Renn and the Little Men

By Kristine Kathryn Rusch

In the Wild West, gunslingers populate the legend of many a dime novel. And Renn knows her way around a gun—and a book—better than most of them, including her famous brother, who can credit his skills to Renn.

So, when the strange little men show up looking to hire her missing-in-action brother, Renn takes the job. And she soon realizes she’ll need every bit of her gun skills and book learning to finish it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WMG Publishing
• Release date: Oct 3, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386888833

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

USA Today bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in almost every genre. Generally, she uses her real name (Rusch) for most of her writing. Under that name, she publishes bestselling science fiction and fantasy, award-winning mysteries, acclaimed mainstream fiction, controversial nonfiction, and the occasional romance. Her novels have made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction has appeared in eighteen best of the year collections. She has won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov’s Readers Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award. Publications from The Chicago Tribune to Booklist have included her Kris Nelscott mystery novels in their top-ten-best mystery novels of the year. The Nelscott books have received nominations for almost every award in the mystery field, including the best novel Edgar Award, and the Shamus Award. She writes goofy romance novels as award-winner Kristine Grayson, romantic suspense as Kristine Dexter, and futuristic sf as Kris DeLake.  She also edits. Beginning with work at the innovative publishing company, Pulphouse, followed by her award-winning tenure at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, she took fifteen years off before returning to editing with the original anthology series Fiction River, published by WMG Publishing. She acts as series editor with her husband, writer Dean Wesley Smith, and edits at least two anthologies in the series per year on her own. To keep up with everything she does, go to kriswrites.com and sign up for her newsletter. To track her many pen names and series, see their individual websites (krisnelscott.com, kristinegrayson.com, krisdelake.com, retrievalartist.com, divingintothewreck.com). She lives and occasionally sleeps in Oregon.

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Renn and the Little Men

Renn and the Little Men

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

WMG Publishing Inc.

Contents

Renn and The Little Men

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About the Author

Also by Kristine Kathryn Rusch:

Renn and The Little Men

Let me start by telling you this: I’m good with a gun.

In fact, I’m better with a gun than anyone I know, although most people don’t believe it. I’m the one who trained my brother, Ralphie, how to handle his.

Of course, now you know Ralphie as Kid Vicious—at least that’s what the dime novels call him. No one else does, or at least, no one else did until he got his own dime novels. Before that he was Ralphie the Kid, which he hated, or Ralph Visch, which is our last name, or plain old RV. Sometimes people called him That kid, you know the one, not as famous as Billy, but cuter.

Because Billy was one of the ugliest boys I’d ever met.

But I digress.

I don’t have a nickname. Girls don’t get good nicknames. Like Calamity Jane. I mean, really. That’s just mean. Little Annie Oakley. Yeah, not for me either.

My parents named me Renn, which they misspelled because they’re illiterate. Or really, I think the doc misspelled it because he’s barely literate. Or maybe it was the pastor, since I’m actually in the church rolls for my date of birth: Renn Visch, born—

Wait. I’m not telling you how old I am. It’s bad enough that I’ve told you Renn is misspelled. I’m not telling you my real name, the one my parents intended for me.

I learned the treacheries of that path not too long ago.

But I get ahead of myself.

The little men showed up at the farm one Saturday morning, three of them, looking for Ralphie, and I