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| Cover by Laura Givens |
From gunsmoke-laced shootouts in cantinas and saloons to desperate nighttime dashes across the Rio Grande to the quiet, heartfelt courage of men backed into a corner and faced with overwhelming odds, Charles Boeckman's classic stories of the Texas frontier are filled with everything that makes the Old West exciting!
Writing under the name Charles Beckman Jr., Charles Boeckman filled the pages of vintage Western pulp magazines such as STAR WESTERN and DIME WESTERN with colorful tales of action, adventure, and romance. With authentic settings and compelling characters, these stories are some of the best from the pulp era.
Rough Edges Press is proud to present BLAZING TRAILS AND WESTERN TALES, a new collection of eight novellas and short stories by Charles Boeckman originally published between 1949 and 1957. These tales from one of the master storytellers of the Old West have never been reprinted until now.
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| Cover by Livia J. Washburn |
WHO IS ELIZABETH?
When Elizabeth McDaniel's reclusive, sheltered existence on her grandfather's farm is invaded by Derek Huston, she cannot possibly imagine the stunning result of his intrusion into her life. And he has no idea how enchanted he will become with the lovely, spit-fire redhead who demonstrates her dead-eye, rifle aim on their first encounter.
Their first clash of wills precedes a budding romance, the flowering of Elizabeth's musical talents with a guitar provided by Derek, and Derek's acceptance into the family. No one suspects that Derek has a hidden agenda so explosive that, when revealed, it turns Elizabeth's world upside down and her image of herself inside out.
No longer able to trust Derek on any level, she erases him from her life and from her heart.
Is there any hope that Derek can regain her confidence and her love?
Find out in this delightful, warm, touching, compelling account of two people whose lives are dramatically changed by each other and who have to sort through the rubble of their existence before they can know if they have a future together.
I enjoyed editing both of these books. Charles is one of the great Western pulp storytellers and these are fine examples of his work. Patti's novel really kept me turning the pages because of her skill at creating characters the reader cares about.
Below the links are the covers of some of the Western pulps in which Charles's stories in this volume originally appeared.
BLAZING TRAILS AND WESTERN TALES e-book at Amazon
2 comments:
Just ordered my copy. His "Honky Tonk Girl," also in reprint, was really fine. Good for you, Mr. B! And it feels great to still be discovering "new" writers after 50 years of drawing from the well. Thanks, James, for bringing this material back into print. I look forward to reading it.
Thanks from me, too, James. I have just bought this ebook from Smashwords, and I'm looking forward to reading it. Although I live in New Zealand, it cost me the same $US2.99 that it would have cost me if I was living in the US... Which is as it should be in the days of the world-wide web. Wasn't that supposed to be one of the benefits of ebooks, as opposed to print books with their shipping and handling costs? Meanwhile, if I had ordered this book from Amazon, it would have cost me $US3.58. I'd urge any other overseas resident deterred by Amazon's unjustified mark-ups to check out Smashwords. (They have "mobi" versions if you want to read on a Kindle.)
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