Showing results by author "M. M. Lehman" in All Categories

Throughout fiction, there have always been heroes who have fallen from grace. Champions of honor, decency, and order who have become villains through some traumatic event or a deep personal flaw. Blackest Knights is a collection of 19 tales by some of independent fantasy's best authors that follow a collection of those heroes who fell to temptation. From tales of bloody-handed hypocrites to space pirates, you'll find some truly fascinating works within.

Reuben and Amy Corbin, brother and sister, are left destitute in 1886 when Quantrill's Raiders burn their Missouri farm, kill their father, and ride off with all the livestock and supplies. Reuben swears that somehow, someday, he will find and kill the individual raider he saw gun-down his father. With no means of support, brother and sister decide to try for Oregon. They find work and earn enough money to join up with a wagon train. The wagon train becomes the platform for a continuous array of adventures, hardships and close, new-found relationships.

Tina Wanski and her husband, Raul, discover how much cattle ranchers in Southern Colorado hate sheep when the ranchers drive them out and kill Raul. Except for her herders, Tina is left alone to drive her sheep to the Tongue River Valley in Montana. She soon becomes hardened to the problems facing a sheep owner as they trail through cattle country. But she becomes more determined to show the cattlemen that she is not going to be pushed around and tries desperately to gain a foothold in Montana.

During the frontier days, North Dakota was considered the land of opportunity by hardy pioneers eager to settle on 160 free acres offered by the government. All they had to do was prove up on the land for three years and it was theirs. The Morgan family found proving up was no simple task. The prairie they experienced was a killer - hot and dry in the summer, numbing cold in the winter, torrential rains that turned their sod house into a dripping muddy mess, tornadoes, prairie fires, and hordes of insects.

When Russ Lang, sheriff of Twin Buttes, is killed trying to avert a bank robbery, his son, Todd, seeks revenge. Todd goes undercover posing as a cowhand to get a job at the Frying Pan Ranch, which is suspected of being a haven for crooks of ill repute. The Frying Pan Ranch had belonged to a Claude Fanning, who just up and disappeared. Now the ranch is being run by a rough fellow named Shep. Todd soon realizes he may never get off the ranch alive until he discovers Link, another cowboy like himself who turns out to be a detective for the Montana Wool Growers.

At 36, Zeb Warren stands slightly over six feet tall. His muscles are as strong as the steel traps he uses in his trade. Jim Bridger got him started; now he's on his own in the Idaho wilderness - the frontier that has been his home for 20 years. But now his serenity is being disturbed by unscrupulous trappers who are ruining his peaceful coexistence with the Indians. To make matters worse, the Indians are holding a white woman and her teenage daughter captive. Zeb knows he's the only hope for the captives, and now he must make a choice....

Cynthia and Abigail Hartford leave their millinery shop in the east to inspect a cattle ranch in Rockland, Wyoming, that they inherited from their deceased brother. The ranch, according to local gossip is "hexed". "Ranch hands are dying like flies," they're told. The two women are offered a fraction of the ranch's value by a shyster attorney. Undaunted, they hire Slim Bates, a tough, no-nonsense ramrod with a hard fist and quick gun-hand to take over the ranch. Ghost or no ghost, the ladies are determined to move in....

Prim and proper Becky Hurst leaves the frontier town of Seattle and travels alone to the Yukon to join her ne'er-do-well husband. But things don't turn out like she planned. Becky learns worldly truths that were suppressed while sheltered in her parents' home. Her survival is soon linked to her quick wit and new found prowess with firearms. Proper manners fall by the wayside as she grows stronger and trailwise, challenging the wilderness on its own terms. Becky learns to survive and endure in a man's world, but at what cost...

Jim Mosby was just a tad under 17 when he left Texas. But he was as tough as they come and quick with a gun. Ending up in Missouri, he found a job with the Pony Express where he gained a new friend named Matt Rossiter. When the Pony Express went out of business, the two sidekicks found work in various jobs. They were scouts for the U.S. Cavalry, meat-hunters for the mines, and finally took a hand at gold mining. They found a fortune in gold. To commemorate their good fortune Matt made a bullet of gold. A bullet that fulfills a deadly destiny...

Upon the death of her father, Kim Demming has no alternative but to leave Seattle and go live with her uncle in Arrowhead, Wyoming. On the way, she meets Steve Owens a drifting cowhand who decides to look for work in Arrowhead. Neither of the two are aware of the serious roles they are about to play in Wyoming. Kim knew her uncle owned a ranch, but she didn't have any idea it was a sheep ranch located in cattle country. Nor was she aware of the range war brewing. Both Kim and Steve are hell-bent for trouble....

For John Fisher, it's just another day at the office. But his "office" is a black Dodge Durango, rolling through the wild heart of the nation's federal lands. Legends aren't myths here; they're reality. Creatures of shadow and blood, granted their place in the world after the Civil Rights Movement.