NOTHING too earth-shaking here, just a chance to tell you where the idea came from, how I see it going in general. First off I really enjoyed writing three stories in the Weird Western genre. The first was actually a re-write of J. F. Gonzalez's "The Man Who Had a Death Wish" . JF had originally sent it to me for another project I was editing and I was struck by how it seemed like half a good story. He kindly allowed me to add the other half. That particular story has a nasty villain and a gallant hero. JF is responsible for the baddy, and I, the other, the goody-goody, Deputy Sheriff Brett Hope. I've written 2 sequels: "Heller" and "Laocoon", both of which can be found in Dark Worlds Magazine.

My first shared world project is a book I am very proud of called MAGISTRIA: REALM OF THE SORCERER. (Rob Santa is selling it still. Here.) With that book I gave a small group of talented writers a concept and a vague map and they went to town. The end result was 14 stories and some beautiful artwork by Mats Minnhagen. I wanted to try and repeat the process with some other types of books and a Weird Western seemed likely to work. I've created the vague idea of DEVIL'S GULCH, suggested some of the folks who live there. The rest I leave to you. Find a character you like or make one up, and have some fun with the Western genre. Use the discussion group to share ideas about the people, places, history. The more interwoven the tales seem the more our readers will enjoy the experience.

Just one last note on History: the history of Devil's Gulch is ours to play with, but real history should be respected as much as possible. I'm no historian but, for instance, if your character uses a word like "phoney" my alarm bells will go off. The expression came from the contempt people first felt about telephones. Telephones haven't been invented in the 1880s. Even worse, current slang. "Sorry Sheriff, my bad." Ick! While we all know attitudes in the past were different (towards women, minorities, religion, politics) your story certainly doesn't have to condone such behavior. It is a fine line, but history writers do it all the time.

I can't wait to see what you come up with...

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