by
Tex Thompson
Genre: Epic Western Fantasy
Publisher: Solaris
Date of Publication: July 29, 2014
Number of Pages: 464
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Appaloosa Elim is a man who knows his place. On a good day, he’s content with it.
Today is not a good day.
Today, his so-called “partner” – that lily-white lordling Sil Halfwick – has ridden off west for the border, hell-bent on making a name for himself in native territory. And Elim, whose place is written in the bastard browns and whites of his cow-spotted face, doesn’t dare show up home again without him.
The border town called Sixes is quiet in the heat of the day, but Elim's heard the stories about what wakes at sunset: gunslingers and shapeshifters and ancient animal gods whose human faces never outlast the daylight.
If he ever wants to go home again, he’d better find his missing partner fast. But if he’s caught out after dark, Elim risks succumbing to the old and sinister truth in his own flesh - and discovering just how far he’ll go to survive the night.
The first book in an epic fantasy Western series, One Night in Sixes tells the story of the fragile peace between the industrialized east and the indigenous west – and how it threatens to fall to pieces when two strangers cause a terrible accident. Recommended for fans of the Western mythos of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, the post-war frontier dynamics of Firefly and Deep Space Nine, and the multicultural fantasy realms of Ursula K. LeGuin.
PRAISE FOR ONE NIGHT IN SIXES:
"Clearly written and engaging" - Publishers Weekly
“This author can really write. If you loved Stephen King’s Dark Tower series – or even if you’re a hardened Cormac McCarthy fan – you will find this book right inside your wheelhouse. Living, witty dialogue, and a familiar-yet-strange world inhabited by vivid characters. I loved it.” - Paul Kearney, author of The Ten Thousand, Hawkwood and the Kings, and A Different Kingdom
"Sixes is a tinderbox of a town with tensions just waiting to go off - and Sil and Elim provide the match to set the volatile town ablaze." - GCE
“One Night in Sixes tears the covers off the Western and Fantasy genres and turns them into something that will grip you from the first page to the last.” – Rebellion
Excerpted from “Cowboys, Natives and Fishmen, Oh My!”
LitReactor interview by Annie Neugebauer
June 26, 2017
For the uninitiated, why don’t you tell us a little about your Children of the Drought series? Resonant with Dark Tower? Rural fantasy? Fishmen?! Put it in our eye holes!
Well, gird your skull-sockets, cuz here it comes!
The short story: this is a strange, dense, mystical gutting of American history. The setting is a mirror of 1850s New Mexico. The settlers came with guns, germs, and steel, just as they did here – but in Droughtworld, magic power comes from cultural continuity, which gives the indigenous ‘home team’ a vital advantage. They’ve fought the settlers to a standstill, and even taken back some of their land, albeit at a terrible cost. The generation born after the war has grown up in a supernaturally-irradiated desert, natives and settlers and former slaves all living cheek-by-jowl in a fragile, hard-won peace – until two unlikely strangers and one horrible accident lights a fuse that threatens to wreck it all.
And also fishmen :)
What have you found readers respond to most about Sixes and co? Are there certain compliments you hear most frequently, or is the spread of reaction pretty wide?
I’ve always said that when your critics and your fans are saying the same thing, you’re doing something right. So far, reader reviews mostly center on the world: whether they adore Sixes or couldn’t get into it, people have almost universally mentioned a thoughtfully-crafted, intriguing setting that reads like a real place. I am pretty happy about that.
If you could only tell potential readers one thing, what would it be?
If you’re looking for a fun, pulpy “Cowboys and Aliens” beach read – this ain’t it! But if you’re in the mood for an intricate, thoughtful, multi-layered story with an ensemble cast of flawed people mostly striving to do the right thing (think The Wire, The Sparrow, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Firefly, or Deep Space Nine) – then boy, have I got a treat for you.
And one thing to existing readers?
I can’t believe you fell for it I really appreciate your support, and I’m so honored by your enthusiasm for this story and these characters.
Because so many readers are also writers, I always have to ask: What’s your best, favorite, or most unusual advice for aspiring authors?
Oh, I love this one. Here’s my vote: if you want to do something that hasn’t been done before, include someone who hasn’t been included before. ESPECIALLY someone who “can’t” or “shouldn’t” be there. There are a million post-apocalyptic dystopias out there – but show me how
a Type 1 diabetic survives after the electricity goes out and the insulin spoils, and I’ll buy that story in a hot minute. The bookshelves are saturated with old-school quest fantasy – but show me what happens when the Chosen One who pulls the sword from the stone is a single mother of three, and I’m a fan for life. There may be only a half dozen plots in the world, but there are a million characters – and most of them have barely been touched. You can help fix that!
Arianne "Tex" Thompson is a home-grown Texas success story. After earning a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s in literature, she channeled her passion for exciting, innovative, and inclusive fiction into the Children of the Drought – an internationally-published epic fantasy Western series from Solaris. Now a professional speaker and instructor for the Writers Path at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Tex is blazing a trail through writers’ conferences, workshops, and fan conventions around the country – as an endlessly energetic, relentlessly enthusiastic one-woman stampede.
GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!
THREE WINNERS RECEIVE A SIGNED COPY OF ONE NIGHT IN SIXES
PLUS EXCLUSIVE BONUS! CHAPTER ONE SNEAK PEEK AT TEX'S NEXT FANTASY WESTERN!
November 5-November 14, 2017
(U.S. Only)
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