Open Stories — Short Fiction by Hank Redding

Stories shared freely, with selected book excerpts.
Four picked at random. No email required. No catch.

Reading strictly Westerns? See the literary Western short stories guide.

See all 40 open stories →

Choose by pressure

Three clean starting points

Quiet grief Where the River Narrows A restrained piece about grief, endurance, and choosing a direction after the familiar path ends. System pressure Held to Account A novel-length Western about responsibility without mercy and a town whose order works too well. Novella excerpt Car No. 47 Read the opening of a winter railroad survival novella. The full novella is on Amazon in Kindle and paperback.

Collected works · 1982–Present

HR–034 Unclaimed Ground 15 min read · Literary fiction

Set in the rural West of the 1970s, Unclaimed Ground traces a brief season before consequence arrived—when rules had not yet learned their names, and meaning was measured only by presence. Told in quiet retrospect, the story examines youth, restraint, and the spaces where expectation loosened just enough to let something real exist, briefly, and without ownership.

HR–037 Westbound 25 min read · Literary fiction

At the turn of the millennium, a younger brother listens as the distance between home and the West steadily widens. Through late-night phone calls, a brief reunion, and the quiet aftermath of loss, Westbound traces how motion becomes a way of living—and how staying can be its own, deliberate choice. The story examines direction, consequence, and the moment when forward movement finally meets its limit.

HR–032 Statements Taken at Dusk 14 min read · Literary fiction

Three deputies return. One does not. In a sheriff’s office at dusk, testimony narrows toward a version that can survive the ledger. A procedural Western about contradiction, consequence, and what remains unspoken.

HR–023 Miles Without Record 35 min read · Literary fiction

A Western short story about distance traveled without acknowledgment. A father arrives without explanation, and years later a son begins to understand what was passed down—not through words, but through presence, attention, and what was quietly witnessed.

This collection grows as work concludes.
Stories are presented without revision or annotation.