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Big Jim Williams
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"Cattle Drive," by Western author Big Jim Williams, is a fictional tale of an 1873 cattle drive across North Texas during a hot summer, a cattleman's desperate attempt to push 3,000 longhorns to a market to avoid financial ruin. The tale includes a cattle stampede, gun battles, gamblers, double crosses, greed, broken promises, soiled doves, 11 dead bodies, and Western action Big Jim hopes readers will enjoy. When a water baron refuses to sell water to save the cattleman's dying herd, that leads to gunplay spearheaded by Buck Longworth, the cattle drive's reluctant trail boss, and his sidekick, Rafferty O'Rourke.
When former Texas Ranger Jake Silverhorn is confronted with the rape and murder of his wife, he seeks justice and revenge against the outlaw Leviticus, an old enemy, in a series of deadly shootouts, fires, double-crosses, and narrow escapes in frontier Arizona. Finding his Arizona ranch destroyed and his wife dead, Jack Silverhorn pursues and corners the four murders led by the notorious outlaw, Leviticus, Jake's old enemy from the Civil War and days as a Texas Ranger.
See all of Big Jim Williams books on Amazon>>
Western short stories Bio. of Big Jim Williams
"I love the Old West's history, people and tales," said Big Jim Williams.
"What an exciting time it would have been to be in California's '49 Gold Rush, ride the Oregon Trail, or explore with Lewis and Clark. That's why I love writing westerns."
Williams is the author of the audio books, THE OLD WEST, and TALL TALES OF THE OLD WEST. His westerns have appeared in Rope And Wire, Western Horseman, The Cardroom Poker News, Livestock (Texas) Weekly, American West, Sniplits, Short-Story.net, and Shoot! Magazine.
He has also contributed stories to Orchard Press Mysteries, Suspense Magazine, and the books, At Home and Abroad: Prize-Winning Stories, and Murder to Mil-Spec. His sci-fi story shares pages with Ray Bradbury and Edgar Allan Poe in the The Last Man Anthology.
Nonfiction credits include Writers' Journal, Radio World Magazine, and WritersWeekly.
Williams usually begins writing before 6 a.m., a habit acquired during 20 years as a morning radio announcer.
Big Jim and his wife, Joan, also a writer, have two sons, and four grandchildren. Williams writes, reads, haunts bookstores, overeats, watches old Western movies, drinks beer, lunches with friends, naps in California.
Western Short Stories by Big Jim Williams
"Dutch Higgins & The 2nd Lost Dutchman Mine"
"Wanna be rich?" asked Dutch Higgins.
"Ain't robbin' no banks or trains if that's what you're asking." replied Eli Bloom.
"Nope, a lost gold mine right here in Texas. Pluck gold nuggets right off the ground."
"You gonna bring that up again?"
"Don't you wanna know about it?"
"Leaving it lost is fine with me," muttered Eli. "Just another one of your schemes like the time you tried selling rainbows and cow pies to greenhorn, or prairie dogs as youngins' pets." Read the full story HERE>>
The Stag-Horn Pistol
The new pistol with stag-horn grips rested on a small back table in Brodie's Saloon, its cylinder open and empty. Two men on opposite sides of the same round poker table occasionally looked at the weapon. Both had envious eyes.
It was a Colt .44, the latest and most powerful of handguns. Several cartridges were by its side.
A deck of cards was stacked in the middle of the pockmarked table, each pasteboard covered with grime and sweat from a thousand dirty hands...Read More of The Stag-Horn Pistol
Yancy Boone's Epitaph
"I don't wanna die!" The rail-thin rustler squirmed in his saddle, his hands tied behind his back. A rope stretched from his red neck to a thick cottonwood limb overhead.
"Most people don't." Captain Yancy Boone of the Texas Rangers leaned forward in his saddle. "You don't seem keen on it, either." The sun glinted off his badge.
"No, sir." The man gulped. "I'm...I'm sorry for what I done." Ripped and bloodstained clothes covered his body. Barbed-wire cuts extended to his face and hands...Read More of Yancy Boone's Epitaph
Marshal Caleb Thorne
"There's gotta be a special place in Hell for people who would do something like this," said Marshal Caleb Thorne.
The aging lawman gently spread his blanket over the body of a child, crumpled face down in the desert sand. Her yellow dress and blond hair were spattered with crimson. A shoe was missing from her left foot.
Deke Wells, the Marshal's young Deputy, wiped his eyes. He looked sick...Read More of Marshal Caleb Thorne
Buckshot's Mail-Order Bride
Lonesome cowboys on the Texas Frontier often married mail-order brides.
--The author
"I have decided," said Buckshot Jones, "that I need a wife."
"What?" sputtered Shorty Hightower, raising a shaggy eyebrow.
"A wife," repeated the lanky Buckshot. He grinned and stuffed his boyish face with morning eggs and biscuits in the Running Iron's cookhouse.
"Like One-Eyed Mollie at the saloon?" whispered Shorty.
"Nope, a real wife." Buckshot lowered his empty tin coffee cup and wiped his chin with his sleeve... Read More of Buckshot's Mail-Order Bride
Escape From Fort Challenge
"Ain't takin' no more."
Judd Rutledge examined his blistered hands. Then wiped grime and sweat from his baked forehead.
An unmerciful sun scorched two other Army Privates grudgingly attacking the hard soil with picks and shovels of what would soon become Wyoming Territory... Read More of Escape From Fort Challenge
Mountain Men roamed America's unexplored West, trapping beaver, from about 1820 to 1840. This breed of rugged men, with their buckskins and long rifles, faced hostile Indians, wild animals, hunger, and often death, hundreds of miles from their families and civilization.
They often hunted together as employees of big Eastern fur companies. But sometimes they hunted alone as "free" trappers in the rugged Rocky Mountains, or along remote rivers and streams, relying on their own cunning and courage to stay alive. This is one such story...Read More of The Last Mountain Man
Hutch Higgins Ain't No Horse Thief
"Colonel, I won't do it!" exclaimed Hutch Higgins. "I ain't gonna hang a man for stealing cattle, especially a kid."
"Then you aren't much of a man," growled Colonel J. B. Griffin.
"The law should be deciding this, not us," argued Hutch.
"Then get out of the way and let men do their work."..Read More of Hitch Higgins Ain't No Horse Thief
The Jackstraw Stagecoach Robbery
The short pock-faced bandit with brown teeth shoved a big pistol in Hutch Higgins' face.
"One move out of you Cowboy," he growled, "and your momma will be putting flowers on your grave tomorrow! You understand?"
Hutch gulped and nodded.
The outlaw ripped a pistol from Hutch's holster, but overlooked a one-shot derringer inside his right boot, a whiskey flask in the other...Read More of The Jackstraw Stagecoach Robbery
Sergeant Max Striker
There was only one thought on Lacy's mind. Find Sergeant Max Striker and kill him! Kill the man who had murdered his friend and brutalized Lacy in the southern hellhole called Andersonville Prison.
Lacy rubbed the stub of his left arm. The sleeve was empty. Sometimes he felt pain in the arm and hand that weren't there...Read More of Sergeant Max Striker