Free!

 

FREE through the weekend.

 

In this first of a new series of spicy pulp western stories (roughly 50 printed pages) written exclusively as ebooks by Peter Brandvold and published by his own Mean Pete Press, the Rio Concho Kid must save a young Mexican girl from the savage intentions of the lusty General Constantine San Gabriel, who forced her into marriage.

On their wedding night, Tomasina De La Cruz sticks a stiletto in the General’s guts and flees his sprawling hacienda with the help of the half-Apache drifter, Johnny Navarro, a.k.a., “the Rio Concho Kid.”

The Kid and Tomasina race toward a rendezvous with the young man to whom Tomasina’s heart really belongs. In so doing, Tomasina and the Kid must avoid a deadly trap set by the man whom the dishonored General hired to bring his young bride back so he could have her tortured and gunned-down by firing squad.

That man is the infamous, deadly bounty killer known only as El Leproso, the Leper!

Can the Kid prove victorious over his fiercest enemy and avoid falling in love with Tomasina, who is as beguiling as she is beautiful but who also harbors a bizarre, bone-chilling secret?

 

 

Eric Beetner Combo

 

A One-Two Punch Combo combines both Fightcard adventures featuring Jimmy Wyler - Split Decision and A Mouth Full Of Blood - into one volume. The Fightcard series of novellas has been praised as, "lean and mean." "a hard hitting, fast moving series." and "you'll smell the sweat and leather in the air and find yourself bobbing and weaving with the action." In these two hard-hitting action stories mid-level boxer Jimmy Wyler continues the tradition.

 

SPLIT DECISION: Jimmy Wyler is a fighter punching his way straight to the middle. All he wants is to make enough dough to buy his girl, Lola, a ring. And maybe make the gang back at St. Vincent?s orphanage proud. A slick mobster named Cardone has an offer for Jimmy ? money, and lots of it ? for a fix. Jimmy takes the fight. The ring is almost on Lola?s finger, until Jimmy collides with Whit ? another mobster with another up-and-coming fighter. Whit has an offer of his own. Same fight, different fix. Now Jimmy is caught between two warring factions of the Kansas City underworld. He can?t make a move without someone getting mad, getting even, or getting dead. From sweat-soaked fight halls to darkened alleyways, the countdown has begun. With his girl and his manager in the crossfire, everything Jimmy ever learned about fancy footwork and keeping his defenses up may not be enough ? Fight night is approaching and nobody is going to be saved by the bell.

 

A MOUTH FULL OF BLOOD: A year after the pulse-pounding action of Split Decision, Jimmy Wyler is back in Chicago trying to put his life back together. Working a job washing dishes in a late night diner, Jimmy vows to never get into a boxing ring again. But then, someone needs him. Leo, a teenaged boy who fights hard against the city every day, could use a man like Jimmy. To help save him from his alcoholic father, and to save his only sister from a pimp bent on turning her out. Jimmy must fight again. Fight for the ones who can?t fight for themselves. It will take him from fistfights in back alleys to no rules bouts with crowds screaming for blood and all the way back to the orphanage where he grew up. Along the way, blood will be spilled and knuckles will be bruised. More white-knuckle action and epic fights from the Fightcard series.

 

 

SHIELD Television Series!

 

Colonel Fury's spy agency is gonna be open for business on television!  And Joss Whedon is bringing it!

 

I doubt Samuel L. Jackson will star in the series, but I do hope Agent Coulson is on hand.

 

More info here.

Avengers 1952!?

 

Okay, it's fake, but it's actually pretty cool thinking about it.

Lady Sabre and the Pirates of the Ineffable Aether

 

I saw this nifty little webcomic when it first came out, then it went on hiatus for a bit and I got busy.  Forgot about it.  Stumbled across it again today and was surprised at how much story has been done!

 

The story is by Greg Rucka and the art is by Rick Burchett, both wellknown in the comics field.  And the story is steampunk and magic, a true delight for anyone who enjoys adventure.

 

Have a look here.

 



New Sandman Slim

While ruling the denizens of darkness does have a few perks, James Stark isn’t exactly thrilled at the course his career (not to mention his soul) has taken. Breaking out of Hell once was a miraculous trick. But twice? If anyone can do it, it’s Sandman Slim. While he’s working out the details of his latest escape plan, Slim has to figure out how to run his new domain and hold off a host of trigger-happy killers mesmerized by that bullseye on his back. Everyone in Heaven, Hell, and in between wants to be the fastest gun in the universe, and the best way to prove it is to take down the new Lucifer, aka Sandman Slim aka James Stark. Then again, LA isn’t quite the paradise it once was since he headed south. A serial killer ghost is running wild and his angelic alter-ago is hiding somewhere in the lost days of time with a secret cabal who can rewrite reality. And starting to care about people and life again is a real bitch for a stone-cold killer. A violent and atmospheric tale full of edgy fun and packed with angels and demons, monsters and madmen, Devil Said Bang is another thrilling hit of kickass fun from the diabolically talented Richard Kadrey. “Richard Kadrey’s ‘Sandman Slim’ series is one of my favorite sets of fantasy books from the last few years.” — John Scalzi

 

Fathomless Abyss Mention

 

Check out the news about FATHOMLESS ABYSS.  The first ebook is still only 99 cents!

 

Click here.

 

 

Caught My Eye

 

Nineteen-year-old Alix Nico, a self-described “million-dollar murder machine,” is a rising star in ExOps, a covert-action agency that aggressively shields the United States from its three great enemies: the Soviet Union, Greater Germany, and the Nationalist Republic of China. Rather than risk another all-out war, the four superpowers have poured their resources into creating superspies known as Levels.

Alix is one of the hottest young American Levels. That’s no surprise: Her dad was America’s top Level before he was captured and killed eight years ago. But when an impulsive decision explodes—literally—in her face, Alix uncovers a conspiracy that pushes her to her limits and could upset the global balance of power forever.

Awesome Cover

This is the kind of cover tht makes me want to read a book.  Ben Bova is known for his work as a science fiction writer.  This is his first historical novel (although that's something of a stretch maybe, because it's set during the Illiad and has Achilles and Odysseus as characters) and I'm gonna pick it up.

 

Fight Card Has A Brand New Look

Check out the brand new website!

FIGHT CARD BOOKS

Bill Crider Has A New Book Out!

Dan Rhodes, sheriff of Blacklin County, Texas, is called to the Beauty Shack, where the young and pretty Lynn Ashton has been found dead, bashed over the head with a hairdryer. The owner said Lynn had gone to the salon late to meet an unknown client. There was a lot of gossip going on about Lynn before her death, but no one seems to really know much about her, or they’re not telling Rhodes.

Lynn was known to flirt, and it’s possible an angry wife or jilted lover had something to do with her death. The salon owner suspects two outsiders who have been staying in an abandoned building across the street. While he investigates the murder, Rhodes must also deal with the theft of copper and car batteries, not to mention a pregnant nanny goat that is terrorizing the town.

Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen is a wonderful entry in this always delightful series by award-winning author Bill Crider.

Recommended

One morning in Los Angeles, Nate Overbay—a divorced former solider suffering from PTSD and slowly dying from ALS — goes to an eleventh-floor bank, climbs out of the bathroom window onto the ledge, and gets ready to end it all. But as he’s steeling himself, a crew of robbers bursts into the bank and begins to viciously shoot employees and customers. With nothing to lose, Nate confronts the robbers, taking them out one-by-one. The last man standing leaves Nate with a cryptic warning.

Nate soon learns what that message meant. He is kidnapped by Pavlo, a savage Russian mobster and mastermind of the failed heist. Unable to break back into the bank to get the critical item inside, Pavlo gives Nate an ultimatum—break in and get what he needs or watch Pavlo slowly kill the one thing Nate loves most—his ex-wife Janie and his teenaged daughter Cielle—both lost when he came back from Iraq broken and confused. Now he’s got one last chance to protect the people he loves, even if it’s the last thing he is able to do.

TIME TRAP by Sean Dalton

The future is rotten. Flee to the past!

In the 26th century, chaos threatens to overwhelm civilization. Riots and anarchy are the order of the day. Ordinary citizens invest in biochip implants so they can tune out the world's problems and tune in their fantasies.

The historians and staff of Chicago's Time Institute are determined to change things for the better. By recording first-hand the greatest events of the past, they hope to reawaken the modern-day populace and restore its zest for achievement.

Trouble is, saboteurs have infiltrated the Institute, and time traveler Noel Kedran's next mission is going to land him in the wrong place and century. Medieval Greece is little more than a way-station for European knights headed for the Crusades. All but forgotten, this small pocket of history is awash in treachery and blood as Greek bandits, French knights, and Constantinople diplomats battle for supremacy. Caught in their clash to rule Greece, Noel fears that any alteration to the course of history could destroy his own time.

Until he meets a stranger who is his mirror image, a twin as determined to destroy the future as Noel is to save it, and Noel has to take history into his own hands.

Caught My Eye

Recent college grad Alex Conner is thrilled to have landed a job as the Hughes County coroner/medical examiner in Pierre, South Dakota. But when her first day on the job ends with a missing corpse, Alex starts to wonder if she would have been better off collecting unemployment...

When the cops made some cryptic comments about being careful with the body they brought in, Alex just thought the boys in blue were messing with her. That is, until something freaky happens that no amount of med school could have prepared her for. By the time Alex gets herself together, the body has disappeared and the other residents of the morgue start talking her ear off.

After working up the courage to report the missing body, Alex is transferred to the mysterious Precinct 13 where she discovers that her new co-workers—including a cute technomage named Jack—are paranormals just like her. Now, Alex is being encouraged to use her ability to speak to the dead to solve crimes. And despite being in the middle of nowhere, Hughes County sure does have a lot of paranormal activity…

 

Joe Kubert

Joe Kubert was a big part of my comic book past.  I read a ton of Sgt. Rock and the Haunted Tank when I was a kid.  Kubert had this amazing way of putting you right there in the action, of pitting men against men, and yet never losing the human side of things.  His work showcased a lot of adventure and daring, but often included irony and humor.  The people he drew in those panels were real, vulnerable, and they were folks you could have known in any town you lived in.  They were heroes and they were individuals up against impossible odds.  Not all of them won.

I liked Marvel's Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos too, but those stories never quite rivaled what Joe Kubert and his buddies at DC Comics were doing.

If you've never read a Joe Kubert comic, there are a lot of collections out there.  Several of them are in libraries.  He didn't just do Sgt. Rock or military comics.  He also brought out the Silver Age Hawkman, DC Comics' run on Tarzan of the Apes, Tor (prehistoric series that's still talked about) and a huge body of work.  He founded one of the first comics schools and made a huge impact on the world of comics.

Kubert never set out to be a legend.  He was just a man doing the best that he could at whatever he was given.  But what he gave back to the industry and his readers was awesome.

Taken 2

Loved the first one.  Gotta see this one.

Black Box TV On YouTube

Just found out about this series on YouTube.  Checked out a couple episodes and had a blast.  Kind of a combination Twilight Zone mixed with the old DC Comics House of Mystery, which includes a recurring character.  Anthony Zuiker of CSI fame is involved.

The episodes are between eight and fifteen minutes long, very fast-paced, and very well done.  Sure, you can figure some of them out before you get there, but with the YouTube link you can take pocket tv anywhere and watch it in short increments.  These are perfect for a lunch hour (you know, the time of day you spend half of your time off waiting in line to order?).

Scorpion Wine?

I'm sticking with Diet Dr Pepper.  Not only that, but that's a lot of volume displacement.  Kinda like opening a box of cereal and finding it only half full.

Basil & Moebius

Two stalwart heroes against a supernatural world for reasons they can't yet fathom -- and they don't like each other very much.

Check it out here.

Kickstarter Project I'm Backing!

I loved Gail Simone's run on Birds of Prey and Secret Six, and Jim Calafiore is a fantastic artist.  This story sounds incredibly cool and I'm looking forward to it.  I'm sure it'll get funded.  It's already halfway there.

Kickstarter is really doing well as a direct-connect between creative people and their audiences.  I was skeptical when I first saw it, but man there have been a lot of successes.  It's another Amazon business, but it's going gangbusters.  The Shadowrun Project I'm part of (here) netted $1.8 million.  This things work.

To back this graphic novel, click here.

LEAVING MEGALOPOLIS is a thrilling, original 80 page graphic novel of suspense and terror in a superhero universe gone horribly wrong, where a small band of survivors face the horror of both their formerly beloved protectors, and the dark secrets within themselves. Featuring the creative talents of writer Gail Simone and artist Jim Calafiore this is a story of violence, fear, hope and --if they're lucky-- survival.

2nd Full-Length FATHOMLESS ABYSS Novel Out!

She was born there, in the Smog, every day breathing more smoke than air. She was strange, even in a bottomless hell full of creatures from a million worlds. She was doomed to a life of servitude. She was lonely. She was worried about her dying father. She was suspicious of her lying mother. She was scared. She was getting angry.

And she wanted answers.

The Fathomless Abyss can open any time and anywhere, and things fall in, or crawl in, from a million worlds across a million years. Deep in the bottomless expanse of this impossible world lies a doorway to truth, or an entrance to an even worse hell.

H+ A New Web Series

These episodes come out on YouTube, and you can subscribe.  I checked out the first episode and really enjoyed it.  Can't wait to see what happens next.  They're only minutes long, but they amp up the storytelling and rake you right into the narrative.

I Write Radio Heroes

I love heroes.  I can't imagine a world without them.  The Green Hornet and the Lone Ranger were two of the heroes I grew up as a kid.  At the time I thought they were just television shows and comic books and didn't know about their rich history as radio heroes.

As I grew up, I became a fan of OTR as well (Old Time Radio), basically television without words because a lot of the stories are familiar genres with familiar heroes.  I read the new comic books that Dynamite put out and thought about how great it would be to write a few issues, but that job was already sewn up.

Then I was contacted by the good folks at Moonstone and asked into the anthology they were doing.  I got to write a Lone Ranger story called, "The Great Dinosaur Rush" that I thought was a fun adventure, mixing the Ranger in with some real life history.  Back in those days there were real dinosaur hunters (the bones for museums and private collectors), and I thought it would be cool for the Ranger to meet up with a young female archeologist who was in danger.

Although I didn't know it then, the Ranger (John Reid) was actually the great-uncle to another masked hero.  Britt Reid wore the mask as the Green Hornet.  By the time the television series came out in the 1960s (with Bruce Lee as Kato), the great-uncle aspect had aged out, so they didn't play it up in the series.

I've always wanted to write a Green Hornet story, so I bugged (see what I did there?) Moonstone editor/owner Joe Gentile to get into the latest collection, which is just now being released.  I had a blast writing this one too.  And I'm in there with legends of the comics industry and other writers that I read!

Victorian Era Avengers?

Emma Bannon, forensic sorceress in the service of the Empire, has a mission: to protect Archibald Clare, a failed, unregistered mentath. His skills of deduction are legendary, and her own sorcery is not inconsiderable. It doesn't help much that they barely tolerate each other, or that Bannon's Shield, Mikal, might just be a traitor himself. Or that the conspiracy killing registered mentaths and sorcerers alike will just as likely kill them as seduce them into treachery toward their Queen.

In an alternate London where illogical magic has turned the Industrial Revolution on its head, Bannon and Clare now face hostility, treason, cannon fire, black sorcery, and the problem of reliably finding hansom cabs.

The game is afoot..

Amanda Hocking's New Series

Gorgeous. Fearless. Dangerous. They're the kind of girls you envy; the kind of girls you want to hate. Strangers in town for the summer, Penn, Lexi and Thea have caught everyone's attention—but it’s Gemma who’s attracted theirs. She’s the one they’ve chosen to be part of their group.

Gemma seems to have it all—she’s carefree, pretty, and falling in love with Alex, the boy next door. He’s always been just a friend, but this summer they’ve taken their relationship to the next level, and now there’s no going back. Then one night, Gemma’s ordinary life changes forever. She’s taking a late night swim under the stars when she finds Penn, Lexi and Thea partying on the cove. They invite her to join them, and the next morning she wakes up on the beach feeling groggy and sick, knowing something is different.

Suddenly Gemma is stronger, faster, and more beautiful than ever. But her new powers come with a terrifying price. And as she uncovers the truth, she’s is forced to choose between staying with those she loves—or entering a new world brimming with dark hungers and unimaginable secrets.

Caught My Eye

Boston, 1767: In D.B. Jackson's Thieftaker, revolution is brewing as the British Crown imposes increasingly onerous taxes on the colonies, and intrigue swirls around firebrands like Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty. But for Ethan Kaille, a thieftaker who makes his living by conjuring spells that help him solve crimes, politics is for others…until he is asked to recover a necklace worn by the murdered daughter of a prominent family.

Suddenly, he faces another conjurer of enormous power, someone unknown, who is part of a conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of power in the turbulent colony. His adversary has already killed—and not for his own gain, but in the service of his powerful masters, people for whom others are mere pawns in a game of politics and power. Ethan is in way over his head, and he knows it. Already a man with a dark past, he can ill afford to fail, lest his livelihood be forfeit. But he can't stop now, for his magic has marked him, so he must fight the odds, even though he seems hopelessly overmatched, his doom seeming certain at the spectral hands of one he cannot even see.

Duffy! How Did I Miss Her? Love Her Voice!

$6 Million Man? I Don't Think So!

My son is gonna be traumatized when I show him this.  And, as his father, I gotta show it to him.  If he lets his cat's litter box get full, I'm gonna fly the cat!

New Kitty!

Kitty has been tapped as the keynote speaker for the First International Conference on Paranatural Studies, taking place in London. The conference brings together scientists, activists, protestors, and supernatural beings from all over the world—and Kitty, Ben, and Cormac are right in the middle of it.

Master vampires from dozens of cities have also gathered in London for a conference of their own. With the help of the Master of London, Kitty gets more of a glimpse into the Long Game—a power struggle among vampires that has been going on for centuries—than she ever has before. In her search for answers, Kitty has the help of some old allies, and meets some new ones, such as Caleb, the alpha werewolf of the British Isles. The conference has also attracted some old enemies, who’ve set their sights on her and her friends.

All the world’s a stage, and Kitty’s just stepped into the spotlight.

Caught My Eye

Love the cover, the attitude and the red and black palette.

Revolution TV Series

This one just smacks too closely to S. M. Stirling's Change series for me.  Any of you who have read Stirling's books will probably agree.  Granted, losing power across the world is not a new idea (check out solar flares hitting power grids sometime if you want a real scare -- takes years to put one of those back online).

However, this is Abrams and there appears to be a conspiracy behind everything, judging by the gizmo one of the characters is checking out in this trailer.

Still, I'm interested.  As long as the series doesn't end up LOST, I'm there.

New Gothic Out Now

This is a new venue I'm working on with my writing buddy, Alicia Dean.  This is her book under the pseudonym we'll be using for these books.

Upon her arrival in Shoal Harbor, Maine, Lily Jackson hears eerie moans that the locals claim are the ghostly cries of the unfortunate Breckenridge women. Running from loss and setback in Cincinnati, Lily needs the job as semi-psychiatric caregiver for Andrew Breckenridge, but the storm she has to weather from the oldest Breckenridge brother is severe. Clinton Breckenridge is a brooding man used to getting his own way, and he’s not convinced Lily is the right person to help his troubled younger brother.

Even as Lily starts picking up the pieces of Andrew’s tortured psyche and finding out his dark secrets, another mystery looms before her. Andrew’s lover has gone missing in recent months and no one knows what has happened to her, or if her voice has joined those of the other Breckenridge women. Before she knows it, Lily finds herself in danger—thrust directly into the eye of the raging storm.