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Western Short Stories
Big Jim Williams
Chester Fickle, a big redheaded killer called Beaver, leads Jake Silverhorn and fellow Texas Rangers, including Captain Ash Rollins, across snow-deep, post-war action in TEXAS JUSTICE, the long-awaited second book in Big Jim Williams’ exciting Ranger series. The sequel--packed with action and humor--leads to a town hermit and Red Light ghost, devastating fires, gunfights, bank robberies, Old West characters, and palm-sweating Jake forced to deliver a baby for a snow-stranded woman before escaping a possible shotgun marriage to a strange family’s buxom daughter. And there’s bickering about the late Civil War when Captain Rollins constantly refights the Confederate cause with a reluctant Jake, a Yankee veteran. The long outlaw chase--often in blizzards--ends with flying bullets and a surprise twist in TEXAS JUSTICE, featuring the same four Rangers found in Big Jim’s BORDER JUSTICE, his first action-packed novel from DS Productions.
Take a trip to the Old West when meeting the good and bad characters in TALES OF THE FRONTIER from the vivid imagination of Big Jim Williams, also author of the JAKE SILVERHORN TEXAS RANGER series. Here are 17 short stories—action and humor---yarns and tales of outlaws, lawmen, the innocent and the guilty, from horse thieves, cattle kings, mountain men, bounty hunters, Civil War soldiers, to gold seekers, mail-order brides, gal troubles, whiskey traders, turkey thieves, and Texas Rangers. There are enough shootouts to fill this pages…and that ain’t all! Laughs too, when you meet cowboys searching for “The Second Lost Dutchman Mine,” or unusual finds in Big Jim’s “Old West Critters & Characters,” plus a hard-drinking preaching-pounding parrot, to a four-headed singing rattlesnake, to the West’s first traveling dentist, all bursting to get out of these pages. So buy a copy—or maybe a couple hundred copies to give to family and friends---so they can also enjoy a good read. But don’t think about stealing a copy, cuz our steely-eyed clerk’s been watching you ever since you walked in here…and she’s toting a big .44 pistol.
Western short stories Bio. of Big Jim Williams
“I love the Old West’s history, people and tales,” said Big Jim Williams.
“What an exciting time it would have been to be in California’s ‘49 Gold Rush, ride the Oregon Trail, or explore with Lewis and Clark. That’s why I love writing westerns.”
Williams is the author of the audio books, THE OLD WEST, and TALL TALES OF THE OLD WEST. His westerns have appeared in Rope And Wire, Western Horseman, The Cardroom Poker News, Livestock (Texas) Weekly, American West, Sniplits, Short-Story.net, and Shoot! Magazine.
He has also contributed stories to Orchard Press Mysteries, Suspense Magazine, and the books, At Home and Abroad: Prize-Winning Stories, and Murder to Mil-Spec. His sci-fi story shares pages with Ray Bradbury and Edgar Allan Poe in the The Last Man Anthology.
Nonfiction credits include Writers’ Journal, Radio World Magazine, and WritersWeekly.
Williams usually begins writing before 6 a.m., a habit acquired during 20 years as a morning radio announcer.
Big Jim and his wife, Joan, also a writer, have two sons, and four grandchildren. Williams writes, reads, haunts bookstores, overeats, watches old Western movies, drinks beer, lunches with friends, naps in California.
Western Short Stories by Big Jim Williams
“Dutch Higgins & The 2nd Lost Dutchman Mine”
Big Jim Williams
“Wanna be rich?” asked Dutch Higgins.
“Ain’t robbin’ no banks or trains if that’s what you’re asking.” replied Eli Bloom.
“Nope, a lost gold mine right here in Texas. Pluck gold nuggets right off the ground.”
“You gonna bring that up again?”
“Don’t you wanna know about it?”
“Leaving it lost is fine with me,” muttered Eli. “Just another one of your schemes like the time you tried selling rainbows and cow pies to greenhorn, or prairie dogs as youngins’ pets.” Read the full story HERE>>
The Stag-Horn Pistol
Big Jim Williams
The new pistol with stag-horn grips rested on a small back table in Brodie’s Saloon, its cylinder open and empty. Two men on opposite sides of the same round poker table occasionally looked at the weapon. Both had envious eyes.
It was a Colt .44, the latest and most powerful of handguns. Several cartridges were by its side.
A deck of cards was stacked in the middle of the pockmarked table, each pasteboard covered with grime and sweat from a thousand dirty hands...Read More of The Stag-Horn Pistol
Yancy Boone's Epitaph
Big Jim Williams
“I don’t wanna die!” The rail-thin rustler squirmed in his saddle, his hands tied behind his back. A rope stretched from his red neck to a thick cottonwood limb overhead.
“Most people don’t.” Captain Yancy Boone of the Texas Rangers leaned forward in his saddle. “You don’t seem keen on it, either.” The sun glinted off his badge.
“No, sir.” The man gulped. “I’m...I’m sorry for what I done.” Ripped and bloodstained clothes covered his body. Barbed-wire cuts extended to his face and hands...Read More of Yancy Boone's Epitaph
Marshal Caleb Thorne
Big Jim Williams
“There’s gotta be a special place in Hell for people who would do something like this,” said Marshal Caleb Thorne.
The aging lawman gently spread his blanket over the body of a child, crumpled face down in the desert sand. Her yellow dress and blond hair were spattered with crimson. A shoe was missing from her left foot.
Deke Wells, the Marshal’s young Deputy, wiped his eyes. He looked sick...Read More of Marshal Caleb Thorne
Buckshot's Mail-Order Bride
Big Jim Williams
Lonesome cowboys on the Texas Frontier often married mail-order brides.
--The author
"I have decided," said Buckshot Jones, "that I need a wife.”
“What?" sputtered Shorty Hightower, raising a shaggy eyebrow.
"A wife," repeated the lanky Buckshot. He grinned and stuffed his boyish face with morning eggs and biscuits in the Running Iron’s cookhouse.
"Like One-Eyed Mollie at the saloon?" whispered Shorty.
"Nope, a real wife.” Buckshot lowered his empty tin coffee cup and wiped his chin with his sleeve... Read More of Buckshot's Mail-Order Bride
Escape From Fort Challenge
Big Jim Williams
“Ain’t takin’ no more.”
Judd Rutledge examined his blistered hands. Then wiped grime and sweat from his baked forehead.
An unmerciful sun scorched two other Army Privates grudgingly attacking the hard soil with picks and shovels of what would soon become Wyoming Territory...Read More of Escape From Fort Challenge
The Last Mountain Man
Big Jim Williams
Mountain Men roamed America’s unexplored West, trapping beaver, from about 1820 to 1840. This breed of rugged men, with their buckskins and long rifles, faced hostile Indians, wild animals, hunger, and often death, hundreds of miles from their families and civilization.
They often hunted together as employees of big Eastern fur companies. But sometimes they hunted alone as "free" trappers in the rugged Rocky Mountains, or along remote rivers and streams, relying on their own cunning and courage to stay alive. This is one such story...Read More of The Last Mountain Man
Hutch Higgins Ain't No Horse Thief
Big Jim Williams
“Colonel, I won’t do it!” exclaimed Hutch Higgins. “I ain’t gonna hang a man for stealing cattle, especially a kid.”
“Then you aren’t much of a man,” growled Colonel J. B. Griffin.
“The law should be deciding this, not us,” argued Hutch.
“Then get out of the way and let men do their work.”..Read More of Hitch Higgins Ain't No Horse Thief
The Jackstraw Stagecoach Robbery
Big Jim Williams
The short pock-faced bandit with brown teeth shoved a big pistol in Hutch Higgins’ face.
“One move out of you Cowboy,” he growled, “and your momma will be putting flowers on your grave tomorrow! You understand?”
Hutch gulped and nodded.
The outlaw ripped a pistol from Hutch’s holster, but overlooked a one-shot derringer inside his right boot, a whiskey flask in the other...Read More of The Jackstraw Stagecoach Robbery
Sergeant Max Striker
Big Jim Williams
There was only one thought on Lacy’s mind. Find Sergeant Max Striker and kill him! Kill the man who had murdered his friend and brutalized Lacy in the southern hellhole called Andersonville Prison.
Lacy rubbed the stub of his left arm. The sleeve was empty. Sometimes he felt pain in the arm and hand that weren’t there...Read More of Sergeant Max Striker
