Welcome to Under the Hot Prairie Sun: Blood, Dust, and Destiny on the Plains, a Saddlebag Dispatches corral filled with the best of western short story fiction.

So set your eye on that lone tree in the far off distance. Point your wagon team west as the hot prairie sun brings sweat to your weary brow. Hop on the trail with a young man who was saved by a sheriff to become a trusted tracker for a Texas Ranger. Listen as an old bard tells how a coyote changed the heart of a hardened outlaw. Relax with a Cinderella story about the least-likeliest Native American maiden of the tribe who was chosen to become the Queen of the Night by the Lord of the Sky. Follow a loving son who follows his depressed father obsessed with striking it rich in the New Mexico gold pickings only to find their own personal motherlode. Recount the last days of John Henry "Doc" Holliday in Glenwood, Colorado as he withers away. Dig your way out of a collapsed mine with a devoted miner who found a new life in the light of the sun.

Whatever your poison, you'll find what you're looking for, and more, in Under the Hot Prairie Sun: Blood, Dust, and Destiny on the Plains.