Into the Belly of Kathulos: UGEEK #6

Chapter 6 of Walking Through Walls: Into the Belly of Kathulos in issue #6 of UGEEK Magazine came out over the Fourth of July weekend, and I wasn't home to get a copy or really post about it until now.

It's got a great steampunk cover (and article inside) and a great cosplay centerfold of a steampunk Snow White by Mala Foxx.

I also noticed a author spotlight on my good friend Jason King, whose latest fantasy novel The Soulless Grave was just released today and an interview with a new facebook friend actress Wren Barnes.

This S&S fantasy noir is going places I didn't expect and I'm quite happy with it.

Thanks to my editors James Wymore, Holli Anderson and Bruce Durham for helping polish it up and I am looking forward to the next chapter that will be out in time for Salt Lake ComicCon. I am hoping that this mag helps spread my gospel and people start buying my other books. I expect that this particular tale will take at least another 6-7 chapters to wrap up and when its done I expect to release it myself for fun.

Mala's pic by the great Vladmir Chopine, who I hope to have do a portrait of me sometime - he has done magnificent work on at least half of my best local writer friends.

Book Review: Poets in Hell

I'm damnably late on this, especially when I am seeing a legion of press pushing the next Janet Morris edited production Heroika.

Poets in Hell continues the tradition of famous and infamous persons alike in Hell having their dramatic turn on all the monstrous possibilities for conflict.

I recall I read Rogues in Hell a few years ago and quite a few of the same authors are back. My first thought years back was why did so many of these mazing people end up in hell? They don't deserve it, until Janet herself commented that there are 613 commandments that nearly everyone of note in life has broken and thusly we end up with Heroes in Hell...

I'll mention my favorite tales:

Seven Against Hell, by Janet and Chris Morris
I love this opening, we get the magnificent point of view of vaunted Diomedes (one of my favorites from The Iliad) he along with Odysseus, Homer and Sappho. Gotta love anything with Sappho! Greatpoetry and imagery for anyone who loves The Iliad and Odyssey.

The opening line of Nancy Asire's Reunion got me - If hell had a GDP ("Gross Demonis Product"), that product would be rumors.
Great line and a great tale.

My friend Bruce Durham's Hell-Hounds is fantastic combining Alexander Graham Bell, Marconi and a run in with the aforementioned Hell hounds and of course the great Snorri Sturluson and Robert E. Howard - my only beef Bruce is that your tale is far too short!

My favorite this time around is likely Larry Atchley Jr's Poetic Injustice probably because I like Samuel Coleridge and always loved his Kubla Khan and this tale is about Coleridge being vexed that he never truly finished that poem to epic length and he needs to - couple that with a nefarious plot by Guy Fawkes and Anton La Vey again as a tailor and we have devilish conspiracies.

And one of the things I really enjoy about this series is the wide variety of people in hell, like Beowulf and Boudica in Tom Barczak's Pride and Penance - and the Jabberwocky!


All in all a great collection of twisted historical personages in the worst place in the universe.

Birthday Book Bomb! Weird Tales of Horror

June 22nd was my birthday, on behalf of that, I am releasing my collection of short strange tales collectively entitled Weird Tales of Horror for .99 cents just for today!

I would sincerely appreciate your getting a copy and eventually leaving me a scathing review.

Among those who have had some kind words are the talented Wilum Pugmire and Bruce Durham

"With these tales of many lands and many peoples, David J. West combines an excellent prose style with a brilliant imagination to give us a solid collection of wonderful stories. This is a refreshingly original gathering of weird fiction." --W. H. Pugmire 

"David J. West, author of 'Heroes of the Fallen', is a strong voice in the field of Sword & Sorcery. His work is evocative, featuring deftly drawn characters, exotic locales and energetic tale spinning." -- Bruce Durham

Rock the VOTE: If You Please

I have been voting for a couple years now in the Preditors & Editors Readers Poll and this is the first year that I have been nominated.

And though you may be quite tired of hearing about it, I sure wouldn't mind some clicking,and email confirmation thereafter/voting in support of my Space Eldritchness.
My story is in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy short story category and a couple of my friends are in the horror category, also the antho is in the running...so...

To vote for "Gods in Darkness" go Here and for anthologies you can vote for Space Eldritch here,
AND to vote for my friends,
Bruce Durham and his tale "Colony" from Rogues in Hell or D.J. Butler's "Arise Thou Niarlat From Thy Rest" also from Space Eldritch go here since both are in the short horror category.

Rogues in Hell

Rogues in Hell created by Janet Morris, edited by Janet and Chris Morris, with the diabolical assistance of their damnedest writers

Into the rich shared world milieu of Morris's  In Hell series we are given glimpses into a number of adventures and cruel double-crosses.

One thing I particularly enjoyed was the varied and wild assortment in this rogues gallery, there were quite a few individuals I guess I never expected to see in Hell, among them Mary Shelley, Ben Franklin, Solomon, Wyatt Earp, Frank Hopkins, Bat Masterson, and T.E. Lawrence. Some others I have to admit to not being too surprised about as residents of the netherworld.

Ragnarok and Roll by Larry Atchley, Jr. for example had Anton LaVey (who I don't think is even dead yet) paired with the Red Baron and a pack of Vikings on a hunt for the Spear of Longinus.

Colony by Bruce Durham is among my favorite of the collection and made me smile in that he reminds us a goodly number of friendly Canadians are lingering (see tortured) in Hell as well. They are looking for a mysterious island and led by a very mad Samuel de Champlain (that killed me). Durham joins us with General James Wolfe and things never go as planned. Great tale.

The Miraculous Roadside Attraction by Jack William Finley is another favorite. Elliot Ness finds out why he is in Hell.

Hell Road Truckers by Michael H. Hanson has Odysseus (who I had never before pictured as belong in Hades) taking the dangerous Tartarosian road with Hell's frieght. Meanwhile Achilles and Hektor continue to duel. I never would have guessed Hektor deserved to be there. Very entertaining.

If Necessary by Bradley H. Sinor is an excellent ride with one my of my favorite writers Hunter S. Thompson, Richard Burton (the magnificent explorer [neither of whom I think deserve this fate]) and Lillian Hellman of whom I am rather neutral on and Caligula who definitely deserves it all along in a maddening road trip.

Overall a great eclectic collection sure to please the reader looking for new vistas on the damned.