A Town Called Nowhere : Gunslingers vs. Swords vs. Sorcery

by Patrick E. McLean

A silver boomtown is ripped from Eastern Arizona in 1883 and deposited it a strange land of cruel empires, unspeakable magics and fearsome creatures. This uniquely American take on the Fantasy, Western and Speculative Fiction genres pits the American Mythos of the Old West against more traditional Fantasy tropes, characters and conventions, an epic fantasy of Sword and Sorcery and gunslinger

Virgil Miller — a former solider turned shopkeeper who, being separated from his family, will stop at nothing to be reunited with them.

Laura Miller — Trapped in Grantham with her two children, struggling to protect the family store and thrive in the strange new world.

John Dance — Criminal who has been hiding out as Grantham’s Sheriff

John DuMont — paranoid, consumptive mine owner who fights to maintain control of Grantham

Goyaate — War Chief of a fearsome band of Apache who have escaped a military reservation to find themselves with a savage new plain to raid.

Archimedes Croryton — unwanted nobility who has fled to the West to put his genius for engineering to work.

Jane Siskin — Queen of the Teamsters, who keeps the cargo moving with her whip and her will.

And many more. Will the townspeople band together in the face of strange new enemies and even stranger new friends, or will they truly be lost in A Town Called Nowhere?

89 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 8, 2022

About the author

Patrick's work ranges from the autobiographical, to the absurd and fantastic. Describing himself as a "writer raised by Economists" his perspective on the world is naturally unusual. From violent revenge and musings on the value of life from a character who is dead (Unkillable) to the rage and frustration of a consultant who grows so sick of having his advice ignored that he decides to take over the world (How to Succeed in Evil) Patrick's work is high-concept, penetrating satire that manages twists and turns while never shorting true psychological insight into fascinating characters caught in desperate situations.

In 2005, feeling that "he wasn't putting any torque through the axle of the world" he started the Seanachai podcast (http://www.theseanachai.com) He wrote and produced an original short story or essay every week for a year.

Among his influences, Patrick cites Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, Mark Helprin, S.J. Perleman, H.L. Mencken, Albert Jay Nock, Hafiz, Homer and George RR Martin.