Open Stories — Short Fiction by Hank Redding

Complete works shared freely, as written.
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. Short and cold Car No. 47 A winter survival novella about waiting, abandonment, and what people measure when rescue does not come.

Collected works · 1982–Present

HR–021 The Lost Boot 18 min read · Literary fiction

In September 1865, a paroled Confederate private is denied land in Galveston and walks inland along the margin where systems no longer record him. As labor, distance, and exposure strip away what he carries, the story follows endurance without promise and the quiet cost of continuing when nothing asks you to stop.

HR–022 The Mercy Contract 13 min read · Literary fiction

In 1881, three strangers arrive separately in a dying Nevada mining town, each carrying a fragment of the same photograph. As the town’s suppressed past begins to surface, memory, guilt, and mercy press forward without explanation or verdict, asking only what it means to remember what was meant to stay buried.

Contract version

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.

HR–024 Out of the Blue 24 min read · Literary fiction

Set in the 1990s, Out of the Blue follows a man caught in a familiar cycle of chance encounters, connection, and quiet unraveling. As relationships form, dissolve, and repeat without clear cause, the story examines loneliness, momentum, and the moments that alter a life without offering explanation. What remains is not resolution, but recognition.

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