Wolf Creek #11
Stand Proud
by Ford Fargo
This has got to be the most fun a writer can have! It's a Western Fictioneers collaborative novel, the brainchild of Troy Smith, who is also one of the authors (his characters are Marshal Sam Gardner and Charlie Blackfeather). We all write under the name of Ford Fargo. I have two characters, Abby Potter who isn't in this novel, and Gib Norwood. Actually, Gib is head of the Norwood family so I have the whole family.
When Troy put out the call for characters, I thought Wolf Creek needed some milk. I grew up on a dairy farm and one thing I know is milk cows. In fact, I know way too much about milk cows and that's why I live in the 'burbs. LOL. But one thing about dairymen, they work hard, lift lots of milk cans, bags of grain, and an occasional calf, so you can bet they'd be someone to stay away from in a fight. And that's how the Norwood Dairy happened--there's Gib, his half-brothers Peter and Paul who are octoroons, and their mother, Glory, who is Gib's half-aunt.
In Stand Proud, the Norwoods are minding their own business, when the nasty bad guy, Andrew Rogers (um, no relation) uses the dairy as a decoy for his other objective, Matthias. So the Norwoods start off the book. I wrote chapters one and three.
This book has quite a line-up of authors. Jory Sherman is one of the most talented writers of today, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, and his chapter is a thing of beauty--nearly ripped my heart out. Robert J. Randisi is incredibly prolific and has written around 700 books to date--good books, too, so check them out. His chapter in Stand Proud rocks. Troy D. Smith has won both the Peacemaker and the Spur awards--he's the glue that holds these novels together (if you haven't read his Blackwells series, do it! You won't be sorry.). Jerry Guin has contributions in several Wolf Creek books, and then... there's me! So here's the blurb:
Welcome to Wolf Creek.
Here you will find many of your favorite authors, working together as Ford Fargo to weave a complex and textured series of Old West adventures like no one has ever seen.
Greedy and ambitious cattle baron Andrew Rogers has caused a lot of trouble around Wolf Creek, intimidating farmers into selling out to him and hiring a small army of gunmen who have proven themselves capable of almost anything. But now he has set his sights on clearing out a whole town – Matthias, a hamlet near Wolf Creek settled by former slaves. Sheriff G. W. Satterlee has a plan to protect them… but it may be too late.
Writing as Ford Fargo in this volume:
Jory Sherman
Robert J. Randisi
Jacquie Rogers
Jerry Guin
Troy D. Smith
Wolf Creek: Stand Proud
