KRIS ASHTON

While searching around for horror markets, I happened upon Ron Shiflet’s call-out for his new anthology, which had a horror/western crossover theme. I had never considered writing a western, but the combination of the two genres acted like a sparkplug in my brain. My first idea involved killer cactuses that took revenge on a nasty outlaw, but the narrative limitations were obvious. I turned it over in my head for another day or two and eventually came up with a story that had the unusable working-title of ‘Sheriff Knox’s Grand Retirement’. It still had that title right up until the day I planned to send the story off to Hell’s Hangmen. Deadline pressure showed me that Sheriff Knox’s favourite phrase would also make a catchy title.