LTUE Late Night Follow Up

I was so busy chatting with friends - new and old, that I didn't take very many pics, nor record too much of what went on for those three days last month.

It was a blast, I love talking and hanging with other writers.

I was on a bunch of panels on Thursday and on some I felt a little out of my element. Like the one about the Hottest Women Writers of Sci-Fi. Luckily Jana Brown more than made up for my ineptitude. I had tried to catch up on more women writers before hand - I did a lot of cramming thanks to Audible, but still felt I was the weak link on that panel.

I'm kinda irritated I didn't get to be on the Pulp panel, and I didn't see it - just heard about it afterward, sounds like I should have been there to tell some people that they don't know what they're talking about but cest la vie.

The Art of the Hook with Larry Correia and Andrea Pearson was great - always got to love Larry dropping his wisdom. In a nutshell - Larry says who cares about defining genre or anything so cerebral = write what people want! Make them come back for more and you'll get paid.

I'm working on that.

In the meantime I have been very pleased at Scavengers and Six-Gun Serenades sales numbers on Amazon. I'm not breaking the bank but it is nice to actually be making hundreds of dollars a month. I need to do better but its a hell of a good start.


My friends the Space Balrogs had a great Choose Your Own Apocalypse panel, and the mass book signing was very cool too.

Oh and it was a great feeling to be recognized by other literati - for the sake of an anthology that isn't even out yet - made me feel good just to know there are at least a few people paying attention to that kind of thing.

I did get a load of new books abut I still love grabbing old favorites from an ancient dealer that shows up to this every year.

All in all it was great seeing everybody, and now I gotta wait til FanX to do it all over again. - Granted That will be a little more hectic and won't deliver as much quality time - but then that's what makes LTUE so great.

A Dent In the Summer Reading Pile

The Death of Kings, by Bernard Cornwell

The Saxon series, following Uthred of Bebbanburg is one of my all time favorites. I even got my wife to enjoy watching The Last Kingdom with me. I highly recommend it.

Death of Kings is the sixth book in the series -yes, I'm a little behind for something I enjoy so much but there is an element of savoring it here. Overall I would say the pace is slowed on this one compared to Sword Song and The Burning Lands. It is a big watershed in the sense that King Alfred passes in this one too. The whole Alfred/Christian vs Uthred/Pagan was a big drive for the previous books - and that is going away but nobody is going to fill Alfred's shoes. And that is part of the problem with the politics in this book - the Dames are going to be that much worse for the English.

So Death of Kings is slower book in many ways and I have to say its been the least enjoyable of the series so far - that said - the finale was a great climax and was most excellent, its was just a little more of a wait to get there than Ive been used to in the series.

Dead Pact, by Craig Nybo

Caveat, Craig Nybo is a friend of mine and I truly enjoy his work! He has a wonderful imagination and does some of the most far out concepts of anyone I know!

Now about Dead Pact which is a stand alone kindle selection from Craig's bigger anthology - Terrifying Lies. This tale is a gritty weird western in the grandest tradition.  Nybo throws some great loops and douses the reader in dark shadows before bailing them out again. We're thrown into the action of Galen Waite investigating some demonic possession near the town of Bannack. Think cross between possession and the Walking Dead. This one had me on my toes. And as always I look forward to more from Craig!

Murder at the Kinnen Hotel: A Powder Mage novella, by Brian McClellan

I've heard good things about McClellan's Powder Mage series and I've been meaning to get to it, so when I saw that he posted this novella for free I snagged it.

But I think it was a bad place to start. It is set years beforehand and while I could see that interesting world building was being set up and such, I didn't feel the grasp of what all of it meant nor was I impressed with some of the characters even though I was told they were intimidating. I'm sure I missed things that would be a thrill IF I had read the trilogy already, but as a standalone tale I thought it went a little weak. The climax especially felt limp for something that is a mix of mystery and fantasy and I just would have liked a little more punch.

I still intend to read the trilogy and I'm sure I may have new found appreciation for this prequel tale of sorts afterward, but as a starting point for me it was too shaky.

Pride of the Traveler, by Bryce Beattie

This is another short - I read all three of these at work -shhhhhh.
This low magic fantasy follows Key, a young swordsman who goes to a carnival of sorts and to fortune teller to ask about his destiny. She tells him pride will be his downfall. He also gets a warning about the possible collaboration of dark magic and vampires with the powers that be in the city. So, he goes into town and joins in the dueling matches therein. He isn't humble and promptly defeats all comers until he has to take on the captain of the guard who has some of that dark magic on his side.

It is a predictable enough tale but it is enjoyable and really feels like a prologue to something greater. I would definitely read that follow up of Key's adventures because I like Beattie's storytelling and prose.


The Adventures of Tom Stranger, Interdimensional Insurance Agent by Larry Correia

Larry always has a good dose of humor in his works and with this one he really lets loose, firing off all guns at the usual suspects. Poking fun at all the social justice warriors, Fox execs who cancelled Firefly, and Joe Biden is almost too easy. The R. Lee Ermey type secretary of defense was also welcome touch.
For just sheer entertainment this novella is good, not too long, not too short its in the just right size for this type of tale - any longer might be a bit much. But its nice to see a place where you can still poke fun and throw in the planet destroying aliens side walled by a smooth talking Insurance adjuster.

As yet this is only available as an audio book and Adam Baldwin's reading knocks it out of the park.

Well I'll Be a Son of a Black Sword!

Son of the Black Sword, by Larry Correia

I had opportunity to talk with Larry about fantasy at Fantasycon/Westercon a good year and a half ago. I heard a few hints at what he was planning for this but I still had no idea.
 I even read the short story of his that opens the Shattered Shields anthology and still feel like I had no idea to the extent of world-building and great backstory he has going on in SotBS.

It opens with Ashok Vadal hunting down a demon on the coast, now these aren't inter-dimensional beings such as we might picture from legend or magical ceremonies, these are beings that fell from the heavens, were banished to the sea but return to raid the dry-landers every now and again and are they ever bad! Their very skin will cut you open like a shark but worse.
Very few men can stand up to these worst of monsters and of the Order of Protectors, Ashok is the best.
A champion of Law and order, Ashok thinks he knows his place in the world but when more is revealed to him, a complicated conspiracy takes root and he becomes a hunted man.

This is the beginning of a new series, this doesn't pull punches and the action moves. As much as I have enjoyed the Monster Hunter series I am looking forward to more of this one.

Year in Review

2014, its been different.

I married my gorgeous wife just before Christmas last year - and we met through this very blog via my sharing a short parody video she made back in 2011.

By New Years last year me and the kids were living with her in LA, I fixed up the condo, we sold it for a very good price and by July we were in Utah, much bigger house and all of us starting over somewhere new. I haven't posted good pics of my new library/office yet but I will soon when I feel like I have my books put away just so...

So, I haven't read as many books this year as I used to, its been crazy busy most all year, and I didn't do as much writing as I should've but I did still get quite a few things out = Bless the Child my Spartan historical fiction was finally released, it hasn't sold as good as I would like especially considering ts for charity - but hey it is my wife's favorite work of mine, so that counts for something, I released Whispers of the Goddess and its gotten some favorable reviews, then my Weird Tales of Horror has done a bit better all things considered and I've sold quite a few of them at the local cons too. And lastly as far as my writing goes, I've the ongoing fantasy serial Walking Through Walls in UGEEK Magazine, it does feel good to be a pulpster. 

As for my favorites of anything, its a little tough to figure out.

Favorite fiction reads is real tough: I have to plug D.J. Butlers City of the Saints, - so good! 

 Half a King by Joe Abercrombie was amazing. I also greatly enjoyed Larry Correia's Monster Hunter International, Mark Lawrences King of Thorns, JP Wilder's novellete The Crusader, and I have so many other books by new friends I need to read and review and just couldn't get to yet this year.

For Non-Fiction, I think Rober McKee's Story wins it this year for me. But I really enjoyed Hunters S. Thompsons Songs of the Doomed, and David Mamet's Some Freaks. 

I'm also a bad friend in the non-fiction department because I actually gave a back cover blurb to Morgan Deane for his military history treatise Bleached Bones and Wicked Serpents and crappy friend that I am I have yet to publicly review the book - that's all on  me and being a flaky poster - sorry Morgan! 

I think my favorite movie of 2014 is Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which surprised me because Cap just isn't one of my favorite characters. But to me it touched on the truth, a spy movie that happened to have super heroes.

I got to meet some really cool people this year including, Peter Beagle, Ron Perlman, Ivy Doomkitty, Kato, Frank Frazetta Jr, Donato Giancola, Brom, John Rhys Davies, Angie Everhart,

I also finally got out to multiple cons and its only gonna get better this coming year. 

All the best in New Year to you my friends and lets all get that creativity out of the bottle and into print! 

Book Review: Monster Hunter International

I'm still strapped for time and have turned to audio books as of late to keep up with reading (which my TBR pile is still horribly overdue) and the latest book I've listened to is Larry Correia's first Monster Hunter International.

It's a great pulp ridden read, full of witty dialogue and blood soaked ichor. Larry really knows how to tease out mysteries to keep you going and wondering about what happens next as well as compelling action scenes and enough monsters and creature references from beyond - to appeal to all of my faithful readers (YOU).

Like Hellboy it mixes all kinds of pulpy things I love and sets it in the modern era, and like Hellboy I'm kicking myself that I took so long to get around to reading it. I've personally known Larry for several years and he is a pretty cool dude. I'm really looking forward to catching up on the multiple books I've got to catch up on. 

We begin Owen Pitt discovering his boss is a werewolf and about to eat him - following the American Dream, he sends his boss out a fourteen story window killing him and getting a job offer with the worlds premier monster killing outfit = MHI.

I don't want to throw in any spoilers as Pitt along with the reader discovers this secret world kept from the public at large, but needless to say its a lot of action-packed fun. Loads of little monster references (and others) that I really got a kick out of = inside type jokes etc that you don't need to be friends with Larry to get by any means. Great stuff is set up for the sequels but its also a very well done self contained novel. Larry is a writer that I greatly admire from both his writing work ethic and the mantra he told me over dinner at Fantasycon = "First and foremost - please the reader." I may be paraphrasing that but it hit home and MHI does it in spades.

Highly recommended.

I had no end of Larry's fans commenting "Mini Me" jokes when I shared this on facebook.