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Outlaw Starr: An Anthology of Fiction by Kai Starr Serialized novels and short stories in the Science Fiction, Fantasy, Supernatural and Western genres. Updated daily, Monday through Friday!

Latest books:

Three Ways From Sunday (Novel excerpt, 1,384 words) WARNING: This excerpt contains graphic violence.

"Three Ways From Sunday" is my second Western novel, and it's the prequel to "Whirlwind." I wrote this book in the month of November, as part of the National Novel Writing Month challenge for 2007, but my personal challenge was more than the required 50,000 words to win NaNoWriMo. My challenge was to complete the book in 30 days, ending it up somewhere in the vicinity of 80,000 words. It's finished, and is now in the editing stages. The story begins in Phoenix, Arizona Territory, in mid 1873. A professional gambler teams up with a dangerous, crazy outlaw and an ex-Buffalo soldier, and the story follows them as they alternately gamble, fight, sin and flee the law in a convoluted, trouble-filled path toward Colorado. It's a tale of friendship, trust, love, acceptance, and secrets.

Whirlwind (Novel excerpt, 2,742 words) WARNING: This excerpt contains graphic violence.

"Whirlwind" is my first Western novel, and it's the sequel to "Three Ways From Sunday." It's in the finishing stages, and awaits editing and polishing. "Whirlwind" is the story of Wylie Hevovetaso Hart, a half-breed Cheyenne whose prowess with a six gun is only outdone by his special gift for predicting cards and dice. The story is set in 1876, in Cheyenne and Pine Bluffs, Wyoming Territory and Denver, Colorado Territory. Wylie must come to terms with his heritage and his gifts, and find his place in the world. He and his friend, Raymond, think they're on the way to the good life when they meet three professional gamblers in Cheyenne City, who turn both their lives upside down and threaten to destroy Wylie's chance at achieving his goal of a fine home and family. It's a tale of friendship, risks, and dreams.

ShadowFall stories:

The Little Dragon (full story, 8,000 words)

This piece was not supposed to be a story. Its original purpose was to help me understand Genjiro's personality a little better. I meant it to be nothing more than a character history, but I think it makes a nice stand-alone story. You don't have to follow the ShadowFall series to enjoy it or to understand it, but it lends an extra layer to those stories, if you do follow them.

Into the Abyss, Chapter 1 (novel excerpt) WARNING: This excerpt contains graphic violence.

This is the first of the ShadowFall stories, and the first story I ever attempted to put into comic book format. (This one is slated for ebook release, as soon as I can get around to the dreadful task of retyping it.) When I began work on it, Ilyana was supposed to be the main character. Genjiro was to be her idiot trainee, a disposable character who'd be killed off, rather quickly. Somehow, though, he managed to take over the story and make himself the focus of it. Poor, sensible Ilyana couldn't compete with his self-centered attention grabbing. Ilyana was nowhere near as flawed as Genjiro, and therefore she was less interesting. In the beginning, I hated Genjiro. I tried for years to kill him, but he was too strong and too skilled and too lucky to be knocked off by the likes of me. I finally gave up trying to kill him and just settled for making his life miserable. That's more fun, anyway.

Blood of the Ninja (comic book script excerpt) WARNING! This is loooongggg...and contains graphic violence!

Even though I don't always write them sequentially, I tend to think of each of the ShadowFall novels as a chapter in the greater story that is the series. "Into the Abyss" is the set up; "Blood of the Ninja" is the first major turning point, the point where Genjiro's alter ego emerges and allows him to immerse himself in his new line of work. "BotN" was originally intended for comic book use, only. That's why it's in a loose screenplay format, here (had to modify it so I could set it up with HTML!!). It's also an unfinished first draft, so it's rough. It spans a whole series of comic books (20!!), and this excerpt covers about ten of the middle ones. Each comic represents one chapter of the novel. I started work on it after I had finished "The Faraian Conspiracy" and while I was developing "A Covenant of Shadows," the last two books in the SF series. "BotN" is the story that finally convinced me to stop hating Genjiro. He's an okay guy, even if he does withold information from me until I absolutely, positively have to have it.

The Faraian Conspiracy, Chapter 1 (novel excerpt)

I had a great time while writing this book. The story jumps back and forth over a period of about twelve years, and basically tells two stories at once: that of Genjiro and his Faraian partner, and of the man they're sent to eliminate. The two parts then dovetail at the end. I put a lot of work into making sure the parallel storylines meshed seamlessly, and I'm proud of the result. I still think this book is the best in the ShadowFall series, not just because of the successful plot execution, but also because it works perfectly well without the other books.

A Covenant of Shadows, Chapter 1 (novel excerpt)

The last of the ShadowFall novels. Maybe! I haven't decided whether I should leave Genjiro in peace, or sneak up on him and pull the rug out from under him, again. The series covers over twenty years of his life, and I've got a lot of earlier stories yet to write, so I don't have to make the decision, just yet. I enjoyed writing this one, too. It was cathartic, in a way, since I was going through one of my regularly scheduled catastrophes at the time. I thought if I gave Genjiro his much-begged-for happy ending, that I'd get one, too. I'm so naive! Oh well... At least he got a happy ending!

Other stories:

Rana's Adventure (full story, 6,200 words)

This weird little fantasy came directly from a dream I had, a few years ago. I love it when this happens! I woke up and wrote it down, just as I had dreamed it. Every time I look at it, I feel as though I'm reading something somebody else wrote. I had several "Rana" dreams, and intended to do a set of short stories for him, but at some point, I lost interest in him and stopped dreaming about him. Or maybe he got bored with me and decided to take his silly little stories elsewhere.

Legends of Maragon (novel excerpt)

A long series of many parts, "Legends of Maragon" is my first pure work of fantasy. The story is an epic, and spans some five thousand years of Maragoni history and legend. I was around sixteen years old when I started it, and I worked on it for four years. During that time, the world of Maragon became so huge and complex that I had to put it aside for a while...a while being about fifteen years. I had written some eight hundred pages of story (in longhand!!) when I realized it had grown too large for my meager abilities to handle. In another year or so, I may pick it up, again and see what I can do with it. I still like reading the old pieces of it, so I think it's worth holding on to for later. The excerpt included here is the unedited work of an eighteen-year-old alcoholic streetfighter. I copied it directly from my handwritten pages. Maybe you'll be surprised!