Open Stories — Short Fiction by Hank Redding

Stories shared freely, with selected book excerpts.
A public archive of finished literary short fiction.

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

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–001 The Accounting 51 min read · Literary fiction

In a failing mill town in the early 1920s, a woman’s life is reduced to rumor, paperwork, and ash after a fire no one fully questions. As the town rushes to balance its accounts, one witness must reckon with the cost of watching when action never comes. The Accounting examines how tragedy is processed, explained away, and finally buried.

HR–002 After Mackinac City 33 min read · Literary fiction

A man sets out on a westbound ride that becomes an examination of what remains after a life quietly breaks apart. As distance accumulates, the story traces how freedom, connection, and disappearance can occupy the same road without offering answers.

HR–003 After the Work Is Done 13 min read · Literary fiction

Across decades on a working ranch, a son watches his father’s authority pass not through instruction or praise, but through proximity, habit, and restraint. As the work shifts hands and a third generation begins to watch, After the Work Is Done explores how legacy is carried quietly—and what remains when strength gives way to presence.

HR–004 The Bend in the Current 12 min read · Literary fiction

In a remote Wyoming basin, a solitary rancher spends his mornings fishing a slow bend in the river while the season presses quietly forward. When a boy arrives looking for work and instruction, their days unfold through labor, water, and restraint. The Bend in the Current is a quiet Western story about endurance, transmission, and what continues without resolution.

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