Harmland in Print

I originally did the ebook version of Harmland: dark tales, back in 2012. It was over 21,000 words but I didn’t feel—at the time—that was long enough for a print version. However, David Cranmer, over at Beat to a Pulp has shown what can be done with some really nice packaging at shorter lengths using a smaller size paperback format. I finally decided to go for it and Harmland is now available as a print book on Amazon for $6.99.

I used CreateSpace for the book and was a bit frustrated because they had changed everything since the last time I put up a book. I found the previous time very easy but this one was a pain. Still, Harlmand is up now, and while I’m not overly thrilled with the cover and cover fonts, I still think it’s pretty cool. I hope you’ll check it out.

This is a collection of noir and horror stories. Some of the contents are: "Whiskey, Guns, and Sin," "The Finest Cut," "The Grey Inside," "The Toad," and a modern Cthulhu Mythos tale called "The Vivarium."

Next up will be a print version of Killing Trail, my western collection. Coming soon.

What Went Wrong: Release Day

A new speculative fiction anthology is out today from Lit Select. It's called What Went Wrong, and is available at Smashwords in all kinds of formats for epub and Kindle. It is supposed to be up on Amazon itself soon. The stories run the gamut from SF to horror. I have a story in it called "Electric Love 'N Blue," which is primarily SF. The underlying concept of the collection is: "well-laid plans that go awry." This kind of broad concept led to a lot of variety in the tales, which I think is a pretty cool thing.

Here's the first paragraph of mine:

"Mistakes. Always mistakes, Ray Grant thought as he reviewed the Hollister file one more time with his Cerebral Symbot. If people were more like this Symbot, more like machines. If they just did what they were supposed to."

Of course, you know no one ever does what they are supposed to. Well, hardly ever. And in my story, even the ones who try to do so don't necessarily succeed. 

Below are the authors:
Jan Flynn,
Bryan Nickelberry,
Holly Riordan,
Matthew Harrison,
N.O.A. Rawle,
Dan Szczesny,
Ben Howels,
Gregory Norris,
Larry Lefkowitz,
Jonathan Shipley,
Edward Ahern,
Eric J. Guignard,
Charles Gramlich,
TS Alan,
T.R. North

There are some other blogs around announcing this today as well, and doing a far more creative job than I have. Here's Jan M. Flynn, with samples and an interview with her, and the humorous (or is it) take of N.O.A. Rawles. Also see Gloria Weber.

Hope you get a chance to check them out.

Talons of the American Falcon

American Falcon: Quadrillion, is in the house, and its steel talons are firmly embedded in my skull. The first American Falcon CD is still in heavy rotation at my place, but now the new one will join it. We’re looking at more of the same kind of heavy rock as on CD #1. Solid, rhythmical, raise your T levels, straight-ahead rock and roll.  

From the opening riffs of the opening song, “Quadrillion,” I was throwing the horns.  Then there’s “Blood and Thunder,” which immediately calls up my favorite kind of pulp fiction, followed by the timely and hilarious “Dickhead Mountain.” Add “John Tanner,” “Strung,” “The Mountain,” and “Mexicus, which appears to be about a Mexican gladiator fighting in the Roman Coliseum. (I’d like to read that story.) There’s not a weak sister in the bunch.  I haven’t been through it enough yet to settle on a favorite but I’m sure that will come.

American Falcon is a power trio! Is that phrase still used? It fits, although there’s enough sound here to suggest a dozen players. Check out their page on Facebook. Their email address is there and I believe there’s a link where you can order the CD. I don’t think it’s available on Amazon yet, but the first album sure is and you couldn’t go wrong with that one.

Now it’s time for another listen!

A Poem in Progress

In a story recently I used the phrase "black shine," and most members of my writing group didn't like it because they had no idea what it meant or how to visualize it. But for me, the phrase is evocative and sensuous. It creates plenty of clear images for me. Anyway, I decided to try to capture the meaning of it for me in a poem, and below is a piece of that. It's not done yet. Who knows when it will be.

Black Shine

In the black shine

she waited with Wendigo eyes

and a pillow smile.

Wind had curled her hair,

had rouged her cheeks.

Gin had painted her lips.

The fingernails that scraped

her silks

spelled my name in Braille.

Black shine, dark soul

I am lost

Just When I Think I'm Out

I never watched much of the Sopranos but I do remember one character who was always saying, "Just when I think I'm out, they drag me back in." School often seems like that for faculty members. Classes were over on April 25th. I turned in my grades on Saturday, April 30th. I had a nice leisurely day on Sunday, May 1st. And it seemed to me that I should be able to start my summer writing on May 2nd. That didn't happen.

I'm the outside member on the Business Division's job search this spring and we had a candidate in on Monday to interview. Then I had a lingering research proposal to deal with. Tuesday was a writing day and I got a lot of stuff done, including requested revisions to a story, which was accepted that evening.

Wednesday, though, was another job candidate interview, this time for a position in psychology. We also had registration for new freshmen for next year. And another last minute research proposal came in. I was up by 6:00 and by the time I got home and helped Lana get groceries, it was time to go to bed for work the next day.

Today is Thursday, and I was up at 5:30 to make the trek into work. We've got another job candidate interview today. That will be most of the day. In the evening, though, I have a writing group meeting, which should be fun. And Friday I'm off so more writing will be done.

Saturday is actual graduation and that will take most of the day. Sunday begins my summer writing in earnest! And if anyone tries to "drag me back in" after that they'll get what's coming to them.

Grades are in.

I turned in all my grades late yesterday evening. There are still a bunch of meetings scheduled for next week. I’m on two late job search committees. There’s graduation and a few lingering research proposals to evaluate. But after May 10 I should be largely free for a couple of months to do my own thing.

I have a lot of writing plans and even though I’ll be officially out of school, I’ll still have to zealously protect my writing time.  Very few respect it. Everyone seems to think that since you’re off of your day job that you won’t mind giving up a morning for this, or an afternoon for that. I do mind. I have a second job. That’s how I treat it. A summer job that I take just as seriously as my other one, even though it doesn’t pay nearly as well.

Although I write a little bit most days all year around, summers and Christmas break are where 75% of my most productive writing gets done. These are the times when books are finished, collections put together, and materials are finalized into what I hope are publishable forms.

Those days are finally coming for me, and it’s time to seize them. 

What Fresh Grading Hell is This

I've been pretty much of a recluse since Friday, grading, grading, grading. Final papers in my writing class, exams in all my other classes. That's why I've been out of touch. I finally got the senior grades turned in today and promptly had a nap. Taking an hour or two off this evening, although work will begin again tomorrow. By this coming weekend, however, I should have the majority of the school work behind me and can begin to think about living again, and perhaps even some--dare I say it--writing!

Speaking of writing, Wayne Dundee over at Dundee's Desk has a great review of Mage, Maze, Demon up. There are some other good reviews on the site as well. Check it out. And thanks to Wayne!

I'm hoping to get back to visiting some blogs in the next couple of days, and dealing with a lot of other things that have piled up while I was in grading hell. 

Reviews: Torn and Frayed, and, HWA Poetry Showcase Vol. II

Here's a couple of reviews I put up on Goodreads lately. I also posted these on Amazon but they took off the HWA one, probably because I have a poem in that collection. Because of that, I thought I'd go ahead and run it here, in addition to my review of David Cranmer's latest: Torn and Frayed.

Torn and Frayed, by David Cranmer . Drifter Detective Series, Number 7. Beat to a Pulp Publishers.

Torn and Frayed is the seventh offering in Beat to a Pulp’s Drifter Detective series. It’s a novella length piece. This is the first in the series written by Cranmer. Previous installments have been written by Garnett Elliott: 1. The Drifter Detective, 2. Hell Up in Houston, 3. The Girls of Bunker Pines, by Wayne D. Dundee, 4. Wide Spot in the Road, Elliott again 5. Dinero Del Mar, and by Alec Cizak, 6. Between Juarez and El Paso.

The main character in this series is Jack Laramie, who is the grandson of Legendary US marshal Cash Laramie, created by Edward Grainger. Jack Laramie is a WWII vet who roams post WWII Texas in a rickety DeSoto with a horse trailer hitched on the back. He is an occasional PI. Jack Laramie has many of the characteristics of his grandfather,  although perhaps a bit less of a total bad ass. He takes on a case, gets into a mess, and somehow extricates himself, although it is seldom pretty. Along the way, he gets beat on and does some beating back, and the series seldom ends with a clear cut: “good guys win” scenario.

Torn and Frayed follows this general pattern. Jack decides to take a break from the road and PI work and takes a job as a ranch hand. Turns out the rancher has a past that is coming back to haunt him, most specifically in the form of a daughter who is not what her father thinks she is. A lot of unpleasant history gets revealed along the way.

Like most in the Drifter Detective series, Torn and Frayed does not tie the story up in a nice pretty package at the end. There’s messiness and ugliness and it’s hard to say that anyone really wins. They survive, at a cost. But this series has real sense of realism running through it and Torn and Frayed fits well into this pattern. I much enjoyed it. There is, in addition, a bonus story at the end, “Missing,” which features Cash Laramie himself.

HWA Poetry Showcase, Volume II, Edited by Peter Adam Salomon, Published by Horror Writers Association.

This is a wonderful collection of dark poetry. It also contains tributes to two respected members of HWA who have passed away recently. The work begins with a tribute to Rocky Wood, long-term president of HWA. I didn't know him but have heard many great things about him. The work ends with a tribute to Tom Piccirilli, and with one of Tom's fine poems, "Protected," which was the last poem he completed before his death. I knew and respected Tom through his work.

The poems here are meaty and all of high quality, ranging from the creepy, to the gory, to the thoughtful, to the humorous. There are too many really good ones to mention individually. Some really nice efforts from the likes of Bruce Boston, Marge Simon, Kathryn Ptacek, and Corrine De Winter. Some others that particularly moved me were: The Cry of Autumn Stars by Mark Fuller Dillon, Fiend by Annie Neugebauer, Into Old Mill Creek by Ian A. Patton, The Tune by Lance Davis, Midnight at the Hub City Cafe by Lynette Mejia, and The Man Who Disappears by Robert Perez. I also have a poem in this collection, called R.O.A.D, which stands for The River of Angel’s Dreaming. I was very happy to be included in this collection.

A Collection of Dreams

My collection of dream based stories is moving closer to completion. I’ve now completed drafts of all the stories that I’m planning on including. Some more polishing is in order and then the cover and other materials. Most of the tales will be horror based, although there is one fantasy and one that sort of defies categorization. Here’s what I’m looking at:

Thump, Thump, Thump – A man take shelter from the rain in an abandoned shack and meets the wife he didn’t know he had.

She Fled, Laughing – Called to the scene of a brutal mass murder, a homicide detective finds a survivor who doesn’t want to be rescued.

Rainbow’s Fall – What happens when a rainbow shatters.

A Dream of Fire – Left behind with the baggage train, an aging warrior finds one last battle.

I See Your Night, and Raise You Hell:  What happens when two psychos meet?

Child Labor – If he’d only had more patience.

And the good news, for me at least, is I've got plenty of dreams to make a volume 2 if I want. 

The Genesis of Mage, Maze, Demon

        It's probably part of my OCD characteristics that I tend to keep fairly detailed notes about every story I write. When was it written? Where did the idea come from? Did it undergo major changes from the draft form or not? Where was it published?

        I usually include this information in books I publish through Razored Zen Press. However, the answers to my standard questions are a little different than normal for the story Mage, Maze, Demon, which was recently published by Beat to a Pulp. I thought I might share them here.

    First, the catalyst for writing Mage, Maze, Demon did not come from within but from without. A couple of years back, I got an intriguing email from David Cranmer, the editor at Beat to a Pulp. He was thinking about publishing some stories in honor of Kyle Knapp, his nephew who had died, and was looking for writers who might develop tales based on prompts from Kyle’s dream journal. The prompt he was considering me for was: “I was a barbarian warrior trying to escape a maze.” I liked the idea of developing such a piece and decided to give it a go.

David said there was no particular deadline so I worked on the story off and on during the fall of 2013 and showed it to my writing group in December. I put the finishing touches on it in early January of 2014. Often, stories spring into my head with many of the details already laid out, but that wasn’t the case with Mage, Maze, Demon. The plot underwent several alterations and title changes before I settled on the final version. The name of character also underwent some changes. Since the root of the story came from Kyle Knapp’s journal, I wanted a character name to evoke that, and finally settled on Bryle.

In early 2016, Mage, Maze, Demon was released as an ebook by Beat to a Pulp, and this was followed in April 2016 by a paperback release (Out Now). The print version has two excellent bonus stories included, “The Lizard’s Ardent Uniform” by Chris F. Holm, and “Babylon Heist” by Garnett Elliott.

I was very pleased to take part in this project and am happy with how the story turned out. Bryle became a character that I liked very much, and I wouldn’t be surprised if his adventures don’t continue somewhere down the line. 

A Fresh Review

David J. West has a great review of Mage, Maze, Demon over on his Nephite Blood, Spartan Heart. Hope you'll check it out. Thanks, David!

After Easter break, the final sprint to graduation began and I've had very little time for anything other than school work. So, so looking forward to summer. I've got all kinds of writing plans. Now I just need a bit of time.
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A Review and a Talk

Prashant, over at Chess, Comics, Crosswords, and more has a great review of Mage, Maze, Demon up on his blog. Thanks much to him. Check it out.

In other news, I’ll be at Mac’s on Boston Street in Covington today, April 3, from 4-6 PM, to give a talk entitled “A Few Words on Reading.” This is presented by the Northshore Literary Society for their “Sunday Salon.”  The address for Mac’s is 324 East Boston Street, Covington, Louisiana. I’m going to talk about why people read the kinds of fictional stories and books that they do. Thanks to Cheryl and all the Northshore folks for inviting me!

More Mage

Today, I'll just point you toward a great review of Mage, Maze, Demon by James Reasoner. Since I greatly admire James's writing, it's always nice to get a "well done" from him. 

The story is still only 99 cents on Amazon. Check it out.

Mage, Maze, Demon

Wow, it has been a tough three weeks. I’ve actually had no full days off since the beginning of March, including weekends. But finally we’ve made it to spring break. I’m off all next week and man am I looking forward to some sleep. And maybe some writing as well.

It was exciting that it was the last day of work before break today, but even more exciting was the publication of Mage, Maze, Demon, by David Cranmer’s Beat to a Pulp. This is book #3 in their Veridical Dreams series, which are tales inspired by the dream journals of Kyle J. Knapp. Being a fellow who keeps his own dream journal, I much enjoyed writing for this series.

The story is sword and sorcery, which, judging by the number of works I’ve written in that genre, is my favorite genre. I love to read it and write it. Although you could read the cover blurb for it on Amazon, I’ve copied it below.

Having narrowly survived a raging fire, the warrior, Bryle, finds himself caught in a labyrinth of treacherous caverns. It isn’t by accident. An eyeless sorcerer has summoned Bryle. He wants the barbarian to retrieve a talisman that will stop a demon of unfathomable power. To do so, Bryle must first face the challenges of the sorcerer’s maze: flooded tunnels, poisoned traps, and a monstrous beast that can heal its own wounds. The sorcerer promises the barbarian his freedom if he succeeds. But can Bryle trust the word of such a being? Can he trust anything other than the sword in his hand? 

Mage, Maze, Demon is only 99 cents on Amazon, so if you have a hankering for some Barbarian versus Mage versus Demon action, it’s affordable.

Cap Kennedy #15, and The Thing Connection

It’s always interesting to me to trace influences over time in Science Fiction and fantasy. I made an interesting discovery recently as I was reading Cap Kennedy #15, Mimics of Dephene (1975). This is a space opera series from the 1970s written by Gregory Kern, who was actually E. C. Tubb (1919 – 2010). The book would seem to be a relatively minor one in the series, but at the very top of page 62, (Daw Books, Inc. 1975, April), I found a fascinating paragraph.

To set it up, Cap and his colleague, a scientist named Jarl Luden, discover an alien mimic who is trying to pass as a human. Luden remarks: "'There is a certain test. Take some tissue, some blood, and touch it with a hot wire. Normal blood will not react, but that taken from a Mimic will incorporate an individual survival-pattern. It will recoil from the threat of heat.’”

My mind, and quite possibly yours, instantly leaped to the John Carpenter movie, The Thing, which opened June 25, 1982. Here’s the speech Macready gives in the movie just before running the blood test that reveals ‘The Thing.’ “You see, when a man bleeds. It’s just tissue. But blood from one of you things won’t obey when it’s attacked. It’ll try and survive. Crawl away from a hot needle…” In the movie they actually use a hot wire for the test.

I went back to the original novella that was the basis for John Carpenter’s The Thing. This is Who Goes There, by John W. Campbell Jr, which was published in Astounding Science Fiction in 1938. I’d read it a very long time ago but in checking it out I found that the hot wire test was used in that book. This is probably where Kern/Tubb got the idea for Kennedy #15, and would also seem the likely influence on Carpenter. Oddly, though, the wording in the movie is closer to that in Mimics of Dephene than in the novella. Coincidence? Probably.

However, a second tantalizing connection between the Cap Kennedy book and the “thing” is seen later. On page 93 of the Kennedy book, when a mimic is imitating Luden, Kennedy tells one of the forms to "Open your mouth." As soon as the being does so, Kennedy shoots him down. When the real Luden wants to know how Kennedy distinguished between the mimic and the real, Kennedy says: "...no Mimic could have known what was inside your mouth. Expensive dental work."

In the 2011 remake/prequel to The Thing, we find out that the creatures can't mimic dental implants and these get left behind when a human is taken over. This is one way to identify them. And this element did not appear in Who Goes There, or at least I couldn’t find it with a pretty close search. (I wonder if it might have been in the original script for that movie.)

Although certainly no proof of direct connection, the fact that Mimics of Dephene can be linked to both the 1982 and the 2011 movies, tantalizes me. I can’t find any evidence that Tubb himself had anything to do with either movie, so if there was an influence, it came from someone else. Were both links purely coincidental, or had someone who worked on these movies read Cap Kennedy #15? Could it have been John Carpenter himself? If anyone knows him, maybe you’ll ask him for me. I’d sure like to know.

Ideas for Independent Releases

Over the past couple of years, I’ve come up with numerous ideas for writing projects that I’d like to complete.  Progress has generally been slow, but some of these projects are starting to take shape and I think at least one or two of them will be completed by the end of 2016. Here’s what I’ve been thinking of.

1. Micro Weird 2: Another collection of short, weird, flash fiction. I’ve got three or four stories ready for this but, as you can imagine, the total word count is still pretty small.

2. Dream stories: I’ve been toying with the idea of putting together a short collection of horror stories that are basically straightforward retellings of some of my dreams. I’ve only got a couple such stories completed but I have another four or five outlined. I’m going to work on one of these tales next, as soon as I finish an anthology project. The new tale will be entitled “Thump, Thump, Thump.”

3. A literary collection. Contrary to popular conceptions, I don’t write all blood and gore. I have several literary stories that have been published that I’m thinking about putting into a small collection. The working title right now is “Down Home and Other Stories.”

4. A “lessons” from Classic Trek. Honestly, this is a longgggg way from being completed. I’ve outlined some ideas and rough drafted a paragraph or two but this will be a low priority project for me.

5. The Scarred One: This is a western novella, about halfway completed.

6. Title Tales: I’ve been toying with the idea for a collection of horror stories in which all the tales would be inspired by the titles of rock and metal music, such as “Fairies Wear Boots,” “Hell’s Bells,” “Immigrant Song,” and many others. I have several pieces of this completed in rough draft form. However, I need to find out if I have to get permissions to use these titles. If so, I probably won’t use them.

7. A series of three longish western stories featuring “The Man from Colt Creek.” Two of these are about halfway done. The third is just a basic outline.

So, no one can accuse me of not having enough writing plans. Now I’ve got to get the words down. 

Nominated for the Rhysling

Well, I got some exciting news this morning. I was thrilled to find out that a poem of mine called "Gaunt" has been nominated for the 2016 Rhysling Award, which is for poems published in 2015. This award is given by the Science Fiction Poetry Association. My piece was nominated for the "Short Poem" category, (under 50 lines). Here is how the SFPA describes the award:

"The winning works are regularly reprinted in the Nebula Awards Anthology from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc., and are considered in the SF/F/H/Spec. field to be the equivalent in poetry of the awards given for "prose" work— achievement awards given to poets by the writing peers of their own field of literature."

I'm really happy to hear about this. Sometimes when you labor in the fields, someone comes along and says, "nice job!" It's always appreciated.

"Gaunt" was published in The Pedestal Magazine. It's still up in their archives. The link is here if you'd like to read it. 

Forgotten Book Friday: The Rat Bastards series: #4.

The Rat Bastards series: #4. Meat Grinder Hill, by John Mackie, Jove Books, 1984.

I’d never seen any books from this series until I was in Maine and found a small bookstore that carried volume 4. Being a sucker for war series, especially WWII series, I snapped it up, and have finally read it. The story takes place on Guadalcanal as the American forces make a last push to take the island from a starving and undersupplied Japanese army.  Here are my thoughts:

First, John Mackie is a pseudonym of Len Levinson. Here is a link to a blog called “Glorious Trash,” where there is an interview with the author about the series.  Another discussion with Levinson can be found over at the Post Modern Pulp Blog. 

Though I’ve only read one volume, I think I can make some general deductions about the series, which runs to at least 16 books. What we have is a kind of “Dirty Dozen” tale. The “Recon Platoon” is made up of misfits, criminals, and barroom brawlers. They don’t like to follow orders but they’re tough as hell and good in a fight. There are a number of characters who fit fairly standard molds.  Longtree is descended from Apache warriors and great at stealth. Homer Gladley is a big but not terribly bright farm boy from Nebraska. Frankie La Barbara is a handsome Italian who has a way with the ladies. Then there’s sergeant Butsko, tough as nails and no nonsense. The characters are drawn broadly and behave mostly in expected ways.

I’d firmly place the series in the Men’s Adventure category. There’s a lot of action, a lot of rough talk, and quite a bit of sex, at least in volume 4. Most of the sex comes from Frankie seducing a variety of nurses while recovering from some injuries at the military hospital. The sex is the weakest element of the story and might have better been left out. It’s often a part of the Men’s Adventure package, though,  and I imagine that’s why it’s there. It’s hard for me to tell whether the sex scenes were meant to be funny or erotic. The slang used suggests humor, and I did get some laughs at phrases like: “…touches his fingers lightly against her precious love-starved little gazoo,” or “…pressing her hand against his hairy canary.”

The action sequences were much better done, and we do get to see some of the fear and self-doubt that the characters experience. A particularly nice touch to the book was how the Japanese enemy were  treated with quite a bit of respect. Their hardships, bravery, and loyalty to their leaders was well displayed, which I found somewhat unusual for WWII series, where often the enemy is virtually faceless. I found that this aspect of the story upped my enjoyment.

All in all, I liked “Meat Grinder Hill” fairly well. It was about what I expected.  I may try another volume. I see that most of the series has been released fairly recently for the Kindle and are available on Amazon under the author’s real name. 

What a Difference a Week (or two) Makes:

Just a week or so ago I was feeling very down about my writing. I’d written nothing for almost two weeks and had tried to work on a story and it just wasn’t flowing. There were, as well, the usual rejections and that sort of thing happening. Either bad or potentially bad news seemed to be attacking on every front.

Then I had a story published, “Woman in Dust,” and got a lot of very positive comments on it. I got potentially good news on an issue that I was particularly concerned about, although I’m not daring to mention it until it is a reality. I picked up a few comments in real life from folks who enjoyed my writing, and the story I was working on finally started to flow, although I’m still fighting with it every step of the way. This week I feel better about things, and am very glad for it.

I have prided myself in the past for writing on even in the face of no external validation. But I realize now that I was fooling myself a bit. Any writer who depends extensively on external validation isn’t going to be in the business for long. But I guess we all need to hear at least occasionally that what we are doing is worthwhile and appreciated.  There’s got to be some kind of payoff for all the hard work, and money has not been that payoff for me.

Woman in Dust

About the only thing I have to say today is that I have a new story up at The Flash Fiction Press. It's called "Woman in Dust." If you have a moment, check it out. It's a quick read. It's here.

As for the Super Bowl, I didn't have anything against either team. I actually like the Carolina Panthers. However, gotta admit I was hoping for a win for Peyton Manning. Although he certainly was not the MVP--the Denver defense was--I was happy to see someone from my adopted home (New Orleans) prove victorious. Plus, I've always had respect for Peyton's skills and for the fact that he seems genuinely like a decent fellow.