Books Read Lately: Friends Edition

This batch (which I'm forever behind on) is all by people I like to call friends and I've got a round two of books by friends I'll be trying to post by the end of the month too.

Cthulhu Armageddon, by C.T. Phipps
Phipps does an amazing job of weaving the Lovecraft mythos with some hard-knuckled action. While I love the mythos as we all first read it by Ech-Pi himself, I always felt more kinship to those larger than heroes born out of Robert E. Howard's imaginings that don't just go mad by the sight of the unspeakable horror.
And here is where Phipps shines with his narrator, Booth. As the head of his unit in this post-apocalyptic wasteland Booth gives us all we need to do to know about our familiar yet horribly different and shattered world after the rising of the Old Ones. Familiar names are doled out in a reasonable non-info dump manner, so that anyone familiar with the mythos can say Oh I know what that is before Phipps can surprise us with an imaginative twist. We get to meet the grooviest ghoul of them all for example.
I enjoyed the pacing and at one point, I actually wondered - How can they top this! And we're only halfway into the book - I was afraid it was going to wrap up too soon!

IF you like action, horror and some grimdark humor, you have got to check this one out! I look forward to reading more of Phipps work!


Dream Breaker, by Jason King

This is a short by my friend Jason. He does amazing world-building (as he should being an epic fantasy author) and he get's you right in the gut with this tale of Dareth and crosing over into the dream realms where all is not what he expected. Its free at least right now on kindle so you gotta check it out. Dareth battles another Arkyn (arcane-kind) across two planes of existence as he fights to protect his client - The High Priest of Faelon - from assassination.

Murrmann, by Michael Arnzen

I got to meet and chat with Michael Arnzen at this last World Horror Con, great guy, I've read a lot of his stuff on the craft of writing (brilliant work)  and finally snagged this short to read his actual fiction stories. Murrmann is a great little sequel to Dracula capturing the quirks of Van Helsing in his own hand along with a flair for wonderful locales and real local legends. Arnzen knows both the physical territory having been there and of course the horror landscape to grip us cold. The imagery herein is amazing. Do yourself a favor and don't miss this bloody disturbing tale reminiscent of Stokers "The Squaw" along with "Dracula" too of course.

Sands, by Kevin L. Nielsen

Kevin is setting us up in a brilliantly imagined new world populated with dessert clans and their own traditions and such and of course the dramatic struggle against the genesauri—giant, flying, serpentine monsters who hunt across the desert in enormous packs. This has a new take on the epic fantasy story in that this is more son the level of man vs. nature than a dark lord. Its a refreshing new spin.

There were of course some surprises on the human end too as the desert culture of the seventeen-year-old Lhaurel's clan forbids her from even wielding a weapon in her peoples defense. Exiled she begins a new adventure to save her people and herself. This is the beginning of a trilogy that is worth checking out.

Killing Trail, by Charles Gramlich

I love Charles work, from pulpy sword and sorcery to the chilling terror to sword and planet adventure and now the old west. Gramlich has a flair for poetic language with his salty action and then just wins me over everytime. Now of course these shorts are quick and to the point with white hats and black hats but there are clever surprises you don't see coming. Highly recommended.

Grim Dark Western Films

I'm hard at work on my western series the Dark Trail Saga, and I'm at least halfway done with the first Scavengers - (Cold Slither will fit into this but more as a collection of shorts that pertain to it at large as opposed to the rest which will be novels).

So besides just my readings - (I'm enjoying Killing Trail - Charles) I'm also watching some iconic westerns for that feel. I want to capture the great american mythology of the west and a lot of what I enjoy is the revisionist western.

So I'm catching up on a few that you all may or may not have seen.

The Hateful Eight

I like a lot of Tarantino's work (not everything but you know). With this one I have found myself thinking a lot about it the next few days afterward. If there is one thing I'd like to take away from this is how great Tarantino's dialogue is. The essence of capturing character and slick reveal of motivation is a lot of fun.

I definitely liked this more than Django Unchained as this seemed a lot more realistic and had better reveals.

Slow West 

I had seen ads for this and I wasn't sure I was interested despite Fassbinder's great performance in another weird west role in Jonah Hex.
Then I listened to the Weird West Radio podcast and was impressed by what they had to say about Slow West. It is a pretty gritty western, not so bloody as say a Tarnatino pic or Bone Tomahawk but still, it has a bang to it.

What I liked was the world weary wisdom of Silas (Fassbinder) and the blind optimism of the kid he has been hired to help out. There were  a lot of little asides where you thought something would happen and then great surprises, sometimes with grimdark laugh out loud surprises. There were also a couple of things that reminded me of a classic horror western Blood Meridian. For a new European/New Zealand depiction of the American west this was a great outing.

Bone Tomahawk 

In a way I have certain expectations for Kurt Russell in a western movie but both Hateful Eight and Bone Tomahawk give some character surprises while still allowing Russell to be that tough guy. I wanted to see this for awhile especially considering that the creator behind it is doing weird west books - S. Craig Zahler and his Wraiths of the Broken Land is coming to film soon too.
This one has interesting characters and great play back and forth between the dandy gunfighter and crippled husband and ne'er do well deputy. In some respects I had reservations about the cannibal tribe, it is cool that it is something different from others westerns but in that there were just a few f them made it a little hard to believe they would be that feared by other tribes etc. I did like their body modifications - that was a nice creepy touch.
My one reservation about it was I thought it was overly gory for gores sake. Just my opinion but still it was a compelling story.

The Wild Bunch 

This is another I had meant to see forever and it opens in an epic way, Peckinpah's imagery of the children having the scorpions fight the ants is so telling of our characters and the world they live in.

I loved the premise of the outlaws being a part of the Mexican revolution while still being hunted by  their former partner. betrayal is a powerful theme in this one and what's not to love about Ben Johnson mowing people down with a Maxim machine gun. This one like Tarantino has a pretty bloody ending without feeling over the top gross like Bone Tomahawk. Still I find myself comparing it to the Lee Marvin pic The Professionals which I still think I like better.


A Fistful of Dollars

I grew up watching Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns ( I also recently rewatched The Good The Bad and The Ugly and Outlaw Josey Wales just because) but it had been a long time since I had watched this western reworking of Yojimbo/Red Harvest. It stands up, its one helluva movie.

In my wondering about how to paint the western world I'm writing you can't go wrong with the classic Eastwood films.

I loved seeing the final showdown and Clint's reveal on his invulnerability.

There are a lot of elements in these that I'll sift through and percolate into the upcoming project.

What are some of your favorite western films, scenes etc?

Mage, Maze, Demon

Mage, Maze, Demon, by Charles Gramlich

I always enjoy a Gramlich tale and this one rocks!


We follow Bryle, a barbarian, through the fire and beyond to a cavern ~ the beginning of the maze where he is given a treacherous choice. Serve a sorcerer (how revolting) and face a demon (equally unpleasant). Its tough not to say too much regarding a short, but when its all said and done, the time you enjoy reading is well spent. I felt the sting of the flames and smoke, the scratching of claws and the surprise of life anew.

Charles always has crisp action scenes and vibrant prose and I was excited to read this as I haven't read anything from him in awhile but count myself a fan (I love his Talera books and his sword & sorcery collection Bitter Steel)  M,M,D is dripping with surprises around every corner I enjoyed it quite a lot.


As I said before it's a quick read (only being a few thousand words) but well worth the .99 cents for anyone who loves their fantasy with some grit.

Grab a copy here

Writing Process Blog Tour

A friend and writer whom I recently reviewed The Crusader: JP Wilder asked me about doing a writing process blog tour and so here it is!

Answer these four questions about your writing process. Answers can be as long or short as you wish. 1) What am I working on? 
I just released a new novella Fangs of the Dragon - a Porter Rockwell weird western - this was previously published in Monsters and Mormons and just recently in Weird Tales of Horror - so this is one of my experiments teasers - with a fantastic cover by the amazing Matt Page! I have several projects I'm trying to wrap up in the short term - collections of my previously published short stories, one will be a weird western collection and the other is a Sword & Sorcery fantasy collection - each will collect my published (or not) short stories. Feels good to have enough nowadays to actually fill their own antho's  After that, I need to hit on a historical fantasy sequel to my first novel Blood of Our Fathers and then I have big plans for a fantasy series titled Gods & Robbers.

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre? 
I mix up all my influences and life experience into my stories, which mine like yours is completely individual. I remix history books and stories I love with Rock N Roll and then throw in things that come from dreams, sometimes a favorite (or disliked) story that I would have done differently. All of us filter things differently so it all comes out different in the work.

3) Why do I write what I do? 4) How does my writing process work?
It has to come out! I have so many ideas bubbling to the surface and writing is a cathartic release for all those things running through my mind. I might go crazy if there wasn't a vent for the many characters talking and doing things in my head, so many tales to tell and adventures to be had.

4) How does my writing process work?
I usually ponder some ideas, jot down illegible notes, drive and think about story's I'd like to read,  then sit down and start running with it. I rarely use outlines, but I do refine my drafts quite a few times. Sometimes its hard to let things go. My large output for 2014 has been a long time coming of everything I've worked on for the last 4 odd years.

Thanks to J.P. Wilder for inviting me on this - I need motivation to post better this last year! 
and in continuing these writing process blogs I've connected with my friend and amazing writer Charles Gramlich  who writes whatever interests him, including fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, His fiction is primarily horror or fantasy: his non-fiction deals mostly with science or with writing or writers.

I gotta plug that I loved his Swords of Talera series and his Bitter Steel collection of heroic fantasy.

Book Review: Wings Over Talera

Wings Over Talera, by Charles Gramlich

I was introduced to Barsoom and the worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs through Carl Sagan and NOVA. Holst's epic Mars, The God of War blared behind Frank Frazetta's gripping images of John Cater and Dejah Thoris battling alien monsters-it was fantastic, the only thing wrong with any of it was Sagan and his monotonous condescending tone of how there was no such thing ERB's vision of Mars, his science was ridiculous and Percival Lowell could not have seen any canals on the face of the red planet.

This from the guy who is asking me to accompany him on his spaceship of the imagination, no thanks, I'm gonna stick with the Sword & Planet stories, that's what I want to hear more about-which brings me to Charles and his Talera series.

Ruenn Maclang, a 19th century Earthman is mysteriously transported to a strange new world, he escapes slavery at that hands of a reptilian race and finds new love-that's book one that I reviewed last year. This is book two in the series and deals with Ruenn searching for his lost brother and a strange new threat to the peace that he and his own Taleran princess are about to enjoy. Treachery and twists send Ruenn reeling from fire to frying pan.

Molded akin to the best of my favorite pulp novels like ERB and Robert E. Howard, Gramlich's Talera books are not to be missed. His writing descriptions and action are par excellence, the kind of 'I wish I wrote that'. The creatures that inhabit the strange artificial world of Talera evoke both a mythic and Darwin gone wrong ethos, granting a familiar and exotic locale for our narrating hero. I highly recomend that if anyone has an inkling that they will enjoy the upcoming John Carter movie, they check out Charles work as well.

And without spoiling anything, the last line in Wings Over Talera is a killer for the setup of book 3: Witch of Talera.

Grab Charles books here