BISH'S BEAT

THE TROUBLE WITH BLONDES!

2012-01-30T17:08:00.001-08:00

COMING SOON: RANCHO DIABLO ~ SONGBIRD!

2012-01-30T11:17:00.000-08:00

ESPIONAGE CORNER: MI6 #13 ~ THE ART OF BOND!

2012-01-30T07:04:00.000-08:00

ESPIONAGE CORNER: MI6 #13 ~ THE ART OF BOND!

AVAILABLE NOW!

MI6 Confidential, the full-colour magazine celebrating the world of James Bond 007, returns with its thirteenth issue.

Whether it be early conceptual artwork, the production design of sets and gadgets, poster campaigns, or bringing a literary character to life, James Bond’s world owes a lot to the many creative processes and talented people who have contributed over the decades.

This special issue features a few snapshots of those elements from the films, books, games and comics – including a lot of rare imagery taken from the archives that fans may not have seen before – and celebrates some of the lives of those who made their mark on the visual experience of 007.

FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE:

• Larger Than Life - A look back at the career of production designer Sir Ken Adam

• A Life Through the Lens - Memoirs of the late cinematographer Alan Hume

• Visualising Young Bond - How artist Kev Walker brought the character to life

• Classic Posters - Uncovering some of the rare artwork from the Sean Connery era

• Beauty and Death - The life and style of cover designer Richard Chopping

• From Russia With Ink - The journey of the most prolific 007 comic artist Yaroslav Horak

• Location Concepts - Rare early designs from EA's ‘Everything or Nothing’

• The Bond Connection - The IMF team divulge the gadget secrets of 'Ghost Protocol'

Issue #13 is now shipping around the world.

FOR MORE CLICK HERE

PULP NOW: COMING SOON!

2012-01-30T06:32:00.000-08:00

VINTAGE COVERS: MEN'S ADVENTURE MAGS!

2012-01-29T11:01:00.001-08:00

MADE ME LAUGH!

2012-01-29T11:00:00.001-08:00

THE TROUBLE WITH BLONDES!

2012-01-27T12:55:00.000-08:00

HAT TIP TO PULP COVERS

THE TROUBLE WITH BLONDES!

2012-01-26T20:11:00.001-08:00

VINTAGE COVERS: DEATH AND THE NAKED LADY!

2012-01-26T08:15:00.000-08:00

THE PULP DEN TAKES ON FELONY FISTS!

2012-01-25T21:37:00.001-08:00

THE PULP DEN TAKES ON FELONY FISTS!

TOM JOHNSON OVER AT THE PULP DEN GIVES FELONY FISTS A RAVE REVIEW ...

It has been a long time since we had a good boxing magazine or series, and the genre is sorely missed. Fight Card Productions has began a new series of boxing stories by various authors under the Jack (Dempsey) (Gene) Tunney pseudonym. For the fight fan, Paul Bishop’s “Felony Fist” is the Main Event!

FOR THE FULL REVIW CLICK HERE

THE TROUBLE WITH BLONDES!

2012-01-25T13:17:00.000-08:00

THE TROUBLE WITH BLONDES!

2012-01-25T12:57:00.000-08:00

THE ORIGINAL BLONDE TROUBLE

FIGHT FICTION: INTERVIEW ~ ROBERT EVANS!

2012-01-24T21:20:00.001-08:00

FIGHT FICTION: INTERVIEW ~ ROBERT EVANS!

Fight fiction is making a surprising comeback recently with the advent of the Fight Card series and other old school fight stories, like Iron Hands by James Scott Bell and Cold War Heroes by Tom Johnson.

Fight Fiction is also striking out in new directions as the popularity of MMA (mixed martial arts) picks up. Novels like Suckerpunch by Jeremy Brown, Choke by Christa Faust, and the reboot of the venerable Joe Palooka as an MMA fighter are all part of the fight fiction resurgence.

So, too, are the new novelettes by Staff Sergeant Robert Evans featuring the blistering underground MMA battles of one of the toughest bastards ever, Staff Sergeant Mickey O’Quinn . . .

Dropping in to spar a few rounds with Bish’s Beat is the man himself, Robert Evans, to tell us more about his series, The O’Quinn Fights . . .

LET’S GET THE WHOLE NAME AND SERIAL NUMBER THING OUT OF THE WAY UP FRONT. TELLS US ABOUT ROBERT EVANS.

I’m a Staff Sergeant in the United States Army Reserves. I started my military career in the Navy, went to the California Army National Guard, where I deployed to Iraq with the 2688 Transportation Company, and jumped over to the Army Reserves where I’ve been for the past few years. Over all, I have more than 20 years of experience in the military.

I was born and raised in Antioch California, received my Bachelors in Business Administration from Saint Mary’s College of California. I’ve worked as a stock broker, drilled oil wells in Prudhoe Bay, taught swimming, and worked in retail. Around three years after 9-11 and after I had accepted a discharge from the California Army National Guard, a close friend of mine was Commanding the 2668 Transportation Company, that got orders to deploy.

I signed back up for the guard and in December of 2004 I was sitting in a tent in Kuwait waiting to move up into Iraq. Going off to a war zone has a unique effect on women, and when I came home for leave I went to Belize with my soon to be fiancé. I returned from Iraq in December 2005 and got married in January 2006. Took a job with a municipality and moved to the Sierra foothills. I’m still in the Army Reserves, have a full-time job as an energy scheduler, I buy and sell energy for the municipality I work for, and I’m married to a wonderful wife with two beautiful, and rambunctious boys ages 5 and 3, and in what free time is left, I write.

GIVE US THE LOWDOWN ON THE O’QUINN FIGHTS.

As you said in the intro, Sergeant O’Quinn is one of the toughest bastards in the Army, and currently deployed to Iraq where, a lot of his adventures take place. He has a Platoon leader, who would rather be a fight promoter, getting him MMA bouts usually with other troops either American or Foreign, but sometimes with, the shadowy underbelly.

Sergeant O’Quinn is everyman and woman’s hero, a tough guy whose biggest weakness is cute dames with a doe eyed stare. He knows how to fight, and how to lead. He chooses the rough and tumble world of unsanctioned fighting over the glitz and glamour of the organized fighting world, with promoters and sponsors.

WHAT MADE YOU START PUTTING WORDS ON PAPER?

I realized early on, I could take the wild daydreams I had floating around in my head, write them down, and suddenly I had a story. From that time, I knew I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to create worlds, and tell stories.

DO YOU HAVE A BACKGROUND OF FIGHTING IN MMA OR ARE YOU A FAN?

I’m a huge fan of MMA, from its early beginnings with the Gracie Challenge to its current incarnation of the UFC. Before deploying to Iraq, my company went through what was then the Army’s Combatives program. I’ve gone through some of the Army’s Modern Combatives program. However, the program has changed considerably and is a very extensive course that goes beyond just fighting.

HAS THERE BEEN A REACTION FROM YOUR FELLOW SOLDIERS TO THE O’QUINN STORIES?

I have heard basically two types of reactions from soldiers; one group say they could see this sort of thing happening over there and the other says it could never happen. But regardless of how they feel about the possibility of it really happening, both sides agree the characters portrayed in the stories are true to life.

I’ve had several soldiers say, “did you pattern so and so after my Sergeant, because he sounds and acts just like him.” The Soliders really like Sergeant O’Quinn, and that the fight scenes were very real.

WHAT ARE YOUR OWN READING HABITS AND WHAT WRITERS HAVE INFLUENCE YOU?

I’m currently reading and in some cases re-reading classic science fiction, fantasy and fight stories from the 30’s and 40’s. The authors of that time had a way with words I truly enjoy reading. Unfortunately, I think that way of writing has been lost.

As far as my influences, I always look to two individuals; Robert E. Howard and Robert Heinlein. Heinlein was a monster in the Science Fiction world, and considered to be the father of SciFi. Howard on the other hand, doesn’t receive the justice he deserves, and I would have to say he is the one fight writer I’m most influenced by. While in High School I was greatly influenced by the writings of bands who created epic stories like Rush, or Blue Oyster Cult.

HOW IMPORTANT IS A BOOK'S CENTRAL CHARACTER?

Mickey O’Quinn is hugely important to the story. He is the driving character, the hero on the quest, the one that has everything to lose or everything to win. He is the embodiment of what it is to be a soldier, not just an MMA fighter, but the grunts that for eight years deployed for a year or more at a time to the middle east.

WHAT'S THE BEST PIECE OF WRITING CRAFT ADVICE YOU'VE BEEN GIVEN?

The best piece of advice was given to me years ago, shortly after high school, when I was wandering around college and taking a creative writing course just about every year. The advice was to READ. And when you find that one author of whom you you just can’t get enough, read everything they write, and study how he or she writes.

With most advice given to you at such an age, you forget about it until you’re older, and that is exactly what I did. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I found the author, which made me go, “this guy is great!” and when I read everything he wrote and studied how he wrote, things started to click.

LIKE MANY OF US, YOU’VE CHOSEN TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF E-PUBLISHING. WHAT HAS THAT EXPERIENCE BEEN LIKE FOR YOU?

So far, the experience has been a good one, and it’s kind of funny. Dealing with “old” school publishers, sending out query letters, and submissions, the results were generally a very cold response in a form letter. And you knew your work had sat in a slush pile, for who knows how long, until someone got stuck reading it.

But with the e-publishing, I haven’t felt the cold response of a newbie trying to break down the walls of the publishing industry. Instead I’ve sensed a greater connection with publishers over the internet, even if the piece was submitted to a committee, the whole process seems to be much more transparent, and much more open to giving writers a chance.

HOW DID YOU DECIDE ON YOUR COVERS?

My publisher Untreed Reads, contracts with a graphic artist to do their covers, I was involved only minimally with the decision making process, but I’m very happy with the result.

AS A NEW AUTHOR/WRITER WHAT ARE YOU FINDING TO BE YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGES?

Marketing and promoting. Getting the book published was easy and getting it out to the ebook stores was easy, but getting the word out is hard. That is the biggest challenge I’ve come across, and it has taken me awhile to realize it. Marketing and promoting is a full time job, and requires a lot of thought, and a lot of attention.

I joke that the next creative writing course I take, will have nothing to do with writing, and everything to do with social media.

HOW DOES YOUR MILITARY BACKGROUND COME INTO PLAY IN YOUR WRITING?

After spending as much time in the military as I have, it comes into play whether I want it or not. Sometimes I have to sit back and look at things from a civilian point of view. My editor is pretty good at pointing out, “someone in the military would understand that, but not everybody.”

WHAT’S NEXT FOR MICKEY O’QUINN?

Mickey O’Quinn is slated for one more story to be published by Untreed Reads. I’m finishing up with that story, which still has Sergeant O’Quinn in fights for his life but takes on a more mystical plot. After all Iraq is steeped in Biblical history, and while I was deployed I saw some of the sites I read about in the Bible. But that won’t be the end of Mickey O’Quinn. I want to take him through Afghanistan and back to the United States.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR ROBERT EVANS BEYOND MICKEY O’QUINN?

I really like Mickey O’Quinn, and he is a fun character to write. But I want to explore Science Fiction and Horror. Two genres I enjoyed greatly as a kid and feel that a new golden age is bubbling in the under-belly of the new pulp world of Ebooks.

Thanks, Robert, for getting in the ring with Bish’s Beat today . . .

THE O’QUINN FIGHTS #1: BASEMENT BRAWL

In this first outing of a new short story series by Staff Sergeant Robert Evans, Sergeant O'Quinn finds himself battling in an underground mixed martial arts fight in Iraq. Is the fight really just two men battling, or is it a setup for something far more dangerous for the American soldiers involved?

THE O’QUINN FIGHTS #2: FOUL FIGHT WITH A PIT VIPER

Things go awry from the moment Staff Sergeant Mickey O'Quinn arrives in Qatar. SSG O'Quinn, the brawling mixed martial arts fighter from the 4th Infantry Division, finds himself going from rescuing a frightened young American woman to landing in the middle of the toughest and deadliest underground MMA bout of his life.

Will O'Quinn win the fight and the girl? Or has he finally taken on too much?

TAKE A CHANCE E-BOOKS ~ UCHRONIC TALES: THE ZEPPELIN!

2012-01-23T06:52:00.000-08:00

TAKE A CHANCE E-BOOKS ~ UCHRONIC TALES: THE ZEPPELIN!

AN ONGOING SERIES HIGHLIGHTING POSSIBLY DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH E-BOOKS BY RELATIVELY UNKNOWN AUTHORS, FOUND WHILE CRUISING THE E-BOOK SHELVES ON AMAZON WITH PRICES MAKING THEM WORTH TAKING A CHANCE ON . .

TODAY’S FIND . . . PULP!

UCHRONIC TALES: THE ZEPPELIN

PETER MILLER

KINDLE EDITION $0.99

This first Uchronic Tale features a young American airman caught up in a conspiracy that threatens to turn the tide of the Great War. Reich Zeppelins have been bombing London mercilessly, but the night one of them takes a strange detour could turn the tide of the war.

The Germans have kidnapped a mysterious passenger and it is up to Clark Tyler and a band of elite commandos to stop the massive airship Eisern Feist from returning her secrets to the Fatherland.

The Zeppelin is the debut release from The Uchronic Press. This action-packed 18,000 word novella features the premiere appearance of Clark Tyler, a man that trouble seems to find. Or perhaps he is just good at finding it.

In the months ahead, danger will put Clark in a number of Uchronic Tales. Look for tales of old Hollywood, earth-shattering danger, lost civilizations, and bizarre visitors from the unknown aether.

PULP NOW: PULP FOR ENGINEERS!

2012-01-22T19:50:00.000-08:00

THE TROUBLE WITH BLONDES!

2012-01-21T13:31:00.000-08:00

NOIR NOW: THE EMPIRE STATE!

2012-01-21T13:12:00.001-08:00

NOIR NOW: THE EMPIRE STATE!

ADAM CHRISTOPHER

The stunning superhero-noir fantasy thriller set in the other New York.

It was the last great science hero fight, but the energy blast ripped a hole in reality, and birthed the Empire State – a young, twisted parallel prohibition-era New York.

When the rift starts to close, both worlds are threatened, and both must fight for the right to exist.

Adam Christopher’s stunning debut novel heralds the arrival of an amazing new talent.

STEAMPUNK CORNER: THE UNNATURALIST!

2012-01-21T13:03:00.001-08:00

STEAMPUNK CORNER: THE UNNATURALIST!

TIFFANY TRENT

In an alternate London where magical creatures are preserved in a museum, two teens find themselves caught in a web of intrigue, deception, and danger. Vespa Nyx wants nothing more than to spend the rest of her life cataloging Unnatural creatures in her father’s museum, but as she gets older, the requirement to become a lady and find a husband is looming large.

Syrus Reed’s Tinker family has always served and revered the Unnaturals from afar, but when his family is captured to be refinery slaves, he finds that his fate may be bound up with Vespa’s—and with the Unnaturals.

As the danger grows, Vespa and Syrus find themselves in a tightening web of deception and intrigue. At stake may be the fate of New London—and the world.

Y/A CORNER: VIOLINS OF AUTUMN!

2012-01-21T13:02:00.001-08:00

Y/A CORNER: VIOLINS OF AUTUMN!

AMY MCAULEY

Go behind enemy lines during World War II in this tale of romance and espionage…

Betty, an American teenager living in Britain, is determined to contribute to the cause when the Germans begin bombing London in World War II. Instead of collecting scrap metal or running air raid drills like most girls her age, Betty lies about her age and trains to become a spy and member of the Special Operations Executive.

Now known by her secret agent persona, Adele Blanchard, she soon finds herself parachuting over German-occupied France in the dark of night to join the secret Resistance movement.

Adele’s missions in Paris and throughout the French countryside delivering top-secret messages, lead to several close calls with the Gestapo, but it’s when she crosses paths with a young American pilot that Adele fully realizes the brutality of this war and the seriousness of her circumstances. Plus her changing feelings for this pilot are as uncertain as their future. Can Adele elude the Gestapo long enough to enjoy the future they are trying to protect?

JACK THE RIPPER CORNER: THE PLEASURES OF MEN!

2012-01-21T13:01:00.001-08:00

JACK THE RIPPER CORNER: THE PLEASURES OF MEN!

KATE WILLIAMS

Spitalfields, 1840. Catherine Sorgeiul lives with her Uncle in a rambling house in London’s East End. She has few companions and little to occupy the days beyond her own colourful imagination. But then a murderer strikes, ripping open the chests of young girls and stuffing hair into their mouths to resemble a beak, leading the press to christen him The Man of Crows. And as Catherine hungrily devours the news, she finds she can channel the voices of the dead . . . and comes to believe she will eventually channel The Man of Crows himself.

But the murders continue to panic the city and Catherine gradually realizes she is snared in a deadly trap, where nothing is as it first appears … and lurking behind the lies Catherine has been told are secrets more deadly and devastating than anything her imagination can conjure.

With an elegant style and thrilling plot, The Pleasures of Men reveals the dark, beating heart of corrupt London during Queen Victoria’s reign.

VINTAGE COVERS: NAKED WHEN WE DIE!

2012-01-21T12:26:00.001-08:00

HAT TIP TO J. KINGSTON PIERCE

VINTAGE COVERS: MODERN MECHANIX!

2012-01-21T12:24:00.000-08:00

VINTAGE COVERS: MEN IN CONFLICT!

2012-01-20T20:17:00.000-08:00

VINTAGE COVERS: CLOAK AND DAGGER!

2012-01-20T07:42:00.000-08:00

COCKTAIL NATION 204 ~ LUAU AT THE LAKE!

2012-01-20T06:54:00.000-08:00

COCKTAIL NATION #204 ~ LUAU AT THE LAKE!

On the show this week, Koop checks out Oahna Luaau at the lake, reviews OSS 117 and plays some music from the film. His look at the world of swank will give the lowdown on some great gigs and parties to attend, plus his swank advice. Koop’s back on the radio for another week as the Cocktail Nation broadcasts from the centre of Sydney in the Hi Fi stereophonically gadgeted up Penthouse . . .

PLAYLIST:

Spy Fi ~ Espia en Vacaciones
Tikiyaki Orchestra ~ Theme For Jetsetters
Si Zenter ~ I’ve Found a New Baby
Sergio Mendes ~ Mas Que Nada
Waitiki 7 ~ Left Arm Of Budda
Three Suns ~ Fever
Mancini ~ Experiment in Terror
Royal Crown Revue ~ Port Au Prince
OS117 ~ Chicks by the pool
Billy May ~ I gotta have you
SG Sound ~ Excapade Velocity
Skip Heller ~ The Collector
Vicki Carr ~ No Other Love
Wynton Marsalis ~ Green Chimeys
Dinah Washington ~ Mad About The Boy

TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD CLICK HERE

FELONY FISTS NOMINATED FOR 2012 PULP ARK AWARDS!

2012-01-19T09:57:00.005-08:00

FELONY FISTS NOMINATED FOR 2012 PULP ARK AWARDS!

THE NOMINATIONS FOR THE 2012 PULP ARK AWARDS ARE IN ... (DRUM ROLL PLEASE) ... AND I'M AS PLEASED AS CAN BE THAT FELONY FISTS HAS BEEN NOMINATED IN TWO CATEGORIES: BEST SHORT STORY AND BEST AUTHOR ... WINNERS ARE DECIDED BY THE PULP ARK NOMINATING COMMITTEE ...

FOR A FULL LIST OF NOMINEES CLICK HERE

THE TROUBLE WITH BLONDES!

2012-01-18T21:47:00.001-08:00

FELONY FISTS NEEDS YOUR VOTES!

2012-01-17T16:50:00.001-08:00

FELONY FISTS NEEDS YOUR VOTES!

★★★ MOST COOL! ★★★ FELONY FISTS HAS BEEN NOMINATED FOR THE 2012 SPINETIGLER AWARD: BEST NOVELLA ★★★ PLEASE POP OVER TO THE BELOW LINK AND VOTE ★★★

FELONY FISTS IS IN GOOD COMPANY AS THE OTHER NOMINEES ARE:

Barracuda: A Peter Surf novella by Raymond Embrack
California by Ray Banks
Everything I Tell You is a Lie by Fingers Murphy
Every Shallow Cut by Tom Piccirilli
Follow Me Down by Kio Stark
Old Ghosts by Nik Korpon
The Point by Gerard Brennan
Shotgun Gravy by Chuck Wendig
Smoke by Nigel Bird

FELONY FISTS IS GOING TO NEED EVERY VOTE SO DON'T WAIT ★★★

VOTE HERE

THE TROUBLE WITH BLONDES!

2012-01-17T12:47:00.001-08:00

HAT TIP TO BILL CRIDER

HAPPY 70TH BIRTHDAY TO ‘THE GREATEST’ ~ MUHAMMAD ALI!

2012-01-17T07:45:00.001-08:00

HAPPY 70TH BIRTHDAY TO ‘THE GREATEST’ ~ MUHAMMAD ALI!

“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.” – Muhammad Ali

“I am the astronaut of boxing. Joe Louis and Dempsey were just jet pilots. I'm in a world of my own.” – Muhammad Ali

“I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was.” – Muhammad Ali

PULP NOW: PAUL BISHOP GETS PULPED!

2012-01-16T21:29:00.000-08:00

PULP NOW: PAUL BISHOP GETS PULPED!

I GET PULPED! NEW PULP PODCAST . . . SPORTS PULPS, FIGHT PULPS, AND ME ...

Pulped! The Official New Pulp Podcast is back where it started! Still playing on internet radio, Pulped! makes a triumphant return to Podcasting! Join Hosts Tommy Hancock and Derrick Ferguson as they discuss Sports Pulp, Crime Fiction, Old Time Radio Pulp, and more with Pulp and Crime Writer Paul Bishop!

TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD CLICK HERE

PULP NOW: WINGS OF WAR!

2012-01-16T21:14:00.000-08:00

PULP NOW: WINGS OF WAR!

F. E. RECHNITZER

HERE’S THE WORD ON BLACK DOG BOOK’S LATEST REPRINT . . .

Pilot extraordinaire John Masters was an ace operative of the U.S. Secret Service when war broke out. So it was only natural that when the first squadron of Yank flyers went to France to strafe the Boche, Masters went too, only operating undercover.

Masters became the Lone Eagle of the Skies, displaying an indomitable courage and dynamic driving power to push any secret mission to a successful conclusion; a fighting ace whose dark and inscrutable movements became the scourge of all enemy powers.

Suspected by many, some men feared him, some men hated him. The alluring but deadly female German spy R-47 may have loved him. Masters became that mysterious Nemesis of the Western Front known only as—The Lone Eagle!

Now collected into book form are the first two novel-length adventures of the great ace.

INCLUDED:

•NO MAN'S AIR
•WINGS OF WAR

INTRODUCTION: TOM ROBERTS
COVER: RUDOLPH BELARSKI

"John Masters blasts his way across the skies in the kind of aerial action that will thrill modern readers as much as it did the pulp readers of the '30s. The Lone Eagle is a hero for the ages!"—Bill Crider, contributing author to the Nick Carter and Stone: M.I.A. Hunter series

"In the 1930s, the Lone Eagle set the bar for realistic action adventure with a tough guy loner able to survive against all comers. John Masters blazed a bullet-strewn path that series heroes of the 1970s and 1980s were hard pressed to follow."—Mel Odom, contributing author to the SuperBolan, Stonyman and Executioner series

"Combat ace John Masters was one of the most realistic air heroes of the pulp era. It's about damn time these bullet-torn tales were reprinted!"—Will Murray, contributing author to the Destroyer series

"Great fun!"—Stephen Mertz, contributing author to the Executioner, Tunnel Rats and Cody's Army series

THE TROUBLE WITH BLONDES!

2012-01-16T08:36:00.001-08:00

COCKTAIL NATION #203!

2012-01-15T11:46:00.000-08:00

COCKTAIL NATION #203!

On the show this week, Koop introduces us to Kramer, who is joining The Cocktail Nation once a month to talk about lounging movies. Plus there will be news from author Bill Raetz; swank advice on what to bring to a dinner party; a look at the world of swank with some great gigs to check out; and info on a book about When The Mob Ran Vegas...

PLAYLIST:

Combustible Edison ~ Seduction
Don Tiki ~ Bla Bla Cha Cha
Bob Thompson ~ Just You Just Me
Arthur Lyman ~ Voodoo Dreams
Diana Holt ~ At Last
Haji Baba ~ Crazy Bongos
Esquivel ~ Latin-Esque
Clouseaux ~ Krakatoa
Frank Bennett ~ Money Changes Everything
Jonah Jones ~ I Dig Chicks
DJ Bonebrake ~ Situation
Jimmy Vargas ~ Angel Eyes LIVE
Tony Bennett/Lady Gaga ~ The Lady Is a Tramp
Eartha Kitt ~ I Want to Be Evil

TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD THE SHOW CLICK HERE

PULP NOW: DOUBLE DANGER TALES #64!

2012-01-15T11:32:00.000-08:00

PULP NOW: DOUBLE DANGER TALES #64!

TOM JOHNSON

NOW AVAILABLE FROM FADING SHADOWS!

MURDER TOWN / THE LEGEND

Compere had not been able to get Peggy away from the door leading to the stairwell, and he knew that danger lay in that direction. He increased his deadly fire, but had become a non-moving target himself. A bullet from one of the gangster’s guns clipped the little gas container on his belt, and suddenly two skull-faced apparitions appeared, one on each wrist of his hands. With a slight movement of his wrists, the gas-filled balloons were disconnected and flew from his outstretched arms with a loud hiss, each flying in opposite directions.

The appearance of the banshees was so sudden, gangsters turned their fire on the two escaping gas balloons, and Compere accounted for another four hoodlums as their guns had been diverted from him.

Unfortunately, his luck was running out. He heard a light sound from behind, a short sigh from Peggy, and then he felt the cold hard steel of the barrel of a revolver digging into his spine. A vicious voice grunted from behind, "Drop your cannons, friend, or this girl gets a bullet in the head!"

PUBLISHED IN A LIMITED RUN.

$7.95, PLUS $2.25 POSTAGE BUT FOR THIS INITIAL RUN, BOOK AND POSTAGE IS $10.00.

CONTACT fadingshadows40@gmail.com FOR ORDERING INFORMATION.

PULP NOW: THE EAGLE OMNIBUS!

2012-01-15T09:45:00.000-08:00

PULP NOW: THE EAGLE OMNIBUS!

ALTUS PRESS - COMING SOON!

NORMAN A. DANIELS AND E. HOFFMANN PRICE

INTRODUCTION BY TOM JOHNSON

Jeff Shannon, Special Agent for G-2 Secret Service, is better known throughout the world by his other moniker: the Eagle. Featuring all five of the Eagle’s published stories, plus two rejected stories, these classic espionage stories have never been completely reprinted before . . . until now.

444 PAGES ~ $34.95

ALTUS PRESS

PULP NOW: THE COMPLETE ADVENTURES OF THE GRIFFON VOLUME 2!

2012-01-15T09:43:00.000-08:00

PULP NOW: THE COMPLETE ADVENTURES OF THE GRIFFON VOLUME 2!

ARCH WHITEHOUSE

INTRODUCTION BY WILL MURRAY

ALTUS PRESS - COMING SOON!

Fighting the aerial forces of evil for nearly ten years in the pages of Flying Aces, Kerry Keen AKA The Griffon finally returns to print! This edition continues the complete reprinting of the series.

Volume 2 contains the next six stories: “Clue of the Cockpit Clock,” “Death Flies the Electra!,” “Trans-Atlantic Intrigue,” “Sky Gun Snare,” “Zeppelins Vanish!” and “Sea Hangar Snare.” This also includes an article by pulp historian Will Murray.

256 PAGES ~ $19.95

ALTUS PRESS

PULP NOW: THE BEST OF SPICY MYSTERY VOLUME 1!

2012-01-15T09:42:00.000-08:00

PULP NOW: THE BEST OF SPICY MYSTERY VOLUME 1!

INTRODUCTION BY EDITOR ALFRED JAN

ALTUS PRESS - COMING SOON!

The Thrills of Horror! Romantic Tales of the Eerie and Occult. You'll find them in Spicy Mystery—stories of red-blooded men and lovely girls in dangerous situations, in an atmosphere of chills and thrills. Real life is never so tense and dramatic as when a girl is in peril—or as when a siren as deadly as she is beautiful sets her . . . snare for a man . . .

Are you bored of typical weird menace plots, many of which crept into Spicy Mystery? Then sample these tales which break out of that tired formula where every ending is happy, and the only challenge is guessing which minor character gets exposed as the villain in a rubber monster suit and demon mask!

The Best of Spicy Mystery Volume 1 contains 11 classic stories by the masters of the genre, complete, uncut, and with the original illustrations. It also includes an all-new introduction by Editor Alfred Jan, one of the leading experts on the series.

202 PAGES ~ $17.95

ALTUS PRESS

PULP NOW: ADVENTURERS INC.: SPOOK TRAIL

2012-01-15T08:11:00.000-08:00

PULP NOW: ADVENTURERS INC.: SPOOK TRAIL

JEFF DEISCHER AND WILLIAM G. BOGART

ALTUS PRESS - NOW AVAILABLE!

Back after 65 years! The trio of heroes that make up the team of Adventurers, Inc. return for an all-new novel-length adventure: "Spook Trail" by Jeff Deischer.

This pulp-sized collection is designed to look like a long-lost issue of an ADVENTURERS, INC. pulp magazine. Issue 1 also includes the original Adventurers, Inc. story, "The Crazy Indian," complete and uncut, written by Doc Savage writer William G. Bogart.

166 PAGES ~ 6.69" X 9.61" ~ $14.95 SOFTCOVER

ALTUS PRESS

PULP NOW: THE SHADOW: BLOOD AND JUDGEMENT!

2012-01-14T15:55:00.001-08:00

PULP NOW: THE SHADOW: BLOOD AND JUDGEMENT!

COMING IN 2012 FROM DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT

The Shadow: Blood And Judgement by Howard Chaykin was originally published by DC Comics in the eighties around the same time as other gritty takes on characters in comics such as Watchmen and The Dark Knight. This story was last collected in 1991.

Now, twenty-one years later, Dynamite – the current license holders of The Shadow – is bringing Howard Chaykin's The Shadow: Blood and Judgement back into print.

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT

PULP NOW: THE PAPERBACK FANATIC #21!

2012-01-14T15:53:00.000-08:00

PULP NOW: THE PAPERBACK FANATIC #21!

NOW AVAILABLE!

Bounding From the Thirties! The Corinth regency reprints of The Phantom Detective and Dr Death, Gold Medal Crime- part 1 of a definitive A-Z, 50 years of Rhodan- a celebration of pulp astronaut Perry Rhodan's 50th birthday, TNT- the overlooked and demented men's adventure series, Abraham Merritt cover gallery- examples from around the world, Opinion columns, reviews, letters and much more. 88 pages, most in full colour.

THE PAPERBACK FANATIC

NOIR NOW: NOIR AT THE BAR ~ ALCOHOL! CRIME! ZOMBIES!

2012-01-14T13:51:00.000-08:00

FOR MORE CLICK HERE

THE TROUBLE WITH BLONDES!

2012-01-14T13:49:00.000-08:00

HAT TIP TO BILL CRIDER

THE TROUBLE WITH BLONDES!

2012-01-12T22:30:00.000-08:00

ESPIONAGE CENTRAL: THE COLDEST CITY!

2012-01-12T06:59:00.000-08:00

ESPIONAGE CENTRAL: THE COLDEST CITY!

ANTONY JOHNSTON / SAM HART

COMING SOON FROM ONI PRESS . . .

November 1989. Communism is collapsing, and soon the Berlin Wall will come down with it. But before that happens there is one last bit of cloak & dagger to attend to. Two weeks ago, an undercover MI6 officer was killed in Berlin.

He was carrying information from a source in the East — a list that allegedly contains the name of every espionage agent working in Berlin, on all sides. No list was found on his body.

Now Lorraine Broughton, an experienced spy with no pre-existing ties to Berlin, has been sent into this powderkeg of social unrest, counter-espionage, defections gone bad and secret assassinations to bring back the list and save the lives of the British agents whose identities reside on it.

Z7’s HEADQUARTERS MATCHES UP TO FELONY FISTS!

2012-01-10T19:44:00.001-08:00

Z7’s HEADQUARTERS MATCHES UP TO FELONY FISTS!

A NEW REVIEW JUST IN FROM TIMOTHY L. MAYER OVER AT Z7’S COOL NEW HEADQUARTERS . . .

. . . The book moves at at brisk pace. I was amazed at how much was crammed into a short novel that’s barely 100 pages long. Tunney covers the corruption in LA, the casual racism at work, and the whole world of boxing as it existed. When Flynn goes into action against Cohnen’s thugs, you feel the weight of his sap glove. The rigorous training he has to endure doesn’t let up either. This is a powerful novel . . .

FOR THE FULL REVIEW CLICK HERE

WESTERN PULP: RIDING THE PULP TRAIL!

2012-01-09T22:52:00.000-08:00

WESTERN PULP: RIDING THE PULP TRAIL!

ONE OF THE COOLEST COLLECTIONS OF WESTERN PULP IS NOW AVAILABLE AS AN E-BOOK . . .

THE WORD FROM PULPSTRESS LAURIE POWERS . . .

Riding The Pulp Trail is now available as an eBook for the Nook, the iPad, the iPhone, the iPhoneTouch, and the Kindle!!! At the price of $4.99, you get 340 pages of some of the BEST pulp Western stories around!

RIDING THE PULP TRAIL

Most fans of Western fiction know Paul S. Powers as one of the foundation authors of the famous pulp magazine of the 1930s and 1940s, Wild West Weekly. Now, here for the first time, are twelve Paul Powers stories written in the years after Wild West Weekly stopped publication. Six of these stories were published in magazines such as Exciting Western, Thrilling Western, The Rio Kid Western and Thrilling Ranch Stories. The other six are brand new stories - never before published - that were discovered in 2009. Altogether they make for an outstanding collection of western stories that represent the glory yers of the Western short story and the best of Powers’ prolific pulp Western career.

VINTAGE COVERS: SOME DIE HARD!

2012-01-09T22:35:00.001-08:00

FREE FOR 48 HOURS: RUNNING WYLDE!

2012-01-09T22:32:00.000-08:00

FREE FOR 48 HOURS: RUNNING WYLDE!

THX TO EVERYONE WHO HAS RECENTLY PICKED UP ONE OF MY E-BOOKS. IN RETURN,I'M MAKING MY CAREER SPANNING COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES, RUNNING WYLDE,FREE FOR YOUR KINDLE FOR THE NEXT 48 HOURS. . .

RUNNING WYLDE

CONTENTS:

INTRODUCTION: In which I talk about the challenges and coincidences in combining my writing career with my other full time gig as a veteran detective with the Los Angeles Police Department.

RUNNING WYLDE: I’ve been a runner all my life, or at least as much of it as I can remember. I’d always wanted to write a story around a runner, but it wasn’t until a real life incident involving an LAPD officer who went running in the Santa Monica Mountains and never returned that I found the heart of Running Wylde.

THE KING OF PING: The King of Ping is a memoir piece written for my father’s 75th birthday. Memory is a funny thing, so if things didn’t happen exactly this way, they should have done.

CELTIC NOIR: Written in 2001 for the anthology Murder Most Celtic: Tall Tales Of Irish Mayhem edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Celtic Noir is the tale of a nasty little Irish bastard who’d as soon as cut you as kiss you, my kind of guy.

MERCY: Written for the anthology Flesh & Blood: Dark Desires Mercy started out as an ‘erotic tale of crime and passion’ and ended up being all that with a nasty little twist.

CONCRETE KILLER: In the mid-eighties, I was asked to write a series of non-fiction tales based on true police incidents in which I had been involved. The timeframe is 1979. I was still working uniformed patrol at the time, and was about to experience a career blunder like no other.

SQUEEZE PLAY: Squeeze Play, the second of the fact-based stories is based on occurred on New Year's Eve 1980, shortly after I'd been assigned as a detective trainee, and definitely required a change of undershorts after it came to a close.

QUINT AND THE BRACEROS: Quint and the Braceros was nominated for the Private Eye Writers of America's Shamus award in 1984 in the category of Best Short Story of the Year.

THE MAN WHO SHOT TRINITY VALANCE: The Man Who Shot Trinity Valance started with the title. I keep a journal full of plot ideas, character names, interesting quotes, and titles that strike me as having particular resonance.

EBENEEZER: The vision of Ebenezer Scrooge as a tormented private eye gave rise to this stream-of-consciousness updating of the Dickens's classic, A Christmas Carol. My warped enjoyment of mixing metaphors and stabs at Moby Dick and other classics should also be apparent.

DERRINGER: For me, stories begin in several ways—a plot twist, an intriguing title, or a character taking life as my creative muscles engage in intercourse. Derringer began with the character of Blue MacKenzie, a burned-out, ex-CIA agent, turned body-building private eye.

THE LEGENDS OF CHARLIE MCQUARKLE: Most police personnel are aware motorcycle cops are a breed apart. They have a screw loose. Officer Charlie McQuarkle is no exception to the stereotype.

NIGHT OF THE FRANKENGOLFER: Every once in a while, you have to break loose from commercial constraints and write something just for the hell of it.

THE FRAMING GAME: Originally written for Bad Blood, a young adult mystery anthology edited by Mary Higgins Clark.

THE SAMARITAN: The Samaritan was my first published work of fiction. It appeared in an issue of Mike Shayne's Mystery Magazine (1982) during the last years of that lamented publication's existence.

DEAD EASY: Dead Easy also made it into the pages of Mike Shayne's Mystery Magazine (1983). I admire the original pulp writers tremendously, and like to think I was able to join their ranks, if only for an issue or two, in one of the last surviving pulp magazines.

GOING POSTAL: A quick little story designed as a one-page mystery for the back of Woman's Magazine.

E-BOOKS: THE ORIGINAL SAM MCCAIN MYSTERIES!

2012-01-09T20:36:00.000-08:00

E-BOOKS: THE ORIGINAL SAM MCCAIN MYSTERIES!

ED GORMAN

KINDLE EDITION $6.99

ED GORMAN IS ONE OF THE MOST CONSISTENTLY GOOD AUTHORS I’VE HAD THE PLEASURE TO READ . . . EVERY MYSTERY FAN OWES IT TO THEMSELVES TO TAKE THIS DUO OUT FOR A SPIN . . .

The Original Sam McCain Mysteries is the author’s revised and preferred combined edition of his first two Sam McCain mysteries, The Day The Music Died and Wake Up Little Susie, both of which are now also available individually as e-books and trade paperbacks. Each book includes a new introduction from Ed Gorman, as well as the author’s preferred and revised text, and has been completely reformatted for Kindle.

Ed Gorman's Sam McCain has become one of the most beloved characters in the American pantheon of literary private investigators. Beginning with The Day The Music Died, set in the late 1950s, Sam McCain sees through the Ozzie and Harriet veneer of the decade and reveals the racism, hypocrisy, and adultery that existed just under the surface, and does so with grace and humor. Sam, a young lawyer and part time private investigator in the small Iowa town of Black River Falls, uses humor and a keen eye for the truth to look past the obvious suspects—particularly the ones the local sheriff insists are guilty—to find the real perpetrators. Sam McCain is not only an exciting, unique character, he is the honest voice of the 1950s that is rarely heard.

The Day The Music Died, the first book in the series, begins in the winter of 1959, the day after Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash in Clear Lake, Iowa. Sam is asked by the local judge to discover who killed the wife of her nephew, Kenny, despite the fact that everyone else in town is convinced that the murderer is Kenny himself.

Wake Up Little Susie, Gorman's sequel to his first Sam McCain mystery, is set in the late summer of 1957 on the day that Ford introduced its new "revolutionary" Edsel automobile to America. When the dead body of the District Attorney's wife is found in the trunk of one of the new Edsels, Sam is tapped to find the real killer while the sheriff makes plans to hang the most obvious suspect.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ed Gorman has been an astonishingly prolific writer since he turned to writing full-time in 1984 after 20 years in advertising. Since then he has produced two to three books a year, several pseudonymously, written over a hundred short stories, edited many anthologies, and co-founded and edited the news magazine of the mystery field, Mystery Scene.

He has been dubbed the ‘Poet of Dark Suspense’ and much of his work haunts that ill-defined land between horror and mystery where the emphasis is as much on fear and shock as it is on crime and detection.

Gorman has created several series characters, most prominently Jack Dwyer, an ex-cop turned security guard and part-time actor; former FBI psychological profiler Robert Payne; the temperamental and turbulent Tobin, a movie critic whose life is just too complicated; and more recently, Sam McCain, a young attorney in small-town Iowa in the fifties.

Gorman has written more one-off mysteries of late including some superior ones which he signs as E.J. Gorman. These include The Marilyn Tapes, which recreates the investigation into Marilyn Monroe’s death, and The First Lady, a political thriller where the President’s wife is accused of murder. One of Gorman’s best psychological noir novels is Daughter of Darkness, in which an emotionally and mentally troubled young woman may have murdered a man but she has no memory of it. Similarly, Senatorial Privilege is a vivid recreation of small-town politics and violence.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELVIS!

2012-01-08T14:40:00.000-08:00

THE TROUBLE WITH BLONDES!

2012-01-08T14:39:00.001-08:00

HAT TIP TO BILL CRIDER

VINTAGE COVERS: THE PHANTOM DETECTIVE!

2012-01-08T14:38:00.001-08:00

VINTAGE COVERS: SOUTH SEAS STORIES!

2012-01-07T11:25:00.001-08:00

MOUNTAINS OF BOOKS!

2012-01-07T11:22:00.000-08:00

MOUNTAINS OF BOOKS!

THESE SCULPTURES USING BOOKS ARE REALLY COOL AND UNIQUE . . .

PER VISUAL NEWS . . .

Carving into the discarded stacks of books, Guy Laramee has created fantastic, romantic landscapes . . . His works are inspired by a fascination with so-called progress in society: a thinking which says the book is dead, libraries are obsolete and technology is the only way of the future . . .

FOR THE FULL ARTICLE AND MANY MORE PICTURES CLICK HERE

VINTAGE COVERS: G-MEN!

2012-01-06T07:55:00.000-08:00

ANOTHER HAT TIP TO MARK JUSTICE

THE TROUBLE WITH BLONDES!

2012-01-06T07:52:00.001-08:00

HAT TIP TO THAT BRONZE AGE BOY, MARK JUSTICE

PERMISSION TO KILL TARGETS SPLIT DECISION!

2012-01-06T06:54:00.001-08:00

PERMISSION TO KILL TARGETS SPLIT DECISION!

AUSSIE BLOGGER DAVID FOSTER WEIGHS IN ON FIGHT CARD: SPLIT DECISION . . .

Recently I have written how much I enjoyed the first two books in the Fight Card series (Felony Fists by Paul Bishop and The Cutman by Mel Odom). However, in my reviews I suggested that a boxing story would always be predicatble because they will always end with the ‘big fight’ and that the hero will win. Well now I find myself in the embarrassing situation of having to eat my words. There is nothing predictable about the third instalment of the Fight Card series, Split Decision by Eric Beetner.

And I must say, I am delighted to eat my words. I think I just have a narrow view of what a pulp boxing tale can be – maybe I have watched too many Rocky films . . .

FOR THE FULL REVIEW CLICK HERE

ALL PULP GETS IN THE RING WITH THE CUTMAN!

2012-01-06T06:48:00.001-08:00

ALL PULP GETS IN THE RING WITH THE CUTMAN!

ALL PULP REVIEWER AND PULP MAVEN DERRICK FERGUSON REPORTS THE BLOW BY BLOW OF FIGHT CARD: THE CUTMAN . . .

Back during the heyday of the Classic Pulp era there were magazines devoted to just about every type of genre you could think of or that publishers thought they could sell to the entertainment hungry public. Most of us are familiar with the hero pulps, the western pulps, the science fiction pulps, the horror pulps. But there were far more than that. You had your spicy pulps which was a safe name for what was pretty much soft core porn. There were gangster pulps, railroad pulps and sports pulp. And a sub-genre of the sports pulp was boxing pulp stories.

If you’re at all familiar with the boxing pulp genre it’s probably because of Robert E. Howard and his champion boxer character Sailor Steve Costigan. Even though Howard is best known as the creator of Conan, King Kull and Solomon Kane he wrote more stories about Sailor Steve Costigan.

It’s probably inevitable that in the New Pulp Renaissance we’re enjoying right now that the pulp boxing genre should also enjoy a revived popularity and it’s a genre that’s well represented by the the Fight Card series of books in general and The Cutman in particular. It’s the second book in the series but you don’t have to have read the first one in order to enjoy it. The books are credited as being written by Jack Tunney but that’s a “house name”. The first book, Felony Fists, was written by Paul Bishop and The Cutman was written by Mel Odom and it’s a terrific read . . .

FOR THE FULL REVIEW CLICK HERE

THE TROUBLE WITH BLONDES!

2012-01-05T12:48:00.000-08:00

PULP NOW: VOODOO LODGE!

2012-01-05T09:51:00.000-08:00

PULP NOW: VOODOO LODGE!

THE WORD FROM PULP WRITER BILL RAETZ . . .

COMING IN MARCH . . .

A secret agent. A vampish wahine. It was a caper that kicked off in a tiki bar haunted by a ghost — where the drinks are lethal! The hoodlums, hauntings, and hula girls are just around the corner!

Voodoo Lodge is a book I’ve wanted to write for almost eleven years, and it pays tribute to the bar that first gave me the concept. But there’s another reason this book is extra special; Voodoo Lodge will be published in the format of the old pulp magazines! Each chapter is richly illustrated, making this something like Black Mask magazine meets Hawaii Five-0.

TO READ A SAMPLE CLICK HERE

THE TROUBLE WITH BLONDES!

2012-01-05T07:56:00.001-08:00

HAT TIP TO CHRISTOPHER MILLS

VINTAGE COVERS: FIGHT STORIES!

2012-01-05T07:45:00.001-08:00

ILLUSTRATION BY GEORGE GROSS

WESTERN PULP: MANHUNTER’S MOUNTAIN!

2012-01-05T07:17:00.000-08:00

WESTERN PULP: MANHUNTER’S MOUNTAIN!

A CASH LARAMIE WESTERN

WAYNE D. DUNDEE

AVAILABLE NOW

Manhunter's Mountain shows a powerful side to Cash Laramie as he makes his way down the side of a mountain with a prisoner in tow, and two prostitutes eager to flee a mining town that's gone bust, looking to make a new life for themselves. An early winter storm promises to make the journey more than a normal struggle. And, leaving town with two of its most precious gems, the prostitutes, puts Cash in the crosshairs of an angry gang of men who are willing to keep the women in town ... at any cost.

“A fast, hardboiled Western that continues the Cash Laramie legend with swagger and good, solid writing. Wayne Dundee brings his masterful voice to the Western and tells a Cash Laramie story in perfect pitch. Manhunter's Mountain should be on every Western fiction reader's bookshelf.” – Larry D. Sweazy, Spur Award-winning author of The Coyote Tracker.

Edward A. Grainger's outlaw marshal is on the trail again in this first full-length Cash Laramie novel written by hardboiled veteran Wayne D. Dundee.

VINTAGE COVERS: FOR MEN ONLY!

2012-01-04T09:03:00.000-08:00

FREE FIGHT CARD NOVELS ~ TODAY ONLY!

2012-01-04T06:55:00.000-08:00

FREE FIGHT CARD NOVELS ~ TODAY ONLY!

★★★★★ TODAY ONLY BOTH FIGHT CARD: FELONY FISTS AND FIGHT CARD: THE CUTMAN ARE FREE TO DOWNLOAD TO YOU KINDLE ★★★★★

★★★★★ GET YOURS NOW ★★★★★ THIS IS A LIMITED TIME OFFER ★★★★★

VINTAGE COVERS: SPECIAL DETECTIVE!

2012-01-04T06:52:00.000-08:00

ILLUSTRATOR: GEORGE GROSS

PULP NOW: THE RETURN OF THE DEATH MERCHANT!

2012-01-03T22:07:00.000-08:00

PULP NOW: THE RETURN OF THE DEATH MERCHANT!

JOSEPH ROSENBERGER’S LONG RUNNING MEN’S ADVENTURE PAPERBACK SERIES, THE DEATH MERCHANT, WHICH RAN TO 71 TITLES, IS POISED FOR A COMEBACK ON FEBRUARY 15, 2011, DEATH MERCHANT: THE WAYS OF KILLING MEN . . . THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES ...

The Death Merchant: The continuing exploits of Richard Camellion, master of death, destructions and disguise. He gets the dirty jobs, the impossible mission, the operations that cannot be handled by the FBI, the CIA, or any other legal or extra-legal force. He is the man without a face, without a single identifying characteristic . . . except he succeeds by being a merchant of death . . .

DEATH MERCHANT: THE WAYS OF KILLING MEN

The next mission is the most deadly ever faced, and the Death Merchant is seething that the CIA has forced him back into their service. He’ll save their bacon one more time – before he serves them beakfast in Hell . . .

FOR MORE CLICK HERE

THE TROUBLE WITH BLONDES!

2012-01-03T20:29:00.000-08:00

ILLUSTRATION BY THE BRILLIANT GEORGE GROSS

INTERROGATION CENTRAL: STEPHEN BLACKMOORE!

2012-01-03T09:54:00.000-08:00

INTERROGATION CENTRAL: STEPHEN BLACKMOORE!

STEPHAN BLACKMOORE DEBUT NOVEL, CITY OF THE LOST, THE POWER BEHIND THE L. A. NOIR BLOG, EDITOR OF NEEDLE MAGAZINE, AND CO-FOUNDER OF THE WESTCOAST VERSION OF NOIR AT THE BAR, IS SWEATING UNDER THE BRIGHT LIGHTS IN BISH’S BEAT’S INTERROGATION ROOM . . .

Okay, Blackmoore, I’ve had tougher punks than you sitting here in the author’s interrogation room – guys who beat on their battered Underwoods and display the grim remains in the dark back alleys of the blogosphere - so let’s get down to it . . .

Q: Spit out the lowdown on City Of The Lost – and keep it snappy.

A: Joe Sunday is a leg-breaker in Los Angeles who gets murdered, raised from the dead and finds himself in the middle of this Maltese Falcon-esque hunt for the object that brought him back. Lots of blood, lots of violence, lots of swearing.

Q: You’re obviously a writer writing from a dark place – noir is the new black – so, how do zombies fit into your world view?

A: It's funny because I don't really see City Of The Lost as much of a zombie book. Most of those are about survivors of an apocalypse. The zombies are a stand-in, whether for dread, anxiety, rampant consumerism, whatever. They make great metaphors.

In this case it's about the zombie himself and some of the crap he has to deal with. Instead of the zombie being the backdrop for a fucked up situation, it's the other way around.

For me, zombies are usually anxiety. They're the inexorable onslaught. No matter what you do they WILL get you. They are luck running out, the tide coming on, old age catching up with you.

They're not terror, they're dread.

Q: What does noir mean to you?

A: French for black. Noir's bleak, depressing, doesn't have a happy ending. It's violent, and brutal.

It gets a little hard to define when you start splitting hairs on it. Hard-boiled versus noir. Noir versus noir-ish. I look at it like the porn versus art debate. I know it when I see it.

And did I write a noir novel or a hard-boiled novel? Does it lessen its noir cred because it's paranormal?

Questions like that'll just give you a headache, so I don't poke at them too much.

Q: Do you differentiate between original noir and modern noir?

A: Not really, no. Some of the tropes, certainly. Not too many trench coats and fedoras these days. And really, what do you call original noir? Macbeth?

Regardless of when it was made, the attitudes are still there. Kiss Me Judas and Memento are just as much noir as Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice.

As long as they have the attitude, the desperation, the doom, I don't draw too many lines.

Q: What was the genesis for City Of The Lost?

A: I've always enjoyed mashing up genres. And crime and horror have always felt like they fit together better than most. I came up with the idea years ago, but I could never get it to work. I gave it up, I went back to it, I gave it up again. At one point it read like a buddy picture like Lethal Weapon. That got scrapped fast.

But I couldn't get the damn thing out of my head. So I finally said fuck it and wrote it up as a short story, thinking, "There. It's done. Haunt me no more!"

You can see how well that worked.

The story was open-ended enough that I was able to take that and spin it into the novel. I'm glad it stuck with me. I think it turned out pretty okay.

Q: Series or standalone? What’s an author to do?

A: I'm kind of doing both. City Of The Lost is the first in a series. Whether it goes beyond the second book we'll see. That's the only one under contract so far.

Instead of following a series character, I decided that I wanted to write about the world, instead. There's a lot to play around with in this Voodoo version of L.A. I've created.

I have more plans for Joe Sunday, but I don't plan on getting to them too quickly.

Q: You’ve picked up some flack for your use of profanity. Tell us why it works for you?

A: Ha! I think every writer who uses the word "fuck" at least once is going to catch flak for it from somebody. Some people are just wound too tight.

I use swearing for the same reason I use contractions. That's how people talk. And I'm not writing about the best people, either. These aren't Damon Runyon gangsters. They're criminals, addicts and murderers. They're not going to censor themselves.

There's something so versatile and visceral about a good curse word. Just watch that scene in The Wire where McNulty and Bunk are going over an old crime scene and all of the dialog is nothing but variations on "fuck". It plays perfectly.

Q: There are a lot of POD and webzine-type outlets for writers today. Good or bad?

A: Good. Now before I go into why allow me this disclaimer. I'm one of the editors (if you can call it that) for Needle Magazine, one of those very same POD magazines we're talking about here. They've put out some amazing noir fiction and they have some of the best design around. I had a story in there before I started as an editor. It's all volunteer work and I asked them if they needed help because I want it to continue.

Setting aside the traditional versus self-publishing debate, which from your next question I see we'll get into, I think that online and POD magazines like Needle, Spinetingler, Plots With Guns, and so on give writers a venue for getting their work out there that they might not have had otherwise.

More is better. The more venues you have, the more chances you can get your work out there to be read. Writers need to be read. It's a two part equation.

You might also get some editorial feedback from somebody who knows what the fuck they're talking about. Somebody who can tell you your shit stinks and give you good, objective reasons why and how to fix it is fucking gold.

Try getting that kind of shit from Zyzzyva. A pretentious form rejection that closes with "Onwards!" isn't very useful.

Now most of these don't pay, which is the downside, but I think a writer has to weigh what they're hoping to get out of it before they submit anything anywhere.

For some writers, depending on where they are in their careers, exposure might be exactly what they need. Others might really get some useful feedback. Have an idea of what you hope to gain from getting a piece published.

A lot of these POD and webzines are today's pulp magazines. Hell, it's in some of their titles, Beat To A Pulp, Pulp Pusher. These are the places where writers can cut their teeth, get some exposure and hone their craft.

So, yeah, I think it's a good thing.

Q: You’ve got your first novel published (and congratulations) through a respected traditional publisher. How do you feel about the wave of independent self-publishing happening through Kindle Direct and other sources?

A: There is no one path to success. There is also no one definition of success.

I'm all for self-publishing.

I know quite a few writers who have gone the self-publishing route and I have immense respect for them.

Where I have a problem is the "Us vs. Them" pissing matches that I keep seeing. I'm tired of the zealotry and the either / or stance. I like seeing people be successful. I don't really care whether they're doing it by going through a large publisher, a small indie publisher, or publishing it themselves.

I'm happy to be going through a traditional publisher for City Of The Lost. I'm really happy it's DAW. They've been fantastic.

I got editing through them and through my agent that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. I'm getting distribution that I wouldn't have gotten. I got a cover and artwork by comic artist Sean Phillips whose work I admire. Had I tried to self-publish that would never have happened.

In all I lucked out.

That said I think it's foolish for writers to not pay attention to self-publishing. I don't see any reason why they can't and shouldn't consider both.

But whatever someone chooses, I think they should weigh it carefully and understand the benefits and perils. Be realistic about it. Ask yourself what you want to get out of it and what you're willing to put into it. It's not a lottery ticket.

With self-publishing the rewards might be all yours, but so is all the work.

If you don't like doing sales, if you don't want to be an entrepreneur, if you don't want to spend a lot of time doing all of the things that a traditional publisher does, it might not be for you.

Not that any writer doesn't have to pay attention to those things, but self-publishing jacks that up to 11.

On the flip side, if you want greater control, greater visibility to your sales, more direct involvement with your publicity, rights, etc. then it might very well be for you.

Q: What has been your journey as a writer and where do you see it taking you?

I wouldn't call it a journey so much as a drunken stumble. I didn't get serious about writing until about ten years ago.

I've never really had a plan other than to use what I'm working on at any particular moment to, hopefully, act as a stepping stone to the next thing, whatever that happens to be.

Right now I'm starting work on a third book in the series, which I don't have a contract for. The second book, Dead Things, was turned in to my editor a few months ago and I'm waiting on feedback from that.

I've also got a short story I just submitted for an anthology and some gaming work that I can't talk about, yet. More short stories in various stages of completion.

Where do I see it taking me? Not to the bank, that's for goddamn sure. I don't expect to make much of a living off this stuff. Not until somebody gives me an advance that includes health insurance. I'll keep the day job, thanks.

But project wise I really want to work on comics. Especially after seeing the artwork Sean Phillips did for City Of The Lost. Really, that guy's amazing.

And I'd like to write a Western, a 30's-style pulp adventure, a horror novel, a space opera… You get the idea.

Will I? Don't know. Maybe. Never thought I'd have a novel coming out, either.

Q: Give it up about Noir At The Bar events . . . What should we expect in the future?

A: More of them.

For the people who don't know, Noir At The Bar is a lit event that Jed Ayres and Scott Phillips started back in St. Louis. Eric Beetner, Aldo "Mysterydawg" and I wanted to be a part of those, but who the fuck wants to go to St. Louis? So we started them here in Los Angeles.

Every two or three months we get four or five crime fiction writers and one headliner to give a reading of some of their work in front of a bunch of drunks in a bar.

That's pretty much it.

We've had two so far, with Duane Swierczynski (Fun And Games) and Christa Faust (Choke Hold) headlining the event and had talented writers like Matt Funk, Holly West, Josh Stallings and more showcasing their work.

We're really trying to key it around new releases so we can help showcase not only new writers that people may have never heard of, but established authors who have a book coming out.

It's pretty much a win/win for everybody.

We've got another one scheduled in late January that I'll be headlining to coincide with City Of The Lost and in March we have Hillary Davidson coming out for her novel The Next One To Fall.

After that, who knows? Got a noir book coming out sometime this year and you'll be in L.A.? Ping me. Maybe we can work something out.

THE SELF-DESCRIBED STEPHEN BLACKMOORE:

Stephen Blackmoore is a pulp writer of little to no renown who once thought lighting things on fire was one of the best things a kid could do with his time. Until he discovered that eyebrows don't grow back very quickly.

As a writer he strives to be a hack. Hacks get paid.

He's not sure if hacks talk about themselves in the third person, though. That might just be a side effect of his meds.

His first novel, a dark urban fantasy titled City Of The Lost will be coming out January 3rd, 2012 through DAW Books and will be available at all the fashionable bookstores. Hopefully some of the seedier ones, too.

His short stories and poetry have appeared in Plots With Guns, Needle, Spinetingler, Thrilling Detective, Shots, Demolition, Clean Sheets , Flashing In The Gutters and a couple of anthologies with authors far better than he is.

Occasionally he gets off his fat ass and helps edit (i.e. reads slush) Needle: A Magazine Of Noir. You should buy a copy. Really. It's good.

CITY OF THE LOST!

STEPHEN BLACKMORE

Joe Sunday has been a Los Angeles low-life for years, but his life gets a whole lot lower when he is killed by the rival of his crime boss-only to return as a zombie. His only hope is to find and steal a talisman that he learns can grant immortality. But, unfortunately for Joe, every other undead thug and crime boss in Los Angeles is looking for the same thing.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2012-01-02T08:18:00.001-08:00

PULP NOW: WINGS OF WAR!

2011-12-30T18:28:00.000-08:00

PULP NOW: WINGS OF WAR!

F.E. RECHNITZER WRITING AS LT. SCOTT MORGAN

NOW AVAILABLE FROM BLACK DOG BOOKS

Our latest title, Wings of War, collecting the first two novel-length adventures of John Masters, The Lone Eagle, is now available for purchase. Visit our Wings of War listings page to learn more or order your copy today.

Pilot extraordinaire John Masters was an ace operative of the U.S. Secret Service when war broke out. So it was only natural that when the first squadron of Yank flyers went to France to strafe the Boche, Masters went too, only operating undercover.

Masters became the Lone Eagle of the Skies, displaying an indomitable courage and dynamic driving power to push any secret mission to a successful conclusion; a fighting ace whose dark and inscrutable movements became the scourge of all enemy powers.

Suspected by many, some men feared him, some men hated him. The alluring but deadly female German spy R-47 may have loved him. Masters became that mysterious Nemesis of the Western Front known only as The Lone Eagle!

TRADE PAPERBACK / 188 PAGES / $19.95

FOR MORE CLICK HERE

THE TROUBLE WITH BLONDES: CARTER BROWN EDITION!

2011-12-30T18:22:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JACK LORD!

2011-12-30T09:07:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JACK LORD!

THE ROCK-JAWED, COMMA-HAIRED, MAN WHO COULD REALLY ROCK SKINNY TIES AND ELECTRIC BLUE SHARKSKIN SUITS WOULD HAVE BEEN 91 TODAY …

THE TROUBLE WITH BLONDES!

2011-12-30T08:40:00.001-08:00

INTERNATIONAL CRIME CORNER: THE LUCAS ROCCO TRILLERS!

2011-12-30T07:22:00.000-08:00

INTERNATIONAL CRIME CORNER: THE LUCAS ROCCO TRILLERS!

ADRIAN MAGSON

THIS SERIES SET IN 1960’S FRANCE, FEATURING POLICE INSPECTOR LUCAS ROCCO, GIVES ME THE SAME GREAT VIBE AS DONNA LEON’S COMMISARIO GUIDO BRUNETTI SERIES SET IN ITALY . . .

DEATH ON THE MARIS

KINDLE EDITION: $6.69

She was going to die. She could feel it, her life ebbing away as surely as fine sand through fingers.

France, 1963. It's a time of great change, not least for Inspector Lucas Rocco. As part of a nationwide 'initiative' to broaden police operations, he finds himself moved from the Paris metropolis to a small village. His new patch might be rural, but it's certainly not uneventful: on his first day, he finds a murdered woman wearing a Gestapo uniform lying in a British military cemetery.

When the body is removed by order of a magistrate from the police mortuary before Rocco can finish his investigation, he realises he's up against a formidable enemy. An enemy who will go to any lengths – even murder – to stop his investigation.

DEATH ON THE RIVER NORD

KINDLE EDITION: $6.99

Picardie, 1963. A truck drops a group of illegal workers by a deserted stretch of canal in the dead of night near Poissons-les-Marais, desperate travellers in a pipeline, searching for a better life. Days later, one of them surfaces, stabbed to death.

For Inspector Lucas Rocco, finding the victim’s fellow travellers presents problems. Most Algerian immigrants are welcome, but trawling for any who aren’t is a sensitive issue loaded with threats of civil unrest – something which terrifies his bosses in the Ministry. And when Rocco is ordered to stay away from one factory where he suspects illegals are employed, it goes against everything he knows.

However, his difficulties have barely begun. One of the illegals is a young woman with a small child, on the run from her brutal husband, Samir Farek, an Algerian gangster who has threatened to kill them both.

But Farek has another, bigger agenda: to take over as gang lord in Paris. With a history of disposing of anyone who crosses him – a fate he is happy to mete out even to a senior policeman who gets in his way – the potential consequences are frightening. Caught between his instinct to protect a vulnerable woman and her child, of obeying bosses interested only in preserving the status quo, and facing the threat of a dangerous gangster who recognises no boundaries in the murderous pursuit of his plans, Rocco begins to wonder how long he can survive.

ESPIONAGE CENTRAL: THE HARRY TATE TRILLERS!

2011-12-30T07:05:00.000-08:00

ESPIONAGE CORNER: THE HARRY TATE TRILLERS!

ADRIAN MAGSON

JUST DISCOVERED THIS COOL NEW ESPIONAGE SERIES FROM BRITISH AUTHOR ADRIAN MAGSON . . .

RED STATION

KINDLE EDITION: $9.99

First in the brand-new Harry Tate thriller series - Having been made the scapegoat for a botched drugs intercept operation, MI5 officer Harry Tate is dispatched to 'Red Station', a remote outpost in the Balkans, ostensibly to avoid press scrutiny, but where in effect the security services send 'problem' agents they'd like to be rid of.

But the outpost is thrust into the international spotlight when troops begin massing in the area; and, as the situation becomes increasingly dangerous, Tate discovers the real, truly shocking, purpose behind 'Red Station' - and decides to fight back . . .

TRACERS

KINDLE EDITION: $9.99

Second in the brand-new Harry Tate thriller series - In western Baghdad, a suicide bomber blows up a fortified house, killing everyone inside. In Norfolk, England, a runaway Libyan banker is assassinated. Different events, half a world apart - but closely linked.

Former M15 agent Harry Tate has been hired by a government fixer to find two runaways, but then both are assassinated. Despite his misgivings, he is persuaded into a third assignment, but when he tracks down the supposed Israeli professor, things start to go very wrong . . .

DECEPTION

COMING NEXT WEEK

When Harry Tate is asked to hunt down a rogue group of former army officers called The Protectory, offering British army deserters a new life and identity, he isn’t much interested… until he finds that his former MI5 boss, Paulton, who tried to have him terminated (in Red Station), is involved. He also learns that The Protectory drains the deserters of their knowledge to sell to the highest bidder… then disposes of them. And they have their sights on a young, high-profile woman officer with valuable strategic information in her head, who has disappeared.

But Harry isn’t the only one with a score to settle. Clare Jardine, a fellow Red Station member possessed of an affinity with cold steel, is also on Paulton’s trail. And she has no intention of letting Harry get there first.

FEMME FATALES!

2011-12-29T20:40:00.000-08:00

FEMME FATALES!

This Columbia Pictures promo photo of Swedish actress Märta Torén was shot when she appeared in the adventure Sirocco in 1951, starring opposite Humphrey Bogart . . .

HAT TIP TO PULP INTERNATIONAL

SPY JAZZ ~ THE WORLD OVER!

2011-12-29T08:47:00.000-08:00

SPY JAZZ ~ THE WORLD OVER!

Recently, I've been digging the groove again on this soundtrack, which I absolutely love, for an imaginary ‘60s/’70s spy movie. A tribute to John Barry by British musician Steve Hillman, this is a rich blend of acoustic and synthetic jazz/pop capturing the essence of an iconic era.

Repeat listenings show Hillman was influenced in this project not just by John Barry, but also Ennio Morricone and Lalo Schifrin – I WANT to see the film. I know it doesn’t exist, but the soundtrack is so evocative, I can see every scene unfolding – the track titles themselves tell the story, pacing the soundtrack just as the film would be paced.

I picked this up on a whim and had my socks knocked off. Very cool stuff.

TRACK LISTING:

01 FIRED UP
02 LINDA'S THEME
03 LONG HOT NIGHT
04 THE WORLD OVER
05 AS CHANCE WOULD HAVE IT
06 FLUTE JAZZ
07 THIRTIES THING
08 LOOKING BACK
09 IN DREAMS
10 SLOW DOWN
11 WHAT THE HELL
12 REGRETS
13 THE CHASE IS ON
14 JOURNEY'S END

TO LISTEN TO SAMPLES CLICK HERE

THE TROUBLE WITH BLONDES!

2011-12-28T11:31:00.000-08:00

MY TOP 10 E-BOOK READS OF 2011!

2011-12-28T10:08:00.000-08:00

MY TOP 10 E-BOOK READS OF 2011!

It has been a busy year for e-books, and I’ve plowed through a lot of them. What follows, in no particular order, is my personal Top 10 E-Books Of 2011 from what I’ve read during the year. My one criteria was they fellll below my personal $9.99 e-book cost threshold … Most of these fall well below ... One author gets two plugs because his work deserved it … And tagged on the the end is one of my personal entries just because it’s my blog …

FOX FIVE

ZOË SHARP

KINDLE EDITION $2.99

In A Bridge Too Far, we meet Charlie before she’s become a professional in the world of close protection. When she agrees to hang out with the local Dangerous Sports Club, she has no idea it will soon live up to its name.

Postcards From Another Country has Charlie guarding the ultra-rich Dempsey family against attempted assassination – no matter where the danger lies.

A finalist for the CWA Short Story Dagger, Served Cold puts another tough woman centre stage – the mysterious Layla, with betrayal in her past and murder in her heart.

Off Duty finds Charlie taking time away from close protection after injury. She still finds trouble, even in an out-of-season health spa in the Catskill Mountains.

And finally, Truth And Lies puts all Charlie’s skills and ingenuity to the test as she has to single-handedly extract a news team from a rapidly escalating war zone.

Also included: Excerpt from Killer Instinct: Charlie Fox Book One, Meet Charlie Fox, Meet Zoë Sharp, info on the other books in the Charlie Fox series.

THE ADVENTURES OF CASH LARAMIE AND GIDEON MILES

EDWARD A. GRAINGER

KINDLE EDITION $0.99

Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles is a western noir, short story collection spotlighting the thrilling tales of two deputy U.S. Marshals working in 1880s Wyoming Territory.

Cash Laramie, raised by Native Americans, is known as the outlaw marshal for his unorthodox way of dealing with criminals and his cavalier approach to life. Gideon Miles is one of the first African American marshals in the service and has skills with guns, knives, and tracking that are unrivaled. This collection broaches issues like racism, child abuse, and morality.

NEW ORLEANS CONFIDENTIAL

O’NEIL DE NOUX

KINDLE EDITION $2.99

Come prowl the lonely, sometimes violent streets of American's most exotic city, the city that care forgot, New Orleans, with a lone-wolf private-eye named Lucien Caye.

Unlike most Forties P.I.s, Caye rarely drinks, doesn't smoke or wear a hat (it messes up his hair). He's six feet tall with wavy, dark brown hair and standard-issue Mediterranean-brown eyes, a sly smile and a clever mind that often gets him into trouble. Caye lives and works in the run-down New Orleans French Quarter of the late 1940s.

He has a weakness for women, children and fellow World War II veterans, down on their luck. He knows how to make a decent living but often finds himself working pro-bono - in one case working to find a little girl's missing cat, in another searching for a boy's runaway father and in yet another, canvassing the Quarter for the child who wrote a note to Santa Claus, asking Santa to take him to live with the angels so his mother and father didn't have to buy food for him anymore. They don't have any money.

Murder is often the name of the game and Caye sometimes leaves town in pursuit of the truth, usually aiding a pretty woman in need of help, in more ways than one. Unfortunately, the truth is often ugly, often dangerous and usually resides on the loneliest part of town.

NEW ORLEANS PRIME EVIL

O’NEIL DE NOUX

KINDLE EDITION $2.99

The prime evil faced by police officers in a city described in a local newspaper in the Nineteenth Century as Hell on Earth – is murder.

From the autumn of 1887 through the summer of 1891, New Orleans Police Detective Jacques Dugas investigates the most intricate cases of mayhem and murder . . .

The city’s most notorious madame is stabbed to death; a hulking simian killer lurks along the rooftops of the French Quarter; a blood-splattered woman dances around the body of her husband and maniacally laughs, “I did it! I did it!”; bodies of tortured men are found along fog-shrouded streets; the death of innocence plays out when a visitor on her honeymoon is strangled, a New Orleans beauty is found murdered; a missing woman case turns into a complicated mystery; the Gold Bug of Jean Lafitte draws hidden desires; killers killing killers; the severed hand of a murder victim points to her murderer.

Det. Jacques Dugas, the lone French detective on a police force dominated by the Irish at the end of the Nineteenth Century, is called ‘the smart one’. Cerebral. A thinker. Yet, you will see he is quick to act with controlled aggression when necessary and persistent enough to remain focused on the case and not get distracted by a pretty woman, petty cops hell bent on revenge, or a case that seems unsolvable, as in “Maria’s Hand.”

He is a quiet, lonesome man, focused on the job and yet – he knows, one day he’ll find her. There’s a woman out there for him. After all, he’s a Frenchman.

Two of the short stories in this collection are new, never published before. “A Willing Lad” is a chilling tale while “Worthy of Love” is as sad as the Edgar Allan Poe poem that introduces it.

Included in New Orleans Prime Evil are my four stories inspired by the four mysteries written by the man who created the modern detective story, and my literary inspiration – Edgar Allan Poe. His voice resonates through the book. My stories are nothing like Poe’s except for my tipping my hat with the titles, a salute if you want to call it that.

The inspiration drove me to create Jacques Dugas. I hope you enjoy his exploits.

THE GUNS OF BRIXTON

MARK TIMLIN

KINDLE EDITION $7.99

Spanning 40 years of love, life, and villainy, this epic novel is a major tour de force from an author at the peak of his powers, the Spillane of Brit Noir Once upon a time in south London, three young men without a future decide to invent their own.

The sixties are starting to swing and Jimmy, John, and Billy want it all: the clothes, the pills, the music, and the women. Through drugs, protection, and armed robbery, they start building their crime empire; everything they’ve always dreamed about is within their grasp. But then Billy changes sides and becomes a cop — and finds that his days are numbered.

Now, decades later, Billy’s son, Mark, is working for John Jenner and waiting for the day when his father’s killer gets out of prison. It’s any time now and Mark is determined to be there when the doors swing open.

THE BASTARD HAND

HEATH LOWRANCE

KINDLE EDITION $3.99

Charlie Wesley is not right in the head. He’s escaped from a mental hospital up north and hitchhiked his way south, the voice of his dead brother urging him on. But when Charlie hits Memphis, the fine line between his delusions and reality shift in the form of the Reverend Phineas Childe — a preacher bent on booze and women; a Man of God with a dark agenda. Charlie is the perfect pawn in the Reverend’s game of retribution. And the small North Mississippi town of Cuba Landing will be the setting for the Reverend’s very personal Apocalypse. . . .

DIG TWO GRAVES

ERIC BEETNER

KINDLE EDIITON $2.99

Dig Two Graves is a novella-length piece about Val, an ex-con who thinks he has figured out the trick to continuing his bank robbing life without ever getting caught. Except then he gets caught.

It’s not his plan that backfires, oh no. There’s a rat somewhere and Val is pretty damn sure who it is – Ernesto, his prison lover who has joined him on the outside as his partner in bank robbery.

Val stalks the city night on the hunt for Ernesto to exact revenge for breaking the ultimate criminal code: you don’t rat out a partner.

Along the way Val wrestles with his feelings for another man. Was it a prison infatuation born out of necessity? Or is it something more? And which makes the betrayal sting worse?

Populated by small time losers and petty crooks, Dig Two Graves is tough and stripped down like a fight without gloves. The humor is strictly from the gallows and the pace is relentless, plowing through one furious night like burning hate coursing through veins.

13 SHOTS OF NOIR

PAUL D. BRAZILL

KINDLE EDITION $2.99

English writer Paul D Brazill's 13 Shots Of Noir is a collection of flash fiction and short stories in the vein of Roald Dahl, The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

The first story, "The Tut", was nominated for a 2010 Spinetingler Award, while the story "Anger Management" was chosen as one of the Predators and Editors top twenty crime stories.Crime, horror and dark fiction are contained within the pages of 13 Shots Of Noir.

SAND’S GAME

ENNIS WILLIE

KINDLE EDITION $7.99

His name is Sand . . .

A former crime lord with a price on his head, an army of hit men on his back, and a .45 riding in a shoulder rig under his arm to do his talking. A man alone, with few friends and many hates.

Walk along with him in this volume, down the dark street and fog-filled alleyways of Skid Row as he seeks the monstrosity that killed a ragged little man with sticky fingers and a generous heart who did not deserve to die in this dead place.

Enter a bordello where the madam has just died from a hundred shallow stab wounds. Find out why she used her last breath, not to tell the police the name of the killer, but to breathe out the word "Sand." What had this woman done for him that she knew she could talk to him from the grave?

Fly in with him to the city he left behind when he quit the mob, the city where his enemies rule and where he could never return. But the word is out. It is seeping through the underworld like smoke through a crack.

"Sand is coming back!"

There is nowhere to hide . . . and it's too late to pray.

This is a brand new book with two novels by Ennis Willie, and they're accompanied by some more stories by Ennis, along with some excellent essays about his writing.

ALL THE YOUNG WARRIORS

ANTHONY NEIL SMITH

KINDLE EDITION $1.49

When two of the Twin Cities' “Lost Boys” — young Somali men drafted to fight for terrorists back in the homeland — kill a pair of cops on his home turf, detective Ray Bleeker is left devastated. One of the dead cops was his girlfriend.

The investigation grinds to a halt when he discovers that the young murderers have fled to Somalia to fight in the rebel army. He's at his wits' end when the father of one of the boys, an ex-gang leader named Mustafa, comes looking for answers, wanting to clear his son's name and refusing to take no for an answer.

Bleeker and Mustafa form an uneasy alliance, teaming up to help bring the boys back home to stand trial. But little do they know what Somalia has in store for them.

Murder, warfare, piracy, love, betrayal and revenge. All The Young Warriors is an epic thriller that will have you white-knuckling your eReader all through the night.

FIGHT CARD: FELONY FISTS

JACK TUNNEY

KINDLE EDITION $2.99

Los Angeles 1954

Patrick “Felony” Flynn has been fighting all his life. Learning the “sweet science” from Father Tim the fighting priest at St. Vincent’s, the Chicago orphanage where Pat and his older brother Mickey were raised, Pat has battled his way around the world – first with the Navy and now with the Los Angeles Police Department.

Legendary LAPD chief William Parker is on a rampage to clean up both the department and the city. His elite crew of detectives known as The Hat Squad is his blunt instrument – dedicated, honest, and fearless. Promotion from patrol to detective is Pat’s goal, but he also yearns to be one of the elite.

And his fists are going to give him the chance.

Gangster Mickey Cohen runs LA’s rackets, and murderous heavyweight Solomon King is Cohen’s key to taking over the fight game. Chief Parker wants wants Patrick “Felony” Flynn to stop him – a tall order for middleweight ship’s champion with no professional record.

Leading with his chin, and with his partner, LA’s first black detective Tombstone Jones, covering his back, Patrick Flynn and his Felony Fists are about to fight for his future, the future of the department, and the future of Los Angeles.

VINTAGE COVERS: JAMES BOND!

2011-12-28T06:47:00.000-08:00

HARDBOILED COLLECTIVE: WHITE KNIGHT SYNDROME!

2011-12-28T06:44:00.000-08:00

HARDBOILED COLLECTIVE: WHITE KNIGHT SYNDROME!

A NOAH MILANO MYSTERY

JOCHEM VANDERSTEEN

KINDLE EDITION $2.99

Noah Milano is a Los Angeles security specialist with more than a few family problems. Because, in his case, his family is the family. He's the estranged son of a mobster, which creates a big deal of tension and more than a few problems. Fiercely independent, and determined to sever all ties with his past, Noah has to adjust from being a spoiled mobster son to being an independent operator with little money.

When he's hired to bodyguard a beautiful and rich teenage girl he's drawn into a web of family secrets, homicide and the dangers of falling in love.It's not easy to be a White Knight in a world filled with betrayal and mob violence but Noah Milano is going to try anyway ... Even if he has to die doing it ...

TAKE A CHANCE E-BOOKS ~ HELL ON CHURCH STREET!

2011-12-27T22:50:00.000-08:00

TAKE A CHANCE E-BOOKS ~ HELL ON CHURCH STREET!

AN ONGOING SERIES HIGHLIGHTING POSSIBLY DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH E-BOOKS BY RELATIVELY UNKNOWN AUTHORS, FOUND WHILE CRUISING THE E-BOOK SHELVES ON AMAZON AT PRICES MAKING THEM WORTH TAKING A CHANCE ON . . . SOME MAY BE CRAP, SOME COULD SHOW POTENTIAL, OTHERS (I SUSPECT VERY, VERY, FEW) MIGHT BE GREAT – TAKE A CHANCE . . .

TODAY’S FIND . . . NOIR!

HELL ON CHURCH STREET

JAKE HIKSON

KINDLE EDITION $4.99

A small Baptist church in Arkansas should be easy pickings for a natural born con man like Geoffrey Webb. But after talking himself into a cushy job as a youth minister, he becomes obsessed with the preacher's teenage daughter.

When their relationship is discovered by a corrupt local sheriff named Doolittle Norris, Webb''s easy life begins to fall apart. Backed by a family of psychotic hillbillies, Sheriff Norris forces Webb into a deadly scheme to embezzle money from the church.

What the Norris clan doesn''t understand is that Geoffrey Webb is more dangerous than he looks, and he has brutal plans of his own.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS ONE AND ALL !

2011-12-24T18:31:00.000-08:00

FREE PAUL BISHOP!

2011-12-24T07:55:00.000-08:00

FREE PAUL BISHOP!

As a gift to all of you who have Kindles and all of you who will be getting Kindles for Christmas, I’ve made my first Fey Croaker novel, Kill Me Again, and my stand-alone soccer thriller, Penalty Shot, FREE for a limited time via Amazon.com . . . I hope you will enjoy them both (and come back for more) . . . Happy Christmas and Happy Holidays . . .

CROAKER: KILL ME AGAIN

Los Angeles homicide detective Fey Croaker must solve the recent murder of a pretty, forty-something woman whose fingerprints surprisingly identify her as a previous murder victim from eighteen years earlier.

At 43, Fey Croaker has survived three dead-end marriages, a severely abusive upbringing, and the relentless resentment of her male colleagues on the force. Now, because of a streak of unsolved murders, she feels extra pressure to solve the murder of a mysterious woman who had multiple IDs in different names, a million dollars in cash, and only new clothing and furniture in her equally new condo at the time of her death.

Fingerprints inexplicably reveal the woman had already been murdered – 18 years earlier in San Francisco. Despite this twist, the case appears to be open and shut – the woman's ex-husband, convicted of killing her the first time, was released on parole weeks before her second murder. However, the victim has many more surprises for everyone involved – especially for Fey, who finds herself becoming one of the suspects when her investigation takes a turn for the deadly.

PRAISE FOR CROAKER: KILL ME AGAIN

“Throughout the story, what seems obvious is contradicted in labyrinthine ways in this complicated, compelling thriller.” – Publishers Weekly

“Bishop not only writes with humor and wit, but with keen insights into flawed heroes and deadly killers.” – Faye Kellerman

PENALTY SHOT

Top-flight English goalkeeper Ian Chapel's last soccer game ended in a kick to the face from a German opponent leaving him with just one eye and believing he could never play the game again.

Working as an editor for one of his brainy brother's sports magazines, Chapel has recovered his fitness, but hasn't touched a soccer ball since his accident. So, he finds it ludicrous when his old army colonel pitches a proposal with him playing goalie for the Los Angeles Ravens, an American indoor soccer team owned by the colonel and his partner Nina Brisbane, who has the body of a goddess and hides her shotgun-blasted face forever behind a veil.
The Ravens are headed for the league finals, but their goalie has just been murdered, and if Chapel takes the job, the colonel and Miss Brisbane would like him to clear up the murder as well.

With much reluctance Chapel caves into pressure, whips himself into good goalie shape, joins the team – which includes the German player who put his eye out – dodges murderous attacks from Irish terrorists, and copes with the very temperamental Miss Brisbane, all the while enjoying the close companionship of the Ravens' second-string goalie, a very fit, ambitious, and pretty young lady.

PRAISE FOR PENALTY SHOT

“Bishop scores a smashing goal chronicling the deadly games played out by the men and women connected to the Los Angeles Ravens soccer team. Bishop's passion for soccer and his belief in the value of sports keeps the reader rooting for the home team.” – Publishers’ Weekly

“From the prologue to the final hospital scene, Bishop effectively captures the violent world of professional soccer. His tale, vigorous with intrigue, IRA terrorists, and a charming romance, focuses on Ian Chapel, a disabled English soccer player who is trying to solve a vicious murder.” – Library Journal

“Author Bishop, a soccer-playing LAPD detective, knows his stuff.” – Kirkus

VINTAGE COVERS: PERVERSITY!

2011-12-23T09:47:00.000-08:00

HAT TIP TO BILL CRIDER

PULP NOW: THE ADVENTURES OF FORTUNE MCCALL!

2011-12-23T09:36:00.000-08:00

PULP NOW: THE ADVENTURES OF FORTUNE MCCALL!

PRO SE’S SOVEREIGN CITY PROJECT EXPLODES WITH THE LATEST CHAPTER — THE ADVENTURES OF FORTUNE MCCALL BY DERRICK FERGUSON

Pro Se Productions, a leading New Pulp Company that Puts the Monthly Back into Pulp, proudly announced today the release of its latest book as well as the next chapter in Pro Se’s Sovereign City Project.

From noted New Pulp Author Derrick Ferguson, creator of the popular characters Dillon and Diamondback among others, comes The Adventures Of Fortune Mccall! A man shrouded in mystery, McCall is a known adventurer and owner and proprietor of The Heart of Fortune, a luxury gambling ship that finds itself docked off the shores of Sovereign City. But McCall has come to Sovereign with a purpose, one that soon turns into action, adventure, and mayhem for he and his companions. Traveling with heroes in their own right, McCall brings his unique brand of investigation and justice to a city that wants neither!

Follow McCall and his aides as they confront the darker side of lust when they meet ‘The Scarlet Courtesan of Sovereign City.’

Instant death and insanity will lay claim to an entire city unless Fortune McCall survives ‘The Day of the Silent Death!’

McCall meets a woman who challenges him to his very core. While trying to save her missing husband, Fortune comes face to face with ‘The Magic of Madness!’

Money, Money, Everyone Wants the Money! A mad chase through Sovereign ensues as Fortune hunts to find ‘The Gold of Box 850!’

“This collection,” stated Editor-in-Chief Tommy Hancock, “shows two things. First off, it shows what great creators Pro Se is working with and how wonderfully solid a concept the Sovereign City Project is. Secondly and most important, it is just one more example of how Derrick Ferguson is one of the modern masters of this sort of writing, being able to shift from intense mystery to wonderful characterization, from masculine pulp to humorous screwball comedy type scenes, and all in the space of one story. Derrick makes words flow better than most around today and he shows that best in The Adventures Of Fortune Mccall!’

Featuring fantastic cover art by David L. Russell based on a concept by Peter Cooper, this volume features amazing interior effects and design by Sean E. Ali! The Adventures Of Fortune Mccall are waiting for you!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS FROM THE COCKTAIL NATION!

2011-12-23T09:16:00.000-08:00

HAPPY CHRISTMAS FROM THE COCKTAIL NATION!

HOLIDAY WISHES FROM KOOP KOOPER ...

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Cocktailian Followers. Thanks for your friendship and thanks for supporting the show and I look forward to swingin with you next year! Koop Kooper

TO CHECK OUT THE COCKTAIL NATION PODCAST CLICK HERE

NEWS FROM HARD CASE CRIME!

2011-12-22T11:42:00.000-08:00

NEWS FROM HARD CASE CRIME!

EDITOR CHARLES ARDAI IS VERY EXCITED ABOUT THE HARD CASE CRIME RELEASE IN TWO MONTHS OF A PREVIOUSLY UNPUBLISHED/LOST DONALD WESTLAKE NOVEL . . . THE COMEDY IS FINISHED . . . ANYBODY WHO HAS EVER READ A WESTLAKE/STARK NOVEL KNOWS THIS IS ONE OF THE BIG DEALS OF 2012 . . .

Here's what PW wrote about the book in their most recent issue:

"MWA Grand Master Westlake (1933–2008) shows his skill and versatility as an author in this posthumous crime novel. In 1977, the radical fervor that grew through the 1960s and early 1970s, fueled by the struggle for civil rights and the Vietnam War, has largely subsided, but a small group seeks to reignite passions by kidnapping comedian Koo Davis, known for his longstanding USO tours during WWII, Korea, and Vietnam in support of the troops. The snatch is perfectly planned and executed, but things soon start to fall apart for the bewildered Koo, the kidnappers, and the FBI agent leading the investigation, who hopes success will remove the taint his reputation suffered because of Watergate. Westlake provides a probing analysis of the kidnappers’ various and sometimes vague motivations, including their demands for the release of 10 'political' prisoners. Sharply written and insightful, this 'lost' novel is a worthy addition to Westlake’s lengthy catalogue."

BE READY FOR THE FEBRUARY 21ST HARD CASE CRIME RELEASE OF THE COMEDY IS FINISHED BY DONALD WESTLAKE . . .

VINTAGE COVERS: IMAGINATIVE TALES!

2011-12-22T11:25:00.001-08:00

THE TROUBLE WITH BLONDES!

2011-12-21T21:59:00.001-08:00

VINTAGE COVERS: SIX-GUN MELODY!

2011-12-20T22:08:00.000-08:00

VINTAGE COVERS: TRUE ADVENTURES!

2011-12-19T16:48:00.000-08:00

VINTAGE COVERS: SPANISH PULP!

2011-12-19T16:47:00.000-08:00

HAT TIP TO VINTAGE PAPERBACK COVER ART

PSYCHO-NOIR REVIEWS FELONY FISTS!

2011-12-19T11:55:00.001-08:00

PSYCHO-NOIR REVIEWS FELONY FISTS!

PSYCHO NOIR'S HEATH LOWRANCE GETS IN THE RING WITH FELONY FISTS . . .

Felony Fists is a tight, streamlined brawler of a novel, heavy on ring action and spare jabbing prose. It’s hard not to use boxing analogies when talking about it. Series co-creator Paul Bishop is Jack Tunney this time out, and he sets a high standard for the Jack Tunneys to follow. His invocation of L.A. in the ‘50’s is vivid and well-researched without being overwhelming, and his grasp on the strange, sometimes seedy world of boxing is spot-on …”

FOR THE FULL REVIEW CLICK HERE

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER!

2011-12-19T07:11:00.000-08:00

PERMISSION TO KILL REVIEWS SMOKER!

2011-12-19T07:06:00.000-08:00

PERMISSION TO KILL REVIEWS SMOKER: A BOXING FABLE!

DAVID FOSTER TURNS HIS CRITICAL GAZE FROM DOWN UNDER ON MEL ODOM’S SMOKER: A BOXING FABLE . . .

Smoker is a short story, only about forty-five pages, but it represents one of the great things about eBooks. In days of yore, its length it would have always made it cost prohibitive to print. Unless it popped up in an anthology, or in a magazine, this story would have gone unread, which would be criminal. But now, it can be zapped straight to your computer or Kindle and read immediately. I use the word ‘immediately’ because this is a great little story… and you should read it right now. It is perfect antidote to watching re-runs on TV over the silly season. You’ll devour it in one . . .

FOR THE FULL REVIEW CLICK HERE

SUCKERPUNCH: GRAPPLING WITH AUTHOR JEREMY BROWN!

2011-12-18T10:06:00.000-08:00

SUCKERPUNCH: GRAPPLING WITH AUTHOR JEREMY BROWN!

I’ve mentioned Jeremy Brown’s novel Suckerpunch quite a bit recently – mostly because it’s the best crime novel I’ve read this year. I got it touch with Jeremy and asked him to do an interview on Bish’s Beat, and he’s provided an insightful take on his approach as a writer and on Suckerpunch and it’s coming sequel.

Suckerpunch is a taunt and terrific tale featuring the first appearance of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fighter Woodshed Wallace ... cue Rockyesque theme music ... So, it’s into the MMA cage – writer vs. interrogator – and it’s grappling to a tap-out …

Q1: What is the novel’s version of a fighter’s stats when applied to Suckerpunch?

Suckerpunch is a lean and mean crime thriller set in the world of Las Vegas mixed martial arts. The narrator, Aaron “Woodshed” Wallace, is in a constant battle of “head or gut.” Is he going to use his head and distance himself from his shady past and the criminals who want to drag him back in, or is he going to go with his gut – the one that put him next to those criminals in the first place?

Q2: While becoming more popular, fiction using an MMA background must have been almost unheard of when you started writing Suckerpunch. What brought your writing into the cage?

It’s true — MMA was pretty scarce in the fiction world when I started this project in 2006. It had infiltrated the non-fiction market with fighter biographies, but I still had to explain to my agent at the time what MMA meant, and why it was (and still is) a great world for thriller novels.

I’d tried writing the Aaron Wallace character before, going back to scenes I wrote for fiction workshops in college in the late 90s. Wallace started out as a self-defense instructor/vigilante, but there wasn’t any steam behind that approach. When I revisited him in 2006, MMA was getting a huge surge from Japan’s Pride Fighting Championships and the UFC, especially its new reality show The Ultimate Fighter. I was watching and loving all this MMA, and decided to throw Wallace in the cage to see how he did. That was the one big piece I needed to get the story going. I still needed two more, and we’ll get to them soon.

Q3: Suckerpunch is subtitled Round One, indicating the first in a series. Did you always perceive Woodshed Wallace as a series character?

Yes, I liked the idea of following this character while he tries to fight his way out of his past and to the top of the MMA food chain. The series is designed for five books, the same number of rounds in a championship MMA fight.

Q4: Do you have a background in MMA as a fighter or a fan?

I’ve been a fan of MMA since UFC 1 in 1993, when Royce Gracie showed the world what Brazilian Jiu Jitsu could do. I never planned to compete in MMA, but the training and skills fascinated me. I trained in judo, jeet kune do, BJJ, and various close-quarter combat stick and knife arts. Most of the stuff I trained was for self-defense – filthy, nasty stuff – which informed Woody’s street fighting background. I enjoy the scenes where he has to battle his street muscle memory in order to stay within the rules of MMA.

Q5: As a writer how do you help readers understand MMA fighting?

Bottom line, I want the story to be entertaining. These fights and fighters can be so technical, breaking down a play-by-play could read like a flowchart on combat chess. Possibly interesting to MMA die-hards, but it would turn off most readers.

So, I try to throw enough MMA detail in – technique, cause and effect, terminology, culture – to show the reader what’s happening and why without drowning them in minutia. I think it works best to have the characters convey that information through action and dialogue, but there’s no way these guys would stand around explaining everything to each other. They’re so close to it and each other they speak in shorthand and code, so the action and dialogue have to work together.

For example, Woody dives in to take his sparring partner down. Gil says, “Watch the guillotine.” Woody pulls his opponent’s forearm away from his throat so he can keep breathing. Good – now we know a guillotine is a forearm choke.

Q6: What would you say to those of us who are traditional boxing fans to give MMA a chance to grow on us?

I started as a boxing fan (actually, I started as a ninja fan, but they aren’t on pay-per-view), and as soon as I saw MMA I thought, “It’s like boxing, but with kicks and chokes and broken arms? Even better!” Here are just a few reasons to cross to the dark side:

1. Fighters who finish fights are promoted. Those who fight for points are not – usually because they get finished by the other guys.

2. MMA delivers the fights fans want to see. There are some match-ups that don’t happen or happen too late in careers, but for the most part the guys who should fight, do.

3. MMA is safer. The smaller gloves allow one-punch knockouts rather than 12-round bludgeonings, and there are no standing eight counts that let boxers keep fighting when they should not.

4. Don King is not in MMA.

Q7: Did you see the recent MMA film Warrior and, if so, what did you think?

I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m looking forward to it. The first batch of MMA films were mostly Rocky or The Karate Kid set in MMA, so I was excited to see this one come along. At the same time, it scares me. I think I’m going to watch it and go, “Damn, why didn’t I think of that?”

Q8: You began your professional writing career with a series for young adults, Crime Files: Four Minute Forensic Mysteries. How did writing the Crime Files series lead to Suckerpunch?

I never thought I’d write for kids or young adults, but the Crime Files opportunity was perfect for me. They wrapped up and that’s when I decided to revisit the Aaron Wallace character. Like I said before, this was a guy who needed his story told, but I hadn’t figured out how to tell it. Putting him inside the cage was the first step. Then I read Chandler’s The Big Sleep, and it knocked me like a sap in the temple. As soon as I started writing it as a noir crime thriller, the story poured onto the page. That was the second big piece.

The third came with the title. The martial arts instructor I was training with had a private seminar called The Art of the Suckerpunch. I thought, How cool is that? Something so nasty can have an art to it. And bam, there was the title and the final piece I needed to get rolling.

Q9: What was the path you followed to get Suckerpunch published?

Twisty, with lots of switchbacks and dead ends. I changed agents, then rewrote everything except the first chapter with an entirely new plot and characters. We submitted it to editors who loved it – with just a few major changes here and there – and they presented it to publishers who passed. It was very frustrating to get so close again and again, but it made the story stronger.

When Medallion Press picked it up in the summer of 2010, I was thrilled. The people there love the story and characters, and there are quite a few MMA fans on the staff. They’ve all been fantastic.

Q10: As MMA continues to grow in popularity has the sport provided you with an outlet to promote Suckerpunch?

I believe so – I don’t have to explain what MMA is nearly as much as I used to, and usually just mentioning the UFC is sufficient. We ran ads on the popular MMA site Sherdog.com and I dream of seeing my book cover on the canvas of a UFC event, but that will have to wait for a bigger advertising budget.

I hope it’s been a mutually beneficial relationship, where MMA fans come across my book and share it with non-fans (ahem, Bish), who check out the sport and get hooked. But I also want readers who couldn’t care less about MMA to enjoy the story. I’ve had readers who haven’t seen one 4oz punch get thrown tell me they couldn’t put the book down, which is great.

Q11: As a writer, how do you sustain a series of novels focused around a fighter without always having to lead up to the ‘big fight,’ or is leading up to the ‘big fight’ part of the attraction?

Great question. Any ideas? Because the novels are crime thrillers first and MMA thrillers second, I get to make the climax something other than the big fight. The fight is certainly vital to the story, and Woody has to win (so far), but the stories are about more than what happens in the cage. It’s fun to find ways to tie the big fight in with the other conflicts going on in the story to make it bigger than a number on Woody’s win/loss sheet.

I also try to treat the fights like a compact mystery, with foreshadowing, twists, and misdirection. Woody is trying to solve the mystery before his opponent, and they both know what it means to figure it out a second too late.

Q12: What’s up next for Woodshed Wallace in Round Two?

Round Two is titled Hook and Shoot, and it picks up seven weeks after the final scene in Suckerpunch:

Woodshed Wallace has fought to survive his entire life. He thinks the big break from MMA promotion Warrior is going to change all that, and he’s right – now he has to make sure Banzai Eddie and Warrior don’t get snuffed out by the yakuza.

If the yakuza can’t collect on the debt Eddie owes, they’ll take payment in blood –and it doesn’t matter whose. Woody has no choice but to help Eddie and his ex-SAS bodyguard, Mr. Burch, stay alive and keep Warrior intact.

Serves Woody right for trusting Eddie and thinking he was off the hook for his past. He should know by now what happens with hooks: when you drop back onto them, they go twice as deep.

Thanks to Jeremy Brown for getting in the cage with Bish’s Beat.

As I said at the start of the interview, Suckerpunch is one of the most entertaining novels with one of the most engaging lead characters to come to the attention of Bish’s Beat this year. Pin down a copy for yourself, now!

TO VISIT JEREMY BROWNS WEBSITE CLICK HERE

SUCKERPUNCH

JEREMY BROWN

No head butts, groin strikes, eye gouges, or fishhooks. He'd go along with it, but heavyweight mixed martial artist Aaron "Woodshed" Wallace thinks they're taking all the fun out of fighting. Stuck on no-name cards for tiny organizations, Woody is trying to put his shady past behind him with help from his trainer and mentor, Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt Gil Hobbes.

When Banzai Eddie Takanori--president of MMA's largest organization, Warrior Inc.--offers Woody a short-notice fight against a highly favored poster boy, Woody sees his shot at salvation. By the time he realizes he's just a pawn in a high-stakes game between psychopaths, he's in way too deep.

Good thing he knows how to take a punch.

And give a few back...

ROUGH EDGES REVIEWS FIGHT CARD: SPLIT DECISION!

2011-12-18T10:03:00.000-08:00

ROUGH EDGES REVIEWS FIGHT CARD: SPLIT DECISION!

JAMES REASONER TAKES ON THE LATEST FIGHT CARD ENTRY SPLIT DECISION OVER AT HIS ROUGH EDGES BLOG . . .

. . . Beetner's tale is darker than either of the preceding entries, but it's just as compelling and does a fine job of capturing the era. He has the knack of putting his protagonist in an impossible situation and then making the reader race along to find out how it's going to get even worse. Split Decision is a prime example of the sort of variety and adventurous storytelling we can expect from the Fight Card series, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Highly recommended.

FOR THE FULL REVIEW CLICK HERE