BCS #172 rides into town today, a special Weird Western issue, featuring three Weird Western stories, a podcast, and a new episode of The BCS Audio Vault, all in honor of our new anthology Ceaseless West: Weird Western Stories from Beneath Ceaseless Skies, now available at ebook stores including Amazon, Apple iBooks, and WeightlessBooks.com.
E. Catherine Tobler (“We, As One, Trailing Embers” in BCS #147 and podcast BCS 127, “Artificial Nocturne” in BCS #126, both in her circus world, among others) offers “Splitskin,” another of her strange time-traveling circus stories, this one with a unique west-America feel.
Erin Cashier (“Eighth Eye” in BCS #49 and podcast BCS 043, “The Alchemist’s Feather” in BCS #25 and podcast BCS 023, and“Hangman” in BCS #10, podcast BCS 010, BCS Audio Vault 017, and the new Ceaseless West anthology) returns to BCS for the first time since 2009 with “Swallowing Silver,” a tale of family homestead tension amid a cursed outside threat.
Shannon Peavey offers “The Snake-Oil Salesman and the Prophet’s Head,” in which the sideshow protagonist is accompanied by his brother’s severed head in a jar.
The BCS Audio Fiction Podcast episode is BCS 149: Swallowing Silver, the Erin Cashier story, rendered in the taut voice of bleak family and a bleak situation.
The new BCS Audio Vault episode with BCS #172 is BCS Audio Vault 018: Mister Hadj’s Sunset Ride by Saladin Ahmed, another unique Weird Western tale, which appears in our Ceaseless West anthology. It’s introduced by the author, explaining his exploration of fun Western tropes and rarely discussed history of Muslims in America.
The From the Archives story with BCS #172 is “The Angel Azrael Delivers Small Mercies” by Peter Darbyshire, from BCS #102 and podcast BCS 087, another tale of his gunslinging fallen angel whose first story appears in Ceaseless West.
All behind the great Weird Western cover art “Bandits Assault a Stagecoach” by Ignacio Bazan Lazcano, which appeared on our cover in Summer 2012 and also on Ceaseless West.
To celebrate the release of Ceaseless West last week, we’re having a BCS ebook sale! Check here or at Weightless Books for details. It ends Tues. May 5!