...AND WE’RE BACK

Sorry about the delays, everyone.  We should be back to normal service soon.

The big news since this site went dark is that Strange And Cozy, the anthology I co-edited with the creator of Gunfighter Gothic, Mark Bousquet, is out, available in paperback and Kindle format.  The book features tales that fuse pulp genres with the cozy mystery, including new stories by NTA contributor I.A. Watson, Joel Jenkins and others as well as ‘A Bullet for The Bride,’ a new Dreamcatcher tale where Maybelle and Colin travel to San Christobal for a wedding...and a murder!  This is the first story that explores a city outside of Nocturne, and it should be a doozy.  Go get your copy from Amazon here.

It’s also not too late to get a copy of A Grimoire of Eldritch Inquests, the Josh Reynolds edited collection of tales featuring psychic detectives.  My contribution, ‘Body Of Proof’ sees Maybelle trying to determine why a man is still walking around after his son murdered him.  Get your copy here.

The illustrations are being done for Shadow Legion: The Shape Of Fears  To Come, the next Legion book.  While I can’t show you them just yet, let me just say they’re knockouts!

‘Strange Weathers,’ the new El Cuevo story for this year’s Pulpworks Christmas Annual has been turned in.  This story will be significant, as it will both make a connection between the Cuevo tales and the Shadow Legion and give fans of the frontier exorcist the biggest hints as to his true nature.  And if you enjoy that when it comes out in the end of the year, wait until you see what I’ve got planned for Halloween next year....

The next book in the Shadow Legion, the second novel, is in the process of being written.  All the characters will be back, including a few from Shape in some new circumstances, and a new type of adventure as the Legion moves into a new era of history.

So there’s plenty to explore now, and plenty to look forward to.  And I’ll be back with more stuff soon!

The Shadow Legion Time Line!

Good day, Nocturners!

In the past few weeks, I’ve gotten word that some of my Shadow Legion stories have been accepted to various venues.  That means that soon you’ll have new tales of Nocturne to tide you over until Machina Ex Deus hits the stands, hopefully sometime late in 2015 or early in 2016.

Now I know a lot of readers don’t like reading series out of order.  So, as a way of both letting you know what stories are going where and giving you a proper reading order, I’ve set up a Shadow Legion Time Line that will be updated from time to time.

So, as of October 2014, here’s the proper reading order of The Shadow Legion Series:

1. New Roads To Hell
2. “Ghost of Steel” (Shadow Legion: The Shape Of Fears To Come; portions of the story happen concurrent to New Roads To Hell; publication date TBA, Airship 27 Press)
3. “A Bullet For The Bride” (Strange and Cozy, coming late 2014, Atomic Anxiety Press)
4. “Body of Proof” (A Grimoire of Eldritch Inquests, publication date TBA, Embry Press)
5. “A Waltz In Scarlet” (Mystery Men and Women V. 4/Shadow Legion: The Shape Of Fears To Come; publication date TBA, Airship 27 Press)
6. “A Prayer For The Toy God” (Shadow Legion: The Shape Of Fears To Come)
7. “The Ascension Of Indio Blaque” (Shadow Legion: The Shape Of Fears To Come)
8. “Jolly With A Pistol” (The 2014 Pulpworks Christmas Annual; coming late 2014, Pulpworks Press)
9. Machina Ex Deus (Airship 27; publication date TBA)

Granted, there may be new stories written and published (one I’m working on hints at a history between one of our Legionnaires and a certain Royal Occultist that’ll also be appearing in A Grinoire of Eldritch Inquests), but this is how you should read the series if you're doing so in order.

The Periodic, Western Flavored Update Post

Hey, everyone!  It’s time for another general check in on what’s going on.

The biggest news is that How The West Was Weird Volume Three, the final volume of bizarre tales of The Old West edited by Russ Anderson and released by Pulpworks Press, will be released as an e-book this Monday, May 12th.  Amongst the stories in this collection is a new El Cuevo story by me that was inspired by the amazing spaghetti western The Great Silence (and if you don’t know about this beautiful, powerful and dark movie, check out my 10 Statements on the film and seek out the DVD!); a new Sebastian Red adventure by my Better In The Dark partner Derrick Ferguson, a spooky tale of hanged men and ghost towns by Dread Media maven Des Reddick and more!  And if you prefer a dead tree version, it will be forthcoming in July.  Check out the cover by Jim Woodring, and if you haven’t read the first few volumes and the spinoff Campfire Tales, be sure to order them from Amazon!

Also, don’t forget that Betrayal On Monster Earth, Mechanoid Press' anthology of stories where giant monsters are the weapons wars are fought with edited by James Palmer and Jim Beard, is still available from Amazon.  This book features my story about corporate dragons, “Giants Of Industry,” and other amazing stories.  Pick it up now!

I’m already hard at work on some new things.  Presently, the thing occupying most of my time is “A Bullet For The Bride,” a new Dreamcatcher story for the upcoming anthology I’m collaborating with Mark Bousquet on, Strange and Cozy.  In this tale, Nocturne’s psychic detective travels to San Christobel for a wedding party and has to solve a locked room mystery in a movie star’s mansion!  “Body of Proof,” the Dreamcatcher story where Maybelle has to figure out why a dead man is acting as if his demise never happened, has been submitted to the occult detective collection A Grimoire of Eldritch Inquests, and is awaiting a decision.  Finally, I’ve just begun another Dreamcatcher story, “Jolly With A Pistol”....can you guess what this uses as a backdrop?  At this rate, there might be a Maybelle Tremens collection coming sooner than anyone thought!

And maybe I shouldn’t say anything...but I have been working not only on the outline for the second Shadow Legion novel, Machina Ex Deus, but I've written a tiny bit of it as well!

There are some other things I’m working on that are Super Top Secret, but once I’m told I can spill the beans, beans will be spilt!  But until then, enjoy How The West Was Weird Volume Three!

Do You Wanna Talk To Me Live And Other Updates

Hey, again, my fellow travelers, and Happy New Year!  Sorry for the radio silence.  Here's what's going down....

First off, just a reminder if you haven’t picked it up yet, but New Roads To Hell is still available through Amazon  and direct from Airship27.com.  I hope those of you who bought it enjoyed the first adventure of The Shadow Legion, and rest assured there’s lots more where that came from.

...like The Shadow Legion Casebook: The Shape of Fears To Come!  The book has been finished pending a polish of the last story, ‘A Prayer For The Toy God.’  This is a collection of four short stories, each one highlighting a different hero from the novel.  When you buy this amazing book, you’ll witness The Ferryman fighting a bizarre figure over the fate of a young girl; The Nightbreaker learning about the legacy of super-heroes in Nocturne as an old enemy comes looking for his mentor; The Black Talon facing a cult devoted to destroying the protectors of The City That Lives By Night; and The Dreamcatcher trying to unravel a mystery involving a young boy...and encountering the macabre protector of the city’s children.  If you’re looking for a preview, be sure to pick up Mystery Men and Women V. 4, which features stories by my good friend Derrick Ferguson and Joel Jenkins, and the first appearance of ‘A Waltz In Scarlet,’ the Ferryman story that will appear in The Casebook.

Before that comes out, we should see the appearance of Monster Earth 2 from Mechanoid Press, the anthology about an alternative Earth were the super powers wield giant monsters instead of nuclear weapons.  This book takes place in the 80‘s and 90‘s, and my contribution, “Giants of Industry,” witnesses an attempt to utilize a genetically created monster fabricated by a corporation to manipulate the affairs of a foreign country.  I had the most fun doing research for this story, and I hope you have a much fun reading it.

Also coming up is ‘Sit By The Fire,’ the new El Cuevo story that will appear in the third and final volume of How The West Was Weird from Pulpworks Press.  My hope is to write some more stories featuring my frontier exorcist and his beautiful assistant, with an eye towards producing a new collection in 2015.  If you like westerns with a touch of the strange, be sure to pick up the first two volumes of Russ Anderson’s excellent series, which features stories about El Cuevo and the steampunk scientist Doc Thunder.

And speaking of collections, I have started editing Amazing Alternity Stories, a collection featuring stories about historical personages in unusual roles.  This has been on my desk for literally years, and I am glad that it will finally see print from Pulpworks Press.

I bet some of you might have questions about The Shadow Legion, El Cuevo and the other denizens of The Chimera Falls Universe--and this Wednesday, February 12th, you’ll get the chance!  I’ll be appearing on my friend Viktor Aurelius’ podcast Whispers In The Dark, and I’ll be taking live calls from fans and readers.  The show will be live at 9pm, and if you want to call in, do so at (347) 884-9923.  I can’t wait to talk to some of you readers and find out what you think of my babies.

There’s other stuff in the pipeline, including new characters and adventures, but there’ll be more on that as soon as I know.  So keep watching this space, and be ready for more from The Chimera Falls Universe!

Sorry For The Delay....

Here’s why I’ve been silent for a while.

Over the last few weeks, I turned in both ‘Sit By The Fire’ and Amazing Alternity Stories to Pulpworks Press.

‘Sit By The Fire’ is a new Don Cuevo story told from a unique viewpoint.  If you liked 'Don Cuevo’s Curative,’ from the first volume of How The West Was Weird, you may enjoy the further clues this story gives as to the nature of our frontier exorcist and his comely assistant.   I think I may make one of my goals for next year to write a few more Cuevo stories with an eye towards compiling a collection of them for 2015 when I’m not working on my next novel; hell, a third tale formed so quickly in my mind I’ve started writing down the initial licks.

I personally am relieved that Amazing Alternity Stories has been delivered to its publisher.  There have been nights I’ve had dreams of me and Harlan Ellison sitting on a bench in the afterlife with manuscripts chained to our spirits--his being The Last Dangerous Visions, and mine being Amazing Alternity Stories.  I am so grateful to the quartet behind Pulpworks Press for their patience when it came to this anthology, and am so glad that all the writers who showed faith in my for all these years will finally see their work brought to the public.

(And I think this book will mark the end of my career as an editor....)

As for other things...well, ‘The Town That Hated Santa,’ the Doc Thunder story for this year’s Pulpworks Christmas Annual continues apace.  I’m still working on ‘Giants of Industry,’ the story for Monster Earth 2.  I’ve started work on that story for that project I’m not allowed to talk about juuuuust yet.

That leaves The Shadow Legion stuff.  I think I can safely announce that one of the stories that will ultimately appear in The Shadow Legion Casebook Volume One, the Ferryman story ‘A Waltz In Scarlet,’ will be featured in Mystery Men And Women Volume Four...and another of the stories might appear in the fifth volume of that series from Airship 27.

Right now I’m holding off on finishing the Dreamcatcher story for the Casebook.  Part of that is because of the more pressing deadlines for Monster Earth 2 and the other project...and the implied short deadline for the Doc Thunder story.  But the other reason is that I realized that ‘Amongst Monsters,’ which I was over halfway done with, is going to make a much better fit for what I want to do with the second novel.  My intention is to focus primarily on the legacy of Black Talon in that novel, as well as some new additions to the cast, and the threat for the story works much better in concert with that.  That means it’s back to square one for my Dreamcatcher tale.  I think I have a good idea for a replacement tale that will hit the same beats as the story it’s replacing, but I’ll only know until I start back up.

Incidentally, the Dreamcatcher story has proven to be the most difficult.  There are story fragments from two, maybe three previous attempts.  Maybe if Airship 27 is willing to do it, I’ll provide some excerpts as a ‘CD Extra.’

Keep an eye on this blog, folks.  There is going to be a very, very big announcement coming up very soon.

The Periodic Update Post

Sorry for the delay, my fellow travelers, but trust me...I have lots to tell you about.

First off, I’m roughly five thousand words away from closing out The Shadow Legion Casebook Volume One.  The last story to be completed will be ‘Amongst Monsters,’ which sees Maybelle Tremens, the psychic detective known as Dreamcatcher, comes to the aid of a brand new hero whose encounter with a hideous creature has led them to a veritable house of horrors!  You will learn a lot about Maybelle and what sets her apart from her fellow Shadow Legionnaires mentally, emotionally and physically while also getting more glimpses of the menace that will be looming over the city of Nocturne in the next two novels, which are tenatively titled Machina Ex Deus and Urban Inferno!

I also recently finish the preliminary draft for ‘Sit By The Fire’ (the title may change), the first new Don Cuevo story in years.  An old man is visited by our frontier exorcist and his beautiful assistant during one of the nastiest snowstorms in memory.  The old man serves them some food and is willing to let them warm up....but Cuevo has some suspicions about the man’s hospitality and a mission he must carry out.  I know where I’d like for this story to go, but I don’t want to jinx it by saying much more.

Now onto things still being worked on...

You’ve probably already seen the announcement that I am the one new author to play in the worlds of Monster Earth for it’s second collection.  The story I’m working on is called ‘Giants of Industry,’ and I’ll tell you more as we get closer to completion.

Then there’s ‘The Town That Hated Santa Claus,’ the new Doc Thunder story that’s slated to appear in this year’s Pulpworks Press Christmas Annual.  I’m roughly two thousand words in, and the story might be self-explanatory from the title, as Elias Thunder responds to a curious letter to Saint Nick from a child, teaming up with a mysterious stranger to visit a small town that shuns the holidays.

There’s also a third project that I was just invited to.  I can’t go into details just yet, but I will say it plays into one of my great passions (one that I devote an entire blog to, in fact) and it’s one I’m looking forward to letting loose on!

Since these three projects have roughly the same deadline (October or thereabouts), I’ll be focusing on them before returning to The Shadow Legion Casebook and The Adventures of Tao Jones.  Plus, there’s the other project that needs a little explanation....

Several years ago, I proposed a short story anthology to Pulpworks Press called Amazing Alternity Stories, a collection of tales in alternate universes where famous personages took very different paths.  Amongst the tales pitched to me and turned in were ones where Abraham Lincoln was a crime-busting boxer, Charles Darwin was an intergalactic lawman; Winston Churchill was a spy; Barack Obama was a masked avenger; and a number more (although I will admit I regret that the writer who pitched the story featuring George Carlin as a Vietnam-era fighter pilot never submitted anything).   I asked for a few rewrites....

And then I stalled.  I can’t honestly say why the progress on the anthology stopped so dead for so long.  When I got the opportunity to write New Roads To Hell, the collective brain trust behind Pulpworks Press took the project off their production slate and asked me to concentrate on the novel.

Well, the novel’s been finished for a while.  The second book is just about done.  I had an idea for what will become my second novel I was looking for a home for.  Pulpworks Press wanted to do it, but we both knew there was a big ol’ elephant in the room that needed to be put behind us....

Thus, Alternity Lives!

I am in the process of compiling the stories into the final manuscript.  God willing, you’ll see it this winter!

So yes, it’s true.  I’ve got a lot on my plate.  And hopefully, you’ll all enjoy what I serve up in the coming months!

While I'm Waiting For Something Cool To Announce--Here's Some Presents!

Hey, fellow Nocturne Travellers!  I know I've been kind of, sort of under the radar lately as I strive to finish The Shadow Legion Casebook Volume 1: Four For Danger, and wait for the release of The Shadow Legion: New Roads To Hell...along with Tao Jones and one other thing I will tell you about once I cobble together an outline and get an approval.

But...being as this is the time of the season, I wanted to point your way to two special gifties you all might enjoy.

If you remember, a while back I interviewed Van Allen Plaxico and Ian Watson.  Ian told me about the Blackthorne series that is published through Van's White Rocket books.  Well, if you go to Amazon right now, you can purchase Blackthorn: Thunder On Mars for your Kindle for only ninety-nine cents.  That's right--top notch sword-and-sci-fi action stories in the Jack Kirby and Edgar Rice Burroughs tradition for less than a dollar!

You don't have a dollar?  Well, don't fret.  Pulpworks Press, the New Pulp publisher that presented the How The West Was Weird series--the weird western anthology that introduced my creations Don Cuevo and Doc Thunder to the world--has put together The Pulpworks Christmas Special 2012.  It's a collection of great pulpy stories from Derrick Ferguson, Josh Reynolds, Joel Jenkins, and Russ Anderson.  And it's absolutely free in electronic format (If you're a traditionalist, you can also purchase it for eight dollars from Amazon or Pulpworks Press' web site).  Just go to the Pulpworks Press blog and follow the links.

Hey, it's Christmas-y, pulp-y fun for you, for less than a dollar--free is less than a dollar, right?--so get to clicking!  And if you're a pulp author or publisher who has a similar special offer, let me know and I'll let my handful of readers know in turn!

For Those Just Joining Us....

Here are the links to already extant stories set in the Chimera Falls Universe...

Onyx Revolver

This serial was originally conceived as part of Frontier Publishing, the pulpish concern which ultimately evolved into Pulpwork Press. It's the first thing of mine to be set in Chimera Falls and introduces both El Vengedore de Sangre and Elsa Dawn, both of whom I intend to have pop up again in some form. However, the version of the Falls you read about in this story is very different than the one you will see in later iterations of the world, so take what you read with a grain of salt.

If you're curious about the original version of this story, you can find it here.  Later on, I made an attempt to rewrite and rework it. Dino Pollard was kind enough to host my attempt on DC Omega during its orginal incarnation. Neither version, of course, was completed.

Gawain Knight and The Ungentlemanly Caller

A story featuring one of the Protectors of Chimera Falls, it's noteworthy for sketching out some of the neighborhoods of this New England city and establishing it as a major fishing center. Knight is a Rogue-With-A-Code-Of-Honor that I intended to be my tribute to one of my favorite heroic character, Leslie Charteris' Simon Templar. You can find the tale here.

Don Cuevo's Curative

This story introduced the possibly ageless, disturbingly quiet frontier exorcist Don Cuevo and his assistant Dolores. The interesting thing about Cuevo is that he originated elsewhere. A version of the character, sans Dolores and the semi-Lovecraftian motivations, showed up in my fanfic version of Birds of Prey, originally written for Bill K'Tepi's DC Year Two, and then rewritten for Vertigo: Subculture. You can still find the V:S version here if you're curious to see where Don Cuevo sprung from.

If you want to read the actual story that introduced Don Cuevo, you'll have to go to Pulpwork Press and plunk down your coin for a copy of How The West Was Weird. You also have to go to Pulpwork Press to purchase the debut of...

Doc Thunder Pursued

The steampunky inventor/secret agenty crime fighter, Doc Elias Thunder came to me literally in a dream, when I woke up one morning with the idea of a chase between cowboys astride motorcycles in my head. This was written in a rush of inspiration, and opens up a whole new world of fantastic thrills in this universe. The story within How The West Was Weird Volume Two is the character's origin, and I've already got a second adventure cooking in my brain, waiting for me to finesse it into an actual story. As with Don Cuevo, go to Pulpwork Press to purchase the book and enjoy the tale.

That's the whole extant Chimera Falls Universe at this time. You'll be learning more about the characters who make up The Shadow Legion and their city, Nocturne, here as we move closer to the release of the first book, New Roads of Hell, through Airship 27 sometime in the near future.

So go, read the stories. Have fun. Then come back here and we'll hang out some more!