When I wrote the Bandita series, I wrote it with the intention of crossing demographic borders: i.e., western to mainstream. That meant that I had to find a way to employ literature (which I love, and belongs in a 19th century tale) into a novel that a modern audience could appreciate and enjoy, and that in turn meant incorporating popular fiction. I actually like to refer to my series as a Bio-Novel as, though it's historical fiction, it maintains the integrity of accurate historial references and events.
So taking literature and merging it with pop fiction was surprisingly easier than I thought. After all, I'm a modern girl--all I had to do was play the characters and have them behave the way they might under certain circumstances in the modern world we live in.
When people hear the word "western", they think old-timey cowboys and land disputes and gun fights out in the streets, etc., etc... All of these things make for a great story in and of themselves, but in wanting to cross over into pop fiction I had to up the ante and have my characters become as relatable as possible to a modern audience.
Below, you'll be able to read an excerpt from the second book in the Bandita series: Bandita Bonita and Billy the Kid: The Scourge of New Mexico (the first book in the four part series, Bandita Bonita: Romancing Billy the Kid, is available for download for Kindle, Nook, or iPad--it's availabe for purchase on Google Play as well. Book II will be available for these formats before the end of this summer, 2016.
Please read on and I hope it tempts you enough to want to give a "modern type" western a try.
-------Sincerely,
Author Nicole Maddalo Dixon
To Purchase Books I and II, Please Click Your Preference of Bookseller.
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Or view my website for purchasing information:
Nicole Maddalo Dixon
Book II not available as eBook format until this summer, 2016.
Book I - Bandita Bonita: Romancing Billy the Kid
Book II - Bandita Bonita and Billy the Kid: The Scourge of New Mexico
EXCERPT from BOOK II, Bandita Bonita and Billy the Kid: The Scourge of New Mexico
Chapter 11 / June 1879
We were about a day’s ride out from Vegas when Billy
chose to put us up in a familiar, secreted cave he had found out about during
one of his many tours through the territory before we’d met. As far as he knew
the cave was concealed carefully enough so that he thought not many could know
of the little cavern—if any knew of it at all. He told me that he had come to
this conclusion based on the fact that whenever he had a use for it for the
purpose of refuge it seemed to remain unexploited by others and was always as
neatly intact as nature would have it, though, he explained, it had been a
while since he had visited the earthen cavity. This would be our first campout
along our way to Las Vegas as we had stayed at the Gerhardt Ranch on our first
day out prior to staying in Puerto de Luna and Anton before arriving here.
It was close to the rainy season, and
so staying put inside of the cavern was a necessary condition for us should we
find ourselves caught in a storm. The day had burned slow and was heated under
a clouded, covered sky. Billy claimed that a storm was a real possibility, basing
this, he said, on the friction he felt in the air.
There was a natural enclosure
positioned just below the cave which was surrounded by sturdy mountain rock outcroppings and boulders
with a natural overhang where we could shelter the horses. This would provide
them decent enough
protection from any rain or should a flash flood manifest without warning—flash
floods were always a source of concern out here; they were an easy and near
unavoidable death if one were caught and exposed by a merciless desert
downpour. Certainly, dangers abounded everywhere out west.
The cave itself was set up high within
the mountain, as was the cave in the hills of Patricio (where we had hidden out
just before the 5-days-Battle in Lincoln), and it, too, had a precarious ridge
one must climb to reach the earthen portico that spread wide before its mouth—the
same swatch of land that created the overhang for the horses below. The cave
was set back and nestled into the mountainside, and this particular cave boasted
something of a fictile shaft made of rock inside that ran up through the
mountain like a regular chimney which allowed for a fire to be lit beneath it,
the shaft a flue that would suck the smoke right up and out, accommodating the terrene
lodging in a way that made it cozy.
We secured the horses and began our
ascent of the hazardous, narrow ridge that hitched along the mountain up toward
the cave’s portico, our backs sliding against the wall of dirt behind us, loosing
earth and scree that
fell and bounced on its way down. With his right hand he took my left, guiding
me along the dangerous edge as he negotiated it. With his left hand he held his
gun aloft.
He dragged me as we climbed, causing us
to sidle faster than I had expected along the slim berth of ground. He seemed
anxious, wanting to reach our destination and get settled, his gun poised and
at the ready, ears tuned to any sound that might come from up above; he was
primed for misadventure.
He stopped for a moment, listening. An
emerging ray of sunlight glinted upon something on the ground and caught my
eye. I lent myself toward it with my free hand, attempting to grasp the object
that had seized my attention. Knees and body bent, I reached out. The hand that
Billy held kept my left arm anchored upwards as I angled myself toward the
item, making my movement awkward. As he began to move again and pull me along
he nearly caused me to lose my balance, but I had managed to grab the
shimmering object and correct myself nonetheless. It was a pretty locket,
covered by a fine sheath of dust. I wiped at it with my thumb as he continued
to pull me along.
We were cresting the ridge and
approaching the level ground that surrounded the cave—a gaping maw set back by
an atrium of dirt and rock. Suddenly, the wind kicked up and Billy turned his
nose away, disgusted.
“Oh
Jesus...” he sighed.
I opened my mouth to ask what was
wrong, but before I could speak I knew. A foul stench enveloped us both,
causing us to hunker down into one another against the mountainside and cover
our faces in desperation.
“God. What is that?” I yowled.
He only managed to say something incoherently and moan
dreadfully into his hand.
He rose and turned back, preparing
himself to look upon the place in which we sought. Letting go of my hand he
turned to me and told me to stay put. Still crouching, I placed my hands down
to steady myself along the ridge while he left me there alone. I saw him disappear
around the bend at the top and then heard the firm flapping of wings before seeing black carrion birds
scatter off into the air. And then...nothing. I waited as patiently as I could,
but when his absence proved longer than I would have thought, the silence
caused me to grow uneasy. Still attempting to protect my nose against the rotting
stink with my hand, I called to him through my fingers. When he didn’t answer,
I decided to make my way up the remaining stretch of path. Rounding the same
bend Billy had disappeared around moments before, I saw him. His hand was over
his face, eyes horrifyingly wide at the scene before him.
Two bodies lay by the mouth of the
cave. I shrieked in shock, causing him to turn and see me standing there. Reacting
quickly, he began pushing me back toward the ridge, firmly instructing me to
climb back down. After my initial confusion, I was finally able dig my foot in
and slow him from pushing. He fought against my stubbornness, yelling for me to
move, but I was able to calm him when he became aware that I was deliberately
struggling to make him stop.
“What are you doing? Go!”
“Billy, we can’t!”
“Like hell! Go! Move!”
“Billy...the rain!”
Just then a growl of thunder punctuated my point as
it sounded in the near distance.
He seemed to think on this a moment,
then shook it off. “We’ll take our chances. Did you see what I just saw?” he barked.
“We have to stay here; you know we have
to stay here, unless there’s another place like this we can go—”
His look turned derisive, sarcastically asking me,
“Do you think this is like
some damned hotel? That we can just request
a different room?”
Frazzled, I hollered back, “Well, I’m sure I don’t
know!” I was feeling
provoked and uneasy.
We grew quiet together in our shock,
and exasperated, I placed my hands to my head, pushing my hat back. So we stood together silently,
lost in our own thoughts; Billy considering our situation.
“What the hell are we supposed to do?”
He asked out loud, almost as if to himself.
“Move the bodies,” I casually responded.
Resolute.
His expression toward me could only be
defined as repugnant. For the moment he seemed clearly put off and sickened by my
suggestion, and then
he looked at me as if I were short on sense.
“You must be out of your cotton-pickin’,
east-side mind! I ain’t moving those damned bodies. I ain’t touching the goddamned things—”
“—I’ll help you—“
“—Like hell—no way! If there’s one person between
us two who definitely ain’t going near them things it’s you, and I ain’t going,
neither.”
He began to push me along again but I
held fast to my position.
“We have to do this, Billy.”
I looked up at him, into his
unblinking, wide blue eyes. He registered this truth. Twilight was peeking over
the desert, and with the prospect of a storm and the sky growing steadily
darker, another rumble of thunder closer off in the distance turned the simple possibility
of a storm into a devastating reality. He began to nod to himself as if he were mentally
gearing up for what he knew needed to be done—teeth working at his lips as his
mind worked at the unpleasant task that lay ahead.
“Okay,” he said. “Okay…”
He started back toward the gruesome
scene, and as I began to follow, he turned to face me and placed his hand against
my shoulder.
“Stay there,” he commanded.
I stopped and let him walk on. I leaned
against the mountainside, already feeling exhausted as I thought over the
matter and the unpleasant undertaking that lie ahead when I heard him gagging.
I moved toward him and peered around to see him sicking up as he knelt close to
the body that lay the farthest from the ridge. When his stomach had expended
its contents he stood and came back toward me.
“I can’t. We have to go. Now!”
“I’ll help you; we have to do this.”
“Aw, hell no, Lucy. Get going!”
I maneuvered around him and stood
directly between both corpses, surveying the macabre tableau.
Both carcasses lay with their guns
drawn, the body that Billy had first planned to move lay half in, half out of the cave. The half of
him that lay exposed was horribly rotted; the gray-green flesh of the head had disintegrated
in places, exposing the skull and desiccated tissue. The face confronted me, its
marbled, black and puffy green colored flesh blistered; tongue eaten at, with what was left of it protruding
through teeth unsheathed by withered, picked-upon lips; eyes gone. I waved away
at the flies that had swarmed, realizing for the first time the churning black veil
that shrouded the moldering flesh which should have been impossible to miss;
the buzzing incessant and quite loud.
I felt my own stomach spasm at this. I hurried away from the
bodies and wretched.
Satisfied, Billy yelled over to me, “Not so tough now, are ya?”
When my own body had quit shuddering, I
looked back at the morose sight. Billy stood there, a strange look in his eyes
as they flitted back and forth between the two dead men, coat sleeve covering
his nose and mouth in an attempt to keep the malodor from entering his
nostrils. I knew this had to be done; we could go nowhere else. Thunder lightly
sounded again from the east, seemingly just beyond a small mountainous range. I
studied the situation some more.
Looking at the angle of the bodies I
wondered aloud, “Was it a fight? Did they kill each other?”
“Hell should I know? Looks like.”
“Okay, let’s just get this over with.”
He walked with me back toward the body
we had both become unpleasantly familiar with.
“Grab him on that side by the jacket,” He said. “We’ll pull him
and slide him over the side.”
I nodded and moved to do what he told
me to, then stopped.
“Do you think he has any money or
valuables on him?” I asked.
“Jesus Christ. I don’t know. Can we
just get this done with?”
Ignoring him, I scampered around and to
the other side of the dead man. I was revolted, seeing a new horror of insects as they scurried and
writhed over and around the corpse. Cautiously,
I gingerly placed
my forefinger and thumb on the edge of the dead man’s lapel and slowly peeled back his jacket
to look for an inside pocket, eventually flipping the panel over quickly. When
I found it, I very warily placed my hand inside. Billy made sounds of aversion
and vocally objected at this, but I pulled out a billfold. I looked up at him
with a wide smile and nodded my head, pleased with myself. He frowned. I opened
the billfold and found some dollar bills inside.
“Count it later,” Billy demanded.
I counted it right then. Nearly fifty
dollars! That would do. I dropped the billfold and observed the body, still
waving off the flies that consumed me as well, as if I could make them go away.
The corpse’s legs lay
one over the other and looked to be somewhat intact, but one could not truly
tell as the carcass was fully dressed, and so his pants concealed his lower
half. The flesh around his exposed hand had grown taught and leathery; the
other hand was missing entirely. Thunder sounded again.
“Lucy...”
I glanced quickly up at Billy and, ignoring
him a moment longer, checked the torso and found a clean, gold pocket watch which I
hurriedly snapped away
from the body for fear of the things creeping about, and then finally,
returned to helping Billy. We dragged the body together to the edge of the
bluff by the shoulder of
its jacket and collar and, despite my dragging a festering dead body, of
which I should have found very odd, all I managed to think to myself was how
light it was. We slid him over the side and he fell a ways down to the ground
but still made an audible thump.
We looked at each other and then at the
second body. This one was laid out fully in the elements. His right, near skeletal
hand lay clutched by his chest, his naturally decimated left hand lay alongside him as he lie prone,
his gun resting on the ground as if it had been dropped there after its owner
had been drilled by a bullet. There was a rucksack nearby him. Billy saw me spy
this and placed a hand on my shoulder.
“After we’re through,” he said.
I nodded, knowing he wanted to get this
over with, but still, I was not swayed from considering the body, looking for
anything of worth and seeing nothing. I thought to check his clothing, but this
one was by far worse off than the other. The skin of the face was gone
completely, the chest appeared sunken in and the rotting shirt had a thick looking, slick stain;
the gut hollowed out. Liquefied, I thought. I noticed a sticky-like substance
pooled around him; biological run-off. The iron nerve I had initially summoned
and maintained fairly
failed me at this particular sight and I ran off again, dry heaving, wracked by
the discomfort it caused my body.
When finally we had fulfilled our
unpleasant deed and pulled this dead man over the ledge, we smiled oddly at one
another.
Disturbed and with a strange smirk, he said,
“Ghoul.”
He
walked off to fetch our things from the horses while I hung back and examined
the substantiation of what was here—what remained despite the removal of the
grotesqueries. There were brownish, sticky and dry looking stains left behind
by both bodies, thinly coated by a layer of grime, but the concentration of the
smell had seemed to dissipate. I supposed this might be due to the fact that we
had removed its source from the immediate places, but likely it was also because
I had grown accustomed
