I love the smell of paper in the morning

As much as I like the convenience of e-books, nothing beats holding a real honest to goodness book in your hand. That's especially true if the book in your hand just happens to be your own.

The print edition of Zelmer Pulp's HEY, THAT ROBOT ATE MY BABY!  is now available at all good pan-galactic booksellers. Well, those that have the letter Z in their name anyway.  Analog may be old school, but if like me, you enjoy drawing handlebar moustaches on pictures of Chuck Regan, or if you want to underline all of the F-words in Brian Panowich’s story with your My Little Pony fountain pen, then this is exactly what you've been waiting for.   


In the interests of full disclosure, I should point out that while the book is partly mine, the hand in this picture belongs entirely to Brian. Except on weekends.

Roadkill Review: Manhunter's Mountain by Wayne Dundee

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Manhunter’s Mountain is a novel or perhaps more accurately a novella, featuring Edward A. Grainger’s outlaw marshal, Cash Laramie. This time Wayne Dundee is the word slinger holding the reins.

Cash Laramie is in the small mining town of Silver Gulch, hot on the trail of the fugitive Lobo Ames. It’s a race against time to get Ames and get off the mountain before snow closes the pass. The Marshall gets his man alright, but that’s only part of the problem. Winter is hard in Silver Gulch and Cash isn’t the only one desperate to get out. Faye and Little Red are the town’s only entertainment and by agreeing to take them with him, Cash doesn’t exactly endear himself to the locals.

This is a strong, gritty story with plenty of action. While I’ll admit to preferring Edward Grainger’s own take on Cash, Wayne Dundee delivers a solid narrative. The pace never lets up and there are some great set piece showdowns.

Cash Laramie and his sometimes partner Gideon Miles are inspired creations. They are exactly the kind of hard, edgy characters I love to read and to write. For me, their brand of rough justice always makes for a fine hard-boiled western.

Hey, That Video Pimped My Book! #2

Here’s a very cool trailer for the latest Zelmer Pulp Release HEY, THAT ROBOT ATE MY BABY! This one was an inside job created by our very own digital Jedi, Chuck Regan.

The Zelmer office is a hive of activity at present. Well I say office, it’s really just a rusted out VW van parked on Ryan Sayles’ front lawn. We were going to move it to a better neighborhood, you know one with fewer meth labs, but Brian Panowich sold the tires to buy himself a Batman utility belt from Toys R Us, so it looks like we’re stuck here for now.

Anyway, back to the whole hive of activity thing. The print edition of HEY, THAT ROBOT ATE MY BABY! will be available in a couple of weeks. Then it’s on to our next venture, which is due to hit the bookshelves this summer. I can’t say too much yet, but we have some awesome guest authors lined up for it.

In the meantime, why not click on the linky-thing to the right and buy this one while you're waiting. You would make an old man very, very happy if you did. No, not me, I'm talking about the old man who lives in my garage, he's easily amused... and he smells funny, and spits at the neighbors. But this is all besides the point, forget I mentioned him and just buy the book. It's guaranteed to amaze and offend in equal measure.  

Seeds, Pigeons, Redheads and Egos

I have been fortunate enough to snag a mention from Spinetingler nominee, Brian Panowich, who is over at Chris Rhatigan’s Death By Killing site today. Brian says some very nice things about three of my recently published stories: Seeds, which appears at western zine, The Big Adios. Pigeon, published by Grit Magazine and my Gutter debut, A Redheaded woman.

This is the third time that my name has somehow found its way on to one of these “five you can’t miss” lists and I am very grateful to both Paul D. Brazill and Mike Monson who also put one of my stories in their top five. I suppose this must mean I’m doing something right. Thank you guys.
 

You can read all of these stories for free by clicking on the links to the right and you check out what Brian has to say about them here:  Death By Killing

Review: Joe Clifford's Junkie Love

Buy It Here

I don’t ordinarily do this, re-blogging part of my book review from Out of the Gutter. But Junkie Love is no ordinary book.

Junkie Love is Joe Clifford’s second novel and as he says in his introduction, one way or another it has taken him most of his life to complete. It is indeed a love story, although not necessarily in the conventional sense, a junkie romance is never that straight forward.
 
This is ten years of Joe’s life laid bare, at times both brutal and horrific, but always compelling. He is not ashamed of his past and nor should he be. Everybody fucks it up to a greater or lesser degree, but not everybody has the strength of will required to pull back from the brink or the stones to write so honestly about it. Junkie Love is a hard book to read and an even harder one to put down. We already knew that Joe could write; that fact was never up for debate. Here he does something that goes way beyond just putting words on the page. He tells it exactly like it is and more importantly what it was like to live it.
Junkie Love is a hell of a book and Joe is a hell of a writer. You can read my full review HERE and you can buy the book at Amazon or B&N.

Calling All Intergalactic Word Slingers

Are you an android who dreams of electric sheep? Can you bulls-eye a womp rat from your T-16? Then you might be just the person we are looking for. Zelmer Pulp needs a couple of space cadets to test drive our latest release HEY, THAT ROBOT ATE MY BABY!” Hit me up here if you are a book reviewer with a penchant for all things Sci-Fi.

The madmen that brought you 2012's legendary zombie epic, C'MON AND DO THE APOCALYPSE, are back in your face for the second wave, and this time they brought friends.

Joining Sayles and Panowich on their latest voyage into the world of Science Fiction are three of the hottest writers of genre fiction in the biz, Chris Leek, Isaac Kirkman, and ZELMER PULP cover artist Chuck Regan. 5 distinct voices, and 5 mind-bending tales to astonish and offend.

This ain't your Daddy's Science Fiction. This is Zelmer Pulp: Hey, That Robot Ate My Baby!

Get ready for Thrills, Kills, ‘n Chaos

Thrillers, Killers & Chillers is sadly no more. Matt Hilton announced on the site yesterday that they are closing their doors for good. TK&C was a great place to visit for a hit of high quality crime or horror fiction. I was fortunate enough to have my story “Jacks, Queens and Evens” published there last year and from a writers point of view TK&C was a site with rock solid reputation and a great place to showcase your work.   

But fear naught, David Barber - the former editor at The Flash Fiction Offensive and more recently an editor at TK&C - has grasped the bull by the horns and will shortly be opening his new site, Thrills, Kills, ‘n Chaos up for submissions.  David will be looking for the same sort of hard hitting fiction, but this time it needs to be leaner and meaner.

So check out the new site and if you’re a writer get writing. Readers hold fast for now, but prepare for a real blast.  

Video Killed the Radio Star- A Zelmer Pulp Trailer

Thanks to the awesome Nick Laws for all his hard work in putting this sucker together. And thanks to all the good people who have already purchased Hey, That Robot Ate My Baby! Assuming it exists, your place in heaven is now a shoo-in. As for the rest of you lazy, feckless no-goods it's not too late, there is still time to save your souls from eternal damnation.

ZELMER PULP – Hey, That Robot Ate My Baby!

I’ll admit it, I’m excited. The past three months have been a roller coaster ride of tears, laughter, uncontrollable flatulence and Aquaman jokes. The end result is the new release from Zelmer Pulp “Hey, That Robot Ate My Baby!”

Like Han Solo said, “Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.” And if it’s a stone cold blast of Pulp Sci-Fi that you’re after then check this out.

The madmen that brought you 2012's legendary zombie epic, C'MON AND DO THE APOCALYPSE VOL 1, are back in your face for the second wave, and this time they brought friends.

Joining Sayles and Panowich on their latest voyage into the world of Science Fiction are three of the hottest writers of genre fiction in the biz, Chris Leek, Isaac Kirkman, and ZELMER PULP cover artist Chuck Regan.

HEY,THAT ROBOT ATE MY BABY VOL. 1 features 5 distinct voices, and 5 mind-bending tales to astonish and offend.

Notice that part about offending? Well, that’s largely down to me, I left the astonishing to the other guys. We are all damn proud of the interstellar magnificence that lurks behind an amazing cover crafted by Zelmer’s own Chuck Regan. We also have a kick-ass introduction written by friend, mentor and President of the Universe, Joe Clifford.

The Kindle version is hot to trot right now and old school print style will be here in around a week. Please buy it and make a happy man very old. 10c from every book purchased will be donated to the Kansas City shelter for sexually abused emus*

Amazon US

Amazon UK

*This is a lie

2013 Spinetingler Awards

The nominations for this year's Spinetingler awards are out. This is the red carpet event for those of us who ply our trade in the murky depths of pulp crime fiction and noir.
I’m delighted to see that my good friend and Zelmer Pulp cohort Brian Panowich is up for Best Short Story on the Web with his double barrelled blast of Georgia noir “If I ever get off this mountain / Coming down the mountain.“

These two stories were published simultaneously by Shotgun Honey and The Flash Fiction Offensive and they tell the tale of a back country blood feud from the perspective of two different protagonists. Not only is this a damn clever idea that I wish I had thought of first, but the quality of the writing is exceptional. Don’t just take my word for it, go and read them for yourself.

This year is a good one for natives of Georgia as the brilliant debut novel from Peter Farris “Last Call for the Living” is also up for an award in the Best Novel: New Voice category.

Congratulations to all the other nominees. We are truly blessed with a wealth of talent in the world of crime fiction.  You can see all of the categories and cast your votes HERE