Dennis Doty

From Saddlebag Dispatches Magazine, the Award-Winning Home of All Things Western, comes West of Dodge, a new anthology bringing you the untamed spirit of the West in all its wild glory. Join twenty talented writers-from legendary Western authors Dusty Richards and Velda Brotherton to up-and-coming wordsmiths like P. A. O'Neil, JD Arnold, and Will Ames-as they transport you back to the saloons and dance halls of Dodge City and beyond. Journey through dusty streets, treacherous trails, and vast prairies, where adventure, romance, and justice intertwine. Walk beside infamous gunslingers, resilient lawmen, and courageous pioneers as they navigate the challenges of the untamed frontier and grapple with angels and demons within as well as without. With vivid descriptions and gripping narratives of bravery, toughness, and survival under the vast western skies, West of Dodge will leave you breathless and yearning for more.

Mary Ann Cates owns a successful farm with her husband. While not wealthy by any means, life has been good, even with Charlie away most of the time buying and selling cattle. That all changes, though, when he ends up dead in a shootout with the law. Everything he'd ever told her had been a lie. "Cattle buyer" really meant "bank robber" and member of the notorious James Gang. Shattered and alone, the lovely widow is shunned by the citizens of her Kansas hometown and branded the "Outlaw Queen." Rath Macon is a rancher working the Chisholm Trail. In six short years, he has transformed himself from a penniless ex-rebel into a respected cattleman. It's a good life... just not good enough for his wife. After returning from the drive, he finds she's spent all their money and run away with another man. As the bank auctions off everything he's worked so hard for, Rath saddles up and rides out of Texas to look for a fresh start with nothing but three horses and the clothes on his back. That's how fate steps in and lassos Rath and Mary Ann. When their eyes lock, embers ignite. But they've both danced to life's fickle fiddle before. Can they rebuild trust on life's treacherous trail? Time holds the reins to their destiny. In a landscape where pasts are as rugged as the frontier, their story is one of redemption, resilience, and love as vast as the prairie sky.