Saddle up and ride down the trails of western history with this outstanding new short-story anthology from Silverado Press! Our all-star posse of acclaimed, seasoned western writers and fresh new voices have each taken a real historical event and built a story around it. From the 1812 earthquake in southern California to the 1856 sinking of the steamboat Arabia to the 1877 Texas Salt War, these tales are guaranteed to thrill, entertain, and teach a little something in the bargain.
Contributing authors include veteran authors Mary Fan, Kelli Fitzpatrick, Sharon Frame Gay, Del Howison, Nik James, Paul Kupperberg, Vonn McKee, Lisa Majewski, Jeffrey J. Mariotte, Cheryl Pierson, L. J. Washburn and James Reasoner, Richard Prosch, Gord Rollo, and Aaron Rosenberg. Jeffrey J. Mariotte, co-founder of Silverado Press, edited the anthology and provides an introduction as well as a story called “Roy Earll’s Debt.”
The book is available as a trade paperback and an ebook (epub only). Any bookstore can order it from Ingram, the nation’s largest book distributor.
In 2026, the story “Point of Impact” by Vonn McKee contained in this book won the Spur Award (given by the Western Writers of America) for best short fiction. In the tradition of the Spur Awards, the publisher of a Spur-winning story also wins a Spur Award, so this book–the first anthology published by Silverado Press–makes us a Spur Award-winning publisher.
The story “Goddess of War” by Kelli Fitzpatrick contained in this book is a finalist for the Peacemaker Award (given by the Western Fictioneers). If it wins–and it should–I’ll update this accordingly.
