The Periodic Update Post

Hey, folks--I got some crazy stuff for you this time around...starting with this photo.

Yes, that's me.  I'm posing with sword and gun props designed by my dear friend Dave Lugo.  Dave's passion is munitions, and he specializes in creating these cool pulp weapon props...and he's going to be making props of such key weapons in my stories as The Nightbreaker's Multi-Gun, and Tao Jones' exotic blades.  I'll be sharing his progress with you as he moves forward on this, and if I come to a show in your town, you might be able to see them up close and personal!  Check out Vortexx Press, the site Dave runs with his son, and take a look at some of his props and sculpture.

What's that you say?  The Multi-Gun?  Well, in the last two weeks I've been riding a real creativity tsunami surrounding the Nightbreaker story, which I'm now calling 'Ghosts of Steel.'  And it all began when I realized that the story I was struggling with was also the story I had started out to write, 'The Tick Tock Men.'  The biggest flaw with that original version was that I had our hero in the status quo I wanted him in, and didn't realize the story was about how he got to that status quo.  The Multi-Gun is a key part of that movement to where I want Isaiah Copper to be when I begin writing The Devil's Toybox, and it'll make its debut in this very same story!

(and because David Lugo's knowledge of weaponry is the best, bar none, he's been giving me some good background on how the Multi-Gun could work, and what parts would be used to build it...I hope this will create a veracity in future Shadow Legion stories and novels that will wow the fans!)

I'm also making slow progress on The Adventures of Tao Jones, my contribution to the Sovereign City Universe...plus I'm working on two new short stories for each of my Weird West characters, Doc Thunder and El Cuevo.  You'll definitely be seeing the Doc Thunder story at the end of this year...and as for the El Cuevo story, well, you'll know as soon as I do.

And, as with last time, let me direct you to some coolness I've been listening to and reading of late.

The 'listening to' is John Anealio, who writes these cool science fiction and geek-related songs.  John's been doing a project he calls '23 in '13,' where he vowing to write a new song every two weeks for the whole year--and these songs are free to download and listen to!  Check out his blog.

As for what's been occupying my Kindle, let me direct your attention to Monster Aces, a quartet of stories about a mysterious group of monster hunters roaming the Earth and...well, hunting monsters.  Two of the writers involved in this project are Ron Fortier, whose Airship 27 will be publishing the Shadow Legion novels, and Barry Reese, whose Lazarus Grey walks down the mean streets of Sovereign City over at Pro Se Press.  If you love old school movie serials and classic monster movies, this book is for you!

I've also been reading Lords Of Fire, the first of a science fiction series by Van Allen Plaxico, who I had the pleasure of interviewing in the very first Elsewhere In The Multiverse.  There's a unique mix of space opera and mysticism that reminds me a bit of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover novels, only with a lot of military Sci-Fi thrown in.  If you're looking for a good solid epic, check this book out.

Finally, in the nonfiction groove, I've been digging Epic Fail: Bad Art, Viral Fame and The History of The Worst Thing Ever by Mark O'Connell, a discussion of how we tend to obsess over examples of unintentionally awful art, from the world's worst novelist to Rebecca Black's amatuer teen pop.  O'Connell is a very engaging writer who has a lot to say about this recent phenomenon--and how that phenomenon is not so recent after all.  It's a Kindle Single, which means it's a short and entertaining read....and it's only two bucks.

Well, time to get back to work....talk to you soon!

The Periodic Update Post

Hey, pals and gals...welcome to 2013!  Hope your holidays went well and January finds you healthy and happy.

I'm still hard at work on The Shadow Legion Casebook V.1: Four For Danger, and have reached the halfway mark on the book.  'The Ascension of Indio Blaque,' the Black Talon tale that sees our Predator of The Concrete Jungles of Nocturne reach back into his childhood knowledge to battle a sinister cult leader with lethal designs on the superhuman population of The City That Lives By Night, is halfway finished, and should be next to be done.  Of course, the most fun I'm having is with 'Final Innings,' the Dreamcatcher story, which sees our Sexy Sorceress trying to determine who is using magic to wreck the season of Nocturne's resident baseball team.  It's one of the reasons why I wanted to alternate between novels and antholgies for The Shadow Legion--the anthologies give me a chance to do different styles of stories with different tones and feelings to them.  And I hope that all of these stories will give you new insight into our heroes and heroines, and a greater concept of Nocturne and the world around it.

Also moving along is The Adventures of Tao Jones.  I've been concentrating on 'The Damocles Gun,' the story that will see Tao and her ally Mike Townsend trying to reclaim a weapon that kills with a thought before all Hell breaks loose in Sovereign City.  That one's still a ways away, but if you want to learn more about Sovereign City--and read some cracking stories in the pulp tradition--go to Pro Se Press and purchasing Derrick Ferguson's The Adventures of Fortune McCall and Barry Reese's The Adventures of Lazarus Gray and Lazarus Gray: Die Glocke!

There's something else I just signed on for--something from Pulpworks Press you won't see until the end of this year.  But that'll be something we'll discuss as it takes fuller shape.

Before I do close out this update--and hopefully the next time I'll finally be able to get you that long-promised interview with Lee Houston Jr. about his super-hero/space opera mash-up Project Alpha, also available from Pro Se Press--I want to alert you to two New Pulp Books I've been grooving on lately.

Ed Erdelac's Merkabah Rider: Tales of A High Planes Drifter(Damnation Books) is an excellent collection of four weird western stories featuring a Jewish mystical gunfighter known only as The Rider.  Ed is an excellent writer whose evocative prose mingles a number of different genres.  As for the Rider himself, he's a great addition to the New Pulp canon, the sort of figure that fans of Solomon Kane and Jonah Hex would feel right at home with.  Hell, any of these stories could have easily been retrofitted to become the Jonah Hex movie I really wanted to see!  And the best thing is that there are two other books in the series, and I can't wait to read more of The Rider and his quest to right wrongs and track down his mentor and betrayer, Adon.

I'm a sucker for alternative history novels, and Wayne Reinagel's Modern Marvels: Viktoriana (Knightraven Studios) posits a doozy of an alternative history--one where literary figures Mary Shelley, H. Rider Haggard, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells and others are part of a secret order that wages war against a vampire army headed by Countess Elisabeth Bathory.  Wayne's got a tendency for epic storytelling, and it is a Big Read--we're talking almost five hundred pages.  But it is a Big Read of wonderfully gothic setpieces, great characterization and lots of action and intrigue.  If you, like me, long to read stories where vampires are treated as monsters and not boyfriends with interesting dentition, this book is for you.

So check these two books out.  I'll alert you to other great new pulp reads as I get to them.  Come back soon for some interview-y goodness with Lee Houston Jr.!

(Oh...and if you're a writer or publisher who'd like to see me talk about your books in future Agency updates, please contact me through my Facebook page....)