New Fight Card Novel Out Now

 

San Francisco 1951

Conall O’Quinn grew up at St. Vincent’s Asylum For Boys, a Chicago orphanage where he learned the sweet science of boxing from Father Tim, the battling priest. After a stint in the Army, Conall finds work on the docks of San Francisco – a place where his fists make him the dock champion. Soon, however, he gets on the bad side of a union boss and is set up for a dock side brawl designed to knockout his fighting career. When Conall comes out on top, things go from bad to worse when he is framed for the docks going up in flames.

Along with Benson, his best friend and trainer, Conall heads for the hills in search of a lost treasure in the vicinity of a mine controlled by the union boss. However, where Conall goes trouble follows and he is quickly embroiled in a heated grudge match between fist-happy miners and lumberjacks.

Championing the miners in an all out slugfest, Conall is about to find out there is more to fighting than just swinging fists … giant, hammer-fisted lumberjacks, the mine owner’s beautiful daughter, union flunkies, and mob thugs all want a piece of him … and when the opening bell rings, the entire world appears to be against him …

 

 

FREE SATURDAY!

 

When I moved from Texas to New York to take my chances as a yarnspinner for the pulps, I knew I was entering into a whole new world. As the author of the LINCOLN LANDRY, SPACE RANGER tales for the science fiction pulps, I know a thing or two about new worlds.

But what I wanted most of all was to get a story in BLACK MASK magazine, the same pulp that launched the careers of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, to name a few.

In order to do that, I pulled in a few favors. Who knew the chief of police was a Lincoln Landry fan? Once I found out, though, I had him hook me up with his best homicide detective: Jim McLane, a tough no-nonsense cop that Hammett and Chandler might have admired.

Together, McLane and I sort through murders in the Big Apple in 1935. I didn't know I was going to learn so much, or that the price would be so high. But between McLane and me, we generally get to the bottom of murder, blackmail, and kidnappings.

 

 

Preview

 

Soon.

Covers That Sell Me

 

The first cover was okay, but the second cover sealed the deal.

 

Arrow Hits Target!

 

I gotta admit, I was really leery of this television show.  Oliver Queen (Green Arrow) has long been one of my favorite heroes.  After he got the makeover and the attitude adjustment in the 1970s by Denny O'Neill and Neal Adams.

 

Bleeding heart, social gadfly, serial romantic, Ollie was a lot to deal with for anybody.  He'd win me over, then break my heart.  The man never had an easy life.  His love life was a mess, his ward became a junkie (one of the first heroes to succumb in comics), and he didn't know if he wanted to rage against the machine or remake the machine in his own image.  He stepped over the line as a vigilante more than once and earned the ire of his family and his friends.

 

His death didn't get any easier.  Yeah, DC killed him to create Connor Hawke, the new Green Arrow -- and DC later destroyed him, and now he's been retconned completely out of existence in the New 52 brand.

 

To be fair, I think that Green Lantern's death was much worse.  He came back as the Spectre for a time, which was entirely weird.

 

The television show is a guilty pleasure.  My wife is even interested in it.  The series has set Ollie up as a Batman like vigilante, which stands to reason because Green Arrow was kind of like a Batman knockoff back in the day (Batmobile = ArrowCar, Batplane = ArrowPlane [get it?]).  But this version of Ollie is mean and tough and physically capable in hand-to-hand combat.  He's struggling with the whole dual identity thing, only it's taking shape right in front of our eyes.

 

Before Ollie supposedly "died" five years ago, he was an irresponsible playboy.  He took his girlfriend's sister out on a cruise for some illicit romance and got her killed.  See?  The showrunners are making sure Ollie's love life is screwed up.  Then he comes back from this island a changed man, no longer the playboy and now every ounce a man willing to put his life on the line.

 

It's a big change.  His body is covered in scars.  He's learned archery, martial arts, Russian, some kind of parkour/free running, and a whole new way of looking at life.  Instead of giving viewers an "origin" story, the series is parsing out the information in brief, tantalizing flashbacks in the middle of a cornucopia of plot problems and all-out action.

 

If you haven't caught the series yet, you should.  Do it now before the plotlines get more tricky and more advanced and you don't get to see the battlelines being drawn or the group of avengers come together.

 

 

My Buddy Bill Crider Has A New eBook Out There

 

 

"I can just imagine the questions in history," Fox said. "Who was our first of it, maybe the second one's too hard. But you get the idea!"

"Yeah," Burns said. "I get the idea."

Hartley Gorman College, in Pecan City, Texas, is hardly a bastion of serious scholarship. The little Baptist school is more interested in shielding its students from the evil influence of The World, The Flesh, and The Devil than in turning out future Nobelists. But its staff, by and large, is worthy of a more demanding institution; they are victims of a glutted market in Ph.D.s and they do the best they can. So it is they who are most upset at Dean Elmore's "secret plan" to award credit hours for "undirected study" by "independent scholars"—in plain words, to turn the school into a diploma mill.

Which may be why Dean Elmore, shortly after unveiling his plan, is found bludgeoned to death at his desk. It is certainly why, at his funeral, there is not a wet eye in the house.

Or so observes Carl Burns, Hartley Gorman professor of English literature, through whose eyes we see both the crime and the larger picture of this wacky denominational Texas school.

Those readers familiar with Bill Crider's books about Sheriff Dan Rhodes of Blacklin County, Texas, knows how wryly witty this author can be; here the humor is revved up a few notches, and the resulting account of Elmore's murder, Sheriff "Boss" Napier's investigation, Bums's well-meant meddling, and the people and doings at Hartley Gorman are the exactly-right mix of realism and wackiness to make the book a delight as well as a suspenseful mystery.


ABOUT BILL CRIDER : "I was born and brought up in Mexia (that's pronounced Muh-HAY-uh by the natives), Texas. The town's most famous former citizen is Anna Nicole Smith, whom my brother taught in biology class when she was in the ninth grade. I've always lived in small Texas towns, unless you count Austin as a large town. It wasn't so large when I lived there, though. I attended The University of Texas at Austin for many, many years. My wife (the lovely Judy) says that I would never have left grad school if she hadn't forced me to get out and get a real job. I eventually earned my Ph.D. there, writing a dissertation on the hardboiled detective novel, and thereby putting my mystery-reading habit to good use. Before that, I'd gotten my M.A. at the University of North Texas (in Denton), and afterward I taught English at Howard Payne University for twelve years. Then I moved to scenic Alvin, Texas, where until 2002 I was the Chair of the Division of English and Fine Arts. I retired in August 2002 to become a either a full-time writer or a part-time bum. Take your pick."

 

New Crime Television Show Coming

 

Man, I just really like the look of this one.  More info here.

Savage Blood by James Reasoner!

 

 

The Civil War took nearly everything from Brodie. A beautiful redhead named Eva took what was left. When she turned to him for help, he had every reason in the world to tell her to go to hell.

Instead he strapped on his gun and walked right into a blazing hell himself.

SAVAGE BLOOD is a brand-new hardboiled Western novella from James Reasoner, bestselling author of the Wind River series, the Judge Earl Stark series, and co-author of the Rancho Diablo series. It's 16,000 words of action and excitement from a master storyteller.

 

 

My newest book is waiting on you!

New Ebook Authors

 

People often ask me how to layout books for ebook publication.  I recommend both of these books, depending on your computer preference.  They're succinct and dead on the money as far as tips and tricks go.

 

 

 

 

 

Recommended: Richard Castle

YA Caught My Eye

 

The Lost Colony of Roanoke—even having written a novel inspired by this piece of history, which happened hundreds of years ago, typing the words still gives me a shiver. And why not? It's shivery stuff. In the 1580s, Sir Walter Raleigh got Queen Elizabeth I's permission to found a permanent colony in the New World. After an initial failed attempt, more than 100 men, women, and children signed on to a 1587 voyage—only to find themselves in dire conditions before long. Their leader, Governor John White, was sent back to England for help. He returned three years later to find no trace of the colonists, save the legendary CROATOAN carved into the bark of a tree.

There are few stories in American history that hold more allure than this one. So it's no wonder that it's a mystery people are still trying to definitively solve. In fact, just this year a new potential clue was found embedded in one of White's painted maps. And I wanted to solve the mystery, too. As I did research, I came across the name John Dee, a famed alchemist and advisor to the Queen, who it turns out was involved in planning the colonists' voyage… My story clicked into place. But my solution didn't involve going into the past. Instead I decided to bring the past to us. In Blackwood, when a mass disappearance occurs on modern day Roanoke Island it turns out two very smart—and very modern—17-year-olds are tied to the original mystery, and that they're the only ones who can uncover the truth, at last.

The Affair of the Wooden Boy

 

I just discovered today that I can't upload and sell an audiobook at Amazon.com.  I had to call CreateSpace to verify that.  They can sell music mp3s but not audiobook mp3s.  I'm really confused about that.  Doesn't make sense.

 

One of my students recorded WOODEN BOY and I think she did an awesome job, so I'm hunting a place where I can put the audiobook up.  I may have to set up a site and go into the audiobook business myself.  We live in interesting times where I can do that.

 

At any rate, I wanted to upload Jaimie Krycho's version of the first chapter of the story just so people could hear her.  She did a fabulous job.  She's also a fabulous writer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Listen here.

 

 

Bourbon Street Books

 

This new imprint just launched and I'm really looking forward to it.

 

 

HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS ANNOUNCES BOURBON STREET BOOKS,

A NEW LINE OF PAPERBACK MYSTERIES

 

 

New York, NY (9/4/2012) – HarperCollins Publishers announces today the launch of BOURBON STREET BOOKS, a new line of paperback mystery novels. 

HarperCollins has a long and successful history of publishing in the mystery genre. Although Edgar Allen Poe had published mystery short stories in the 1840s, the first detective novel, Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone, was published by Harper and Row in 1868 and introduced the genre in that form. And, since 2010, HarperCollins has been the global publisher of the Agatha Christie estate.

BOURBON STREET BOOKS will publish all types of mysteries and will feature paperback originals, reprints, backlist titles, and reissued classics. We will launch the line in the fall 2012 season with two paperback originals: The Hollow Man, an exciting debut by British author Oliver Harris, and Blood Line, the 7th book in the Anna Travis series by international bestselling author Lynda La Plante, both publishing on October 23rd. We will also bring back into print Dorothy L. Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey with Harriet Vane series for the launch on October 16^th, including Strong Poison, Have His Carcase, Busman’s Honeymoon, and Gaudy Night.   Nick Drake’s Egypt: The Book of Chaos will release as a trade paperback in December under this new line.

 

For the winter 2013 season, we will be reissuing four Mary Kay Andrews novels — Happy Never After, Homemade Sin, To Live and Die in Dixie, Every Crooked Nanny ― all of which were originally written under her real name, Kathy Hogan Trocheck, and will now be published under Mary Kay Andrews for the first time in March. Nicola Upson’s next entry in her Josephine Tey series, Fear in the Sunlight, will be published in April.  The new book in Michael Stanley’s acclaimed Detective Kubu series, and a spy thriller called The Geneva Option by debut author Adam LeBor will publish under this new line in the summer 2013 season.

 

A full marketing campaign, including online advertising and a dedicated Facebook page, will be released for the books: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bourbon-Street-Books/374193619320147#

 

Noir Magazine Kickstarter

 

I just learned about this new Kickstarter project on Bill Crider's blog this morning.  It definitely looks like something that I would be interested in.  So I backed it.  Get this looks like something you'd be interested in too, click here and check it out.

Made me smile

 

When scientists with warped imaginations accidentally unleash an experimental bioweapon that transforms Britain's animals into sneezing, bloodthirsty zombies with a penchant for pre-dinner sex with their victims, three misfits become the unlikely hope for salvation. Abattoir worker Terry Borders' love life is crippled by the stench of death that clings to his skin from his days spent slaughtering cows; teenage vegan Geldof 'Scabby' Peters alternates between scratching furiously at his rash and baiting his overbearing New Age mother; and inept journalist Lesley McBrien struggles forlornly in the shadow of her famous war correspondent father and the star journalist at the Glasgow Tribune.

When Britain begins a rapid descent into chaos and ministers cynically attempt to blame al-Qaeda, Lesley stumbles upon proof that the government is behind the outbreak. During her bumbling quest to unveil the truth, she crosses paths with Terry and Geldof, and together they set out to escape a quarantined Britain with the evidence and vital data that could unlock a cure for the virus. Standing in the way are rampaging hordes of animals, a ruthless security agent, and an army ready to shoot anybody with a case of the sniffles on the off-chance the virus has mutated.Three losers. Overwhelming odds. A single outcome: the world is screwed.

     

 

Recommended: Trust Your Eyes

Thomas Kilbride is a map-obsessed schizophrenic so affected that he rarely leaves the self-imposed bastion of his bedroom. But with a computer program called Whirl360.com, he travels the world while never so much as stepping out the door. He pores over and memorizes the streets of the world. He examines every address, as well as the people who are frozen in time on his computer screen. Then he sees something that anyone else might have stumbled upon--but has not--in a street view of downtown New York City: an image in a window. An image that looks like a woman being murdered.

Thomas's brother, Ray, takes care of him, cooking for him, dealing with the outside world on his behalf, and listening to his intricate and increasingly paranoid theories. When Thomas tells Ray what he has seen, Ray humors him with a half-hearted investigation. But Ray soon realizes he and his brother have stumbled onto a deadly conspiracy. And now they are in the crosshairs.

Frankenstein With A Twist

 

This one just caught my eye.  Newly published and sounds intriguing.

 

Eva's life is not her own. She is a creation, an abomination - an echo. Made by the Weavers as a copy of someone else, she is expected to replace a girl named Amarra, her 'other', if she ever died. Eva studies what Amarra does, what she eats, what it's like to kiss her boyfriend, Ray. So when Amarra is killed in a car crash, Eva should be ready.

But fifteen years of studying never prepared her for this.

Now she must abandon everything she's ever known - the guardians who raised her, the boy she's forbidden to love - to move to India and convince the world that Amarra is still alive.

 

New Fight Card Book!

 

"Tom Riley makes a meager living in the ring in Detroit, but it’s good enough for him. He ain’t ambitious. A few bucks and a rather high opinion of himself are all he needs. But when he accidentally kills a connected mobster, he’s forced on the lam and winds up in Memphis—the Bluff City. He struggles to make a new life for himself there. But his past mistakes are about to catch up to him, in spades. The Detroit Mob is closing in, and Tom’s future is about to be decided in blood—and in the ring."

 

 

Caught My Eye

 

I've read a lot of Mike Resnick's books and enjoyed them, but I'd never heard of this one.

 

Dr. Michael Drake may have discovered a cure for a mutated form of ybonia, a cross-species plague that is ravaging the galaxy. But Drake has been missing for 15 years and may even be dead. Journalist-adventurer Robert Markham is convinced that Drake is alive. He hires Enoch Stone, a one-legged, washed-up explorer with a mordant sense of humor, to outfit an expedition to the jungle planet of Bushveld, sparing no expense?cameramen, hunters, a doctor, a mechanic, tons and tons of gear and a large contingent of the native Orange-Eyes to serve as porters. But soon, Indiana Jones turns into Ahab. In his zeal to track down the missing doctor, the arrogant Markham's behavior worsens, and he mistreats and ultimately murders the alien bearers. Stone, troubled by Markham's actions, attempts to deflect his employer and defend the apparently hapless Orange-Eyes, as things go increasingly wrong for the expedition. The prolific Resnick (Kirinyaga, etc.), a Hugo and Nebula Award winner, has generated a fast-paced action yarn that delves provocatively into deep themes?particularly, humanity's attempt to colonize new worlds, at the expense of those who live there.