David Phillips's Blog - Posts Tagged "jones"

July: Flash Fiction of the Month

Hey everyone,

This month's Flash Fiction comes straight out of my recent reading & watching inspiration.

As long as I can remember, I've been a fan of westerns movies and tv shows: Alias Smith & Jones was a favourite of mine and the Western movies I remember being profoundly affected by when I was very young were the terrifying Apache Drums and the horrifying torture of Dennis Weaver in Duel at Diablo. And, as I grew older I came to appreciate Spaghetti Westerns, revisionist Westerns, etc, etc.

It is only recently that I have read Western books though. I started with the Lonesome Dove series. And, I chose to follow McCrae and Call in chronological order (not publishing): beginning with Dead Man's Walk and, TBH, it was excellent. I soon followed it with Comanche Moon and, again, I thought it was superb. I look fwd to getting into Lonesome Dove when it reaches the top of my TBR pile. As a side note, I also read Blood Meridian and was absolutely blown away by it - Cormac McCarthy is a superbly talented writer.

I'd written Western genre flash fiction before - it features in my collection: Derecho Rising. And, for this month's story, I was revisiting the genre with fresh ideas of prose and plot based upon my recent reading and watching.

I also have a longer form story that I hope to progress soon which is very much a Spaghetti Western tale.

Anyway, this month's story is called Black Cloud. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Black Cloud


Derecho Rising by David Phillips Derecho Rising: A Short Story Collection
 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter