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.