Spent a couple hours at the gun range destressing with my wife and my son Chandler (age 14, pictured above). We shot up a lot of zombies, one of which is on the side table. My wife Sherry had never shot a 9mm, .357, or .45ACP before and enjoyed herself.
My buddy, Michael Kent was there with his mom as well.
I keep a gun in the house and I make sure my kids know how to use it. The last thing I want them to do is go over to some other kid's house who found his parents' gun and get somebody killed. I believe it's better that your children know firearms safety so they know when someone else is being stupid with one and it's time to leave.
Our targets of choice are zombies!
Not much call for shooting them, but it's good to know we can defend ourselves! :)
THE PREMIERE
ISSUE OF FIGHT FICTIONEERS MAGAZINE IS AVAILABLE NOW. JAM PACKED WITH ARTICLES,
INTERVIEWS, AND REVIEWS FROM THE UNIVERSE OF THE FIGHT CARD SERIES AND ALL
THINGS FIGHT FICTION.
This was the view on my street this morning at 7 a.m. The OKC area was blanketed by FREEZING FOG, which I'd never heard of.
Sherry's eye was bothering her this morning, and since it IS Valentine's Day, I got drafted for the McDonald's run for breakfast. It looked even more grim out on the streets.
I think a super-villain equipped with a freeze ray could bring Oklahoma to its knees.
And we looked at this poor car for a long time on Channel 9 News.
Just found this and snapped it up immediately. A YEAR of fantasy and science fiction, and it comes directly to my Kindle each month for 99 cents? I couldn't say know. I signed up immediately and the magazine looks fantastic. Two columns, adjustable print, easy to get around it. Good stuff! Man, reading just gets better all the time.
This is the Whitney Houston I'll always remember. The one that was young and energetic, and had her whole life ahead of her.
Back in the 1980s when Whitney first arrived on the music scene and music videos were all the rage on MTV, I fell in love with her voice and her music and her spontaneity. There was something about her videos that were just fun. I would watch "How Will I Know" or "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" and end up with a smile on my face every time. The heart-wrenching sadness of "I'll Always Love You" lay in the future.
But in the 1980s, the fans had this beautiful, vivacious woman whose voice was so big and so electric that you couldn't sit still while listening to her.
I had concert tickets in 1987, but she got sick and canceled. She had a heavy load that year, lots of tour engagements. I was disappointed that I did not get to hear her sing. Then she rescheduled and came back in the middle of the week in November that year. I was lucky enough to be able to change my work schedule and go see her.
The concert was awesome. Very few times in my life have I heard a voice that was so big. Whitney sang her heart out, flirted with the audience in the way that only a young woman coming into her life can, and filled that concert hall with music and laughter. I don't care how good your sound system is, nothing could capture the way she sounded back then. I've watched the videos and listened to CDs, and I've never again heard that same sound.
Every time I hear one of those old songs, I can't help but go back and remember being that 29 year old kid who had just sold his first book only days before. I had achieved one of the things I'd always wanted to do in my life. Celebrating with Whitney Houston that night made that event even more special. Both of us were really just starting out in our careers.
When she started having her personal problems, I kept hoping she would get back on top. I've seen people go through those kinds of troubles before, and I know that not all of them make it through. I wish she had.
We're back. We hope you're sitting down, and that you've finally caught your
breath from Top Suspense, our first bestselling anthology. You're about to take
another screaming thrill ride with twelve master storytellers. Each Top Suspense
Group author is an award winning, highly acclaimed pro whose compelling and
unforgettable tales have been published all over the world--and, in some cases,
have even become blockbuster movies and TV shows.
In this book, Favorite
Kills, we've collected our very best short stories. All major prize-winning
tales and personal favorites, each one a knock-out punch of suspense.
So
hold on tight my friend, or better yet, tie yourself down. You're in for another
breathtaking wild ride of seething sex and unexpected twists, dark humor, and
certain death. And when it's all over, and you're sitting there spent and
satisfied, soaked in a flop sweat of terror and exhilaration, we're gonna be
right there to bring you even more.
Favorite Kills
includes:
Archie's Been Framed by Dave Zeltserman Night Nurse by Harry
Shannon Solomon & Lord Drop Anchor by Paul Levine Number 19 by Naomi
Hirahara Sweet Dreams by Vicki Hendricks House Rules by Libby Fischer
Hellmann Angie by Ed Gorman Knife Fight by Joel Goldman Jack Webb's
Star by Lee Goldberg Restraint by Stephen Gallagher Top of the World by
Bill Crider A Matter of Principal by Max Allan Collins
This looks like a guy's paranormal series. Got some serious attitude, love the name Deacon Chalk, but too much bad boy tats (unless they're magical in some way). Gonna pick this one up and see.
A TIDAL WAVE IS FAST APPROACHING. AND THAT'S THE LEAST OF HER WORRIES.
Wilderness guide Kate Garrett is having the bad day of the century. The worst
storm in Florida's history is about to hit land, and she's been taken hostage by
a gang of escaped convicts. Worse, her children are stranded on low ground and
her ex-husband can't be reached.
Now Kate must race against time to guide the prisoners through the swamp and
save her children from the tidal wave. She can't afford to be distracted by
Shane Warren, the powerful convict who claims to be helping her, even as he
keeps her from escaping. But Kate does have one advantage: there's no deadlier
force in nature than a mother fighting for her young....
This is from 1967, back when stations in Oklahoma City were prime targets for armed robbers. Daddy used to sleep on the rooftop over the station with a loaded shotgun beside him. I remember one night when one of the station hands almost got robbed by a guy with a gun in his hand. He ducked behind a gas pump and hollered for Daddy. Daddy woke up, rolled over, and shot out the back glass of the car. The police had no problem finding the guys.
We lived in a small trailer house out behind the station. Momma was even in the station when a guy came in to rob them with a knife. Daddy took his pistol out of his pocket and told him to sit down. He did, and the police came along pretty quickly.
During the time we lived there, Daddy got shot at, shot at people, and held would-be robbers for the police on several occasions over the years. Looking back, it seems he was always at his best in the middle of trouble. A calm lifestyle just didn't suit him. He served in the Navy during the Korean War.
This is from the Daily Oklahoman in 1967. I remember taking the news piece to Show 'N Tell at school. Nobody else had one like it. :)
"Hallam", a 10,000 word story is the first appearance of Lucas Hallam, a cowboy
who has outlived the days of the old west to become a gun-toting private eye and
stuntman in the early days of motion pictures in California. Originally
published in The Eye's Have It, 1984.
"Hollywood Flesh", a 7000 word story
was published in The Book of all Flesh 2001. It's a good thing Lucas Hallam is a
hard-headed old cowboy and doesn't believe in such nonsense as Zombies, or this
case might give him nightmares.
Across the country and in every nation, people are waking up with magical
talents. Untrained and panicked, they summon storms, raise the dead, and set
everything they touch ablaze.
Army officer Oscar Britton
sees the worst of it. A lieutenant attached to the military's Supernatural
Operations Corps, his mission is to bring order to a world gone mad. Then he
abruptly manifests a rare and prohibited magical power, transforming him
overnight from government agent to public enemy number
one.
The SOC knows how to handle this kind of
situation: hunt him down--and take him out. Driven into an underground shadow
world, Britton is about to learn that magic has changed all the rules he's ever
known, and that his life isn't the only thing he's fighting for.
I loved the old adventure stories I grew up on, and this one sounds like it's cut from the same cloth!
Inspired by the classic adventure stories that appeared in such pulp magazines
as ARGOSY and ADVENTURE, "The Red Reef" features the colorful glamour and the
gritty danger of the South Seas as a guilt-ridden ship's captain gets a last
chance at redemption. Written by bestselling novelist James Reasoner (the RANCHO
DIABLO and WIND RIVER series, as well as cult classic novels TEXAS WIND and DUST
DEVILS), this 4300-word short story first appeared in the final issue of the
legendary webzine HARDLUCK STORIES and is now available again!
Shooter's Cross, the first book of the RANCHO DIABLO series (already five books long and more coming), will be offered free at Amazon all day today. If you've been hesitant about trying out the series, well, pardner, saddle up for the ride!
CURSED LAND
Army Scout Sam Blaylock rode into the small Texas town of
Shooter's Cross looking for deserters, not trouble.
While up in the
mountains, he discovered a wilderness plagued by nature and haunted by
superstition, but one that he thought he could tame with his experience and
strong back.
He didn't know he was going to have to kill to keep the home
he planned for his family, but he didn't let that stop him. Sam had been looking
for a home for his family for years. That search had been interrupted by the
Civil War.
Now Sam is putting down roots, and not even the Devil himself
can stand in the way.
The fourth book in the Truman Smith series is free from my good buddy and fellow Rancho Diablo author, Bill Crider. This series is great fun and good reading. And you can't beat the price with a stick.
About the book:
From Publishers Weekly
In this enjoyable fourth series entry, Galveston PI
Truman Smith (When Old Men Die, 1994) is hired by Lance Garrison, his still
unpleasant but now rich high-school classmate, to investigate the shooting of a
prairie chicken (really a kind of grouse) on Garrison's federally protected land
in Picketville, Tex. Smith reluctantly agrees, largely because his high-school
sweetheart, Anne Lindeman, now lives in Picketville.
A prime suspect is Ralph
Evans, an antigovernment local talk-radio host who declares his concern for
endangered species by advertising Spotted Owl in a Can. When Smith and Anne's
father-in-law, Red Lindeman, explore the scene of the crime, a sniper in a crop
duster opens fire on them's a "fly-by shooting," Smith calls it. Then Anne's
husband, manager of the radio station, is shotgunned to death. Police chief Ward
Peavy eventually charges local birdwatcher Martin York.
When Smith discovers
that a previous prisoner died in Peavy's jail, the big picture takes shape.
Truman Smith would rather laze in his lawn chair, sipping Big Red and reading
Tobacco Road, but when he gets on a case, he's methodical. So's Crider, who
fashions a tight plot filled with laconic charm and idiosyncratic characters.
And don't forget his Ranch Diablo book, only $2.99!
Remember those 1980s tough guy cop shows filled with violence and mayhem? Lee Goldberg does!
In his words:
Los Angeles cop
John "Tidal Wave" McGrave is an unstoppable force of nature who
always gets his man...even if it means laying waste to everything around him,
including his own career...which is exactly what happens in his pursuit of
Sebastian Richter, the ruthless leader of an international gang of violent
thieves. When Richter flees to Berlin, McGrave chases after him...even though
the cop doesn't know the language, the laws, or the culture. But McGrave
doesn't care...he speaks the universal language of knee in the groin and fist
in the face...and he won't let anything get in his way.
What follows is, I hope, a wild,
action-adventure novella that captures all of the fun, excitement, humor and
pure escapist pleasure of the Dirty
Harry, Lethal Weapon and Die Hard movies...
McGrave is an experiment for me. I
set out to write something specifically for the Kindle that would take
advantage of the way people read on the device...but that would also capture
the pure, escapist fun of watching an action movie. I thought these were
very compatible goals.
With a Kindle, readers
are swiping/clicking their way through a story. And because font size
is adjustable, pages aren't really relevant any more.
A lot of people are using their
Kindles to read on subways, buses, and planes. They are moving from one
place to another as they are moving through a story. So
I wanted to give them a story they could finish in a single journey...and
to tell the story in such a way that they'd be swiping or clicking their way
through it as fast as they could.
To achieve that goal, I chose an
action adventure...which by nature has to move at a breakneck pace...and I
eliminated chapters altogether, breaking the story into scenes, adopting a
style that's closer to a screenplay than a novel (akin to the style Don Winslow
adopted in his book Savages).
I thought that would keep the story moving...and the reader moving
through it.
