Two Announcements

The first award and the next book

I have two special announcements to make today—both related to Western fiction, and each a follow-up to something mentioned in last month’s Round-Up…

“Valiant-For-Truth” wins the Peacemaker Award

I am beyond happy and excited to share that my short story “Valiant-For-Truth” has won this year’s Peacemaker Award for short Western fiction!

A story of a young family’s struggle against one of the infamous blizzards of the 1880s and the still more bitter storms of family betrayal, published in last year’s anthology Through Western Storms, this piece has been special to me in many ways. Receiving this honor for it is an incredible thrill, after nearly fifteen years of writing Western fiction.

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Cover reveal and pre-order for Follow the Lonesome Trail

My next publication is another multi-author Western anthology, and it now has a cover and an official release date of September 10th, 2025! The Kindle edition is available for pre-order now. Follow the Lonesome Trail: A Wild West Anthology features eight short stories sure to appeal to fans of traditional Westerns, which can be enjoyed by the whole family—and provides some fun, fresh twists on the classic Western story!

My story, “The Princess of Flat Rock,” is one which I’ve described as ‘Bret Harte meets Frances Hodgson Burnett’: a handful of colorful characters in a Dakota mining camp join forces to help three city children who have been stranded there, but find themselves in an extraordinary and comical situation when they discover the children may not be exactly what they seem. It’s a really fun story, strongly inspired by my old favorite O. Henry and touching on one of my favorite niche topics of the English in the Old West, and I can’t wait for you to read it.

Behold the cover and synopsis for Follow the Lonesome Trail:

A trapper discovers he’s been left a poke of gold—but there’s a safe and a greedy bartender between him and his inheritance. The residents of a mining camp join forces to protect children who may or may not be royalty in disguise. And a pair of bandits get more trouble than they bargained for when the cargo they were hired to steal turns out to be somebody’s mail-order bride!

Find all this and more in this anthology, and prepare yourself for a wild West you only thought you knew as six authors go off-trail and blaze a new path.

Compiled by Allison Tebo and featuring the talents of Rachel Kovaciny, Emily Hayse, Elisabeth Grace Foley, Hannah Kaye, and A. Hartley, this collection of short stories and flash fiction explores the western frontier of bygone days and the unexpected adventures that occur when we follow the lonesome path.

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