short stories / flash fiction | setting: western | form: humor/metafiction
Banter started as a single piece of flash fiction by the same name, a conversation between an Old West sheriff and a stranger who just gunned down seven men in the street of a New Mexico town. A New Mexico town, again, of the same name.
It was supposed to be a one-off bit of comedy about the role of witty dialogue in American fiction but, after I published that initial short story, I kept thinking about the town of Banter and the events that might have followed or led up to the gunfight. Other works of Western fiction suggested themselves for allusion or parody and, before I knew it, I had a fistful of ideas for new stories about Banter.
Knowing each of these episodes would need its own title, I renamed the original story “A Fistful of Dullards” when I posted the prequel, “Haul Your Pretty Arses.” The third story, “The Man With New Name,” reestablishes chronological consistency, taking place immediately after “Fistful.”
There are at least three more episodes waiting at the train station, with new characters for the sheriff and the gunman to bounce words off of. A few dullards more, you might say.
The links below are presented in the chronological order of the story, with the dates published in brackets.
Haul Your Pretty Arses [posted 25 June 2011]
A Fistful of Dullards [posted 08 January 2011]
The Man With New Name [posted 05 September 2011]
The Owe-Box Incident [posted 22 November 2011]
The Mortificant Seven [coming soon!]
Done Some Love [coming soon!]
Fun story.