“Imagine waking up … and realizing you’re still 4,000 years from your destination. And the ship is already breaking.” This story is taken from the book and stands on its own — no need to have read anything else and no spoilers.
“Mr George Wingfield” establishes the foundation for “Goldfield”, the story of the infamous haunted hotel in Goldfield, Nevada.
In the free short story “New Life on the Ranch,” Liz can’t sleep the night before her husband’s memorial — so she heads to the barn to watch her mare deliver her first foal. New life arriving right in the middle of grief. That’s ranch life. That’s this story.
Stan kills murderer Jim Topper in a brutal knife fight. Severely wounded, he’s nursed back to health by Beaver Joe’s tribe. He confronts Topper’s father, who eventually accepts the truth about his son’s crimes.
Stan becomes an investor, partners with Hughes Bank, and meets Emma Jackson. After a romantic affair, he learns she was married to Dick Everett (whom Stan killed) and is now married to Judge Jackson. He ends the relationship.
In New York, he and Betsy had split. Depressed, Stan left the city. On return, his brother and sister-in-law bring him on a weekend retreat. Stan falls for a lovely young woman who takes advantage of him, Stannis teaches her the fine art of reprisals when treating him as a fool.
Stan confronts Pastor John Mitchell (alias Rupert Krieger), a rapist and torturer. After a sword duel, Stan amputates his arm and leaves him to die slowly in Devil’s Canyon. The skeleton is later found, and the area is named after the event.
Stannis witnesses an elk hunt, admires tribal customs, and saves Beaver Joe from a mountain lion. He deepens his bond with the tribe and trains One-Foot Goose in horse gentling. The Arapaho eventually migrate to Canada due to settler persecution.
This is a series of five free Western short stories to introduce readers to the Western books of Andrea Smutz. The stories are distributed in a serial fashion. Finish one story and download the next.
Flight to Earth Seven is character-driven space fiction. Morally complex, this novel examines what it costs to be human across millennia, including the bonds that keep us sane when reality itself has become uncertain, and the courage it takes to reach for a new beginning when the old world is gone forever.
