What A Collection - Ken Kelly!

It's the artist Ken Kelly's birthday and when I did a tweet and facebook post about it,

I realized - you know what? I am positive that Ken Kelly has done more book covers that I own than anybody else - and that's a lot considering I typically buy every Frazetta I can find. Kelly is such a work horse and has done so many Conan's and other sword and sorcery related covers that it is staggering. He has done a lot of heavy metal covers too, but I don't think I have any of those but when it comes to book covers wow -its staggering.

I just did a count in my office I have about 30+ books with Frazetta covers. And I am not counting doubles - just one individual cover per book.

But I've got 70+ Ken Kelly covers - loads of Conan and Robert E. Howard, but also some Kane, Karl  Edward Wagner books like his Bran Mak Morn - Legion From the Shadows, the Robert Adams Horseclans series and John Maddox Roberts Stormlands series, and then even a variety of standalones and anthologies.

Happy Birthday Ken, and thanks for the bigger than life barbaric art!

BRUTAL gets the Audio Treatment

My first audiobook is under the pen name. It beats out Scavengers which I am assured is close on its heels.

But I am pleased to announce that
BRUTAL goes audio as of tomorrow thanks to Tantor audio which approached me at the close of the year. I am stoked and sincerely hope you guys will check it out HERE

And of course all the reviews you guys can throw my way are much appreciated. They make a bigger difference than most people know.

Year in Review

I can't believe it's gone, 2017, so full full of hopes and dreams and yet there were plenty of people ready to kick it in the balls like a mule, just for existing. Plenty of bad news and yet, it was pretty good for. Its been my most successful year yet as far as writing goes, beginning with great success for SCAVENGERS, the sequel CRAZY HORSES and then my first pen name novel BRUTAL which surpassed the other books easily. Audio-books (both Scavengers and Brutal - should be out withing a month or so) are coming early in the new year and I'm very excited for that, and I had quite a few short stories out this year too - always a good sign, there no money in them to speak of, but shorts have a dear place in my heart.

Things have been great with the family and I have had a blast with my writing friends at the cons and such. I am planning on really kicking things into gear in the new year - I know I always say that, but this time I mean it. I feel like I now know enough about marketing and such to crank up the success meter with writing and all I've got to do is produce, produce, produce = write, write, write!


So for the rest of Year in Review, I'll talk about things I liked.

Favorite movie? Hell if I know, I'm trying to think of anything I saw, worth a damn. I probably enjoyed the Marvel movies most.

Favorite food? I had a lot of steak this year, the more expensive cuts I get used to the more I need to keep having them and not worrying about price- ah the joys of success.

Favorite trip/travel this year? I did have a good Christmas vacation to see my folks with the kids but the best trip this year was definitely my wife and I's getaway to Maui - it was awesome, beautiful, romantic and I even got quite a bit of writing in too.

Favorite Music? New/Current music is getting harder and harder for me to enjoy, though I do like Sir Sly, Portugal the Man, and Atlas Genius. Instead I've been listening to a lot of old school funk because my 2 year old loves it so much, I'm talking Earth, Wind and Fire, Kool and the Gang, Ric James, The Commodores, Sly Stone, Parliament Funkadelic, Chic, Marvin Gaye etc etc

Oh and I have been enjoying the instrumental score work of Daniel Pemberton from King Arthur Legend of the Sword and The Man from Uncle. Good writing mood music.

Now the real reason you're here Books:

I can't narrow it down to any one but I can talk about the ones that really grabbed me.

Kings of the Wyld, by Nicolaus Eames
Bear in mind that this book is actin movie fun, its adventure, ts monsters, its funny and so on, never mind that this fantasy world couldn't really exist geopolitically and there are numerous anachronisms in there - its still a very enjoyable read with great characters and dialogue. I might have said it would be better if it was a little more realistic? serius? but then it wouldn't be Kings of the Wyld.

Blackwing, by Ed McDonald
This is where you complain that there is no pleasing me. I loved Blackwing, wonderful sorcerous grit  and surprises, but what do I think would have made it even better? - If it had just a little more humor it could have been a classic. So there, too much in Kings, not enough in Blackwing, maybe if Eames and McDonald collaborated??? Again, this is all just a reflection on me and my eclectic tastes.

The Burning Isle, by Will Panzo
It has a premise similar to mine in Brutal, stranger comes to town and starts tearing it up - playing the bad guys against each other = Yojimbo, Fistful of Dollars, Red Harvest etc etc
This is a little different in that it is magic duels instead of samurai or gunfights, but still, great characters and motivations, there were some good surprises and one thing I just loved - there is a character that its totally Karl Edward Wagner's KANE. I mean its not Kane, nobody ever calls him Kane but between you and me = ITS KANE! I even asked Will on twitter about it and he pretty much confirmed.

Witchy Eye, by Dave Butler
Dave has been my friend for a long time and I knew this book was coming like five years ago! = Traditional publishing schedules people - anyhow, it is a dense fantasy world in what might have been America. I don't know of anyone else working today with as many layered nuances begging for continual rereads to catch all the depth as Butler, I'm going to have to dive in again before the sequel comes out.

There are quite a few other books I'm forgetting in the moment and several from friends I meant to get to and haven't yet, - BUT I WILL.

So, in closing, I hope you all have a great New Years and I'll see you on the other side.

p.s. Some shots of things to come

It's Gonna Get BRUTAL

My latest book BRUTAL is out now!

So I decided to try my hand at a pen name - I'm not too worried about the secretiveness of it because either you all are gonna know anyway or you're the type of person that doesn't care who wrote the book.

MY biggest motivation was to see how it might affect my work with the Amazon algorithm. BECAUSE

David J. West is known for writing weird westerns, Lovecraftian horror, viking historical's, action-adventure, weird LDS tales and fantasy. That kinda messes with all the things the algorithm is supposed to do to help me sell more books.

So I thought I'd experiment and see if James Alderdice - my dad's first name and my maternal grandmother's maiden name. (And no one is using it on Amazon and hey its an "A" name - West is always at the end of the list, bottom of the bookshelf)

That also brings me to doing "Pulp Speed" to write this latest book. I wrote about 78K in about 6 weeks. I did follow the plot of RED HARVEST pretty footloose and fancy free and there are loads of other inspirations in the book. A whole lot of Robert E. Howard, Karl Edward Wagner, Dashiell Hammett, Sergio Leone's - Fistful of Dollars and Akira Kurasawa's - Yojimbo in here. I was also pretty inspired by a recent Hawaii trip to Maui too - that's where the whole dark goddess thing came from.

Hammett's book took place in a mining city called Personville/Poisonville by the locals and I found out it was based on Butte, Montana - guess who is pretty darn familiar with Butte - me - my Dad grew up there, I have been there many, many times. I used a lot of real Butte in the book too - albeit fashioning it to fit a medieval fantasy landscape.

Much thanks to editor Jana Brown for keeping the pace flowing on this one and doing a great job with my breakneck writing goal.

Here is the Description etc:

A man of violence. A duchess with dangerous desires. Two warring wizards. Things in Aldreth are going to get Brutal.

A man known only as the Sellsword has come to the border city of Aldreth, where rival wizards struggle for control of a weak-willed duke. Amidst murderous conspiracies and a scandal plagued dynasty, the Sellsword plays all sides to his advantage, bringing about a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men, while wooing the reckless and willful duchess.

Though corrupt paladins, demonic adepts, and a surprisingly formidable assassin stand between the Sellsword and the unwholesome truth, spells and blades might not be what take the Sellsword down. It could be plain old bad luck...

BRUTAL is an powerful sword and sorcery tale with colorful characters and wit straight out of a 80's flick. If you like humor in your pulp, gritty heroes, despicable villains and grimdark fantasy then you'll love this riveting debut by James Alderdice.
Grab a copy now!


This was a lot of fun and I think I need to keep pushing myself and getting out a lot more of these quick reads.

World Horror Con 2016

World Horror Con 2016 in Provo Utah. It would be fair to call it an intimate con as writers present almost equaled the attendee's. Some of our panels - well pretty much all of them were sparsely attended but that's not always a bad thing. We definitely had more opportunity to have more personal conversations with fans - everyone's questions on panels could be addressed and we all got to spend a lot of time getting to know each other.


It was great to see so many writers and have a chance to chat with them. Very pleased that my friend Michael Collings was given his award. He has such an amazing body of work and deserved some recognition. When he gave me a positive review of Whispers Out of the Dust I was tickled pink.


I got to make some great new friends (like Linda Addison here) and I still sold a few books. I autographed even more because of some of the shared anthologies, like Redneck Eldritch, I think about half of the contributors were present at the Con.

There was a massive book signing Friday night and it was great to interact with everyone and chat while sgning books, here you can see Michael Arnzen juggling Sarah Seeley's brains. I also got some books signed by the likes of Darren Shan, Sanford Allen, Joe McKinney and artist Keith Thompson.


Friday night while Craig Nybo and the Freestyle Gargoyle band was setting up, I noticed a few people who got locked out of the hotel and came to their aid - Jack Ketchum, Michael Arnzen and Linda Addison - so that was cool.


The Freestyle Gargoyles jam was awesome, 7 authors gave creepy new spoken word pieces - Steve Diamond, Scott Tarbet, Nathan Shumate, Jason King, Holli Anderson, Dave Butler and me.


I gotta say thank you to Craig Nybo and the bad they were magnificent.


I was the finale and everyone said I rocked the house - I'm sure it will be available soon (Youtube, iTunes)  and I'll gladly share that.


I did pitch a project to an agent (it went very well)  and I'll definitely keep you all informed on that progress as it escalates. Hell, Dan Well's NYTimes bestselling author, told me he wants to read it and I said, I'd hold him to that for the sake of a blurb.



Saturday, my fire was dimmed when it was a No Show event for my reading, but I resolved to remind myself that writers gotta have thick skins and just keepin' on.



Later we did a Space Balrogs game, the attendance was sparse but the laughs were huge - much thanks to Callie Stoker for filling in she was hilarious - and then out of 9 audience members we had a three way tie! 3 people for all three panelists = unprecedented.  I don't think I could have pulled that off if Darren Shan hadn't been rooting for me.




Sunday I did a Western Horror panel that was awesome and afterward I moderated Why We Love Lovecraft panel - there were six panelists and seven audience members at first - it grew a little as it went on but among all the esteemed panelists, I had to incorporate audience member Keith Thompson who has done pre-production design work for Guillermo Del Toro and the ill fated "At the Mountains of Madness" movie - we all had to soak in his expertise and experience and the heartbreak for that not happening - so glad he came to listen and we could take advantage of that - he's a helluva nice guy and it was wonderful to talk with him.


Keith also did the monster in an hour panel with my buddy Carter Reid, I shoulda got a pic of Keith's creepy surreal art but I did get one of Carter's magnificent specimens.

Oh, and since Redneck Eldritch released during the con I was doing some online promotion and signing books there and I did keep tabs on the amazon rankings, the highest I saw was #11 in Horror anthologies so that makes me feel good! Thanks to everyone who bought a copy.

So all in all it was a great weekend made new friends, new contacts and hopefully reached a good handful of new fans.

Sanford Allen and me and the great Darren Shan.

the Lovecraft panel.

Book Review: Prince of Thorns

Prince of Thorns, by Mark Lawrence

I think I first read about this over at Keith West's Adventures Fantastic blog, and it sat in the back of my mind for awhile and I noticed several copies at my local used book store a month ago, but I decided to buy a brand new paperback copy a week ago rather than a trade paperback to get into in my Locke Lamora/Red Seas Under Red Skies withdrawals. Its just handier to read on the plane ride and I don't have to power down the kindle that I got from my girlfriend for my birthday - Thanks Babe.
SO  .  .  .
Prince Jorg, the Prince of Thorns is different, he is nastier and a definite anti-hero but we come to understand why he is the way he is and even side with him in his vengeful cause.
The book is gritty like Abercrombie and GRRM, but I never did feel like Lawrence was too gratuitous or took things too far - we get the idea and that's plenty.

The world building was enchanting and as we learn more we hunger to learn more about the history of the realm, you are in for some good surprises.

I really hate to give away too much, I suspect if you were already thinking maybe on this one, because of its similarities to those other fantasies, you will enjoy this very much. I'll be getting a copy of King of Thorns soon enough.

Gods in Darkness

It took far longer than I ever meant, or honestly thought it would, but I finished 'God's in Darkness' (title gratefully stolen from a Karl Edward Wagner chapter heading in Darkness Weaves.)

for my Space Eldritch contribution. At least this time he didn't haunt my dreams saying I could not use his title as he did here.

Gods in Darkness is 15K of pulpy speculative assault on the seven senses in the cold emptiness of space. My goal with the piece was to put a Lovecraftian Sword & Sorcery tale up into the Detritosphere (Crypto-Cosmic military term for a Low Earth Orbit) ~ alas I never did put a sword up there, but knives, blunt objects and sorcery abound.

I am pleased that my wife says it is the best thing I have ever written.

There are several homages thrown in for good measure, the naming of my protagonist as Cormac Ross was deliberate as the Cold War veteran is cut from the same Gaelic cloth as the bulk of Robert E. Howard's hero's.

And while I didn't name (yet-still doing copy edits) the Lovecraftian being, its hard to not throw out some kinda Zyth-Yog as an addition to that mythos too. I am sucker for name meanings and it is the rare exception that I don't have a purposeful name with a meaning in relation to that character. Not being fluent in Elder Gods vernacular, I chose to simply not name the thing.

Still, this has been a fantastically satisfying month for writing and I figure my regular readers will greatly enjoy what is likely my very best work to date.

The chilling artwork at the top is 'Breathing the Void' from 5kypainter  Absolutely awesome!

The above is an example of a Soviet tool used in space by the cosmonauts. Deadly blunt objects indeed!

Books Read Lately

Conan: Iron Shadows in the Moon Robert E. Howard, Timothy Truman, Tomas Giorello, & others

Despite Iron Shadows not being classified as "great" Howard I still find it to be an excellent tale and so much more enjoyable than say Dark Horses's previous collection Free Companions. Giorello's art is fantastic and Truman gives a faithful rendition to the original tale.

The downside to this collection is the the two parter short "Weight of the Crown" I suppose part one wasn't too bad, but part two was terrible. We are supposed to believe Conan finally becomes King of some backwater valley and lets it go to ruin because he has no more common sense than to just kill whatever comes his way. A year later and the princeling returns (aged multiple years somehow) and demands what is his right...and Conan just gives it to him and says 'sorry'!

Sorry Dark Horse, but the back cover said 'fan-favorite' "Weight of the Crown" and I just don't believe that could possibly be true-no fan I know of thats for sure.

B.P.R.D. vol. 4 The Dead, by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi and Guy Davis

I'm not a big fan of Davis's art, it may be reminiscent of Mignola but it just seems sloppy to me. On the story front, I'm still totally hooked. we get another addition to the team a Benjamin Daimio or Captain Zombie as Liz calls him because he came back to life-why and how we still don't know but he is a no-nonsense military captain and a good foil for the rather loose team of oddballs.

The B.P.R.D. team also moves into their new headquarters which appear to be haunted, great mystery keeps the story moving.

Save the Cat! Strikes Back, by Blake Synder

This is the third installment of screenwriter Blake Synders Save the Cat series, I still need to read the second.

Like the first Save the Cat, this bombards you with so many great storytelling techniques-even if you are not working on a screenplay-I'm not. But the list of hooks, beats and other catalysts make this a must for anyone interested in thinking about story structure. I love this series and I am not even a guy who ever writes so much as an outline.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey, by Thorton Wilder

I do try and read outside my preferred genre just to keep the balance up and catch up on classics that I burned from my memory of High School English. I've meant to read this for years and just never got around to it, but its fairly short and I found it to be a quick read for one evening.

I would have liked it to have some action, there really isn't any, but I was drawn into following the characters world. Wilder creates a compelling tale on why do bad things happen to good people? Father Juniper investigates the deaths of five souls who died when the bridge collapsed. Ultimately, Wilder leaves it up to the reader to decide the theological answer for themselves.

Bloodstone, by Karl Edward Wagner

I would say Bloodstone is probably the weakest of Wagner's works I have read and yet it is still magnificent.

Kane, yes that Cain, finds a great bloodstone ring--and this tale may be the S&S take on the Tolkien dilemma better than any other. The difference being our protagonist, an anti-hero if ever there was one, is seeking the way to engage the dark power of the ring and have dominion over all rather than destroy it.

Of course things don't go as planned and the force of evil is too wicked and deceitful even for the first murderer.

I love Wagner's prose, his gift of action and character, but a few spots seemed needlessly added to extend the novel-hence my thoughts that this is the weakest of Wagner's books, but also bear in mind this was still good enough that it is a reread. I return to Wagner quite often.