NEW TAKES ON THE OLD WEST: SILVERADO PRESS PRESENTS VOLUME 1 edited by JEFFREY J. MARIOTTE

Recently a new western imprint, Silverado, began. Silverado Press Presents Volume 1 an anthology appears to be a declaration of what to expect from them with stories touching on real life moments of the period.. For readers at least, it shows a promising future for the publisher..

Several old hands of the genre have thrown into the collection. Editor and Silverado co-founder Jeffrey J, Mariotte, known to us comic book fans for the horror western Desperados, uses the backdrop of Tombstone becoming a county seat to give a noir tingled tale of a damsel who gets out of distress on her own in "Roy Earl's Debt". Sharon Frame Gay executes one of my favorite stories, looking at a relationship between man and beast, "The Buffalo".

Some of my favorite authors find a way to use their recurring characters. Married writers James Reasoner and L.J. Washburn team up their heroes Judge Earl Stark and (at the time) Texas Ranger Lucas Hallam as they end up in Fort Worth's infamous and flammable Spring Palace. Steve Hockensmith looks back at his heroes Diehl amd Hoop's army days in The Apache Wars for his print-the-legend take "The Truest Story Ever Told".

Some newbies prove themselves in the genre. Paul Kupperberg, a comics legend, looks at the effects of the newly introduced barbed wire or "The Devil's Rope" in a war between a ranch and rustlers. His background leads to some rousing action as well as sharp dialogue. The action always plays plays well in fantasy author Kelli Fitzpatrick's "Goddess of War", giving us mercenary Clara Whitlock hired to guard a telescope to be delivered to the new Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. A smart producer should turn it into a movie with Jamie Lee Curtis.

Silverado Press Presents Volume 1 contains sixteen stories. All are fresh on he genre, but have the color, action, and vivid characters of the pulp and paperback forefathers. If the collection represents what's in the store for Silverado, it will be a go to publisher for me.