FREE FIGHT CARD BOOK

Free Sunday and Monday!

Freaks Must Die!

When Matt Cahill intervenes in what he thinks is a robbery, he ends up botching a ransom exchange for a kidnapped boy. His interference gets an innocent man killed and puts a child’s life in immediate jeopardy. So Matt heads to New York City, a place as foreign to him as a distant planet, to rescue the boy and make amends.

His search leads him to an underworld of “freaks,” people with uncanny powers who live in the shadows, trying to elude a dark force that’s ruthlessly hunting them down. Now Matt is in a race against time to save a child, and the entire freak community, from bloody annihilation.

Free Book Monday and Tuesday!

As part of Black Dog Books' new ebook line, here's a jimdandy adventure to start off your collection.

SoonerCon Writing Workshop Featuring Peter S. Beagle

This year at SoonerCon (June 15-17) we have a two day writers workshop. Our clinician this year is World Fantasy Award winner Peter Beagle ("The Last Unicorn"; "The Handmaiden's Tale"). Participants submit an advance manuscript, up to 5000 words, and get two sessions with Peter; a one on one, and a group talk. Peter's business agent will also speak to that aspect of the business during the group session. For folks breaking into writing, it's a great opportunity to work with one of the finest in the business. Cost of the workshop is $35; that does not include a convention membership. Both workshop and convention memberships are available through the convention website, www.soonercon.com

If someone's interested, they can write to me, or to on-site co-ordinator CyndiHagood (CC'd on this message). Membership is very limited (max 8 participants) and will sell out, so I hope some of your students will take advantage of this opportunity. Thanks so much, and see you at the con!

Leonard Bishop

Executive Director, SoonerCon 21

Peter S. Beagle (from Wikipedia):  Peter Soyer Beagle (born April 20, 1939) is an American author of novels, nonfiction, and screenplays, especially fantasy fiction.^[1] His best-known work is The Last Unicorn (1968), a fantasy novel he wrote in his twenties. During the last twenty-five years he has won several literary awards including a World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2011.

More info here.

Called To Serve Book 1

Coming in October!

Lance Corporal Bekah Shaw joined the United States Marine reserves to help support herself and her son when her ex-husband, Billy Roy, decided they were no longer his responsibility. But when her team is activated and sent to Somalia on a peacekeeping mission, Bekah struggles with being separated from her son and vows to return safely.

Once a successful Somalian businessman, Rageh Daud has lost everything. Determined to seek revenge on the terrorists who killed his wife and son, he teams up with a group of thieves, killers, and others displaced by war. Despite his better judgment, Daud becomes the protector of a young orphaned boy—who becomes a pawn between the warring factions.

To defeat the terrorists and bring peace to the region, Bekah and her team must convince Daud that they are on the same side.

Coming Soon!

So who is that 800-pound gorilla in the room?

Answer is coming this summer!

One of my favorite pictures

Of my son Chandler when he was much younger, and my buddy Keith Birdsong.  Oscar of Dark Woods Studios is on the end.

Bonnie Raitt Slipstream

I've waited seven years for a new album, and it's worth the wait!  I love Bonnie Raitt's music.  If you haven't listened to her before, you're in for a treat if you like blues with a slide guitar.

Bullet To the Head

Another guilty pleasure -- this one starring Sylvester Stallone.

New Fight Card Novel!

Atlantic City, 1957

Professional boxers Roberto Varga and Michael Boyle were once pals growing up at St. Vincent’s Asylum for Boys in Chicago. Under the guidance of Father Tim, the fighting priest, they learned values, respect, responsibility, and how to fight fair.

But those lessons didn’t stick with Boyle. Two years after leaving St. Vincent’s, Boyle and Varga face-off in the ring with Boyle pounding out a bloody, lopsided decision, Varga swore wasn’t on the up and up.

In the seven years since, their careers have taken different paths. Guided by unscrupulous manager Tommy Domino, Boyle is positioned for a title shot against Sugar Ray Robinson. Varga, however, has struggled in a career still haunted by the bloody loss to Boyle.

When the boxer scheduled to fight Boyle in Atlantic City breaks his hand two weeks before the fight, Domino scrambles for a replacement. He finds Varga toiling in a Philadelphia gym and offers him the rematch Varga has been waiting years to get. For Varga, it’s a chance to finally even the score, a chance to get the title shot he’s always dreamed about. But Boyle is not the only formidable foe aligned against Varga.

Redemption comes at a bloody price – a price perhaps too high for Varga to pay …

Hi-Yo, Silver! Away!

I've got a short story in this one and it was a hoot writing it.  I grew up on the Lone Ranger, so this was a labor of love.

The First Ever Collection of New Lone Ranger Prose Stories! The masked ex-Texas Ranger and his Native American companion Tonto fight injustice in the Wild West! Stories include meetings with The Cisco Kid, Wyatt Earp, and Doc Holliday, as well as the origin of Tonto and the origin of Silver! Authors include Spur Award-winner Johnny D Boggs, James Reasoner, Alex Award-winner Mel Odom, Anthony Award-winner Bill Crider, Matthew Baugh, Tim Lasiuta, Joe Gentile, Paul Kupperberg, Denny O''Neil, Kent Conwell, David McDonald, Thom Brannon, Troy D. Smith, Chick Dixon, and Richard Dean Starr. This limited edition hardcover includes an exclusive bonus: "75 years of the Lone Ranger".

Awesome!

Shadowrun Returns!

Jordan Weisman, the creator of Shadowrun, is back and Shadowrun Returns (for Apple & Android tablets and PCs) is the game that Shadowrun fans have been waiting for a long time. A graphically rich 2D turn-based single player game with deep story interaction, meaningful character development, and highly-contextual tactical combat, Shadowrun Returns is not only going to make some old geeks (like us) very happy but it will introduce new players to a dynamic gaming universe that is beloved around the world.

And yep, I get to be part of this.

FREE RANCHO DIABLO BOOK TODAY!

Western action explodes as Sam Blaylock fights to save Rancho Diablo. Has a dead man returned to take revenge against Sam, or is there something more human at work? Even the law doesn't seem to be on Sam's side as he takes on enemies that strike in the night.

Fathomless Abyss!

“At the heart of it, science fiction and fantasy authors are at play in the fields of wonder, fueled by “what if” and held hostage by the people, places and problems that populate our wacky, slightly-offset imaginations and spill out of us in Story. And if you love Story, you’re in for a solid meal here. And this is just the appetizer. Over the next few months, the real meal begins as the individual titles make their way into the world.”

--Ken Scholes, from his introduction

Combine six of the finest fantasy authors working in the genre today: Mike Resnick & Brad R. Torgersen, Jay Lake, Mel Odom, J.M. McDermott, and Cat Rambo, and mix in veteran editor and New York Times best-selling author Philip Athans, and what comes out is the Fathomless Abyss: a wild new fantasy world where the laws of physics only work against you, there’s no way out, and time means nothing.

This is the world of the Fathomless Abyss, a bottomless pit that opens who-knows-when onto who-knows-where, just long enough for new people from a thousand different worlds and a million different times to fall in and join the fight for survival in a place where the slightest misstep means an everlasting fall into eternity.

Tales from the Fathomless Abyss features six new short stories, and it’s only the beginning. From here, each author will branch out to spin a series of new books sharing this impossible, explosive, infinite setting.

Your fall into the Fathomless Abyss begins here.

Caught My Eye

Fifth book in this series.  Looks like it's still going strong, and I love the action oriented covers.

Hunger Games Re-Envisioned

By Michael Bay!  Ka-Bloooooieeeeee!

One of the More Bizarre Notions I've Seen

Click here.

New Tony Abbott Series for Young Readers

Over the years, I've read a lot of Tony Abbott series to my kids.  This one looks like it's going to be a lot of fun as well.