September 2021 - BETWEEN THE PAGES: A New Look at Billy the Kid

By Sonja Dewing

Local author, Tamsin Silver, is breathing new life into the legend of Billy the Kid. Silver creatively has Billy with vampires, werewolves, and other touches of magical creatures. All based on her diligent historical research, Silver has developed a story that is pure historical fantasy.

Is that a genre? Well, it is now.

She shared how it all started. “I used to live in NYC. While I was there, I decided I wanted to write a short story for a weird west anthology. I asked myself, ‘What do you know about people in the Wild West?’ The only name that came to mind was Billy the Kid.”

Looking back now, she laughs at the idea that she thought she knew ANYTHING about Billy. “I read the Wikipedia page on him and clicked on the name, John Tunstall… and that began a rabbit hole dive that I’m still in today,” shared Silver. “It pulled me to visit Lincoln, New Mexico, enough times that I fell in love. I moved to Albuquerque in 2017, and it’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve lived in my life.”

What she has now is no short story. The Curse of Billy the Kid - Untold Legends Volume One is 313 pages of Wild West adventure. As her book jacket reads, “The story begins in 1878, with the death of John Tunstall, the Lincoln County War, the Regulators, and a young man finding out the hard way that things far more terrifying than outlaws roam the dusty trails of the Old West.”

The first two books are out now, and book three should be out this winter. You can buy the books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Untold-Legends-2-book-series/dp/B08H28Y3R5 or from Tamsin Silver’s website: https://www.tamsinsilver.com/. Check it out and have a rootin’ tootin’ frolic of fantasy read.