Following the stars

My horoscope on my Yahoo! page today:

Just like money, fresh ideas can burn a whole in your pocket -- urging you to take them out and spend them! A new inclination to do something unexpected may hit you like a ton of bricks this morning, so pay attention and consider revising the plans you had for today. When lightning strikes, you need to pay attention and get some momentum going. Try not to delay acting on your newest, craziest ideas -- whatever you start today has a huge chance for success.

Oddly enough, I am thinking today about a character I thought up on Saturday.  Malachi Sampson is a an old-west gunfighter who hunts supernatural evils.  I have ideas for a few stories already.

This is new territory for me.  I have never written a western before, though I have flirted with the idea on several occasions (even started one at one point).  And I've never done horror either.  Again, I have flirted with idea as well, and actually started a few projects, but nothing ever came of them.  So, now I am thinking of combining the two.  Inspired by Robert E. Howard's Solomon Kane stories, I decided to set Sampson in the frontiers of the 1870's.  He's a Civil war veteran, as many gunfighters of the time were.  But he fought for the South.  As a southern gentleman he is well-versed in sabre-fencing, as well as pistols.  And, I see him being pretty handy in good old-fashioned fisticuffs as well.

Here's a teaser:

The worst thing about my life is that I can recall my death.

It was fairly inglorious, all things considered. As an officer in General Lee’s Confederate Army, I was leading a charge from horseback against the Northern Aggressors. I can’t recall the exact date, nor where the battle took place. I can only recall the impact of the bullet that tore me from my saddle, and dumped me in the bloody muck. I remember wondering what had hit me, and then panicking when I couldn’t move. A coldness had crept over me, and I tried to scream. I don’t reckon anything came out, since I was already dead. After that, nothing but black.

I woke up with a gasp and a purpose. I knew I had died, but something had brought me back. Was is God? As a Southern Gentleman, raised on the Word, I like to think so. And most days, that’s the only thing that keeps me going.

One might ask what purpose a man might have in being brought back from death’s dark clutches. Why would I be denied the everlasting paradise? Well, to put it shortly, I weren’t always a good man. In fact, one might say I was downright bad. So, maybe I had some things to atone for. Maybe. I don’t rightly know. I just know that there are worse things in this world than I ever was, and I am compelled by the Power to put an end to such evil.