Favorite Pulp Covers

Prolific pulp author Barry Reese has blogged about his ten favorite New Pulp covers and among them is Through the Groaning Earth.  This cover is the work of artistic mastermind Damon Orrell.

Free PulpWork Christmas PDF

A few people have requested a PDF with a single page view which allows them to view the text larger and makes for easier scrolling.  Use this link to access the single page view version of the PulpWork Press Christmas Special 2012. This will be posted for free (no charge) until the end of 2012.

If you prefer a hard copy one can be purchased at Amazon.com for $7.95. If you have an Amazon Prime membership the Kindle version is currently available at no charge, or if you don't have a membership the price is $2.99.

Free & Discounted Christmas Special

For your Yuletide reading pleasure PulpWork Press has released its PulpWork Christmas Special for 2012!  You can obtain this book for absolutely free using the following links:

PDF Format  (Free until Dec. 31 when it will be taken down)
Kindle Format  (Free from 12/10 to 12/15. After that date this ebook is priced at $2.99)

If you prefer reading your Christmas fiction in the vintage manner on actual pulp, pick up a hard copy of the PulpWork Christmas Special 2012 at the following places:

PulpWork Press  (Listed at $7.95. For a 20% discount use the code 5YRZ6A8W at checkout)
Amazon.com  (Listed at $7.95. For free shipping order $25 or more worth of product)

What sort of stories might you expect from our 2012 Christmas spectacular? I'm glad you asked. Here is the blurb from the back cover:

Yuletide Tales of Horror, Woe and Destruction: Featuring characters and setting from their premiere New Pulp creations, here are four soon-to-be Christmas Classics from the pens of master pulpists Josh Reynolds, Joel Jenkins, Derrick Ferguson, and Russ Anderson.

Feast of Fools: The Royal Occultist, Charles St. Cyprian and his lovely assistant, the gun-toting and slightly bloodthirsty Ebe Gallowglass, take down an ancient cult on their Christmas holiday.

Lair of the White Apes: In search of a missing squad of warriors, the former cannibal Naegrik and his companions in arms travel to the snowy reaches of the Dire Planet and explore the not-quite abandoned temple of the One Son.

How to Get Rid of a Body on Christmas Day: It's truly a twisted Christmas when a pair of old comrades contrive a way to dispose of an unwanted corpse one early Christmas morning.

Dillon and the Night Before Christmas: Global instigator Dillon begins to question the reason for his existence as he goes on a rum-soaked Christmas Eve bender, and discovers what the world would look like without him.

Guns of the Crow

Check out Josh Reynold's Royal Occultist blog for an essay on Native American gunfighter, occult investigator, and mystical poet Lone Crow.  Also listed is a complete bibliography of the nine published stories featuring Lone Crow.

Coming in 2013

Old Mother Hennessy

The Gunslingers and Ghost Stories collection from Sci-Fi Trails is now available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble in Kindle and Ebook formats for just $3.55.  Inside, you'll find a number of ghostly tails from the Weird West, including Old Mother Hennessy--a story, written by me, about infamous Native American gunfighter Lone Crow and his erstwhile companion-in-arms Six-Gun Susannah Johnson, the fastest (though perhaps not the most accurate) gun in the West. While running down some bounties they get caught between the vengeful dead and the murderous Hennessy Brothers who aim on adding Crow and Johnson to their graveyard of victims.

The Coming of Crow

I've had a Lone Crow story, entitled Old Mother Hennessy, accepted for publication in the upcoming Science Fiction Trails anthology Gunslingers and Ghost Stories.  Infamous Native American gunfighter Lone Crow and his erstwhile companion Six-Gun Susannah Johnson are hunting down the vicious Hennessy Brothers--a vicious lot of bank robbing, kidnapping killers--and come across a graveyard full of ghosts hungry for vengeance.

David Riley, the editor and owner of the Science Fiction Trails imprint, has been kind enough to forward me the advance art (minus the back cover blurb so we can better enjoy the artwork) as created by the inimitable Laura Givens.

I'll post more information once I have a release date.  In the meantime, you can find Lone Crow stories in The Science Fiction Trails #9: All Martian Spectacular, Six Guns Straight from Hell, Low Noon, How the West was Weird, How the West was Weird 2, How the West was Weird: Campfire Tales, Showdown at Midnight, and in the fifth issue of Dark Worlds Magazine.

Mouthing Off to Dillon

One of the awesome things about being an author is the multi-million dollar royalty checks I receive in the mail...wait, that doesn't happen.  The other awesome thing, which does actually happen, is that I get to chat with other authors, bounce ideas off of them and every once and awhile they are kind enough to immortalize me in print by tossing me into a story.

I've been lucky enough to appear as an agent of the Diogenes Club in the same story as Josh Reynolds' detective/ambassador Ulrich Popoca character (in two different stories!), and just recently a pair of rogues named Reynolds and Jenkins appear in Derrick Ferguson's Dillon and the Pirates of Xonira as part of the Morgan Adams submarine crew, which takes a cruise into pirate infested waters with a global instigator known as Dillon at the helm.

Most people with any sense wouldn't mouth off to Dillon or his right hand man Eli (page 207 and 208), but apparently I don't have any sense--and when I'm ordered to remove some limpet mines from the hull of the Morgan Adams I let Eli know what I think about it.

Pick up a copy of Dillon and the Pirates of Xonira at the PulpWork Press website and get 20% off by using the 5YRZ6A8W code.

The Art of the Gantlet Brother's Greatest Hits

Over at cover artist extraordinaire M.D. Jackson's blog he explains how he put together the cover art for my novel The Gantlet Brother's Greatest Hits.  To give further insight into the process I've included a couple of roughs below.  MD Jackson provided these to PulpWork Press after doing a read through of the manuscript.

Although I quite liked the image of Matthias Gantlet diving into the water with an awesome explosion going off above (and may ask M.D. to use it in the future), I thought that the assembled band members shown in the first sketch might be most like the cover of a rock album and fit the title of The Gantlet Brothers Greatest Hits best, and suggested that the female figures at the bottom be stricken, and that M.D. concentrate on the Gantlet Brothers.

M.D. did this with his usual gusto and skill, and you can see the final product at his SkyLarking blog.

Copies of  The Gantlet Brothers Greatest Hits can be picked up at a 20% discount at the Pulp Work Press site by punching in the code 5YRZ6A8W or pick up a digital copy for just $2.99 on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. 

Twenty-One Authors

The following is an alphabetical list of the twenty-one fiction authors who are most influential upon my own work. To the right of these names I have mentioned one or two of their creations or titles.  Most of these folks are long dead, but a few still alive and some still producing great fiction.

Edgar Rice Burroughs  (Tarzan, John Carter Warlord of Mars)

Bertrand R. Brinley  (Mad Scientists Club)

Stephen J. Cannell  (Rockford Files)

Susanna Clarke (Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell)

Clive Cussler (Dirk Pitt)

Lester Dent (Doc Savage)

Alexandre Dumas (The Three Musketeers)

Mike Grell (Warlord, Jon Sable)

Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon)

Homer (The Odyssey and Iliad)

Robert E. Howard (King Kull, Solomon Kane)

HP Lovecraft (The Cthulhu Mythos)

Derrick Ferguson (Dillon, Sebastian Red)

Stan Lee (Spider-Man, Hulk)

Sir Thomas Malory (Le Morte D'Arthur)

Robert R. McCammon (Boy's Life)

Edgar Allen Poe (The Fall of the House of Usher)

Joshua Reynolds (Mr. Brass, St. Cyprian and Gallowglass, Ulrich Popoca)

J.R.R. Tolkien (Lord of the Rings)

Jules Verne (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea)

HG Wells (War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man)

Swords Against Merlin!

The brother knights Balin and Balan of North Umberland are only given a handful of pages in Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur. Now, they are given their due and their bravery and deeds are brought to light in the pages of The Island of Lost Souls. Seeking justice for the murders of their parents, Balin and Balan run afoul of Merlin's malign plots and the treachery of King Arthur. First they are used and deceived, torn from the women they love, but when they discover the truth they turn their might and their swords against the deception and illusion of the shining Kingdom of Camelot.

Grab a copy of my latest novel ($13.95 for hard copy or just $2.99 for digital download) at Amazon, Barnes and Noble or direct from PulpWork Press (hard copy only) at a 20% discount if you punch in the semi-secret code of 5YRZ6A8W.  

Rights Revoked!

So, after languishing for seven years at a publishing house which will remain nameless, the rights for my dark fantasy novel, Escape from Devil's Head, have reverted to me.  PulpWork Press has now brought Escape from Devil's Head back into print and it's available in both digital format ($2.99) and in hard copy format ($14.95).  The PulpWork pricing is a big deal because the former publisher started pricing at $24.95 and then later decided that a higher price would promote more sales and moved the cost to $29.95.

Escape from Devil's Head is the first in The Tales from the City of Bathos series, the second in the series being Through the Groaning Earth.  These are interconnecting short stories and novellas that take the viewpoints of different characters against the backdrop of The City, which is a character in and of itself.  In Bathos you'll find cutthroats and criminals, nameless cults, dire gods, alien entities, strangling politics, and a few determined people struggling to survive against all the odds.

Pick it up at Amazon in hard copy or digital or at Barnes and Noble in hard copy or digital.  Find the hard copy at a 20% discount direct from PulpWork Press if you punch in the savings code of 5YRZ6A8W.

Lost Tribes of the Book Cave

The inimitable and indefatigable Ric Croxton and Art Sippo interviewed me in regards to my latest book release, Lost Tribes of the Dire Planet.  Listen to the Book Cave interview here.

Lost Tribes is available in both hard copy and digital formats at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or pick up a hard copy at a 20% discount if you order it directly from the PulpWork Press website (punch in the savings code of 5YRZ6A8W)

Ferguson Reviews the Dire Planet

Derrick Ferguson has posted reviews of both the Dire Planet and Exiles of the Dire Planet books on his Blood and Ink blog site.  Check them out and then stick around his blog and read a little bit about some of Ferguson's fascinating characters like the super-genius Mongrel, the wandering gunfighter Sebastian Red, and global instigator and universal troublemaker Dillon.

Dire Planet Review
Exiles of the Dire Planet Review

Also, don't forget that you can pick up any of my titles at a 20% discount if you order direct from the PulpWork Press website and punch in the discount code of 5YRZ6A8W.

The Pirates of Xonira

Derrick Ferguson's newest Dillon novel, Dillon and the Pirates of Xonira is now available at the PulpWork Press website.  If you buy it direct from PulpWork Press you can get a 20% discount by entering the following code: 5YRZ6A8W

Also, this same code is good for a 20% discount on almost all of the Pulp Work Press titles, including Josh Reynolds Dracula Lives! and the (lucky) thirteen books that I have written.

I Accidentally Wrote a Novel

I've been working on this novel for the last five months, so you might wonder just how I "accidentally" wrote The Gantlet Brothers: Sold Out.  The truth is a mighty amount of time and effort went into putting those 93,000 words down, however when I first sat down to write the tale I was intending to write a short story.

However, I did not stick to my Two-Step Formula for Constructing Short Stories.  Instead I approached Sold Out with just one pivotal scene in mind: I asked myself what would happen if one of the Gantlet Brothers was brutally murdered on stage during their rock concert.  Then I let the rest of the story unravel in front of me. One full-length novel later I know the answer.

Before I attack my next large project I plan to do three or four short stories for various anthologies.  This time I'll actually keep my short stories short.

Sold Out should see print in 2013.  The two Gantlet Brother novels that are currently in print are The Nuclear Suitcase and The Gantlet Brothers Greatest Hits. You can find them at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and at pulpwork.com.

The Vanishing City

The latest issue of Science Fiction Trails is an 'All-Martian' issue, which might give you some clue to the content of my latest Lone Crow story, The Vanishing City, which is included therein.  Crow accompanies Doctor Sylvia Conrad on an archeological expedition to Mount Shasta, investigating claims that an outpost of lost Lemuria has been discovered there.  In the meantime, the infamous bounty hunter known as the Grim brothers have gathered a motley crew of cutthroats and killers and are dogging his trail.  This story has some loose tie-ins with my Dire Planet series.

This issue of Science Fiction Trails is available in hard copy for $8.00 or for a $3.05 Kindle download.  If you are a member of Amazon Prime you can get a copy for free.

Update: You can a 40% discount on a hard copy of Science Fiction Trails #9 by going to this link and entering the discount code of RMYAE97U.

Lone Crow Story List

To my pleasant surprise, I happened across a Facebook posting about Native American gunfighter Lone Crow, which led to an article on Josh Reynolds' Royal Occultist Blog that lists every published occurrence of Lone Crow's weird western adventures. Check it out, and while you are there poke around Reynolds' blog for information on other occult investigators and especially his own excellent series characters Charles St. Cyprian and Ebe Gallowglass.

In a bit of Crow-related news, which I've mentioned previously, an eighth Lone Crow short story entitled The Vanishing City has been accepted for publication by Science Fiction Trails magazine.  I'll share more information as that comes to fruition.

Works in Progress

...still chronicling the potential demise of the Gantlet Brothers.  The Gantlet Brothers: Sold Out is at 88k words and counting.  I should be wrapping up the first draft next week.

As for the this year, look for The Island of Lost Souls within the next couple of months.  This is my take on the Arthurian legend and my reading of Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur leads me to believe that Arthur and Merlin were less than paragons of virtue and goodness. Still, we do have a pair of heroes in the brother knights, Balan and Balin, from North Umberland.

In Case You Missed It

Fellow PulpWork Press author, Josh Reynolds, has been very busy pumping out various sorts of pulchritidinous pulp prose.  Over the years he's established a number of series characters which make for some great reading.  A few of my favorites are the half man/half robot Pinkerton detective known as Mr. Brass, the steam punk Ulrich Popoca and Countess Felluci stories, and the adventures of the Royal Occultist Charles St. Cyprian and his charming companion-in-arms Ebe Gallowglass as they battle evil magicians and strange and hungry creatures wherever they might uncover them.

In case you missed the news, Josh has a new website devoted to Charles St. Cyprian and Ebe Gallowglass and to celebrate he's posted a free short story entitled Wendy-Smythe's Worm. If you browse through the back postings you can locate the three parts to the story, but to make it easier I've located the three parts and posted the links right here!

Wendy-Smythe's Worm Part 1
Wendy-Smythe's Worm Part 2
Wendy-Smythe's Worm Part 3

Last Rail to Khusra

Check out Derrick Ferguson's Dillon blog for the skinny on his upcoming Dillon novel and some super secret info about the next story that teams up rock star troublemaker Sly Gantlet with that same global instigator known by the one-word monicker of Dillon.

Four Rounds in Vegas

Hmmm, I just wrote a Gantlet Brothers story where no one gets killed. How did that happen?

Well, there is plenty of fisticuffs, underhandedness, and perversity. The story does place in Vegas, after all. And despite what they want you to believe, any sins committed in Vegas will catch up to you sooner or later. 

This short story includes a marriage proposal, a locker room beat down, a couple rounds in the ring, a bevy of beautiful ring girls, the biggest and baddest bodyguard Blake Hawkins, and oh yeah...Matthias Gantlet takes on the Heavyweight Champion of the world.

Where can you read it? Probably it will be included in the upcoming collection The Weird Worlds of Joel Jenkins.  However, I also may choose to run it for absolutely free in a serialized format that will rotate between the blogs of myself, and the prolific purveyors of pulp pandemonium Josh Reynolds and Derrick Ferguson.

Trouble in Paradise

Progress proceeds apace, even in Puerto Rico, on the latest Gantlet Brothers novel which is titled Sold Out. I'm now past the 60,000 word mark and will continue until...it's finished.

You may note I'm writing on an Alpha Smart. They're not much for editing or referencing things you previously wrote, but they are tough, and have an amazing battery life.

Dillon of the Dire Planet?

Prolific pulp author Barry Reese posits some possible team-ups from the New Pulp movement in a recent blog posting.  Among these is Derrick Ferguson's adventurer Dillon being teamed up with  ancient Mars as written in my Dire Planet books.  A number of times I have referred to Dillon as a global instigator.  If Barry Reese's wishful crossover were to come true, I guess I'd have to change my description to 'intergalactic instigator' or something along that lines.

I can't say I know of any plans for Dillon to visit the Dire Planet, but Dillon has teamed up/clashed with another of my characters--a certain rock guitarist and loose cannon named Slatko Gantlet (known as Sly Gantlet to all but a few).  You can find this crossover in Four Bullets for Dillon or in the Gantlet Brothers: Greatest Hits collection.

Dragon Kings of the Orient

New from Pulp Work Press: This over the top pulp fiction extravaganza mixes up myth hunter Elisa Hill with a menagerie of strange creatures pulled directly from Chinese legend.  Bullets, blades, and Kung Fu fists fly as Elisa makes a desperate attempt to head off a plot engineered by the ancient Dragon Kings of the Orient to drown the world in the Seven Seas.

Only $8.00 for a hard copy or a measly 99 cents on Kindle!

The Vanishing City

I just had a Lone Crow story accepted for the upcoming special issue of Science Fiction Trails.  The theme for this issue is Martians and Earthlings, which might give you a clue just what Crow will be up against.  This story gave me an opportunity to look at the Dire Planet from a new perspective.  The Vanishing City is slightly different in tone then some of the other Crow stories I've written--a bit more melancholy and introspective, but no fears.  The story still gets capped off with a massive gun battle.

I'll be sure to post a notification when The Vanishing City sees print.

Steam Punk Counterpart

Author Josh Reynolds has posted a free steam punk story, The Matryoshka Affair, featuring a pair of my favorite characters: The Ameriquetzlan ambassador Ulrich Popoca and, agent for the infamous Diogenes Club, the Countess Francesca Felluci.  And to my surprise, there is another agent for the Diogenes Club named Jenkins involved in some murderous affairs.  Now, I must cut this blog posting short and read the murderous tale myself to see if this Jenkins fellow survives or meets an untimely demise...

Classic New Pulp Characters

Pulp author and scholar Barry Reese has posted an article on the "Classic" characters of New Pulp and listed marooned astronaut Garvey Dire among them.  Check out his rationale at his website.

Also, props to fellow PulpWork author Derrick Ferguson whose character, Dillon, comes in at #1 on the listing!

No Sparkling Vampires Here!

Today, over at author Derrick Ferguson's Blood and Ink blog he talks about the origin of the City of Denbrook which is a character in and of itself in my own vampire/werewolf/detective/romance novel Devil Take the Hindmost and in Derrick's book, It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time.

Low Noon and Choosing Anthologies

I have a completely unprofessional and unmercenary way of choosing which anthologies I am going to submit stories to.  What I do is, I peruse various guidelines and pick anthologies that have genres I am interested in writing, and especially anthologies for which I can write stories using characters I have already created and have an affinity for. I don't recommend this method for writers whose sole income is derived from writing, but if I can't figure out an angle that interests me I'm not going to bother writing a story I don't like.

Now, it still happens that not all editors are keen on my stories, but if they reject my work then, at least, I have one more story towards completing a collection of tales featuring the same character.  So my time and effort were not wasted even if I don't make the sale.

Speaking of anthologies which I've written a story for, check out Low Noon, an anthology of Weird West tales which includes Five Disciples, a Lone Crow story.  Lone Crow is an infamous Native American gunslinger who roamed the West (and a number of other places) and here we find him on the Barbary Coast hunting Shotgun Ferguson, a wanted killer.  Throw in a witch and five disciples of the Immortals and you get havoc and destruction on Telegraph Hill.  Low Noon is available on Amazon in both hard copy and Kindle formats.  If you are a Prime Member of Amazon you can actually borrow a digital reading copy of Low Noon at no cost.

Hijack!

Today, I hijacked the Hunting Monsters Blog.  Take a look and see what nefarious deeds I accomplished in the early morning hours.

Long Term Works in Progress

I was thinking the other day about projects that I have partially completed and projects I have plans to write and came up with this list of collections and novels that are on my slate of things to write and edit. Long time readers may recognize or have read stories featuring some of these characters.

1)Immortals of the Dire Planet
2)Abominations of the Dire Planet
3)Strommand Greatrix novel (airships, swordplay, and genocide on the planet of Carparath)
4) One Foot in My Grave: the autobiography of risk-taker September Peterson and his battles with cystic fibrosis and life.
5) The Samuel T. Ogden Zombies and Skateboards collection
6) Midnight Avengers: The Eel and Adder collection
7) The Gantlet Brothers: Sold Out
8) Lone Crow: Gunmen of the Hollow Earth novel
9) Lone Crow collection
10) Weird Worlds of Joel Jenkins (short story and novella collection)
11) Barclay Salvage (the interplanetary adventures of Aaron Barclay and his intrepid crew of salvagers)
12) Dogs and Sorcerers (Tales from the City of Bathos book 3)
13) The Fiends of Necropolis (Damon St. Cloud)
14) Damage Inc. Collection
15) Monica Killingsworth Collection
16) Jack Scarlet werewolf collection (This guy gets around. He appears in an upcoming Lone Crow story as well as Fiends of Necropolis)
17) Michael and Candice Thunder collection (racecars and the supernatural in a post-apocalyptic world)
18) In the Belly of the Behemoth (Shadrak and Asher)
19) Temple Houston Collection: Guns Against Temple


I've got written material for all but two of these projects. One is complete except for editing, some are twenty thousand words from completion and others still need 70,000 or so words. The book titles are subject to change and this list is by no means drafted in the order I will be tackling these projects. Also, I tend to get side-tracked when new ideas rear their head, so its possible that this list will be expanding.

However, what I realized is that at my current rate of two collections and/or novels a year that it will take quite some time to get all these done. I guess I know what I'll be doing for the next nine years.

Four Bucks Off Lost Tribes

Lost Tribes of the Dire Planet is now available in hard copy and you can find it in two places.  Amazon carries it for $15.95 or now through the end of April 2012 you can pick it up at the Pulp Work Press website for $11.95 by entering the semi-secret code of 5YRZ6A8W.

Also, pick up Lost Tribes of the Dire Planet in Kindle or Epub/Nook formats for just $3.99.

Stranded Astronaut Garvey Dire finds himself in a heap of trouble when an ancient sect of assassins emerges from the icy depths of Velnibus to join with a lost tribe of spider worshipers who are immune to the edge of the steel sword.  Together, these deadly enemies hatch a plot which may result in the extinction of Garvey's adopted tribe.  Lost Tribes of the Dire Planet is a sword and science fiction extravaganza in the tradition of John Carter Warlord of Mars.

"Over the many years since Burroughs created his interplanetary pulp classics there have been dozens of imitators who have attempted to recapture the magic he wielded, but none has ever come as close as Jenkins with the Dire Planet books.  These books are rock!"  --Ron Fortier, Pulp Fiction Reviews

PulpWork Press 2012
ISBN: 9780615592954
Author: Joel Jenkins
Cover art: MD Jackson
Cover design: Damon Orrell
Pages: 354

Lost Tribes on Kindle and in Epub

The fifth book of the Dire Planet series, featuring lost astronaut Garvey Dire, is now available for Kindle at Amazon and for Epub readers at Barnes and Noble.  At 120,000 plus words, this is the longest of the Dire Planet books (or any of my books for that matter) yet published.  The length of the novel (approximately 360 pages) means the hard copy will be a bit more expensive ($15.95) than previous Dire Planet books.  However, the digital copies are just $3.99 and Pulp Work Press will be running an introductory sale on the hard copy once it is released.  Stay tuned for more information on that.

Other than the obvious differences between a physical and digital copy, the one thing that the hard copy includes that the digital copy does not is the extensive footnotes (one hundred of them) which delve into the mythology,history, etymology, and customs of the Martian tribes.  The footnotes are not necessary in order to comprehend or enjoy the novel, but some readers have mentioned that they quite like the deeper background that the footnotes provide.

Outlaw Blues

Ron Fortier of Pulp Fiction Reviews shares his take on Percival Constantine's Outlaw Blues, available at Amazon.

Michael May talks PulpWork Press

Michael May's Pulptacular column delves into the history of Pulp Work Press, and features an interview with me in which I pontificate on various and sundry subjects which I know little about.

Blood and Ink Review

At author Derrick Ferguson's Blood and Ink blog he reviews Through the Groaning Earth and comments on the general state of fantasy fiction.

Coming Soon

I expect this to be available sometime at the end of March. Check out the cool cover: artwork by MD Jackson and cover design by Damon Orrell.

Shooting Myself in the Foot in the Weird West or Following My Muse

The .45 Peacemaker on the right is the Eagle-butted Peacemaker that Lone Crow carries.

Robert E Howard related how he felt that at times his own character, Conan, would stand at his shoulder and relate his adventures while Howard sat the typewriter transcribing them. These stories seemed to come in no particular order, and after a time Conan left—perhaps to pay a visit at some later date.

As a writer I often feel similarly: as though the characters, themselves—not me—have certain stories to relate. When they start relating these stories I don't necessarily have much control over where and how they take place. Or to put it bluntly, I'm a victim of my muse.

How am I a victim of my muse? I'll give you an example. I recently completed a trio of Weird West short stories featuring famed Native American gunfighter, Lone Crow. These were intended for placement within three different upcoming Weird West anthologies. The story ideas were not a problem for me to develop because, it seemed, that Lone Crow was at my shoulder rehearsing the tales.

However, after I completed the three stories I realized that none of them actually took place west of the Mississippi. Sure, they were all firmly set in the era of the old west, but one story took place in Brazil, another took place in Arkham Massachussetts, and the third transpired in New York City.

One editor quickly confirmed my suspicions that I had shot myself in the foot. He liked the story, but it didn't take place in the West and so it wasn't a Western, and not a good fit for the anthology he was editing.

One of the reasons that I have eleven published novels (number twelve, Lost Tribes of the Dire Planet, on the way next month) is that when it comes to writing I am unreasoningly and blindly persistent in the face of all common sense and logic. Instead of writing, surely, it would be more profitable for me to get some exercise, or maybe even get more sleep or watch TV? Okay, maybe not the last one. But still I persist in writing.

Lone Crow still seemed to be hanging around the home library where I do my writing, perusing a copy of Herbert Asbury's Barbary Coast, so I asked him, “Do you happen to have any adventures that took place somewhere in the West?”

“There was the time that I tried to bring in Shotgun Ferguson for murder,” said Crow.

And I was off and running, typing words as fast as my fingers could fly across the keyboard. I managed to slide the story in before the deadline, and this time Lone Crow's tale was more to the editor's liking.

For me, it seems the demands of an editor and muse most often don't mesh, but occasionally—with some prodding—I can get them to cooperate.

Teaching Theft in Middle School

Taking a brief respite from my usual self aggrandizement and self promotion, I thought I'd post the text of a letter I'm posting to the local school board. This letter came about due to a conversation I was having with my children. One child suggested that I burn MP3s to my ipod from a CD she had borrowed from the library. I explained that to keep these songs after we had returned the CD to the library would be stealing. Another of my children chimed in to tell me about how his Civics teacher was telling her students about how she did exactly that, and I realized that the school system (or that teacher in particular) was working to undermine the values that I was trying to teach my children.

The text of the letter is below:

I am writing this letter to express a concern about the Civics class in Lakewood Middle School, and in particular the one in which my son is a class member. It's my understanding that Civics is considered a social science, and more specifically the study of good and proper membership in a community. I presume that this would also include the observation of copyright and intellectual property laws.

However, the teacher of this Civics class related to the students that she borrowed CDs from the library, burned the songs to MP3 and kept them after returning the CDs to the library. More egregious in my mind than the actual theft, was that by relating this story she is teaching her students that this is acceptable behavior—which is a direct dichotomy to the values that she should be instilling as a teacher of Civics and as a role model to the students.

I understand that teachers are human and imperfect, but when instructors set this kind of example a moral decline is perpetuated in the students. We live in a time that our efforts should be spent in lifting society to a higher standard, not in rationalizing a lower standard.

Sincerely,

Joel Jenkins

Shaking the Six Demon Bag with Derrick Ferguson

My erstwhile collaborator and co-conspirator Derrick Ferguson has done an interview with Josh Reynolds' Shaking the Six Demon Bag.  Check it out.

What I've Been Wasting My Time On

I've just finished up a trio of short stories featuring legendary Native American gunman Lone Crow and will be editing them shortly to submit to various Weird West anthologies. I've already had Lone Crow stories published in each of the three How the West was Weird anthologies, Showdown at Midnight, and Six Guns Straight from Hell. There seems to be a pretty good demand for those sort of stories at the moment. On the other hand, I've just started a Gantlet Brothers short story/novella called Sold Out, and there's just about zero market for stories falling into the guns and guitar genre--a genre so obscure that I had to invent a name for it.  Ah well, if I were doing this for the money I'd be writing paranormal romance.

Pulp Factory Awards 2011

PulpWork Press author (and long time friend), Derrick Ferguson, has been nominated in the category of Best Pulp Short Story of 2011 for the Pulp Factory Awards for writing Storms of Blood and Snow.  Storms of Blood and Snow is Derrick's long-awaited return to the weird west with gunfighter and swordsman Sebastian Red.  This story appeared in How the West was Weird 2.

Pulp Ark Nomination

I've received a Pulp Ark 'Best Short Story' nomination for my story Gunmen of the Hollow Earth which appears in How the West was Weird: Campfire Tales (99 cents on Kindle) and features Native American gunfighter Lone Crow.  Also, two anthologies which I contributed to (How the West was Weird II and Four Bullets for Dillon) were nominated in the 'Best Collection/Anthology' category.

Even cooler, my fellow PulpWork Press authors Derrick Ferguson and Joshua Reynolds are nominated for the 'Best Writer' award, and Percival Constantine is nominated for best novel due to his work on Myth Hunter.  MD Jackson, the cover artist extraordinaire for a number of my novels has been nominated for his awesome work on the cover of Strange Gods of the Dire Planet.

Shaking the Six Demon Bag

An interview with me is posted over at Joshua Reynold's Hunting Monsters blog and reveals such secrets as what project I'm currently working on and my beverage of choice.