Jackalope Roundup

My weird western "Tangle Crown Devil" is coming out shortly in Unnatural Tales of the Jackalope. Put together by John Palisano and Western Legends Publishing this promises to be truly strange horror collection--not the only one of mine coming soon ~Wandering Weeds as well, but for the moment I thought I'd list the TOC and see if any of you recognize some of these other contributors.

Here's the table of contents for our very first release, "Unnatural Tales Of The Jackalope", due out June 30th, 2012

The Lonliest Jackalope – Jeff Strand

Running With Jackalopes – Sèphera Girón

The Night My Jackalope and I Fought the Chupacabra –

Rick Pickman

Thumping– Rachel Towns

The Thing Inside – Kristi Petersen-Schoonover

Beware of the Danger – Brenda Knutson

The Mascot – Michael Bailey

... The Easter Jackalope – Jack Horne

Tangle Crowned Devil – David J. West

Miles and Miles Still – Eric S. Grizzle

New Jackalope City – Aaron J. French

Johnny Versus the Creatures – D.T. Griffith

Wayward Gulch – Erik Williams

Cautionary Tales – Abbie Bernstein

The Holy Carrot and the Horned Hare – Matt Kurtz

Declaration – Misty Dahl

The Jackalope and the Jellybean – Fawn

War Dance – Jezzy Wolfe

Same Kind Of Bad As Me – Dean M. Drinkel

Drawn To The Light Of Science – Mike McCarty
 
A couple of the names are familiar but I have only actually spoken/worked with Aaron J. French (MonkPunk editor among many others)

Books and another E-Sale

I finally own all the books in print that have my stories (should be several more this year that were accepted last year) I still need to finish reading the tales contained in Monk Punk and Monsters and Mormons-but I will get there and give my own review eventually.

In other news it finally paid off. I got my first acceptance of the year on Leap Day. "Hel Awaits" an adventure with my Swedish Viking character Tyr Thorgrimson (Sailing to Valhalla and Whispers of the Goddess) will appear in the Swords & Sorcery Ezine for March. I'll post the link just as soon as its available-should be this week.

This time around Tyr is in a slightly fantastical Moorish Spain, sometime later than the events of Whispers of the Goddess. I've been fascinated with Moorish Spain especially since I read Louis L'Amour The Walking Drum. My humble tale doesn't even begin to assert that kind of magnificence but still I hope you'll check it out.

"Fistful of Tengu" Online

My weird oriental fantasy story "Fistful of Tengu" from the MONK PUNK anthology is posted over at D. Harlan Wilsons The Dream People online journal, current issue #36.

I've been rather pleased that overall, my tale which opens the antho, seems to have been received rather well from most of the reviews I've read. (one didn't mention it-the rest sang the stories praises)

That and my original blog post about the story, something about tengu, the mythological Japanese crow-like creature, is still one of my most visited posts. Seems google must direct a lot of people here who ask what a tengu is.

Good. Kind if like how Marion Jensen still gets lots of the hits on his blog about 'exploding coconuts'.

So lesson for the day-want a  recurring blog post that gets a lot of hits? Post about something rather obscure so that your blog is high on the search list.

Cross posted with the http://mancaveauthors.blogspot.com/

MONK PUNK! Now Available

The Monk Punk anthology is now available here (and at a cheaper discount than amazon offers for now)

I don't have my copy quite yet, but am especially looking forward to the stories by the couple of authors I am familiar with-William Miekle, John R. Fultz, and Sean T.M. Stiennon. Did I mention my tale opens the anthology-yeah I like that.

Here is the final Monk Punk TOC in the order that the stories will appear:

Introduction by D. Harlan Wilson

Fistful of Tengu by David J. West

Don't Bite My Finger by Geoff Nelder

The Power of Gods by Sean T. M. Stiennon

The Key to Happiness by R.B. Payne

The Just One by William Meikle

Wonder and Glory by Adrian Chamberlin

The Liturgy of Hours by Dean M Drinkel

Brethren of Fire by Zach Black

The Second Coming by Joe Jablonski

Suitcase Nuke by Sean Monaghan

Capital Sins in a Dominican Monastery by Gayle Arrowood

Nasrudin: Desert Monk by Barry Rosenberg

The Last Monk by George Ivanoff

The Cult of Adam by Mark Iles

Snowfall by JC Andrijeski

Xenocyte: A Kiomarra Story by Caleb Heath

Vortex by Joshua Ramey-Renk

The Birth of God by Jeffrey Sorensen

Rannoch Abbey and the Night Visitor by Dave Fragments

Black Rose by Robert Harkess

Citipati by Suzanne Robb

The Path of Li Xi by A.J. French

Where the White Lotus Grows by John R. Fultz

What I Want to See...Soon

I have got to see this... Looks to be the best Samurai movie since Mifune passed.


And now I would even consider getting HBO to see this...
even if I know season 3 (A Storm of Swords) will be the best one.

Fistful of Tengu

Do you know what a "Tengu" is?


A class of supernatural creatures from Japanese folklore. Generally depicted as anthropomorphic birds of prey-typically crows. So in brainstorming for something for A.J. French's MONK PUNK anthology, I thought of Tengu.
Borrowing the title as a play on "A Fistful of Dollars" I had to come up with a reason for you to get a 'Fistful of Tengu' enter my wandering monk and how he deals with monsters plaguing a sleepy little village.
A pretty straight forward yarn, but I had fun writing it nonetheless.


Well, I just recently submitted the tale and A.J. accepted it-very pleased for what was otherwise a terrible day-hurt my back at work-BAD.

Cannot walk like a person under 99 years of age at the moment.

So I better keep writing...

I'll be posting when this one is available.