Strange Idea.... set in the Old West?

[Shecky]

Ah. I see. "Those people" need to zip it; the ancient Greeks were already saying, "There is nothing new under the sun." Every single theme has been done already in some way, shape or form. Creativity lies in what you DO with the themes - combine them, tweak them, take them in a non-standard direction, etc.

[Danny-boy]

I am working on a paranormal/western idea too! Not much like your idea here (which is really cool, by the way)...but both could be considered "paranormal westerns", if such a genre exists.

[*Matt-D*]

Personally I think you have a great idea and I know I would put that on my reading list if I knew it was out there to read...

[Tribblechomper]

As for Louis Lamour, he's a fantastic author. I enjoyed "Haunted Mesa" but my favorite book of his is "Flint" One good thing about writing a western is that I'm from Wyoming. We've got the Oregon/California/Mormon/Bridger/Bozeman and Pony Express Trails, numerous cavalry forts, one of the main lines of the U.P., the Powder River Country which featured some of the Great Battles of the West, Yellowstone, the Green River, Cheyenne, Yellowstone, and Fort Laramie, the great plains, and the Rocky Mountains. (Come visit Wyoming! lol)  As an historian, (M.A. in history) I'm hoping that I can avoid some of the pitfalls that some authors face due to the ignorance of their chosen historic setting.

Thanks for everyone's input. I'm sure I'll be asking for more in the future.

If you have any Native American friends/acquaintances that you're on good terms with, ask to meet with some of their senior-most generation for the purpose of learning some of their stories/legends of a mystic variety; explain what you're doing (in a very broad sense; the more detail others get, the better they can "creatively re-appropriate" your idea"), and that, in incorporating their legends, you want to make sure they're done correctly and respectfully.

[Ghostwheel]

I would read it, but im speshul

one of the games my group engages in is Mask of the red death, and I play (gasp,shock,suprise) a cowboy. so not only would I read it, but id prolly be able to get the entire group to read it.
 

[thausgt]

Ah. I see. "Those people" need to zip it; the ancient Greeks were already saying, "There is nothing new under the sun." Every single theme has been done already in some way, shape or form. Creativity lies in what you DO with the themes - combine them, tweak them, take them in a non-standard direction, etc.

Just keep reminding yourself that Lord Kelvin... yes, the guy for whom the temperature scale was named... tried to close the patent office in 1900 because nothing useful was left to be invented.

Don't stop trying to do something new, because everything had to start somewhere. If nothing else, as Grandmaster Robert Heinlein once pointed out in "Spinoff", a researcher will inevitably find something of interest, even if it has nothing to do with the original hypothesis.

There's nothing wrong with combining "supernatural conspiracy" with "Wild West", because all the stories you write remain uniquely yours. Whether literature professors sniff out (or project) links to anything in literature prior to that is their business; your business is in writing the best stories you can, selling them for the best return possible and making enough money to live off.

Good luck!

[Tribblechomper]

There are also two novels, by Mark Sumner, that take place in an old west where magic is prevalent. They are called Devil's Tower, and Devil's Engine.

What about someone who can do magic via bagpipes?

Nothing fictional about that...someone whose bagpipe-playing really sucks like a Hoover vacuum hooked up to a warp drive can do magic; in less than five seconds, he can make a roomful of people disappear!