Something for the Weekend Sir?

I guess I'm old school when it comes to reading, you can probably tell that by the fact I didn't use the word skool. What can I tell you, I love books, always have. I've been packing shelves with them since I was a kid and it's strangely comforting just to have them around me. *Resists the urge to go all 'my precioussss' over a copy of Donald Ray's Knockemstiff*. But the world moves on and sometimes you just have to shrug your shoulders and move on with it.

So okay, now I've got myself a Kindle, but hey, I'm not about to become one of 'those' guys. Neither will I start singing songs around the camp fire, getting all melancholy about when books were made out of paper and gas was only 10c and you didn't have to lock your door at night and... damn it, now I'm depressed. Anyway, e-books are not necessarily the future, but they are defiantly part of it.

The real reason I stumped up and bit the Kindle bullet, is the thing gives me access to some fantastic writers whose work just doesn’t (as yet) show up on the print bookshelves, at least not on this side of the pond.

So if you don't spend enough of your life staring at a screen already and are looking for some e-reading this summer; maybe for your vacation, or because you live in the UK and the rain has turned all your paperbacks to unintelligible mush, here are a few kick ass stories that I really enjoyed.

Beautiful, Naked & Dead – Josh Stallings
This hard boiled road trip from East L.A. to the illegal brothels of Nevada is one hell of a ride. (Review coming soon)

Hellbender – Jason Jack Miller
A story of love and revenge, stained with blood and dark magic in the hills of Appalachia. (See my review below)

Hill Country – R.Thomas Brown
A great mix of horror, noir and even a little humor, set in the Texas back country. (Review coming soon)

That Damned Coyote Hill & The Long Black Train – Heath Lowrance
Two fine tales of western Weirdness. (See my review below)

For little more than loose change you can download them all at that big, evil, but damn convenient Amazon website.

Do I really need to do the linky thing? Nah, I didn't think so.

Review – The Long Black Train

In case you missed it, that hard eyed righter of wrongs, Hawthorne is back for another ride through the way out weirdness of Heath Lowrance's wild west.

This time the gritty gunslinger is on the trail murderer, Bill Cobb, but he finds something far worse waiting for him on board the down bound ride to Santa Fe.

If you have read Hawthorne's first outing 'That Damned Coyote Hill' then 'The Long Black Train' is more of the same; a brilliant mix of noir western and gut wrenching horror. This tale sits somewhere between short story and novelette and is perfect to read while you sit gazing out at the torrential down pouring of a UK summer. (It's raining so hard here the animals are starting to pair up).

This non-stop express will take you all the way, so climb aboard and enjoy the ride, but don't sit next to the fat man!

Yours on the Kindle for a buck and change. Go on treat yourself: Amazon

A Redheaded Woman

This has been an awesome week for my pen jockeying and I must beg your indulgence in my self indulgence just one more time.

Those of you who regularly paw the sticky, virtual pages at 'The Flash Fiction Offensive' will know that this illegitimate son has been welcomed back into the bosom of it's family and is now hosted on the main 'Out of the Gutter' site.

Joe Clifford is the new warden of this institution and I'm delighted to say that after only minimal blackmailing he has kindly taken one of my own bastard children under his wing. This kid would probably shank you with a screwdriver for your change, but she'd say thank you afterwards. (I raise 'em with manners.)

Big cyber chocolate cookies and my eternal thanks go out to all of you who take the trouble to read my ink stained scribbles. Muchas kudos and the key to the mini bar for those who tweet, blog and generally pimp my stuff. I love you all, but not, you know, in that kind of way. (I'm talking to you Steve from Flat Rock, what part of '100 yards at all times' are you not understanding?)

So if you're game for another blast of short stuff, 'A Redheaded Woman' is the story of Tammy and Deke, well part of it anyway and you can find it here:

Out of the Gutter - A Redheaded Woman

If it hits the spot, please post a comment and let me know!

Drinks at Romero's

                                                                              

How about this for a very cool start to the week. Today I'm up at that legendary home of hard boiled bad ass, Shotgun Honey. I have been pretty stoked about this ever since the honoable Mr. Phillips told me I'd made the cut.

Drinks at Romero's is the story of Kelly, a hard working girl just trying to make her living in a man's world.

I've saved you a stool at the bar and ordered another jug of Strawberry Margaritas, so won't you join me for a drink?
Click here to raise your glass: Shotgun Honey - Drinks at Romero's

Review - Hellbender

I'll start right off by saying, along with Donald Ray Pollock's Devil All The time, Hellbender is the best damn book I have read this year.

Set deep in the Appalachian mountains of West Virginia, where blood feuds simmer on back country stoves and old hill magic is more deadly than the bite of a Copperhead. Hellbender is a glorious mix of modern day murder and ancient magic. Spells and hexes are just another weapon to be wielded in the long running war between the Collins and Lewis families.

Tight plotting and well drawn characters carry you along effortlessly through the twists and turns of a rollicking good tale; through impenetrable laurel hells and over bare mountain tops to the book's breathless and bloody conclusion.

Jason Jack Miller has a real feel for the country and people of which he writes. He paints his Appalachia with such captivating detail, that you can almost smell woodsmoke from the cooking fires and taste the burn of old Pap's stump whiskey.

If fact why are you wasting your time reading this review when you could be enjoying all this for yourself. Hurry now, go and buy it, there's not a moment to loose.

Henry Collins might not believe in magic, but I do, Jason Jack Miller writes it!

If you want more, you'll find it here: Jason Jack Miller

Go-Go is a Go-Go

A quick update on Victor Gischler's plans for more of post apocalyptic mayhem with Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse II – The Luxury Wars.

The Kickstarter campaign has blown away the initial $3000 target in just a few days, so Victor has upped the ante. Here's the word from the man himself. 


Well, you guys are awesome. Not only have we blown past our goal, but all of the "name a character" rewards are SOLD OUT. 

I am amazed by and grateful for the enthusiasm. But with over 30 days left to go on this Kickstarter Project I think it's traditional to "stretch" toward a new goal. So if 3000 clams gets us a novel, simple math tells us 6000 clams gets us TWO novels. If we blow past the 6000 dollar goal as fast as we did the first goal, I really DON'T see offering a fourth novel, so I'll be hard put to think of a new goal. But the post-apocalyptic landscape I've created is definitely rich enough for a GO-GO GIRLS OF THE APOCALYPSE III.

So, if we meet the 6000 dollar goal, everyone who has pledged at the 5 dollar level or up gets TWO novels. You don't have to pledge one cent more. But it would help if you nudged any of your pals who read and enjoyed the first book to get in on the action.

You heard it straight, there's still plenty of time to grab a ride on this carnival of chaos. So get along to Kickstarter and give, give give: Go here to Go-Go!

Spare Parts

First up, I feel I should apologize as this is going to be another me,me,me post. But hey it's my blog so I'm going to do it anyway.

The summer edition of Hobo Camp Review is out and includes my scribblings in the form of 'Spare Parts'.

I actually wrote this piece some time ago and promptly forgot all about, but when James Duncan said his next issue would have a Texas theme, a faint bell started sounding. So after I got back from the ice cream truck, I sent him my story. Many thanks to James for giving it a home on his wonderful site.

If you can find a moment, in amongst the time honored traditions of drinking too much and blowing things up, please go and check it out:
Hobo Camp Review - Spare Parts

Y'all have a happy Independence Day, d'ya hear!