Thursday, October 30, 2014

Happy All Hallows Eve

I'm way behind in my reading pile, I meant to get some more book reviews up but its gotta wait for November now.

But here is a quick snippet of a tale (I'm still polishing) from my forthcoming The Mad Song and other tales of Sword & Sorcery...


Stygian Black


Miles into the trackless wastes of the Arabian Desert and just as the horned moon rose above the dunes in a darkening azure sky, the raiders fell upon the unholy caravan as wolves upon tainted sheep. Half of the hired swords fled when they guessed the identity of the laughing bandit chieftain and even the vexing fear of their master, the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred, could not grant them sand enough to face the Lion of Palestine, Avi Ben-Kenaz.
The city-born sell-swords and cowardly veterans of decadent civilization were no match for the hard-bitten nomads, and with but a few strokes of steel all of Alhazred’s men fell before the raiders. These Judean raiders lived by their blades edge alone—not just the prospect and bravado of danger. Out here in the desolate wilderness, if you did not shed blood freely, your own would soon bleach upon the sands.
Alhazred dusted himself off after having been tossed from his seat by one of the raiders. He was lucky not to have been beheaded like so many others, but had been recognized as the caravan master early on and therefore perhaps worthy of sparing and of course, ransom.
One of the raiders shouted to his chieftain, “The wagons are empty!”
“All of them?”
The raider nodded to Avi and shoved Alhazred to the ground once again.
Avi, a pantherish man with a face of red-brown stubble and a reckless smile asked, “Who are you and what did you formerly carry within these wagons that needed such pathetic protection?”
“I am Abdul Alhazred, seeker of eldritch knowledge. I know of you Avi, and would ask that we make a sacred pact.”
Avi scrutinized the thin bearded man who was almost engulfed by both his dark turban and cloak. Alhazred’s sallow face, shrunken cheeks and baggy eyes belied a man who knew little sleep and even less toil.

“Speak Magi.”

Monday, October 20, 2014

Tree City Comic Con Recap

So the Space Balrog's and I were at Tree City Comic Con in Boise Idaho - Boise being the adjusted french name for LeBois = River of Tree's. We had a good time! I sold the most books out of all of us on Friday and the least on Saturday - go figure. Apparently Idahoan's wanted more horror on Friday = Weird Tales of Horror and Space Eldritch, and more fantasy on Saturday.



Here is a shot that Jason King took of me when for about 5 seconds I thought our panel had been cancelled and I was shouting "CON!" as in "Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!" until James Wymore said we were still on - I had no idea that Jason was capturing the moment = priceless.



There were a fair amount of celebs at the con considering it was pretty small - just a few thousand. Here is me with Angie Everhart. I put my foot in my mouth telling her I loved her as Red Sonja (Thinking she portrayed Red in the Conan the Adventurer TV show) WRONG! The pic was taken just before I said that and she visibly cooled as I said it with a sharp, "I was never Red Sonja!"

I did get to mingle with a few other cool celebs - sorry no pictures - I went to the VIP Green Room quite a bit for food and drink - oddly enough security never ever stopped me - I always just walked in like I owned the place while my fellow Balrogs were always turned away along with anyone else who wasn't a star. I got to speak to Nichelle Nicols - Uhura for a quick brunch on Saturday, and John Rhys Davies just as he arrived on Friday very cool cuz he talked to me first! He came in and exclaimed loud like Sallah, "I see one!" and we toasted each other. I never asked what he meant by that - was too thrilled that he was talking.

Breakfast at the hotel Saturday morning was surreal as most of the patroons were stars and support staff so I was a having breakfast with a third of the cast for The Addams Family- Lurch and Cousin It and Wednesday, Uhura, Mark Sheperd, Monster Quest's Dr. Meldrum (I did get a Bigfoot cast), Joanie Brooks - who you may remember was on the cover of the first issue of Utah Geek Magazine that I have a serial action fantasy story in, among others.

At one point I joked that a guy was cosplaying as fellow Balrog Dave Butler - he was wearing the same jeans, white shirt and black blazer, we asked the guy to come and talk to us and it turned out he was the director of the whole Con! So we're making friends with shakers!
Here are a few of the more interesting cosplayers I saw.

Two of America's greatest heroes together again, Batman and Ben Franklin

Tim

Sara Butler, hiding and James Wymore and Jason King

Two cool cats that I don't know what they're from.

A Daft Punk Jedi

And the most bizarre thing was set up right kiddie corner from our booth - the pole dancing Wonder Woman!



Guess what I did when she left her pole unattended.

Just a good time overall!

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

City of the Saints

I just finished the City of the Saints audio book by my good friend D.J. Butler

War is coming and everyone wants to get their hands on the super weapons from the Kingdom of Deseret.

So many things appealed so strongly to me about this collection of four parts. The action, the humor and the steampunk element were just plain fun, I loved the admixture of known inventor genius's like Brunel, Hunley, Whitney, Maxim, and Browning as well as the fanciful Mad Man Orson Pratt contributing to this world's super science.

I'm also into history enough including the local variety here in Utah, that few if any of the characters needed introduction (local = Porter Rockwell, Brigham Young, Eliza R. Snow, Bill Hickman, John D. Lee) but for the sake of review I'll mention the big ones - Sam Clemens (Mark Twain) as a secret agent for the Union in the coming civil war as well as the not dead yet Edgar Allen Poe for the Confederacy - each has a colorful thug apprentice that you genuinely enjoy seeing also get their point of view. The English adventurer Richard Burton an envoy for Queen and country was also a favorite of mine.
The dialogue and action are crisp and hilarious, I truly laughed out loud at a number of scenes such as this between Richard Burton and Tamerlane O'Shaughessy (Clemens Irish thug)

"I'm not a weakling, " O'Shaughnessy protested, "I'm just a bit drunk."
"Keep your pistols aimed down the stairs, then." Burton urged him. "But you told me before you weren't drunk. Just Irish, you said."
"I'll let you in on a secret, Dick," the Irishman said. "it's the same fookin' thing."


I heartily recommend this if you enjoy smart, action, historical's that are so much fun.

D.J. Butler is also going to be hanging with me this weekend at the Tree City Comic con in Boise - come get some books!



Monday, October 13, 2014

Tree City Comic Con

I'm on the road again this week - to share my light, wit and wisdom or lack thereof in Boise Idaho for their first annual Tree City Comic Con. I'll be with my friends the notorious Space Balrogs = D.J. Butler, James Wymore, and Jason King. We will be doing another of our infamous Choose Your Own Apocalypse events and signing books for our legions of fans. Looks like Tree City has quite a lineup of other great guests as well so I'm looking forward to mingling and meeting many of them too.

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Making Appearances

I'm going to be hitting two cons this weekend. I'll be at the Do It Now Expo in Orem Utah at UVU, Thursday, Friday and part of Saturday. I'm going to have books at the Ancient American table. I'm not 100% on my schedule just yet but all my times available should be earlier in the morning /afternoon.


And then a little later on - on Saturday I'll make it to the Salty Horror Con at the Utah State Fair Park in Salt Lake City.

Each of these cons are gonna bring in different crowds and I expect to sell different books at each - my historicals at the Do It Now Expo and my Weird Horror/Space Eldritch at the Salty Con, its gonna make for a schizo weekend, but I'm sure it will be fun either way.