by Staff
Excerpt
My name is Mary Fields. I was born into slavery, but I’m a free woman now—and when I say “free” I mean it in every sense of the word. I do what I want—I smoke cigars, drink whiskey, and fight better than any man in Montana Territory, white or colored.
Some say I have no rights because I’m colored—an ex-slave. But even white women don’t have the right to follow my habits. Being colored is only a small sliver of it—being a woman is the main part that holds us back. And that is just what I intend to change. They call me a pioneer for women’s rights, but shouldn’t every person have the opportunity to live their life the way they choose…including women?
I’ve held off wolves, carried the mail, and I love baseball. I’ve helped open and run a mission for young Crow women, and I’ve gotten falling-down drunk. I can hitch a team faster and better than any man alive. I’ve been accused of having “crass behavior” more times than I can count. When they see me coming, they shake their heads and mutter, “One stagecoach, one shotgun, and two hundred pounds of bad attitude.”
They aren’t wrong. I’m “Stagecoach” Mary Fields, and I’ve lived my life the way I wanted to. All women should be able to do the same. I’m a fighter, and this is my lifelong battle—I will do whatever it takes to bring equality to this old world. This is the story of how I lived and died—and brought my own brand of STAGECOACH JUSTICE to the wild Montana Territory…
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About James Ciccone
JAMES CICCONE was born in Auburn, N.Y. and grew up in the nearby villages of Skaneateles and Bridgewater, N.Y. He started publishing poetry and articles in national and regional magazines and newspapers as a teenager, including his noteworthy essay on music and religion, The Rituality of Jazz as Composed by John Coltrane.
He graduated Colgate University with a B.A. in Religion before earning a law degree at Albany Law School. In law school, his paper on copyright law placed third in a national writing competition sponsored by ASCAP. He traded his ambition to write novels in order to practice law as a trial lawyer and pro bono general counsel to the historic American Tennis Association.
After leaving the practice of law, he began writing novels. He was a ghost writer for several books, including a best seller. A Good Day to Die is his debut novel.
He encourages interested readers to correspond via email: ciccone.james@yahoo.com.
Title: Stagecoach Justice
Author: James Ciccone
Publisher: Sundown Press/Prairie Rose Publications
Genre: Western, Black & African American Historical Fiction
Pages: 142
Release Date: May 27, 2021
Price: $9.99
