Showing results by narrator "Eric Messner" in All Categories

William Clarke Quantrill was a hated name during the War Between the States by the Federals of the Union Army as well as by many non-combatants. Even the high command of the Confederacy distrusted him. But there were others who were passionate sympathizers. He was both friend and mentor but also manipulator and opportunist. Alistair Durant was someone who came to know him in all these guises. Durant was a young Confederate soldier captured by the Yankees and released when he took an oath never again to bear arms against the Union.

Two young men in the gold fields of California spend a last evening together as one of them, very sick, confronts his own imminent death. The tenderness between them may seem idealized, but you understand by listening to this story how premature death from accident and disease haunted the lives of far more westerners than death by violence.

Wayne D. Overholser, winner of three Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America, weaves a magic spell in this story with his consistent skill in presenting vibrant characters and his uncommon sensitivity to the depths of human personality.

Julia's daddy was the judge in town. He used to be fair, but recently it seemed that had changed. What cost to regular folks would there be?

Haseloff's characters embody the fundamental values - honor, duty, courage, and family - that prevailed on the American frontier and were instilled in the young Haseloff by her own "heroes", her mother and her grandmother. Her stories, in a sense, dramatize how these values endure when challenged by the adversities and cruelties of frontier existence.

For 17 years, Ty Mattson never knew if his father survived the Mexican War. But when he receives news that his father is alive - and he's joined the Confederate forces of General John Morgan - Ty leaves home to enlist with Morgan's Raiders. Owen Mattson turns out to be everything Ty imagined he would be: a good man, a true mentor, a great soldier. But a Confederate assassin's bullets nearly divide father and son yet again.

The news is bad. The stage driver's wife who is expecting a child has taken a serious fall and now needs her husband. Dave Judd will take his place driving the stagecoach filled with passengers who want to get through before the bitter cold that is lifting becomes a blizzard.

A bitter, driven Billy Bane and his dysfunctional, thrown-together family of adventurers pinball their way through spatial anomalies and galactic raiders to find the long-forgotten planet Earth, in order to take down the sadistic celestial being called The Creator who supposedly resides there. Dysfunction leads to heartbreak and alienation, strange new allies & enemies and catastrophic galactic war. But hey, it’s a comedy!

Following Russia’s thermonuclear first strike, America is a shattered wasteland, its survivors crushed under the iron fist of the brutal Soviet invader. But some have chosen to continue the fight for freedom’s cause under Ted Rockson, the ultimate soldier of survival. And when Rockson receives a strange visitor who is near death, a long-rumored legend suddenly comes alive.

Tyvian Reldamar - criminal mastermind, rogue mage, and smuggler of sorcerous goods - has just been betrayed by his longtime partner and left for dead in a freezing river. To add insult to injury, his mysterious rescuer took it upon himself to affix Tyvian with an iron ring that prevents the wearer from any evildoing. Revenge just got complicated. On his quest to get even, Tyvian navigates dark international conspiracies, dodges midnight assassins, and uncovers the plans of the ruthless warlord Banric Sahand - all while running from a Mage-Defender determined to lock him up.

Old ways and new clash in head-on confrontation: When journeyman hit man Ray Dylan agrees to look in on Sami Bloom, former mistress of a deceased Canadian crime financier, he realizes he must keep his profession a secret. What he doesn’t realize is how difficult that is now that he has fallen for this warm-hearted beauty. While he struggles with the idea of confiding to her about his secret past, Dylan learns that Sami Bloom has some secrets of her own - and her secrets reach into the upper echelons of the very organization he works for.

Meet Lara Dominguez—a troubled Creighton cops reporter obsessed with the city's debonair vigilante—The Black Ghost. With the help of a mysterious cyber-informant named LONE, Lara's inched closer to uncovering the Ghost's identity. But as she searched for the breakthrough story she desperately needs, Lara will have to navigate the corruption of her city, the uncertainties of virtue, and her own personal demons. Will she have the strength to be part of the solution—or will she become the problem?

Original story published in Lariat story magazine - July 1947.

Matt Hurst seeks justice when a sheriff's posse kills his father and brothers.

Shaw's forte was her ability to create interesting casts of characters through whom and between whom she was able to develop a suspenseful and unpredictable interplay. This story is a good example of her character driven Western fiction.

Brother Shotgun is about an old buffalo hunter whose return to the plains after the Civil War keeps being delayed by the needs of a young woman who has taken in a number of orphans.

Honest presentation is only one characteristic of Frazee’s well-crafted tales. He tells a convincing, satisfying, and unusual story even when employing stock Western situations. A major strength is his understanding of the nuances of character, of how people are motivated, of the good and bad within each person, and of the conflicts between man and his environment. Drawing upon his years in the mountains of Colorado, he can vividly and realistically depict a variety of Western settings and do so in such a way that the settings assume a character of their own.

Bill Ash, an escaped convict returns to find his father murdered.

When Chicago hitman Ray Dylan started out he was one more young professional struggling to get ahead of the pack. But he knows his world is about to change quickly when he takes on a job for high-level KGB elitist Leonid (The Professor) Volkov, founder of a unique Cuban-Russian spy community operating out of southern Florida. After Volkov double-crosses him and tries to have him killed, Dylan must take on the entire criminal spy operation even as a wild hurricane named Dennis ravages its way up the heart of the Florida peninsula.

GraphicAudio and Vault Comics are proud to present Wasted Space! Adapted directly from the graphic novel and produced with a full cast of actors, immersive sound effects and cinematic music. Billy Bane is a prophet who got it all wrong, and the galaxy has been burning ever since. All he wants is to waste away in the darkest corner of space with his best pal Dust, a supercharged Fuq bot. But when a new prophet comes calling, Billy is summoned to save the galaxy he's at least partially responsible for destroying. Too bad he couldn't care less.