The Man Who Hanged Three Times


fsf-man-who-hanged

The January issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction includes my weird western story "The Man Who Hanged Three Times."  Our house is hip deep in books about the California Gold Rush right now because of Rae's new series, and all of that inspired me to write this story. It was really fun to do something in a historical setting again, and I was lucky to have Rae to read it closely and make it better.

Although I didn't realize it until after the story was published (when I was ego-googling my title for reviews: don't judge), there are two famous instances of men who were hanged three times, Englishman John Babbacombe Lee, or "The Man They Couldn't Hang," and Joseph Samuel, an English criminal who was transported to Australia. Both of their real life executions feature events similar to the ones I made up!  Which, yay verisimilitude.

I've been really happy with the reviews this story has received so far...

Lois Tilton at Locus says " the plot twists satisfactorily, and the ending may leave readers blinking with surprise." 

SF Revu says: "Fine dark fantasy with a real sense of time and space."

Tangent Online says: "it works perfectly and results in an excellent story."

Eerie Worlds says: "I would love to see a thirty minute movie of this short as the western setting perfectly fits the story and delivers the right mood."

If you don't normally read F&SF, you can order paper copies and Kindles editions for the US and UK at the official F&SF website.







© C.C. Finlay 2018