Read Chapter One (Under Construction)

/ Wild West Catholic

The Work on the Page

Short stories available now. A novella taking shape in the archive. Read before you commit to anything.

Close overhead view of a handwritten letter on aged yellowed paper beside a tarnished brass cartridge, shot under diffuse tungsten light on a dark wooden surface
Close overhead view of a handwritten letter on aged yellowed paper beside a tarnished brass cartridge, shot under diffuse tungsten light on a dark wooden surface
Overhead close-up of a worn leather-bound missal open to a Latin page, rosary beads draped across the text, photographed under cool overcast window light on rough linen
Overhead close-up of a worn leather-bound missal open to a Latin page, rosary beads draped across the text, photographed under cool overcast window light on rough linen
Close-up of a period surveyor's map fragment pinned flat under a cracked glass paperweight, faded ink lines and Spanish place names visible, photographed under tungsten light against dark cloth
Close-up of a period surveyor's map fragment pinned flat under a cracked glass paperweight, faded ink lines and Spanish place names visible, photographed under tungsten light against dark cloth
Read the Story
Read the Story
Read the Story
— Published Stories

Read Free. No Conditions. Still under construction

The Penitent's Road

Mercy at Dry Creek

The Cartographer's Sin

A former soldier rides south into Chihuahua carrying a debt he cannot pay in coin. Anchored in documented border-crossing accounts from 1916.

A circuit priest arrives at a dying man's camp with no absolution easy to give. Drawn from Jesuit mission records of the New Mexico territory.

A land surveyor falsifies a boundary to protect a mission. What justice looks like when the law is the instrument of the wrong.

Wide vertical shot of an abandoned adobe mission facade in the Sonoran desert, crumbling plaster revealing mud brick, a narrow bell-tower arch against a flat gray overcast sky, no people, no warm light, environmental desolation
Wide vertical shot of an abandoned adobe mission facade in the Sonoran desert, crumbling plaster revealing mud brick, a narrow bell-tower arch against a flat gray overcast sky, no people, no warm light, environmental desolation
▸ Novella in Progress

Cazador de Sombras

El Paso, 1870s. A bounty hunter returns to El Paso from the Civil War and finds himself at odds with his faith and himself.

Under construction

Read Chapter One
Chapter One

The opening pages, Under Construction

Before the novella is finished, the first chapter is here to read. Judgment withheld. No sign-up required. The prose must earn your attention on its own terms.