the infamous Calamity Jane.”

Putting his hand to the brim of his own hat, Reeves said, “Ma’am.”

“I ain’t no ‘ma’am,’ an’ you an’ that Swede y’r pursuin’re gonna die f’m th’stinky wolf.”

That brought Reeves up short. “How do you know who I’m pursuin’, ma—er, Miss Jane?”

“Y’think y’r th’first?” She moved closer to him, and he could smell the whiskey on her breath. Indeed, he could smell it in her sweat. “Stinky wolf killed m’father and woulda killed Cap’n Egan if’n I had gone t’Goose Creek. Gonna get you an’ that Swede too!”

Jane was now practically on top of Reeves, which meant that when she passed out, she fell against him.

Instinctively he reached out to catch her, but the woman weighed far more than she seemed, and Reeves stumbled back, nearly colliding with his horse. He recovered quickly and gently set her down on the ground.

“And that,” Bullock said ruefully, “was one’a her more lucid conversations.”

The other stories in the anthology are by the immensely talented New York Times best-sellers Greg Cox, Josh Malerman, and Scott Sigler; deservedly award-winning authors R.S. Belcher, Laura Anne Gilman, Aaron Rosenberg, and James A. Moore; comics legends Cullen Bunn and Jeffrey J. Mariotte; brilliant tie-in writers Maurice Broaddus, Carrie Harris, and Jennifer Brody; and the fantastic C. Edward Sellner, John G. Hartness, and Marguerite Reed.

Please consider supporting!