Short Westerns

Bret Harte was an American short-story writer and poet, best remembered for his short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. We offer now some samples of his diversity in a collection of his short stories: “The Outcasts of Poker Flats”, “Tennessee’s Partner”, “The Idyl of Red Gulch”, “Brown of Calaveras”, “Muck-A-Muck”, “The Ninety-Nine Guardsmen”, “Mr. Midshipman Breezy”, “The Legend of Monte Del Diablo”, and more.

Family and babies abound during this fun-filled evening of love, laughter, and happily ever afters! Spend the evening catching up with our loving and loyal Bradens in this holiday celebration and fall in love all over again with each of the Bradens at Weston, and their children. A Very Braden Christmas is a novelette and part of the Love in Bloom big-family romance collection.

Cowboy Cal Hayden has loved Rachel Gray practically since the first time he set eyes on her. But Cal’s a careful, responsible man who knows better than to start a relationship before he can give it his all. He bided his time while caring for his family through his father’s terminal illness. Now his father is gone and his mother is settled, but has Cal waited too long to make his move?

Millie Reed is trying to do it all. She is a mother, the local schoolteacher, and trying to keep her husband's horse ranch going. She knows her husband is never coming home after he died in the blizzard that killed so many men. She needs help, so why is she so hesitant about the letter she mailed to a stranger? What she doesn't expect is to find a man hiding in her barn, or his outrageous story of innocence.

Frank Chess didn’t care for much in this world. Especially himself. So taking a job for local big shot Rhino Hulst was an easy choice. Each day drifted into the next: running Rhino’s crooked errands and blowing his meager pay on poker and the saloon. All because Rhino killed a man in cold blood, pinned it on Frank, and now holds the hangman’s rope over him. And who would give a damn? Frank came into town a drifter - a fiddlefoot. And when he finally remembers what it’s like to care about something, the town has no idea how much hell he’s about to bring down on them all.

Ward Kinsman has done all he can to escape civilization, spending the summer in a desert mountain range, deep in Apache territory, sifting for gold and praying he never sees another settler again. After a month of backbreaking work, he sees a trail of dust in the distance and knows a white man has come to find him...which means the Apache are right behind.

The army wagon train carried rifles, ammunition, and a chestful of gold through Apache territory, where every white man was a target. With the soldiers rode a single stagecoach carrying the woman whom Chris Danning planned to marry. When the train passed through Karnes Canyon, an Apache raiding party stormed out of the shadows, and the creek ran red with blood. For 18 months now, Danning has searched for the Apache who attacked the wagon train and killed his fiancée. He’s also hunting the corrupt white man who sold the soldiers out.

After 10 years of hard fighting and harder living, Will Danning is coming home to Yellow Jacket. His arrival is anything but celebrated, however - the last time he cast a shadow here, he wasn’t exactly walking the straight and narrow. Danning has returned to buy the Pitchfork Ranch, where he used to work cattle that weren’t always legally his. For his neighbors, that’s cause for concern; Angus Case still remembers when his herds were ravaged. What’s more, Danning’s friends can’t understand why he’d want such a dried-up parcel of land.

Frank Christian and Morg Wheelon were going to build something great. After the two veteran cattle punchers saved up enough to start their own outfit, Frank was to ride down to Texas and buy whatever herd he could, then bring them up the Chisholm Trail through Indian country to the rich grasslands of the Cheyenne in Wyoming. Morg would be waiting with the grazing rights in hand. It was a risky plan, but Frank and Morg weren’t about to give up their dream.

Lazarus County has yet to be tamed. There’s drought, bandits, and natives to contend with. People have moved out there hoping to better themselves, have a chance at the kind of life they could never hope for back East. Of course plenty of the settlers are lonely and willing to take a chance on love, even with someone that they’ve never met. This boxed set includes She Has to Stop Running Sometime, Western Redemption, Western Freedom, and The Sheriff Needs a Bride.

Cowboy did not find Ray Patterson in Cowtown. His old pal was two years dead. Without Ray's help he would struggle to find Brother Van, the itinerant preacher, wherever that man might be in this wide open land. Locating the wandering evangelist was the only chance Cowboy had a real peace. His journey had begun.

Angela French blames herself for her daughter's lack of voice. Determined to do anything to correct the situation, she seeks out Jake Kyncade, the owner of the Heartsong Ranch. Jake Kyncade hides his own sorrows behind his no-nonsense demeanor. Helping children becomes one way to correct his past. Using equine therapy, he sets out to make a difference. Can Jake help Angela's dreams come true, or will Jake's past bring more heartache? Will love save them all?

Unemployed ranch hand Jim Dailey only wants some matches when he rides up to a store in Willow Grove, Kansas, on a dusty, fateful summer day. What he gets when he steps inside, though, is anything but. Faced with two bloodthirsty outlaws and no other choice, Dailey pulls his six-shooter... and sets himself on a long and twisted path of triumph and tragedy.

Discover these tales of frontier justice and life and death struggles by transporting yourself to a bygone era of adventure and excitement. Originally published in 1907, Bat Masterson's gripping collection of short biographies introduces you some of the most famous lawmen and notorious outlaws of the Wild West, including cattle rustlers, sharpshooters, and gunslingers.

Nothing has gone easy in Alexis Bandit’s life. On a trip to rescue mistreated puppies and drive them to their forever homes, she meets up with a tuxedo-clad cowboy on the run and offers him a ride. Jason Fields thought he had it all - a beautiful fiancée, a loving family, and great job - until he overheard his future father-in-law talk about arranging his murder. Now he’s on the run, without money, a phone, or a credit card. With a killer on their tail, four mischievous pups, and many miles of highway, what could go wrong?

Six stories continuing the search for treasure and the questions of the Old West as seen through various perspectives. Total of 28K words, this is part 2 in the series, and the stories are interconnected.

Greeley, Texas - a frontier town with a bad attitude and a reputation to match. Who lived in such a wicked place? Several compelling answers spring to life in this short story collection spanning more than a century of life, love, and lust in the West Texas dust. The time line stretches from the Civil War to the aftermath of Vietnam. Sin, it seems, never goes out of style...

Barren Landscape is just one town, but it defines an entire region. Follow an eclectic mix of characters as they navigate the towns and deserts of New Mexico en route to a mysterious game, whose prize strikes the imagination of the hard men and women of the land. A series of non-sequential, linked stories that tell the tales and fate of hired guns, quick draw artists, cutthroat businessmen, and simple townspeople.

In his extraordinary career Louis L'Amour captured the spirit of America as few writers ever have. A storyteller whose universal themes of bravery, pride, adventure, and self-reliance have echoed across generations, L'Amour set a standard that has yet to be matched. "Fighter's Fiasco" exhibits the unbridled passion, the unsurpassed range, and the sheer genius of a true master working at the peak of his creative powers.

The third in a series of American Western short stories compiled by Jon Tuska, and preformed by celebrity readers.