Free For A Limited Time!

Are You Listening? Is a new short story by J.M. McDermott, author of the Dogsland Trilogy, set in the evolving shared world of the Fathomless Abyss.

The Abyss has a top but no bottom. When you fall in, you fall forever. When the Crown closes, you make a new home for yourself among the captive population from a million worlds and a million epochs…or you die trying.

For a sentient plant, the Abyss brings only pain and slavery, until it learns to speak.

Are You Listening? is an introduction to an impossible new fantasy world from the creative minds of Philip Athans, Jay Lake, Mike Resnick & Brad R. Torgersen, Cat Rambo, and J.M. McDermott.

Fall in with them, and find your place in the Fathomless Abyss.

New Favorite Commercial

I love Kelly Cuoco.  She's awesome on The Big Bang Theory.  But I love her new commercial too.  Maybe someone should do a new version of Bewitched?  I Dream of Jeannie?

New Fathomless Abyss Short Story

Are You Listening? Is a new short story by J.M. McDermott, author of the Dogsland Trilogy, set in the evolving shared world of the Fathomless Abyss.

The Abyss has a top but no bottom. When you fall in, you fall forever. When the Crown closes, you make a new home for yourself among the captive population from a million worlds and a million epochs…or you die trying.

For a sentient plant, the Abyss brings only pain and slavery, until it learns to speak.

Are You Listening? is an introduction to an impossible new fantasy world from the creative minds of Philip Athans, Jay Lake, Mike Resnick & Brad R. Torgersen, Cat Rambo, and J.M. McDermott.

Fall in with them, and find your place in the Fathomless Abyss.

New Dead Man Out Now!

On the road to Fargo, North Dakota, Matt Cahill is trapped in a hellacious blizzard on a frozen, traffic-choked interstate. He's stalked by an escaped murderer and the guards who were transporting him--all of them seemingly possessed by a mutant virus that spreads quickly among the others trapped in their cars, turning everyone into crazed zombies. Matt struggles with a small band of survivors to find the source of the horrific plague before it claims them all. The odds are against any of them surviving the night....and that includes Mr. Dark.

Coming July 1, 2013.

Lots of fireworks in this one, folks.  Had a great time writing this book and these characters.  If you liked Deployed, you'll see more military action here.

Having grown up in the foster system, Private Pike Morgan’s rough exterior and problem with authority earn him few friends among his fellow Marines. When he’s not on missions for the Marine Reserve, Pike’s rebellious attitude and eagerness for vigilante justice have the local police regularly at his doorstep. Struggling to set down roots, and nervous of his desire to, Pike’s eager to answer the military’s call for another mission.

On a peacekeeping mission to Afghanistan, Pike and his squad soon find themselves entrenched in a heated war zone. After an American journalist is kidnapped by known terrorist Zalmai Yaqub, the whereabouts of this al Qaeda leader become a top priority for the American military. But when Yaqub flees to Pakistan, will anyone aid Pike in his hunt, or will this strong Marine find himself without an ally?

Tier Zero

Hank Brown’s Tier Zero is old school action adventure pulp like the books Pinnacle was publishing back in the 1970s and 1980s.  Those books pretty much died out in the 1980s when guys like Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Willis started hitting the big screen with their testosterone laden blowouts because it was easier to watch a VHS tape than read a book.

But the appetite for those action movies has never completely died out.  A look at the current crop of movies reveals that present day audiences still enjoy them.  Strangely enough, those same action stars of the 1980s have also made a return to the big screen, older and packing more heat than ever!

The setup in the book is very familiar to anyone in the venue.  I slipped right into the narrative as we’re introduced to the Bad Guys (despicable, actually) and the Big Mistake they make (kidnapping one of our hero’s daughter/niece).  From there we moved right into getting to know the heroes as the team begins to assemble and the mission gets laid out.

Brown doesn’t cover any new ground in his novel, but he doesn’t intend to.  This is a salute to the books that shaped him as a writer, a tour de force of the kind of fiction he grew up on and still enjoys.  Sure, the writing creaks a bit here and there, but the action gets really big and the pacing is a marathon that turns into a sprint at the finish.

Covers That Sell Books

I love military historical novels (Bernard Cornwell and others) and when I saw these covers, I picked up these books immediately.  Now I gotta find time to read them.

Wonder Bread

Ever since Hostess went bankrupt, my 15 year old has been whining.  He's not fretting over Twinkies, which so many people began hoarding (good thing they have a shelf life of, well, forever).  He's been complaining that all the other breads we've bought just haven't been the same as Wonder Bread.

Truthfully, I have to agree with him.  They haven't been the same.  Admittedly, I strayed from Wonder Bread occasionally when trying other breads to spice up sandwiches, but there's something about putting one of those colorful packages in your shopping cart that always made life feel somehow happier.

All these years and I never questioned why the loaves were packaged as they were with the red, yellow, and blue dots.  I just figured they were balloons and let it go at that.  Turns out I was right -- they are balloons.  Elmer Cline, the vice president for merchandising back in 1921, saw the International Balloon Race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and used the imagery on the packaging.

The Wonder Bread brand, as well as other brands, have been recently acquired by Flowers Foods (Mrs. Freshley's and Tastykake) and will hopefully be back on the shelves soon.  I know Chandler will be relieved, even though now we've discovered that bread in general is the new "crack."

d

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Okay, this fun cover got might attention and made a sale today!  :)

The magical, secretive society of JANITORS will sweep the country in the fall of 2011. Have you ever fallen asleep during math class? Are you easily distracted while listening to your English teacher? Do you find yourself completely uninterested in geography? Well, it may not be your fault. The janitors at Welcher Elementary know a secret, and it s draining all the smarts out of the kids. Twelveyear- old Spencer Zumbro, with the help of his classmate Daisy Gullible Gates, must fight with and against a secret, janitorial society that wields wizard-like powers. Who can Spencer and Daisy trust and how will they protect their school and possibly the world? Janitors is book 1 in a new children s fantasy series by debut novelist Tyler Whitesides. You ll never look at a mop the same way again.

And there's already a sequel!

New Today!

I love Parker's Westerns.  Even though he's gone now, this is a new book in his Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch series, written by Robert Knott, who co-authored the movie version of Appaloosa, which is a very fine film starring Ed Harris and Viggo Mortenson.  I really recommend the books to any reader who likes entertaining stories, not just Westerns.

For years, Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch have ridden roughshod over rabble-rousers and gun hands in troubled towns like Appaloosa, Resolution, and Brimstone. Now, newly appointed as Territorial Marshalls, they find themselves traveling by train through the Indian Territories. Their first marshaling duty starts out as a simple mission to escort Mexican prisoners to the border, but when the Governor of Texas, his wife and daughters climb aboard with their bodyguards and $500,000 in tow, their journey suddenly becomes a lot more complicated.

The problem is Bloody Bob Brandice. He and Virgil have had it out before, an encounter that left Brandice face-down in the street with two .44 slugs lodged in him. Now, twelve years later on a night train struggling uphill in a thunderstorm, Brandice is back – and he’s not alone. Cole and Hitch find themselves in the midst of a heist with a horde of very bad men, two beautiful young hostages, and a man with a vendetta he’s determined to carry out.

Military SF Series Debut!

Picking up a Steve Perry book is a no-brainer to me.  I always enjoy his stuff, and this looks like the beginning of a good run.

At the close of the 24th Century, a series of revolutions has caused the galaxy to descend into chaos. With the Galactic Union’s Army stretched thin, mercenary units have arisen for those who have the need—and the means—to hire them…

Captained by former Detached Guerrilla Forces Colonel R.A. “Rags” Cutter, the Cutter Force Initiative is one of the best. A specialized team consisting of both aliens and humans, the Cutters offer services ranging from fight training and protection to extraction and assassination—as long as the target deserves it and their employer makes good on payday.

When they’re hired to find and rescue Indira, the soon-to-be-married daughter of the Rajah Ramal of New Mumbai, the teams’ first task is to identify the kidnapper. The obvious suspects are insurgents who want to overthrow the rajanate, but as other forces enter the game and an assassination attempt is made on Ramal, the Cutters realize that their in-and-out extraction job is about to get a lot more interesting—and a lot more lethal…

And for those of you who want to listen...

I really enjoy Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels, and was surprised to discover my wife likes them too.  The books are inventive and surprising, and Reacher is just my kind of guy -- tough, loyal, and a thinker.

So when I discovered Tom Cruise was going to play him in the movies (Cruise being nearly a foot shorter than Reacher's 6'5"), I wasn't too keen on seeing the film.

However, I took two of my sons and went shortly after New Year's.  We first tried to go on New Year's (big mistake) and the movie was sold out, so we hung out at Best Buy for a bit and ate at What-a-Burger.  I'm not a dad to let a moment with his kids go wasted.

When we did see the film, I had a really good time.  It was Reacher, yet it wasn't.  Cruise just didn't have the physical prowess I expected from Reacher, but the actor brought a tremendous amount of intensity.  He had the right kind of look, the quiet reserve of Reacher, the cutting-edge quips and quotes delivered with deadpan accuracy.  I think one of the things in a Reacher book that really sets the tone is the villain, and there were a few nice ones in this one.

Overall, the movie felt like two hours and twenty minutes.  The pacing was solid and engaging, but you had time to think.  A lot of times an action film will just blow you through it (any of the Transformers movies comes to mind, but I couldn't tell you exactly what was going on at any one time), but Jack Reacher pulls you along at a steady pace.  I enjoyed the clinical way Reacher dissects the investigation, how he gets there one step ahead of everyone else.  Of course, Reacher has the author and the scriptwriter in his pocket, but the story was laid out well enough that I was right there with Reacher, figuring things out.  There is a nice either/or twist at the end that's well done and had me hanging by my fingernails event though I'd figured most everything else out -- which I think you're supposed to do to properly enjoy the film.

My favorite line in the move is (close, I think):  I'm going to beat you to death and drink your blood from a boot."  Can't say how long I've waited for an action hero to say that.

I also watched Expendables 2 earlier this year and had a good time with it.  Yeah, I'm pretty easy to please.  But it's interesting matching up Jack Reacher as an action film versus Expendables 2.  They're really apples and oranges.  Sylvester Stallone and his crew chew through scenery and are a hoot to watch, but Cruise manages to bring you into the world of Jack Reacher and make the whole story more personal.

I hope this is the start of a new franchise for Lee Child and Cruise because I'd definitely like to see another Jack Reacher movie.

Mike Faricy is one of the writers for the FIGHT CARD series.  He also writes crime novels.  You can find a nice piece by him here.

Android: Mimic Out Now!

 

 

Available on Kindle and Nook.

 

In a dystopian future, a bioroid detective struggles with his own artificial identity during his search for a killer.

New Angeles Detective Drake 3GI2RC is not your average Bioroid. First, he’s one of the New Angeles Police Department’s few android cops, and second, he’s haunted by another man’s memories. But even as Drake investigates a very public crime, he must look inward for answers. After all, where does his programming end, and his own personality begin? Mimic is the second exciting novel in The Identity Trilogy, a series written by Mel Odom and set in the Android universe!