Merry Christmas

I pray that you all have a most excellent Christmas and a plentiful and happy new year in 2010.

Cookie Thief

For years there have been reports that Santa wasn't receiving all the cookies that were set out for him. Last year security camera footage caught the following image, which indicates there was some truth to the rumor.

Rudolph and Santa Throw it Down

Apparently, Rudolph and Santa have had a disagreement--but don't worry. I'm sure they will blow off some steam, apologize and be ready to go for Christmas.

This illustration comes courtesy of Noel Tuazon who is the cover artist of Exiles of the Dire Planet, and Into the Dire Planet. He's also completed some fantastic illustrations for my upcoming childrens' book The Pirates of Mirror Land and for the soon to be released chapbook of The Blood Vault.

I'll be spilling further information on both those projects come the new year, including sharing a few illustrations and even letting you know how you can get a free copy of The Blood Vault.

Thoughts on Writing

Are you a 'pantser' or a 'plotter'?

Early on in my writing endeavors I found myself writing my characters or plot into corners, and I would have to discard 70 or 80 pages to get back on track. I found that plotting a detailed outline saved me lost pages and time. However, as I've grown more skilled my outlines have become sketchier and sketchier (more 'seat of the pants'), and I'm able to let the characters dictate the course of the story without losing my way. This leaves me plenty of room to discover characters and events, and to enjoy the surprising outcomes.

Detailed character sketches or “their character will be revealed to me as I write? Do you know your characters' goals, motivations, and conflicts before you start writing or is that something else you discover after you start writing?

I sometimes have preconceived notions about what a character is and what they should be, and then as I'm writing about them they let me know otherwise. Incidental characters will thrust themselves into the spotlight and make themselves integral to the story as I discover their true desires and motivations. Frederick Whalen was one such character—a bit of stunt casting, when I borrowed him from the novel Dillon and the Voice of Odin—who I thought was a typical bad guy in motivation, but turned out to be so much more.

Naegrik, the Galbran that Garvey Dire rescued from the pesthule cavern of a thousand hooks was a character who arrived unexpectedly and then forced himself into the story line. He'll appear again prominently in Lost Tribes of the Dire Planet, where a couple of other 'incidental' characters have let me know that I am entirely mistaken about them, and that they have plans and desires that will make them central to the plotline.

Books on plotting-useful or harmful?

It depends upon where your skills lie as a writer. There are plenty of 'character driven' works out there that are meandering and pointless. The trick is finding a balance where the characters drive the plot. If there is too little on the character side no one cares what interesting things happen to them. If there is too little on the plot side there is nothing interesting happening to the characters.

Do you write in bursts of creative energy, or can you sit down and write for hours at a time? Are you a procrastinator or does the itch to write keep at you until you sit down and work? Are you a morning or afternoon writer? Do you write with music/the noise of children/in a cafe or other public setting, or do you need complete silence to concentrate?

The reality of my life is that I don't have hours at a time to write, so I get up early and between getting the kids off to school I try to get some exercise and some writing done. I am able to write morning, noon or night but my schedule makes mornings the most feasible. If I am able to write just a page or two a day I end up with a novel by the end of the year. Consistency is what gets my novels finished. I don't wait for my muse to show up. If she's not there in the morning, I go out and find her. Music often helps me find my muse and lets me sink into my writing frame of mind more quickly.

Computer or longhand (or typewriter)?

Long hand has to be transferred into a typed manuscript at some point, and I prefer not to do the work twice. I can type much, much faster than I can write longhand and once the story is in digital format it is easily editable.

Do you know the ending before you type Chapter One?

Generally, I know roughly how things wrap up—but there are a lot of details that are revealed to me through the process of writing the story.

Does what's selling in the market influence how and what you write?

If one of my novels is selling better than another I may be prompted to more quickly write a sequel to that better selling novel, but other than that I pay no attention to what is selling in the market. I write stories that I might enjoy reading. I have a peculiar style that has been described by detractors as “highly descriptive prose”. I happen to take that as a positive description, but not everyone thinks so. Some people prefer spare prose with little color, but that's not what I enjoy reading or writing. I'll write what I feel and hopefully my writing will find the audience that enjoys highly descriptive prose.

Editing-love it or hate it?

A necessary evil. Editing is not my favorite part of writing, but it has got to be done.

Why do you write?

I feel compelled to write. It's a creative urge that I can't quell.

Why do you publish your work?

I'm just arrogant enough to think that other folks might enjoy the stories that I tell.

Do you like to write alone or do you like to work with others?

By its nature writing is a solitary endeavor and that has many advantages over some other creative endeavors. I've been in a number of bands, and in assembling a musical arrangement ( a song) you are dependent upon three or four other people and at the mercy of their schedules and creative inclinations. This can be very satisfying when all the elements come together, but most often differences of opinion make these arrangements short-lived. In writing you need only rely upon yourself and the creative inspiration from God to create a story, and though others may be involved in the editing and publishing end of things, the story is written or remains unwritten because of your effort or lack of effort.

That said, there are ways to collaborate in writing and I do sometimes find satisfaction in these. Devil Take the Hindmost is placed in the shared world setting of Denbrook, which was created by Mike McGee (writer of the most excellent El Gorgo comic book series). Derrick Ferguson's Diamondback novella (available from PulpWork Press) is also set in Denbrook and I find some sense of synergy in borrowing characters and events from Derrick's work to help populate Denbrook. You'll also see my character, Sasha Benbow, appearing in an upcoming Denbrook story from Derrick. However, there's only a few authors I'd trust to use my characters in their own work—and Derrick is one of them.

Though other collaborative writing has come to fruition (Immortals of the Cannibal Coast, with Martin Edward Stephenson, which appeared in Dark Worlds magazine), I've seen other projects languish in obscurity because my partner in collaboration didn't follow through. Any time more than one creative person gets involved in a project there is potential for friction and differences of opinion—so for expediency sake writing remains mostly a solitary effort, though I certainly do enjoy interacting with other authors.

Armored Review

Check out the Pulpwork Press website for Derrick Ferguson's review of the movie Armored. And if you are in mood for antiheroes pick up a copy of Derrick's Diamondback: It Seemed like a Good Idea at the Time while you are there.

Merry Christmas from Doc Savage

Some of you may be familiar with the Lester Dent penned Doc Savage series of pulp novels that were churned out in the 1930's and 1940's under the pseudonym of Kenneth Robeson. Doc Savage was the original super man, and undoubtedly the inspiration for the Superman of DC Comics fame (both have a Fortress of Solitude for example). Savage was a brilliant scientist, inventor, surgeon and physically superior human being with iron discipline.

Doc Savage also served as the inspiration for my Max Damage character when I asked myself the question: "What if Doc Savage had a balancing flaw for every superior physical characteristic?". I'll be exploring this further in 2010 when The Sea Witch, a full length Damage Inc novel is released by Pulpwork Press.

When the Doc Savage novels were re-released in the 1970's they had a number of beautiful covers which were largely painted by James Bama and Bob Larkin. Since then, some clever people have made some fantastic covers for Doc Savage novels that never quite existed. Here's one to help get you into the Christmas spirit.

Free E-Book

Up until Christmas Eve Josh Reynolds is offering a free Christmas present of his latest Ulrich Popoca (the brass-masked Ameriquetzlan Ambassador to Britain) short story, The Strange Affair of the Phantom Vinlander, to any that will email him at argus33 at hotmail.com and politely request a copy.

If you do email him a request, using the miracle of the internet he will email you a PDF file containing the short story. Word has it that this story is going to be the basis for a full length novel he'll be working on next year.

Now, besides Ulrich Popoca being one of the coolest steam punk characters ever, there's something else that biases me toward this story (besides zeppelins and a plot to assassinate the Queen of England). It happens to be the first time that I've ever been immortalized in print--that's right. Watch for a character named Jenkins, a member of the mysterious Diogenes club who has a penchant for pistols and guitars (strange how art imitates life--or is it the other way around?), to show up in the story.

Email Josh now before his Christmas munificence evaporates in the cold reality of the new year!

Author Fingerprints

According to a study published in the New Journal of Physics researchers are able to identify the authors of various works by the frequency that they use certain identifying or unique words.

When they used the Pulpwork Press authors for their testing purposes they found that 'crimson' was the identifying word in my stories, 'pancakes' was the identifying word for Joshua Reynolds, and Derrick Ferguson's unique word is actually a phrase which shows up in a surprising number of his books: "Yiyoo, The Mother of Sorrowful Gifts and Wy, the Paladin of Wrath"

Strange Affair of the Artisan's Heart

A couple months ago I picked up a copy of Robots Beyond and was quite impressed by the Josh Reynolds short story, The Strange Affair of the Artisan's Heart. When it comes to short stories the Strange Affair is just about perfect; its got intriguing plot, twists and turns, interesting setting (Victorian Steampunk), unique protagonist (Ameriquetzlan Ambassador Ulrich Popoca), a beautiful woman with an agenda of her own (Countess Felluci), and great dialogue and use of language.

Now DuneSteef Audio Fiction Magazine has turned this short story into an audio drama, complete with character actors doing the voices. The adaption is about a half hour long and if you stay tuned a bit longer you'll hear Josh Reynolds' curious accent and some thoughts the DuneSteef staff had on adapting the story. You may want to cut your listening short at the point they ask for donations because after that they began pointless digressions into areas unsuitable for some listeners.

However, I highly recommend that you listen to this very cool adaption of Josh's story.

Robert Heinlein says:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

Good Reading

One of the advantages of being an author for Pulp Work Press is that I sometimes have the opportunity to read copies of PulpWork books well in advance of their actual release. I've just finished reading Dillon and the Golden Bell and it is awesome. If you asked me to describe it in one sentence I'd have to say it's like 'James Bond meets Cthulhu'. Pulpwork is hoping to release the book by Christmas this year. I'll keep you apprised.


This weekend I also had the opportunity to read Mr. Brass and the Red Horror of Frankenstein, which is not a Pulpwork Press Release but is written by Pulpwork author Josh Reynolds. This sucker has been out for at least a month, but I'm way behind on my reading. I loved every word of this story; Reynolds brings together the Dr. Frankenstein and Doctor Moreau we recognize from classic literature and plops them into a whole new mind-blowing milieu. You can read Mr. Brass and the Red Horror Frankenstein at Thousand Faces magazine.

Kings of the Night

G.W. Thomas's online fantasy magazine, Kings of the Night has some very nifty fantasy tales and also features some great artwork by M.D. Jackson (see the included painting). He even has a section on Sword and Planet stories and makes mention of the Dire Planet series (which Amazon is carrying at the new low price of $11.95 each) in a most complimentary way! Check out the Sword and Planet section here.

As a side note, I'm currently entrenched in writing the fourth Dire Planet novel, Lost Tribes of the Dire Planet, which I'm about 25,000 words into. As usual, the characters are dictating the story to me--instead of the other way around. The former galbran, Naegrik, is making himself a prominent part of the story. Also, an exile warrior who took part of the invasion of Ledgrim --who I thought was going to be a minor nemesis in this novel--has let me know that she has contradictory plans of her own.

Of course, these are just a couple elements of the novel. Kurt Vonnegut has said, about writing, that every character in a scene should want something-- even if it's just a glass of water. I find that when I listen to my characters wants and desires that the plot thickens in ways that I never imagined, and minor characters surprise me and become major players.

Nuclear Suitcase Reviewed

Ron Fortier of Pulp Fiction Reviews has posted a review of the Nuclear Suitcase.

Click on the review link and check it out.

Nuclear Suitcase in Digital

The Nuclear Suitcase is now available in digital formats and at bargain basement prices at Fictionwise.com. You can purchase a copy in the following formats: eReader (PDB), ePub (EPUB), Rocket/REB1100 (RB), Adobe Acrobat (PDF), Palm Doc (PDB), Microsoft Reader (LIT), Franklin eBookMan (FUB), hiebook (KML), Sony Reader (LRF), iSilo (PDB), Mobipocket (PRC), Kindle Compatible (MOBI), OEBFF Format (IMP)

I Hart Cthulhu

Just recently I was introduced to a band called Taurus Pedals. I'm convinced that one of their songs is an instant classic, and of particular interest to anyone who has enjoyed reading Lovecraft's horror fiction. Taurus Pedals has a sound I haven't quite been able to peg, but this particular song sounds like Deep Purple channeling Blue Oyster Cult.

Coming Attractions

Anyone who enjoys pulp style fiction will be interested in checking out Bill Thom's Coming Attractions page, which is updated weekly and includes tons of information about the latest pulp products coming to a store or a website near you.

Among all the other cool stuff, like The Avenger reprint you see here, he's got information about Pulpwork's latest releases and re-releases. Make sure to get a copy of Nuclear Suitcase pre-ordered while the sale's still on!

Lots of Book News

As mentioned in my last post, Nuclear Suitcase is now available for pre-order at PulpWorkPress.com for ten bucks until the end of month, when it goes up to $12.95. Or, if you prefer dealing with Amazon.com, copies of The Nuclear Suitcase are now for sale there.

Hot on the heels of The Nuclear Suitcase, Pulpwork Press has released new printings of all my other titles that they publish. The cool thing about this is that they've been able to bring the cover prices down by about $3.00. This means you can pick up any of the Dire Planet series for $11.95, or you can pick up Devil Take the Hindmost (which runs about 50 pages longer than the Dire Planet books average) for $12.95.

Nuclear Suitcase Sale!

I just realized that it has been over three weeks since I've last posted, but in that time I've been making excellent headway on a number of projects.

A) Pulpwork Press has received the final interior illustrations for a children's book I've been working on.

B) I've finished up a short story and submitted it to the editor of the upcoming Amazing Alternity anthology. This Amazing alternate universe story includes such historical figures as Amelia Earheart, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Eva Braun, and Errol Flynn, a lost city, a fleet of war zeppelins, and a secret weapon that is the key to Hitler's blitzkreig.

C) Work has commenced on Lost Tribes of the Dire Planet and Garvey Dire and his newly-expanded family are going to be in for one wild ride. The first three Dire Planet books can be purchased at Amazon.com, pulpworkpress.com, or in digital formats at fictionwise.com and BarnesandNoble.com.

D) Pulpwork Press has just announced that it has Nuclear Suitcases for sale! Now, they are not selling actual nuclear suitcases--the sale of such nuclear suitcases is what got the Gantlet Brothers (erstwhile rockstars and guns for hire) into trouble in the first place. Pulpwork Press is accepting pre-orders for my novel, The Nuclear Suitcase, at PulpworkPress.com. The advantage to being an early buyer is they are on sale for only $9.95! Once the pre-order sale is over they go up to $12.95. Pulpwork Press is having The Nuclear Suitcase printed by a different company than printed its previous titles and they have been able to knock three dollars off the standard Pulpwork cover price for a 300 page book ($15.95). That three dollar savings translates into a six dollar savings if you purchase a pre-order! Don't delay. (Also you can check out the first chapter of Nuclear Suitcase at the Pulpwork.com website)

Dark Worlds turns Red

Though I don't have a story in the latest issue of Dark Worlds this happens to be the first issue to carry a story by Derrick Ferguson who has nabbed the cover slot for issue number four.

Tale of the Baron's Tribute is a mouthful of a title, but it's a great read and tells the story of Sebastian Red, a dread-locked bounty hunter armored with juju and armed with a well worn .45 Leone Nightmaster pistol and a nasty sword forged for the Lords of Burning Iron.

Red rides the weird west on his bronze stallion Ra, and runs into a lot of trouble--often of the supernatural variety. This tale finds him hunting down bank robbers and murderers Madman McGee and Christopher Ix.

You can pick up a digital or hard copy here.

Devil Take the Hindmost at Barnes and Noble

The electronic versions of the Pulpwork Press catalog has formerly (and still is) been available at Fictionwise.com. Recently Barnes and Noble has kicked off their own proprietary E-Reader which allows books to be read on the Iphone, Ipod Touch, Blackberry, and of course the PC and Mac. This E-Reader is available as a free download from Barnes and Noble.

The exciting thing for us authors at Pulpwork is that Barnes and Noble has also picked up the complete line of Pulpwork Press books and are carrying them in this new electronic format. It's easy enough to find the titles by me, just type 'Joel Jenkins' into the search box at the Barnes and Noble ebook site. To find Derrick Ferguson's movie review notebooks or his excellent Diamondback novella just type in his name.

Hunting down books by Pulpwork Press's resident horror-meister Joshua Reynolds is a little trickier since he shares his name with Lord Joshua Reynolds who seems to have written some equally horrific books critiquing art. Instead, you'll need to type in his specific titles: Bury Me Deep, Born Under a Bad Sign, and Wake the Dead.

Devil's Head in the Bargain Basement

PA Press, the publisher for Escape from Devil's Head has announced a very brief sale and on the 22nd and 23rd you can pick up a copy for only $8.99. This isn't bad, because regularly they retail this sucker for the outrageous price of $28.00.

If you haven't picked up a copy yet, now is the time to grab one. Once you've read it you'll be all set for the sequel, Through the Groaning Earth, which is coming out from the much more reasonable PulpWork Press later this year.

At the PA Press website type in 'Escape from Devil's Head' or 'Joel Jenkins' and that will get you to the sale.

Pulpwork Print Ad

Here's a new black and white print ad from Pulpwork Press which features several titles by yours truly and a couple by the most excellent Derrick Ferguson. Those following such things will note that both The Nuclear Suitcase and Derrick's Dillon and the Golden Bell have yet to be released. Both are on the docket for release this year and The Nuclear Suitcase should be out sooner than later.

Amazing Alternity

Thomas Deja, formerly of Fangoria magazine, is putting together an anthology for Pulpwork Press and has released the following author guidelines. I find the concept quite intriguing and hope to be able to place a story in the anthology. The ideas are already percolating...


AMAZING ALTERNITY STORIES is a new anthology from Pulpwork Press. It purports to be an average issue of the flagship title from pulp magazine publisher Alternity Publishing, and features a rotating series of what Publisher George H.W. Bush proudly calls 'The Greatest Action Heroes On Earth'... ....wait a minute....Publisher WHO? The trick is that Alternity Publishing is a magazine publisher from an alternate reality where many of our real life personages exist only as fictitious characters in the most lurid of popular fiction. In this reality, for example, Nikola Tesla could be a 'science spy' who uses advanced technology to save the world, Albert Einstein could be a Flash Gordon-like swashbuckler, and George Washington could be a maritime adventurer. (Note that the above are just examples; I'm not looking specifically for these concepts) What we are looking for is stories in the pulp tradition with an adventure component of 5-12K in length with a central character based on a real-life personage. We want a wide variety of pulp genres represented; if this book is successful we'll release future volumes that focus on specific genres. Fun should be the most important element in these tales--the oddity of seeing a real-life person in a different setting should be secondary to the excitement of reading a fast paced adventure tale.

Original concepts will net you extra points--we've seen H.G. Wells as a time traveler or H.P. Lovecraft as a psychic detective several times already, but Wells as a mercenary with a heart of gold or Lovecraft as the courageous major of The French Foreign Legion, however..... Keep in mind that while you should give us enough to make the real life person recognizable as that person, you don't have to hew 100% close to their bio; to expand upon one of the earlier example, it's sufficient that you mention that Major Lovecraft joined the Legion to forget his lost love Sarah and that he's from Providence; we don't need chapter and verse.

The important thing is to give us verve, give us style, give us true blood-and-thunder...in short, a real pulp fiction reading experience. Have fun writing the tale; if you're having fun, the reader will have fun. Keep in mind that, given that these are supposed to be 'genuine' pulp stories, you should refrain from profanity.

Because of the unique nature of the anthology, we will require authors to submit a story outline of two to three pages. This is to assure that we won't end up with two stories about different versions of the same real-life figure, and also to assure that we have as wide a variety of genres represented. Once we choose a good line-up, we'll give the authors picked the go-ahead to write up their tales.

Please send outlines to nywisdom@hotmail.com. Deadline for outlines is August 31st, 2009. Deadline for completed stories will be announced to chosen writers shortly after the deadline proper.

Good luck, and if you have any questions, contact me at the above e-mail!

Thomas Deja
Editor, AMAZING ALTERNITY STORIES

Through with the Groaning Earth

Or rather I should say that I'm through with the first draft of Through the Groaning Earth. It weighs in at a healthy 110,000 words, and I've commenced a second pass at it. Of course, a small portion of the novel has already appeared in the pages of Dark Worlds #2, so anyone interested can preview it there.

Although there are quite a few new rogues and denizens of Bathos showing their faces in Through the Groaning Earth a few of the survivors of Escape from Devil's Head show up and throw the status quo of the guilds' power structure into turmoil by daring to buck the system.

Band Clip

Here's a brief video clip from our surprise gig last night at the Pacific Rim. We appeared under the name 10 Years Gone. Though the band name Nuclear Suitcase seemed to be a popular choice, we learned that Devin, the guitar player on the left, who served a tour of duty in Iraq, had a friend who met his demise due to a terrorist bomb planted in a suitcase. This prompted us to seek out some different band name options. So we're trying out new names at different gigs...

The clip is an excerpt from the song Gray Sky Falling.

Marooned on Mars

Marooned is a blog all about science fiction books that take place on Mars--but it also includes thoughts and information about Mars-related audio, music, movies, and of course NASA's Mars missions.

So check it out, and while you're at it check out the recent Marooned blog post about the Dire Planet series written by yours truly.

The Unknown Band

This is a snapshot of my band taken after we played at SteveStock. We've gone through a couple of name changes--primarily because names we thought of turned out to have been used already by existing bands.

Recently my bandmates have suggested using one of my book titles as a band name, and since I'm not about to sue myself over copyright infringement I agreed to this. At the moment we're torn between Dire Planet and Nuclear Suitcase.

Any thoughts?

Speaking of The Nuclear Suitcase, the novel, the proof copy is now undergoing intense editorial scrutiny. It could possibly see release in August, but don't hold me to it...

Band Photo clockwise from left standing: Micah Defreese (Guitar), Raj Punjabi (drums), Joel Jenkins (lead vocals & guitar), Eric Cooper (bass guitar)

Dire Chapters

The Pulpwork Press website has posted the first chapters of Dire Planet, Exiles of the Dire Planet, and Into the Dire Planet. So run on over to Pulpwork and give 'em a read!

It's the Dire Planet Calling

Usually I'm slightly behind the curve when it comes to technology. I tend to wait until the bugs have been worked out and the price comes down. However, there are many fearlessly forging into the new technological frontiers, and one of these has brought to my attention a new application for the iphone and ipod touch.

Stanza is a free application that can be downloaded to your iphone or ipod touch and it allows you to download books (from a selection of over 100,000) and read them on your iphone.

I've been told that readers are downloading the Pulpwork Press books available in electronic format at Fictionwise.com and reading the books on their iphones. Since I have five different titles available at Fictionwise (Dire Planet, Exiles of the Dire Planet, Into the Dire Planet, Escape from Devil's Head, and Devil Take the Hindmost) I think that's pretty amazing.

Tying up the Loose Ends

I do like to leave a few loose story threads hanging in a novel length work, because they give me something to pick up and run with at a later time. Also, if one ties up things too firmly, it all seems a little too neat. A few ragged edges lend some reality.

However, In finishing up this round of editing on the Nuclear Suitcase I find that the ending is a bit abrupt. Sure, I wrap up all the major plotlines in The Nuclear Suitcase, but there are a few niggling details and threads that are lingering in my mind. Some of these will tie up nicely in an epilogue, but inevitably some of these will just create a few more loose threads--fodder for future Gantlet tales, perhaps.

Guess, I'd better get to work on that epilogue.

Jim Anthony, Super Detective

You may have noticed my postings have been rather scant as of late. Primarily, this is because I've been using every spare moment of time editing the manuscript for The Nuclear Suitcase, recording a studio demo with my band Voice of Reason (VOR) and working on a project for the Airship 27 publishing company.

Editor, Ron Fortier, of Airship 27 has asked me to contribute a story for an anthology of Jim Anthony, Super Detective stories. They have already released one anthology, and are planning a second and even a third anthology.



Who is Jim Anthony, you might ask? Jim Anthony is a classic pulp character whose stories were published in the early 1940's. He's a half Irish, half Comanche with a brain as sharp as Sherlock Holmes and a Herculean physique, to boot.

He's obviously modeled after Doc Savage to some extent--though the writing of the original stories tends toward the mediocre and there were some different editorial approaches toward Jim Anthony (see the Somebody Dies blog for a review of a pair of the original tales). One approach was to make Jim Anthony very much a superman in the tradition of the Doc Savage tales. The other approach was to make Jim Anthony a hard-boiled style of detective.

In writing my Jim Anthony tale, entitled The Scream Hammer, I opted for a mix of the two. Jim Anthony is both a man of amazing abilities and a fallible human being.

As always, I'll provide you more information about my Jim Anthony project as it comes closer to fruition. In the meantime, the best way to get familiar with Jim Anthony is to pick up a copy of the Airship 27 anthology.

The Spirit Movie Review

Check out the Pulpwork Press website for a Derrick Ferguson movie review of the recent Frank Miller directed The Spirit. If you find Derrick's review intriguing, enlightening, or just plain entertaining consider picking up a copy of his movie review notebooks.

Comic Prices Going Up

From an article in the New York Times--Comics Prices are going up...again.

The timing may seem odd since the U.S. and, indeed, the entire World is well into a recession, but

Dan Buckley, The President of Print and Digital Media for Marvel cites rising costs in everything from travel and entertainment expenses to paper, ink and distribution. My first reaction to this is that perhaps Marvel Employees should consider cutting their travel and entertainment expenses in order to stay competitive in an economy with less available disposable income. Also, I happen to know that pulp mills have fallen on hard times and are sitting on a surplus of materials, cutting back hours, and laying off employees because the demand is so low. Low demand means lower prices for paper, not higher prices. So Marvel's claims of rising costs don't ring true. (At least at the moment-once production is cut back and the low value dollars from the economic stimulus are dumped into the economy we will eventually see rampant inflation. Maybe Marvel is gearing up for that?)

The other thought provoking item from the New York Times article is Buckley's statement that Marvel plans to raise its prices on some of the books with the highest circulation — Hulk, Thor, Dark Avengers and New Avengers — to stave off an increase across the line.

Now, generally, if we see an increase of one dollar per book (they are slated to go from $2.99 to $3.99) we would like to see an increase in quality or content, and indeed, their competitor, DC has plans to include an 8 page back up feature in the books that they post an increase on. Marvel, apparently, has no such plans. In fact, the Hulk is currently one of the quickest reads of Marvel's line-up. Jeff Loeb is laughing all the way to the bank, because he's figured out how to write a comic book in a third the time, by including not one, not two, not three, not four, but five double page spreads and a full page spread in the latest issue of the Hulk.

Now if this artwork were Perez-style masterpieces with hundreds of figures then I might understand, but this is pretty standard stuff that most artists are able to pack into smaller frames. It is visually appealing, but very little story gets told in the course of an issue. To substantiate my complaint I've included a few scans below:

Dark Worlds Issue #4

The line-up for Dark Worlds issue #4 has been announced and unfortunately this is the first issue in which I don't have a story. However, my good friend Derrick Ferguson has snagged the feature cover slot with his weird west story, Tale of the Baron's Tribute, starring the inimitable Sebastian Red.

In the meantime, copies of Dark Worlds 1,2, and 3 are still available and contain the sci-fi tale The Investment (issue #1), Lords of the Bitter Dark--an excerpt from my upcoming fantasy sequel to Escape from Devil's Head (issue #2), and the fantasy pirate tale Immortals of the Cannibal Coast (issue #3).

Half Price Sale

Pulpwork is blowing out the last vestiges of inventory on the Josh Reynold's Born Under a Bad Sign and Wake the Dead. Jump over to PulpWorkPress.com and pick yourself up a copy before they are all gone.

Devil Take the Hindmost

Cruise on over to PulpworkPress.com and read the first chapter of Devil Take the Hindmost. If you find it intriguing, then stick around the Pulpwork Press website and order up a copy to be sent to your door--or if you prefer immediate gratification, you can pick up a digital copy at Fictionwise.com.

Still not convinced? Check out the review of Devil Take the Hindmost at Ron Fortier's Pulp Fiction Reviews.

In a Perfect World...

This cartoon is all the more appealing to me after I recently discovered that between Mexico's five major drug cartels-- the Tijuana Cartel, The Sinaloa Cartel, the Gulf Cartel, the Beltran Leyva organization, and Juarez Cartel--they have about 100,000 foot soldiers on the payroll. To put this in perspective, Mexico's governmental army counts about 130,00 soldiers.