Three for Three: Pulp-Ridden Reviews

A new twitter acquaintance Jesse Abraham Lucas posted about doing a three for three indie review challenge here. He even posted a great review of Fangs of the Dragon here

So I'm joining in and posting a few quick reviews of some shorts. Novels are coming soon, because I'm long overdue.

Here we go:

Horishi Tom: Tales from the Storm  by C. R. Langille

from the description:
Utah Territories, 1867

Jeremiah Redford lost everything when his family was brutally taken from him. His quest to bring them back from the dead lands him in the abandoned mining town of Angus, Utah. What he finds in the town tests his sanity and his very soul. 

Be careful what you wish for because you might just find it.

This is a quick dark western-horror read. I found out about it at LTUE from Cody himself, He stopped by and grabbed copies of Scavengers and Cold Slither, so I'm grateful. We started talking western horror and that's when he told he me this was out. So I grabbed it. It is short, but Langille has a gift for spine chilling language and atmosphere. I'd love to see something longer from him. 4 stars

Moonlight in the Valley, by Wilson Harp

I'd been meaning to check this one out for awhile too. This had a different take than the usual tale, letting us in on the monsters (werewolves) point of view I liked the pack dynamic, in fighting and such. Plus it had a nice twist on their antagonists - the good guys. A certain LONE masked man and his Indian sidekick who both go unnamed but you can figure it out. It's not without its faults, though, the language didn't grab me and I didn't care for the lead werewolf. 3 stars

Weird Menace Volume 1, by James Reasoner, Bill Crider, John C. Hocking, Robert E. Vardeman, Scott Dennis Parker, and Keith West

This collection of new tales headed up by James Reasoner is an awesome new collection done in the spirit of the weird menace tales of the thirties and forties, all the action adventure, mad scientists and spicy danger with a damsel in distress you can shake a stick at. I bought it awhile back to support my friend Keith West (no relation) and finally got around to reading - sorry I took so long.

These stories grab you by the throat (with zombified hands) and you gotta fight to let go and move on to the next one. A lot of fun for anyone who enjoys the old school pulps. I need to grab the next one.

"Scavengers" Chapter One on Audio!

Hey guys and gals!
Not only has Scavengers hit #1 bestseller, my good friends Jason King and  Zach Bjorge even went and surprised me with an audio reading of chapter one! Check it put!

and if your so inclined Scavengers is still on sale for .99 cents for the next 48 hours.

Coming Soon: Porter's Weird West Collection

Things always take longer than you'd like.

I sincerely wish and strive and hope to get things to a point wherein I can accomplish all I'd like to in a day but that is still a ways out.
In the mean time I'm still plugging away and trying to keep up the good fight and get my creative demands met.

Cold Slither which I had hoped to release late last month couldn't make it for July either - but I'm in the home stretch and it will be out sooner than later in a couple weeks - I think I will experiment and have it available for pre-order too and see how that fares.

Part of what happened was the collection of Porter Rockwell tales were mostly already written - I was only going to do one new novella Cold Slither itself - but then a few more inspiration points took hold and I came up with one more new piece - so the book closes with a new ghostly, vampiric, M.R. James inspired tale - Striding Thru Darkness. The cover much more resembles that story than Cold Slither too.

I'm doing edits now and have already formatted what I think will be a very handsome stylish book. With great native monsters like the one beside us here: I always think the print copies trump the ebooks even if that is what people usually buy - I hope I can keep some of those formatting treasures intact for the ebook but am not sure just yet.

In any case here is the cover and backside - much thanks to Nathan Shumate for his support and help in the endeavour. And to Jason King among others for some editing and suggestions. And of course to anyone else who looked the previously published tales over too - Theric Jepson, William Morris, Jaleta Clegg, John Palisano, etc.

Here is the TOC:

Contents

Foreword 1

Cold Slither 2

Black Wings in the Moonlight 45

Soma for the Destroying Angels Soul 58

Rolling in the Deep 74

Tangle Crowned Devil 85

Fangs Of The Dragon 98

Garden of Legion 147

Red Wolf Moon 163

Killer Instinct 178

Right Hand Man 194

Striding Through Darkness 220

Oh and Keith - I hope you know your Amazing Stories quote means the world to me - hence it being on the actual back cover - I purposefully left your name off though just because of the Amazon thinking we're related nonsense - I sincerely hope there is no offense at that. Let me know.

5 BLADES is out and FREE

 5 Blades an anthology I contributed four! previously released tales is out and for free for the next couple days.

My tales may be familiar to my regular blog followers, -

Fangs of the Dragon: Blessed by a holy man, Porter Rockwell was promised that if he never cut his hair he would not be harmed by bullet nor blade . . .
But what if monsters strike with tooth and claw? This might be Port's last ride . . .
Or will he send them crawling back to the abyss? Either way it's gonna be a helluva fight!

The Serpents Root: A quest for a dangerous item to cure the sick may not be as simple a delivery as a thief expects. Love can be a killer.

The Dig: An archaeologist struggles with the semantics of who is the real grave robber with a rogue Italian captain in WW2 when they find something buried that should not be.

The King in the Wood: Music and mythology merge as a young woman buys a strange instrument in a curiosity shop and things will never be the same.

The other four blades are 

Jason King - fantasy author extraordinaire who recently released book 2 in his Age of the Infinite series.

Drew Briney - lawyer and all around nice guy, with a some great fantasy tales.

Jaime Buckley, acclaimed comic artist with some of his tale spinning.

and newcomer Lewis Strassburg with a great fantasy tale of revenge and giant worms.

Catch it while its hot and free here


P.S. should have had you wait a day Paul! I owe you!

Fangs for the Kind Words

I'm loathe to keep battering anyone promotion-wise but Hear Ye Hear Ye, I've some things to tout...

The third installment of my fantasy serial, Walking Through Walls is available for a read via pdf
its a continuation of a fantasy action-adventure piece that is a precursor to my bigger novel(s) yet to come in the Gods & Robbers series.

And I got some very kind words from online friend Paul McNamee at his blog about my weird western Fangs of the Dragon ~ Thanks Paul!

Sometimes I get down a bit about how writing is going and these surprise comments/reviews/posts can really turn things around.

Much obliged once again Paul.

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.

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

Interview is up on Youtube

We talk about a little bit of everything ~ Lovecraft Mythos, Robert E. Howard, writing, the Elder Sign, Inspiration, Mormonism, Romney,bath salts, and I plug a number of anthos I'm in (or will be in) especially the upcoming Space Eldritch but also IN SITU, Monsters & Mormons, Monk Punk, Unnatural Tales of the Jackalope, etc etc

I enter at about 24 minutes in.

Retrospecticus 2011

Ahhh 2011 ...where to begin???

The gifted Jeff Jones passed away this year. I broke my favorite "battle ready" sword, and I didn't finish my sequel.


I glanced back over the blog and pondered what I had posted here.

Writing-wise I have sold quite a few stories that I thought would see print this year...and are waiting to be printed next year. But Fistful of Tengu, Curse the Child, The Hand of Fate, Fangs of the Dragon and the first chapter in my dark fantasy serial Midnight Sons in the local Utah UGeek Magazine, were all released. Perhaps the other stories I am waiting on will build up and make it look like 2012 finds me a supremely prolific writer.

I am still way behind on the rewrites for my second novel, Blood of our Fathers, the sequel to Heroes of the Fallen. But I'm working on it and hope to get it turned back into my editor soon.

Life can be topsy turvy, so between a big move and numerous personal and family health issues sometimes you just can't get things done that at one time seemed so simple. But the battle continues.

A number of other mostly finished projects will only help it appear that 2012 is my super year.

Looking over my reviews I read more books than I remembered off the top of my head-most of them were pretty good, lot of indies. But my standout favorites would be Mike Mignola's Hellboy graphic novels. I am in the midst of the latest installment - vol.11 The Bride of Hell

I read a lot of history books (usually rereads) that I didn't bother to blog about but when it comes to non-fiction I think my favorite read this year was - The Book of Werewolves by Sabine Baring-Gould, the guy who also wrote the hymn 'Onward Christian Soldiers'. Though this might sound like fiction it was a collection of the strange and true horrifying things men do/did-much of it borders on people who thought they were werewolves and or vampires, and then there was always that hint that there may be things that just have no rational explanation and may be supernatural.

I also read a lot of books by folks that I count as friends, practically too many to list off the top of my head and not forget names-and I still have a number of others to catch up on.

I blogged more about movies this year than I ever bothered to previously and following the trend my favorites were the indies- like Ironclad, Kill the Irishman, and 13 Assassins. I sincerely hope this quality storytelling continues.

So summing up, I have very high hopes for our new year, lot of writing to be done, things waiting to be published and lots of things I have yet to turn in or am able to blog about yet. Made some good new friends, and am living where I grew up-I'm excited to able to share that with my kids-jagged mountains, dark forests, vicious wild animals, don't worry Honey, etc etc. I actually hate resolutions but I am gonna try harder to be better than I was before-gotta turn that try into a 'Did'.

Hope the New Year finds you well-have a good one.

This Goes up to Eleven

Just a reminder that the virtual launch for Monsters & Mormons is this evening11/11/11

 

The party will take place:

10 pm – midnight, eastern

9-11 pm, central

8-10, mountain

7-9, pacific

If you would like to participate and haven't already done so, please "like" the Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/monstersandmormons

And if you are on Twitter, but don't follow @motleyvision or @thmazing, but are open to it, do so. That'll make it easier for us to find you. I also am going to try to do something with Google+

more in depth details here

St. Rockwell and the Dragon

This is the illustration of Porter Rockwell by Davin Abegg for my weird western novella "Fangs of the Dragon" in Monsters & Mormons. 

Here is a snippet~

A mountain of a man stepped forward, creating a hush among the tribe. Thick and strong, he looked down on Porter scrutinizing him. “You are Mormonee?” he asked, bringing his bare chest to Port’s nose.

Amanda said, “This is Big Bear.”

“Yeah, I’m Mormonee,” answered Port. “He is probably the second biggest Indian I’ve ever seen.”

“Do you wear the sacred robes?” asked the grinning giant.

“Yes.”

“Show me.”

Port opened his shirt revealing the garments. “Satisfied?”

“The woman is Mormonee too?”

“Yes.”

“She will show me?” He smirked.

Port shoved Big Bear, “That’s enough. Can we talk or not, Many-Buffalo? Or do I have to teach some manners to your boy?”

Amanda shook her head.

Big Bear knocked Port’s hat off.

“Tell him! I’m here to take care of things and if they don’t help me, I can’t help them!” shouted Port. “But I’m not here to play games.”

Many-Buffalo stood impassive, then nodded to Big Bear.

The giant lunged, grasping Port in a bear hug, trapping his arms and lifting him off the ground. The gathering laughed as Many-Buffalo shouted in triumph.

Struggling to breath, let alone move, Port asked, “What’d he say?”

“He said, if you are the best the Brigham can offer, he doesn’t need help,” cried Amanda over the din.

Big Bear’s laughter boomed into Port’s face.

“Wheat! They ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Big Bear’s hug cracked Port’s back and grew tighter, forcing air from his lungs and still the big man laughed.

Looking Big Bear square in the eye, Port winked and then slammed his thick forehead into Big Bear’s nose repeatedly. The huge man, blinded and bloodied, dropped Port, who landed on his feet. Porter slammed Big Bear an uppercut to the chin, dropping the man-mountain. Rounding on Many-Buffalo, Port snarled, “Was he the best you got?”

Amanda translated.

Many-Buffalo frowned, but motioned for Port and Amanda to follow.

Amanda picked up Port’s hat, then handed it to him saying, “You know, might doesn’t always make right.”

“Didn’t I just prove that?”