Western Story Notes

Hi,

I'm planning to run The Killer and the Doctor in the March 2016 issue of Frontier Tales. Because of time pressures, we're no longer creating teasers; instead, we're asking you authors to do that. If you'd care to write up something that might intrigue someone enough to want to read your story (and keep it to 50 words or less), I'd love to have it. If you can't get anything to us before February 22nd we may have to simply list the story title, and that won't be nearly as good. Hope you can get something to us so we don't have to do that. 

We'll also run a short bio at the end of the story if you want to supply one. Keep that to 100 words or less, if you can.

As an aside, I recommend you change your email program so that it shows your first and last name instead of the generic Full Name which it currently shows. You'll note I didn't say "Hi John (or Bill or Steve or . . . ) because I don't know your name. More importantly to you, your name does not appear on your story. An unattributed story is something neither of us wants, is it? So, even if you don't fix your email program, would you reply with your name so we can attribute your story properly? 

Thanks, 
Duke

Duke Pennell
Editor, Frontier Tales
www.FrontierTales.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Full Name [mailto:crector@myway.com] 
Sent: Saturday, September 5, 2015 9:55 PM
To: editor@frontiertales.com
Subject: The Killer and the Doctor Revised Version

Sirs:


Here is the revised version of my previously submitted story, "The Killer and the Doctor."


In May 1887, Patrick Runde was feeling pretty full of himself. He had killed his father without anyone in law enforcement suspecting him. Now he was going to inherit the ranch that his father had built up and with it the wealth and social standing that came with it. His friend, the local political power boss, had always said that he'd make a great state senator since he'd always vote the party line. Now that his father, who abhorred politics and politicians, were out of the way, there was nothing or nobody standing in the way of his ambitions.

Runde sat contentedly at the table eating the porterhouse steak that the family cook had prepared for him. By the plate was the bottle of whiskey that he had selected for this private celebration. Life was good.

Just then Doctor Paul Walther stepped into the dining room. "I hope I'm not disturbing you," the doctor said with his hat in hand along with his bag.

"Not at all," said Runde, "kind of surprised you're here though. I thought you had left for Phoenix."

"I was on my way, but I turned back. Got a lot of things on my mind that I want to talk to you," said the doctor.

Runde replied, "Why don't you sit down and make yourself comfortable. I'll get the help to get you something to eat and drink."

After a servant came with a bottle of whiskey, Doctor Walther took a swig of it and remarked, "I needed that. All that time in the hot desert."

Runde looked at the doctor and asked, "What's on your mind, Paul?"

"You."

"Me?"

"I've gotten to thinking about your father and how he met his untimely death. .There are some things that point to you as a killer," the doctor said gravely.

Pat exclaimed, "Me a killer? You're crazy!"

The doctor replied, "Don't deny it. Given our past relationship, I really did not want to believe it. However, after I got to riding to Tucson, I got to thinking about the strange fact that your father died so soon after your mother. While its clear to me that your mother died of natural causes, I just cannot get over the fact that your father died so soon after her and so oddly."

"So are you accusing me or something?"

Doc Walther leaned forward in his chair and said, "We need to talk about this," now if you don't mind"

"All right" said Runde, "Let's talk about your suspicions."

Doc Walther placed his black bag in his lap and started talking, "Did you know that I have been a doctor right here in the Arizona Territory for 21 years? And before that, I served in the medical service in the U.S. Army for 20 years before that?"

Pat Runde responded, "Of course doc, its all you ever talk about it seems like."

The doctor narrowed his gaze at the new ranch owner and said, "You always were an insolent brat. Your parents sure spoiled you rotten and ruined you."

"Gee doc, you sure know how to praise a guy," Runde said sarcastically.

"You know, in all my years as what the injuns call a medicine man," the doctor went on, "I've handled all the problems that a frontier doctor can expect to handle as well as some completely unexpected situations."

"Are you trying to audition as a filibustering U.S. senator on my time?" Pat Runde was getting exasperated. "Please doc get on with your suspicions before I die of old age," the heir to the Runde ranch said.

"Your father died just a few days later in a strange way," Doc Walther said.

"You said his heart gave out."

"That seemed to make sense at first. You had said that he had been suffering chest pains . However, when I examined him, I found something in his throat that should not have been there. I got it out, but did not say anything about it because I wanted to believe you," the doctor said.

Runde started to feel agitated, "What did you find in his throat?"

"A feather."

"A feather?"

"A feather, you know the kind you find in a pillow. A feather that had no reason to be in your father's throat," replied the doctor.

"That's weird," replied Runde, "perhaps he got it in her throat while he was thrashing around in the bed."

"That's odd," replied Doctor Paul Walther, "you said that he died as peaceful as a lamb. That's your exact words."

"I might have been mistaken," Runde replied. "You are insulting my very honor insinuating that I could kill my beloved father like that."

"And there's something else. There's beentalk that you father had been messing around with the widow Faherty. She's got kids and if your father married her, you could lose your entire inheritance. You obviously have a motive for murder." Doc Walther just sat there for a bit contemplating the scene. Finally, he said, " I'm going to bring this to the attention of Sheriff Mark Edgette and see what he intends to do about it."

Upon hearing this, Patrick Runde decided that he had to eliminate this threat to him and his ill-gotten wealth. He stood up and tried to pull out his gun to shoot the doctor. However, the doctor pulled his gun out of his leather bag and shot Runde first.

"Doc.....you shot me," Runde said with his last gasp.

Doctor Paul Walther got up and looked down upon Patrick Runde in a disapproving way and said, "I suppose I'm wasting my time telling you this, but I'm not really who you thought I was. You thought that since I was a man of medicine, I was a man of peace and as such an easy make. Actually, before I became a doctor, I was in the U.S. Army for twenty years and that's where I got my medical training. All that time on the frontier fighting the injuns helped my learn the fine art of the quick draw in close combat. The simple fact is that you never had a chance against me."

THE END

Kathy Paulk

http://www.paulkusa.com/

Facebook Fraud

     One thing that I discovered today on Facebook is a button labelled "Friend Requests."  Naturally, I assumed that these were all friend requests that other folks had made of myself.  So, I clicked on the button and discovered hundreds of what were represented as friend requests involving folks who I have never met or even heard of.  Of the people involved that I had actually encountered, they were all from individuals who I just barely knew.  There was not a single friend request from anyone who I knew even halfway well.  All of these people were represented as being friends of folks who I had already friended (is that a word?) or individuals who were friends of other persons who had friend requests in.

     After looking over the list, I picked out a couple individuals to approve and clicked on one of them.  To my great surprise, instead of saying something like, "Friend Request Approved," it instead said, "Friend Request Sent."  In other words, all these so-called friends requests were not made by actual persons, but instead by some kind of weird algorithm of persons who Facebook feels ought to be my friends.

If that isn't completely fraudulent, then I don't know what is.  What's even worse is that I don't have the slightest idea just why they would do this in the first place.

Trial

The Liberation of Grenada

     Note:  The following was originally written in the Freshman Composition class taught by Mr. Robert Olsen at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in Spring, 1984 as an in-class Final Exam.

     In November of 1983, the U.S. Marines, Army Rangers, and troops of various Caribbean democracies  stormed ashore the  isle of Grenada.  Their mission was to free the American students living there from terror, to safeguard our interests, and to, above all, reestablish democracy in Grenada.

     This action was instantly criticized by certain liberal elements, and the criticisms ended only when it turned out that the students believed that they were endangered and the Grenadians were happy that they we had liberated them.  There still has been criticism of the invasion, but it has been weak and indecisive.

   My own view of the invasion is that it was moral and just due to previously unmentioned factors.  First, the communist government had come to power in early 1979 in a coup d'etat that overthrew the democratically elected government of Sir Eric Gairy.  The victors, lead by Maurice Bishop, refused to hold elections,; and  just prior to the invasion, Bishop was overthrown by his fellow Marxists and executed.

     Secondly, thee new government, consisting of the anti-Bishop faction, instigated a reign of terror that caused great suffering to the Grenadian masses.  The above should be enough to prove that the communist government of Grenada was unfit to rule in the best interests of the people.

     The above facts have not been enough for certain groups as evidenced by this recent Wisconsin Federation of Teachers resolution:

          Resolved, that the Wisconsin Federation of Teachers deplores the U.S. invasion of Grenada
     and calls on the President of the U.S. immediately to withdraw armed forces from the island
     of Grenada, and be it finally

          Resolved, that the W.F.T. communicate to the President of the U.S., the Secretary of State and        the Wisconsin Delegation to Congress that it supports the fundamental principle embodied in the
     U.S. Declaration of Independence that sovereign nations have the right to governments of their            own choosing without intervention from other nations."

     My viewpoint on the W.F.T. resolution has several basic points each of which will be gone through here.

     The first basic point I wish to make about the W.F.T. resolution involves this question:  how could the Declaration of Independence be against foreign intervention?  France, Spain and Holland intervened on our behalf so we could gain our independence.

     The second basic point is that one of the reasons the Declaration of Independence was originally written was to gain foreign intervention in support of the American Revolution.

     The third basic point is that the Declaration of Independence does not embody the W.F.T. 's principle.  Dr. William G. Rector, of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville history department, states,  "The W.F.T. seems to believe that sovereignty lies in the nation, whereas the Declaration of
Independence holds that sovereignty lies in the people."

     In summary, we as both a nation and as a people need to fight tyranny.  When debates, such as this  one, are held at home over foreign intervention, this fact about the Declaration of Independence should be raised .

   

Intro Movies That Need to be Remade

 There are certain films that hold a unique place in cinematic
     history.  These are movies 
that were great conceptions, but when the movie was actually made,
something went wrong.
Great ideas became movies that were, at best, lackluster.  These are the
movies that most need 
to be remade.  Hollywood needs to take another shot at putting these
ideas into celluloid. 

Who or What is Cthulhu?

Cthulhu is a fictional character created by H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft also created 
a body of work known collectively as the "Cthulhu Mythos" that also includes the dreaded
book The Necronomicon as well as the most learned institution of higher learning in America, if 
not the world, Miskatonic University. This mythos originated in a series of stories mixing horror and
science fiction. As for Cthulhu himself , he is an evil being from outer space who sleeps in his temple on a sunken island.

Several of Lovecraft's friends, such as August Derleth, also wrote stories about this evil octopoid being.
These tales form the "Cthulhu Mythos." Cthulhu stories are still being written by fans and friends of Lovecraft.